France requests that “the free and independent press can access Gaza to show” what is happening in the territory in danger of famine after 21 months of war according to the UN and NGOs, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday.
“We are hopeful of being able to bring out some journalists’ collaborators in the coming weeks,” added the minister on France Inter, interviewed in the case of several AFP collaborators on site who are in “a dreadful situation” according to the agency management.
“We devote a lot of efforts to it and a lot of energy,” said the minister, who had been expressed from the east of Ukraine where he is on the move.
“For months, we have been helping, helpless, the dramatic deterioration of their living conditions. Their situation is today untenable, despite courage, professional commitment and exemplary resilience,” said an AFP statement on Monday, while the Society of Journalists (SDJ) alerted the risk of “seeing them”.
Israel accuses Hamas of instrumentalizing the suffering of the populations of Gaza. “Instead of accepting a cease-fire, Hamas conducts a false propaganda campaign on Israel. At the same time, it acts deliberately to increase tensions and harm civilians who come to receive humanitarian aid,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on X. “Hamas is the sole responsible for the continuation of the war and the suffering of both camps.”
Twenty-five countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Japan, called to end “immediately” in the war in the Gaza Strip besieged by Israel, in a joint declaration published on Monday.
“Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we had wounded and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us have the memory of having seen a collaborator die of hunger,” said the AFP SDJ on Monday.
The UN and NGOs regularly report a risk of famine in the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel after more than 21 months of conflict, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023.
– “not targets” –
“Because freedom of the press and the right to inform are also pillars of our democracies,” said European commissioner responsible for the management of crisis Hadja Lahbib, “Israel must let the press do their job and guarantee its access. Journalists and civilians cannot, and must not be targets”.
Mr. Barrot also condemned “with the greatest firmness” the “deplorable” extension of the Israeli offensive in Gaza launched on Monday, “which will worsen an already catastrophic situation”.
“There is no longer any justification for the military operations of the Israeli army in Gaza. It is an offensive that will aggravate an already catastrophic situation that will cause new forced displacements of populations that we condemn with the greatest firmness,” he said.
France calls for “stop immediate fire, the release of all the hostages of Hamas, which must now be disarmed, and access without any hindrance of humanitarian aid in Gaza,” added the minister.
The Israeli army extended its offensive on Monday in a new sector of the Gaza Strip, in Deir Al-Balah, in the center of the Palestinian territory, and intends to act in areas where it had never gone during the 21 months of war against Hamas, summarizing the inhabitants to evacuate the premises.
The civil defense of Gaza announced that Israeli strikes killed 15 on Tuesday.
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