French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Tuesday urged Israel to allow journalists access to the Gaza Strip, where there is a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation.
“I ask that the free and independent press be able to access Gaza to show what is happening there and to testify to it,” he said in an interview with radio station France Inter.
Israel tightly controls media access to the besieged coastal enclave.
Barrot’s remarks came the day after the journalists’ association at newswire Agence France-Presse said their colleagues in Gaza were starving to death.
“None of us can remember seeing a colleague die of hunger. We refuse to see them die,” the union said in a statement.
The statement said one individual who has worked at AFP since 2010 as a fixer, freelancer and photographer said:“My body is thin and I can no longer work.”
Asked about the situation of AFP journalists in Gaza, Barrot said: “We hope to be able to evacuate some journalist collaborators in the coming weeks.”
The French foreign minister also criticized Israel’s tactics in Gaza.
“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 sad.
Israel launched its invasion of Gaza in October 2023 after a terror attack led by Hamas militants on Israeli territory left more than 1,000 people dead. The Israel Defense Forces ensuing war on Hamas has killed tens of thousands of people in the Gaza Strip, according to international observers and local officials.
Pressure is mounting on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the foreign ministers of 28 countries and the EU’s humanitarian aid commissioner condemned his country on Monday for what they termed “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children.”
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