The AFP Journalists’ Association has issued a stark warning over the dire conditions faced by its freelance correspondents in Gaza, expressing fears that its team may perish from starvation—a grim first in the agency’s 81-year history.
In a statement released Monday on X, the association voiced profound concern for the lives of its remaining contributors in the besieged Strip, where Israel’s blockade has tragically prevented international media from entering for nearly two years.
“We refuse to stand by and watch them die,” the statement said.
AFP is currently operating in Gaza through one freelance reporter, three photographers, and six independent videographers, after its permanent staff left the strip last year.
“They are among the last people still documenting what is happening inside Gaza,” the association added.
The warning comes amid growing fears of a devastating famine in Gaza, following 22 months of relentless Israeli military operations and a suffocating humanitarian blockade.
A controversial US-funded charity, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), began distributing relief packages in May, following months of a total Israeli aid blockade. However, both Rafah and central Gaza distribution points have since come under repeated Israeli attacks.
The statement highlighted the rapidly deteriorating condition of Bashar, AFP’s lead photographer in Gaza since 2024, who first joined the agency as a field assistant in 2010. “On Saturday, July 19, he posted on Facebook: ‘I no longer have the strength to work for the media. My body is thin. I can no longer go on,’” the association said.
Bashar, 30, tragically embodies the dire conditions facing most Gazans, according to the group. For over a year, he has endured extreme poverty, constantly moving from one refugee camp to another in a desperate attempt to escape Israeli bombings.
“Hygiene is a serious issue. He suffers from recurrent bouts of acute diarrhea,” the statement noted.
Since February, Bashar has been sheltering in the rubble of his family’s destroyed Gaza City home, sharing the meager space with his mother, four siblings, and a brother’s family. The dwelling is devoid of furniture, water, or electricity. Adding to their profound despair, Bashar reported Sunday that his eldest brother collapsed from hunger, according to AFP.
According to the statement, although contributors are paid monthly, “the salaries barely cover soaring local prices, if at all.” With Gaza’s banking system crippled and money transfer agents charging exorbitant commissions of up to 40%, staff have been unable to access sufficient funds.
“AFP cannot provide equipment or even enough fuel to help them travel for work. Driving means risking being targeted by Israeli aircraft. So, facing unimaginable dangers, they walk or rely on donkey carts,” the group stated.
“Over the past few days, we have understood from their brief messages that their lives no longer matter and that their courage, devoted for many months to informing the whole world, will not help them survive,” the statement continued.
“We risk learning of their death at any moment, and that is unbearable for us,” the statement added.
Since the start of the aggression on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army has killed a devastating 228 Palestinian journalists and injured hundreds, according to the Government Information Office in the Gaza Strip.
In parallel, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, urged Israel on Tuesday to allow international journalists into Gaza, amidst mounting reports of starvation and violence.
Speaking to France Inter radio from eastern Ukraine, Barrot said, “I ask that the free and independent press be allowed to access Gaza to show what is happening there and to bear witness.”
When asked whether France would help evacuate journalists, Barrot said France was “addressing the issue” and expressed hope that some AFP collaborators could be evacuated “in the coming weeks.”
Barrot also called for an immediate ceasefire, condemning Israel’s expanded offensive in central Gaza’s Deir Al-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,” he added.
On March 18, Israel resumed its devastating military campaign on Gaza. The assault follows a broken cease-fire deal, brokered in January, that was meant to end with the exchange of captives and a full Israeli withdrawal.
Since then, Israel has kept border crossings shut, relentlessly denying entry to humanitarian convoys.
With the escalating human toll, cease-fire efforts remain ongoing with no immediate deal in sight. Mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and the US are engaged in talks, with a proposal of a 60-day halt to hostilities on the table. Yet, for Gaza’s trapped population, the suffering continues unabated.
