"The last reporters in Gaza are going to die": AFP journalists warn about the living conditions of their colleagues in the enclave

Their names are Bashar and Ahlam. They are journalists and, like eight other colleagues, they work with Agence France-Presse (AFP) from the Gaza Strip. They are among the last voices still able to bear witness to what is happening in this zone, from which they cannot leave and where the international press is banned. On Monday, July 21, the AFP Journalists' Society (SDJ) warned in a statement that "without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die."

Bashar has been working for AFP for fifteen years. He started as a fixer (translator and intermediary for other journalists), then as a freelance photographer, before becoming a senior photographer in 2024. "I no longer have the strength to work for the media. My body is thin and I can no longer work," he wrote on Facebook on Saturday, July 19.

"Bashar, 30, works and lives in conditions equal to those of all Gazans, moving from one refugee camp to another as Israeli bombardments dictate," describes the SDJ. The journalist now lives with his family in the ruins of his home in Gaza City, with no comfort except a few cushions. On Sunday, his brother " fell from hunger " and Bashar published that he felt "defeated" "for the first time ." Ahlam, for her part, survives in a tent in southern Gaza. "The biggest problem," she confirmed [to AFP], "is the lack of food and water."

The statement states that AFP continues to pay its Palestinian journalists a salary, but "there is nothing to buy, or at totally exorbitant prices. The banking system has disappeared." Without the possibility of obtaining gasoline and having a vehicle, "AFP reporters travel on foot or by donkey cart." In these conditions, the agency states: "We refuse to see them die." "We see their situation worsening. They are young and their strength is leaving them," writes the SDJ. "Most no longer have the physical capacity to travel the enclave to do their job. Their heartbreaking cries for help are now daily." Agence France-Presse fears "learning of their deaths at any moment."

On X, AFP management stated that it shared "the anguish expressed by the SDJ regarding the appalling situation of its employees in the Gaza Strip." After successfully evacuating its eight employees from Gaza, along with their families, between January and April 2024, AFP is striving to do the same for its freelance staff "despite the extreme difficulty of leaving a territory subject to a strict blockade."

On France Inter on Tuesday, July 22, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said he had taken up "this issue" and was "hopeful that we will be able, as we have done on several occasions in extremely trying and demanding conditions, to get some journalists' collaborators out in the coming weeks." He added that he requested "that the free and independent press be allowed access to Gaza to show what is happening there and to bear witness to it."

"Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had wounded and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us remembers seeing a collaborator die of hunger," concludes the AFP SDJ. Gazans are constantly torn between going to collect food aid, restricted to Gaza and where they risk being shot at by Israel , and dying of hunger. Just Sunday, 93 people were killed by Israeli gunfire while trying to collect humanitarian aid.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a destructive offensive in retaliation for the October 7 massacres, killing at least 58,895 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Gaza health ministry, which the UN considers reliable. Reporters Without Borders estimates that around 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza, including 43 while carrying out their work.