Sara Qudah is the regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In Gaza, journalism is not just under siege, it’s deliberately being starved.
I don’t use that word lightly. Across the Middle East, I’ve repeatedly witnessed what happens when governments try to silence the press for daring to cover human rights abuses, repression or war. But what’s happening to Gaza’s journalists right now is unprecedented in its cruelty and effectiveness.
For nearly three months, Israel has been enforcing a near-total blockade of food, water, fuel and medical aid into Gaza. International humanitarian agencies warn of inevitable famine for the 2.1 million people trapped inside. And among the many victims is a group the world depends on to understand what’s happening: local journalists.
These are the reporters who stayed on the ground while their international counterparts were either pulled out or denied entry. They are the ones who risked their lives — and all too often lost them — to show us the mass graves, burned-to-the-ground hospitals and wounded children whose lives were upended. They are the ones collapsing from hunger while on air. They are the ones sleeping in tents, working with no electricity, filming with deadened hands and spinning heads.
And the world is failing them.
Let’s call this what it is: a calculated method of erasing critical voices and independent reporting. You don’t need to jail journalists if you can simply starve them into silence.
In interviews with the Committee to Protect Journalists this month, Gazan reporters described how hunger is impacting their work and health. “Hunger attacks” bring sharp headaches, dizziness, memory loss and nausea. Saleh Al-Natoor, a reporter for Al Araby TV, has collapsed twice while on air. Shrouq Al Alia, a mother and media director, watches her toddler cry from stomach pain while she burns wood to cook. Every day, they juggle survival and reporting — and both are slipping.
This isn’t just a humanitarian crisis, it’s also a crisis of press freedom. Israel denying international media independent access to Gaza since the war began has meant arguably waning international pressure, slowed crucial aid, and delayed or denied justice. This isn’t just collateral damage — it’s intentional.
If journalists can’t work, the truth dies with them. No press means no witnesses, no accountability, no record. The siege on Gaza isn’t just depriving civilians of food and water, it’s deliberately stifling everyone’s access to information. We will never know which stories were never told.
There is no war zone in the world where journalism can survive without food, clean water and safety. These aren’t luxuries, they’re the bare minimum. Gaza’s reporters are operating under conditions no Western outlet would accept for even a single day.
Still, international reaction has been half-hearted at best. A few condemnations, a few aid drops or a handful of trucks trickling into the Gaza Strip… One U.N. official described it as a “teaspoon” of help. Meanwhile, prices for flour have increased 6,900 percent, waterborne disease is spreading, and children are visibly wasting away.
If journalism is worth anything, if truth matters, then those responsible for delivering it must be protected. That starts with immediate, sustained pressure on both Israel and Egypt to open humanitarian corridors for journalists and civilians. The Media Freedom Coalition — a 50-nation body founded to protect press rights globally — should raise its voice and act. And the EU should use its ongoing review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement to exert its economic and political leverage.
This agreement is more than just a trade pact, it’s a political commitment grounded in shared values: respect for human rights, democratic principles and fundamental freedoms. A free and safe press is key to enabling these rights. Without it, reporters can’t bear witness, document facts or bring voices from the margins into public view.
In Gaza, that freedom is under direct assault. Journalists have been cut off, threatened and killed. Families searching for loved ones, civilians enduring bombardment — their stories go untold because the people who would report them are being silenced. This is a violation of the very principles the EU agreement is meant to uphold.
That’s why the bloc’s review process can’t become another drawn-out bureaucratic exercise. The harm is happening in real time. The absence of journalists means the absence of accountability, and history shows us where that leads.
So, if the EU truly stands by the values it claims to champion, now is the moment to show it. The bloc should suspend its agreement with Israel immediately, and Brussels should be clear: Journalists must be allowed in, and there must be a full transparent and independent investigation into any systematic targeting and killing of civilians, including journalists.
According to CPJ reporting, over 184 journalists have been killed since the war began — that’s an unprecedented toll in modern war zones. (In all cases the CPJ has documented, multiple sources found no evidence to date that any of the journalists in our tally were engaged in militant activity.) And anything less than decisive action makes the EU complicit.
Gaza’s journalists aren’t asking for special treatment. They’re asking to exist — and to report. That isn’t a radical demand. It’s the price of truth.
And let us be clear about the consequences if the international community fails to act: the collapse of humanitarian protection, as well as a precedent for viewing the media as an enemy and normalizing starvation as a weapon of war.
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