AFP journalist Eyad Baba poses for a picture in the Gaza Strip on April 24. Journalists from the news agency said Tuesday that chronic food shortages are affecting their ability to cover the conflict.-/AFP/Getty Images
Four leading news organizations said Thursday that their journalists in Gaza are facing the threat of starvation as the Israel-Hamas war grinds on, while top U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff was to meet with key negotiators from the Middle East for talks on the latest ceasefire proposal and the release of hostages.
“We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” said a joint statement by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and the BBC. “For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.”
The statement called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza and allow adequate food supplies into the territory.
The statement came a day after more than 100 charity and human rights groups said that Israel’s blockade and ongoing military offensive are pushing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip toward starvation.
Israel’s war in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says that more than half of the dead are women and children.
More than 40 Palestinians died from malnutrition in July
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 48 Palestinians have died of malnutrition this past month, adding that 59 Palestinians died of malnutrition so far in 2025, up from 50 in 2024, and four in 2023 when Israel started its war against the Hamas militant group in Gaza after its rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
In the most recent cases, a man and a woman died of malnutrition Wednesday, the Shifa Hospital told The Associated Press.
Of the 113 that died of malnutrition in Gaza since 2023, 81 were children, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
Since Israel’s aid blockade in March, Gaza’s humanitarian situation has become dire, alarming international organizations. The United Nations World Food Program has said 100,000 women and children are facing famine levels of starvation.
The International Rescue Community said their teams in Gaza have reported a surge in cases of children being rushed to the hospital due to malnutrition.
“Their small bodies are shutting down – they can’t breathe, their immune systems are collapsing, and they are highly vulnerable to infection,” IRC’s acting director in the occupied Palestinian Territories, Scott Lea, said in a statement Wednesday.
“Their lives are hanging by a thread.”