Journalists are dying in gas. Inactivity of the EU is co -responsibility
For almost three months, Israel has been implementing almost a complete blockage of food, water, fuel and medical assistance to the Gaza Strip. International Humanitarian Agencies warn against The inevitable hunger of 2.1 million people trapped in the Gaza Strip. Among the many victims is a group that depends on whether the world will understand what is happening: local journalists.
These are reporters who remained on the spot, while their colleagues from abroad were withdrawn or refused to enter. They risked their lives – and they lost it too often – to show us mass graves, completely burned hospitals and wounded childrenwhose lives have been turned upside down. They are hungry during live broadcast. They sleep in tents, work without electricity, film with shaking hands and dizziness. And the world fails.
Let's call it by name: a calculated method of eliminating critical voices and independent reports. You don't have to lock journalists in prisons if you can simply starve them.
In interviews given this month to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, reporters from the Gaza Strip described how hunger affects their work and health. Hunger causes acute pain and dizziness, memory loss and nausea. Saleh al-Natur, a reporter of television Al Araba, fainted twice on the air. Shruq Alalia, media director, looks at her little child crying with abdominal pain while she smokes wood for cooking. Every day they try to survive and report what is happening. Both of these goals are eager to get out.
This is not only a humanitarian crisis, but also a crisis of press freedom. Since the beginning of the war, Israel has been refusing to international media of independent access to the Gaza Strip. And this means weakening international pressure, slowing down key help and delay or refusal to give justice. These are not only side effects – this is deliberate
If journalists cannot work, the truth dies with them. No press means no witnesses, no responsibility, no certificate. The siege of Gaza is not only depriving civilian population of food and water, but also deliberately hindering all access to information. We will never know which stories have never been told.
There is no war zone in the world in which journalists could survive without food, clean water and safety. These are not luxuries, this is the absolute minimum. Reporters from the Gaza Strip work in conditions that no Western journalist would accept for one day.
Still, the reaction International was at best half. A few condemnations, a few drops of help or a handful of trucks reaching the Gaza Strip … One of the UN officials described it as a “teaspoon” of help. In the meantime, flour prices have increased 69 times, the diseases transmitted by water are spreading, and the children are clearly poor.
Price of truth about the Gaza Strip
If journalism is worth anything, if the truth matters, then Persons responsible for its transfer must be protected. It starts with immediate, permanent pressure to Israel and Egypt to open humanitarian corridors for journalists and civilians.
Coalition for media freedom – an organization of 50 countries, founded to protect the right of the press around the world – She should raise her voice and start acting. The EU should use the ongoing review of the association agreement between the EU and Israel to exert economic and political pressure.
This agreement is more than just a commercial pact. This A political commitment based on common values: respect for human rights, the principles of democracy and basic freedoms. A free and safe press is the key to ensuring these rights. Without it, reporters cannot give a testimony, document facts or present public opinion of votes from the margin.
In the Gaza Zone, this freedom is an object of direct attack. Journalists were cut off, they were threatened and killed. Families looking for loved ones, civilians tolerate bombing – their stories remain unjustly because people who could describe them are silenced. This is a violation of the principles that the contract with the EU was to watch over.
Starving Palestinians at Chan Junus, May 30, 2025.
Therefore, the EU process of reviewing its content cannot become another stretching bureaucratic movement. Damage occurs in real time. Lack of journalists means a lack of responsibility, and history shows us where it leads.
So, if the EU really guards the values that allegedly defends, the time has come to show it. Brussels should immediately suspend the contract and clearly put the matter: journalists must be allowed to Israel. A fully transparent and independent investigation into systematic attacks and murder of civilians, including journalists, must be carried out.
According to CPJ reports from the beginning of the war Over 184 journalists were killed – This is an unprecedented number in modern war zones. In all cases documented by CPJ, no evidence was found that any of the journalists were involved in combat activities. And the European Union, due to its less than decisive actions, is responsible.
Journalists from the Gaza Zone do not ask for special treatment. They ask them to survive – and report. This is not a radical request. It's the price of the truth. And let's say directly what the consequences will be if the international community does not take action: the fall of humanitarian protection, as well as the precedent of media perception as an enemy and normalization of hunger as war weapons.
