The Management of the France-Presse (AFP) agency denounces “the terrible situation of its employees in the Gaza Strip.” In a message posted on X this Monday, July 21, AFP reacted to a press release from its journalists warning about the dangers incurred by its employees in Gaza from the offensive launched by Israel in October 2023.
“For months we have been witnessing, helpless, the dramatic deterioration of their living conditions. His situation is unavoidable today, despite courage, professional commitment and exemplary resistance,” said the agency’s management.
The Society of Journalists (SDJ), responsible for representing editorial staff of editorial issues in particular, explains that “AFP is working with a free public audience, three photographers and six video freelancers in the Gaza Strip from the departure of its personnel journalists in 2024”. But “without immediate intervention”, these reporters “will die” for lack of food and care, alert to the SDJ.
“We refuse to see them die”
The Una and Ngos Regularly Report to Risk of Famine in the Palestinian Territory Besieged by Israel After More than 21 Months of Conflict, Trigged By An Un Unpredled Attack by The Palestinian Islamist Hamas Movement on Israeli Soil On October 7, 2023. In Retaliation, Israel has promised to destroy to destroy to destroy to destroy to destroy to destroy to destroy LAUNCHED AN OFFENSIVE IN WHICH AT LEAST 59.029 CIVILIANS WERE KILLED, ACCORDING TO DATA FROM THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF HAMAS, considered reliable by the UN.
“Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost conflict journalists, we had injured and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us has the memory of having seen a collaborator starving. We refuse to see them die,” the SDJ wrote.
The agency management called “Share” this anxiety. “That is why AFP, which had reached several months of effort to evacuate its eight Gaza employees and their families between January and April 2024, assumes the same steps for its independent collaborators, despite the extreme difficulty of leaving a territory subject to a strict block,” he says.
Rare journalists in Gaza
While highlighting, from the attack of Hamas on October 7, “Israel has banned access to the Gaza Strip to all international journalists.” AFP collaborators are among the rare journalists who can report today what is happening in the Gaza Strip. “But their lives are in danger, so we urge Israeli authorities to authorize their immediate evacuation with their families,” the agency’s management wrote.
When asked about this issue on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barot said “the hope of being able to get some journalists in the coming weeks.” “We dedicated many efforts and a lot of energy,” said France Inter, who spoke from kyiv where he is in motion. He also asked that “the free and independent press could access Gaza to show” what is happening in the territory of famine after 21 months of war.
Source: BFM TV
