Four leading international news operations have expressed concern for local journalists working in Gaza, saying they fear they are at risk of starvation.
In a joint statement, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP), Reuters and BBC News said their teams working in Gaza face "the same dire circumstances as those they are covering."
"For many months, these independent journalists have been the world's eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza", the statement said.
International media rely on local reporters inside Gaza to provide coverage as Israel has prevented foreign journalists from entering the territory.
"We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families," the statement goes on to say.
"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."
Warnings of mass starvation
The statement from the media organisations comes in the same week as more than 100 NGOs warned of the risk of mass starvation in Gaza, sounding the alarm to allow life-saving food and aid into the Strip.
Prominent humanitarian groups including Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International and Oxfam said that supplies are depleted and mass starvation is spreading across the enclave, adding they were "witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes."
"We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” the AFP, AP, Reuters and BBC statement said.
"Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in warzones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.”
The journalists' association of AFP warned on Monday that staff working with the agency in Gaza are at risk of starvation and that "without intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die."
The Société des Journalistes de l’Agence France-Presse (SDJ) said that the agency still has "one freelance writer, three photographers, and six video freelancers" working in Gaza after most of its staff left the Strip last year.
"Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had wounded and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us can recall seeing a colleague die of hunger," the SDJ said in a post on X.
The agency says it is working to evacuate its remaining freelance journalists and their families from Gaza, "despite the extreme difficulty of leaving a territory subject to a strict blockade."
Since May, more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to access aid have been killed, mostly near aid sites run by the controversial US contractor, the UN Human Rights Office said on Tuesday.
In January, Israel banned the main UN organisation, UNRWA, from delivering aid, accusing the organisation of not preventing Hamas from infiltrating it without providing evidence. Israel has also accused Hamas of looting aid for war profiteering, which the militant group denies.
Speaking at a Security Council meeting on Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the situation in Gaza as a "horror show, with a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times."
