THE BBC, along with three leading news agencies, has issued a statement expressing their concern for journalists in Gaza who are facing starvation and ‘the same dire circumstances as those they are covering’.
The joint statement from BBC News, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reuters said: ‘For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza.’
The Zionist Israeli regime operates a complete ban on foreign journalists and broadcasters from entering Gaza in an attempt to keep their genocidal war on the 2.2 million Palestinians from the world.
All the news from Gaza detailing the Israeli atrocities and war crimes have only been exposed to the workers and masses of the world through the dedicated reporting of independent journalists on the ground.
These journalists are now enduring the same deliberate starvation tactics being employed by the Zionist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu to ethnically cleanse Gaza. The full statement from the BBC and the other news agencies reads: ‘We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families.’
The statement adds: ‘Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in warzones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.’
The statement concludes with an appeal to the Zionist government, saying: ‘We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there.’
A separate joint statement was issued by medical and aid charities Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), Save the Children and Oxfam which said that their colleagues and the people they serve in Gaza were ‘wasting away’.
The response from the Israeli authorities, which has deliberately blocked food and medical supplies from entering Gaza, was to dismiss and just regurgitate the lies that these charities were only ‘serving the propaganda of Hamas’.
No doubt, the BBC and all the news agencies will now also be labelled by the Israeli regime and the pro-Zionist lobby in the UK and Europe as being just propagandists for Hamas.
On Tuesday, a senior Israeli security official was reported in the Israeli press as claiming that the ‘military had not identified famine in Gaza’.
As of yesterday, it was reported that Israel had starved at least113 Palestinians to death in Gaza with hospitals in the Strip recording two new deaths ‘due to famine and malnutrition’ in the past 24 hours.
Is it any wonder that journalists and media reporters in Gaza, instead of enjoying the ‘protection’ of international law, which specifically demands the protection of journalists in warfare situations, have long been the targets of the occupation forces and are now facing death by starvation along with every Palestinian.
More journalists have been killed in Gaza, at least 187 to date, than in any other conflict including two World Wars.
But the heroism of these journalists who refused to desert Gaza and despite all the killings, including the killing of colleagues and family members, remain absolutely committed to exposing before the world all the crimes against humanity being carried out with the aid and complicity of the governments in the US and UK.
In Britain, the exposure of these crimes against humanity has exposed before the working class and youth the true nature of Starmer’s Labour government which sheds crocodile tears over starving Palestinian children while arming and supporting the Israeli murderers.
It has also exposed the complicity of the trade union leaders who are content to sit back and pass motions expressing support for a Palestinian state while doing absolutely nothing to aid the Palestinian struggle.
The working class has the power to end this complicity by the Labour government and its support for the war crimes being committed by Israel.
The time is long overdue for these leaders to be dealt with by the working class, forcing the trade unions and TUC to take action immediately by calling a general strike to kick out Starmer’s Labour government and bring in a workers’ government that will recognise the State of Palestine and provide all the material support required for victory over the genocidal Zionist state.
