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JOURNALIST Omar Al-Qattaa poses for a picture in the Gaza Strip.—AFP
GAZA CITY/PARIS: Journalists belonging to this news agency in the Gaza Strip said on Tuesday that chronic food shortages are affecting their ability to cover Israel’s aggression in the besieged territory.
Palestinian text, photo and video journalists working for the international news agency said desperate hunger and lack of clean water is making them ill and exhausted.
Some have even had to cut back on their coverage of the conflict, now in its 22nd month, with one journalist saying “we have no energy left due to hunger”. The United Nations in June condemned what it claimed was Israel’s “weaponisation of food” in Gaza and called it a war crime, as aid agencies urge action and warnings about malnutrition multiply.
Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.
France’s top diplomat calls for foreign press access to the besieged territory
Witnesses and Gaza’s civil defence agency, however, have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing on aid seekers, with the UN saying the military had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since late May.
‘We have no energy’
Bashar Taleb, 35, is one of four photographers of this news agency in Gaza who were shortlisted for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize earlier this year. He lives in the bombed-out ruins of his home in Jabalia al-Nazla, in northern Gaza.
“I’ve had to stop working multiple times just to search for food for my family and loved ones,” he said. “I feel for the first time utterly defeated emotionally. “I’ve tried so much, knocked on many doors to save my family from starvation, constant displacement and persistent fear but so far to no avail.” Another Pulitzer nominee, Omar al-Qattaa, 35, is staying in the remains of his wife’s family’s home after his own apartment was destroyed.
“I’m exhausted from carrying heavy cameras on my shoulders and walking long distances,” he said. “We can’t even reach coverage sites because we have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food.” Qattaa relies on painkillers for a back complaint, but said basic medicines were not available in pharmacies, and the lack of vitamins and nutritious food have added to his difficulties.
The constant headaches and dizziness he has suffered due to lack of food and water have also afflicted contributor Khadr Al-Zanoun, 45, in Gaza City, who said he has even collapsed because of it.
“Since the war began, I’ve lost about 30 kilos and become skeletal compared to how I looked before the war,” he said. “I used to finish news reports and stories quickly. Now I barely manage to complete one report per day due to extreme physical and mental fatigue and near-delirium.” Worse, though, was the effect on his family, he said. “They’re barely hanging on,” he added.
‘Hunger has shaken my resolve’
Eyad Baba, another photojournalist, was displaced from his home in Rafah, in the south, to a tent in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, where the Israeli military this week began ground operations for the first time. But he could not bear life in the sprawling camp, so he instead rented an apartment at an inflated price to try to at least provide his family some comfort.
Baba, 47, has worked non-stop for 14 months, away from his family and friends, documenting the bloody aftermath of bullets and bombs, and the grief that comes with it. Hardest to deal with, though, is the lack of food, he said.
“I can no longer bear the hunger. Hunger has reached my children and has shaken my resolve,” he added. “We’ve psychologically endured every kind of death during our press coverage. Fear and the sense of looming death accompany us wherever we work or live.” Working as a journalist in Gaza is to work “under the barrel of a gun”, he explained, but added: “The pain of hunger is sharper than the fear of bombing. “Hunger robs you of focus, of the ability to think amid the horrors of war.”
‘Living the catastrophe’
Text journalist Ahlam Afana, 30, said an exhausting “cash crisis” — from exorbitant bank charges and sky-high prices for what food is available — was adding to the issue.
Cash withdrawals carry fees of up to 45 percent, said Zanoun, with high prices for fuel — where it is available — making getting around by car impossible, even if the streets were not blocked by rubble.
“Prices are outrageous,” said Afana. “A kilo of flour sells for 100-150 shekels ($30-45), beyond our ability to buy even one kilo a day. “Rice is 100 shekels, sugar is over 300 shekels, pasta is 80 shekels, a litre of oil is 85-100 shekels, tomatoes 70-100 shekels. Even seasonal fruits now — grapes, figs — cost 100 shekels per kilo.
“We can’t afford them. I don’t even remember how they taste.” Afana said she keeps working from a worn-out tent in intense heat that can reach more than 30C, but going days without food and only some water makes it a struggle.
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“I move slowly, unlike before,” she said. “The danger isn’t just the bombing. Hunger is slowly killing our bodies and threatening our ability to carry on. “Now, I’m not just reporting the news. I’m living the catastrophe and documenting it at the same time.”
‘I prefer death over this life’
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on July 8 that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since Oct 7, 2023. Video journalist Yousef Hassouna, 47, said the loss of colleagues, friends and family had tested him as a human being “in every possible way”. But despite “a heavy emptiness”, he said he carries on. “Every frame I capture might be the last trace of a life buried beneath the earth,” he added.
“In this war, life as we know it has become impossible.” Zuheir Abu Atileh, 60, worked at AFP’s Gaza office, and shared the experience of his journalist colleagues, calling the situation “catastrophic”. “I prefer death over this life,” he said. “We have no strength left; we’re exhausted and collapsing. Enough is enough.”
Calls for press access
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Tuesday called on Israel to allow foreign press into the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza, as warnings of famine mount after 21 months of war.
He spoke after this news agency warned that the lives of Palestinian freelance journalists it was working with in Gaza were in danger and urged Israel to allow them and their families to leave the occupied coastal territory.
“I ask that the free and independent press be allowed to access Gaza to show what is happening there and to bear witness,” Barrot told France Inter radio in an interview from eastern Ukraine.
Asked if France would help stringers of this news agency leave Gaza, Barrot said France was “addressing the issue” and hoped to be able to evacuate freelancers working with French journalists “in the coming weeks”.
On Monday, an association of journalists, the Societe des Journalistes (Society of Journalists), sounded the alarm, urging “immediate intervention” to help reporters working with the agency in Gaza.
The SDJ cited the example of one such freelancer, a 30-year-old living with his family in Gaza City, who reported on Sunday that his older brother “fell because of hunger”. “We have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had injuries and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us can remember seeing a colleague die of starvation,” it said.
The management responded in a statement posted on X and Instagram which said that it shared the anguish about the “dire situation” of colleagues in Gaza.
“Since Oct 7, Israel has prohibited access to the Gaza Strip for all international journalists. “In this context, the work of our Palestinian freelancers is crucial to inform the world,” it said.
“But their lives are in danger, which is why we urge the Israeli authorities to allow their immediate evacuation along with their families.” This news agency evacuated its eight staff members and their families from Gaza between January and April 2024.
Barrot called for an “immediate ceasefire” after Israel on Monday expanded military operations to the central city of Deir el-Balah. “There is no longer any justification for the Israeli army’s military operations in Gaza,” he said.
“This is an offensive that will exacerbate an already catastrophic situation and cause new forced displacements of populations, which we condemn in the strongest terms.”
Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2025