<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Dozens of international humanitarian organisations have warned </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/israel" rel="" target="" title="Israel's"><span>Israel's</span></a><span> blockade of aid into </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/gaza" rel="" target="" title="Gaza"><span>Gaza</span></a><span> is endangering the lives of </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/doctors" rel="" target="" title="doctors"><span>doctors</span></a><span> and aid workers, while a major news agency says it is trying to evacuate its remaining freelance journalists because the situation has become "untenable".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In a joint statement, 111 international humanitarian organisations called on Israel to end its blockade, restore the full flow of food, clean water and medical supplies to Gaza, and agree to a ceasefire.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The coalition warned on Wednesday that supplies in the enclave are now "totally depleted" and that humanitarian groups are "witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes".</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/melbourne-trio-jailed-after-making-away-with-320k-in-pub-robbery/e06f3a93-7908-4a5e-9669-51c2652900d6"><strong><span>Pub worker looks terrified - but all is not as it seems</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families," said the statement, whose signatories include Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Amnesty International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The statement followed a </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/israel-gaza-update-australian-foreign-minister-penny-wong-and-international-counterparts-call-for-end-to-war/175a4f6a-3cc0-414f-aba7-961327744867"><span>scathing indictment of Israel by 28 Western nations</span></a><span>, who accused the country of "drip feeding" aid into the Gaza Strip. Israel's foreign ministry rejected the joint statement – which was not signed by the US – as "disconnected from reality".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Israeli military "must stop killing people" seeking aid in Gaza, the European Union's top diplomat said on Tuesday.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/israel-gaza-update-aid-workers-doctors-journalists-risk-starvation-alongside-people-in-gaza/5891a1ec-9e92-4403-842e-14308fa545a8" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The killing of civilians seeking aid in Gaza is indefensible," Kaja Kallas, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said in a post on X.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the last 24 hours, 15 people, including four children, had died of starvation across Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Cases of malnutrition and starvation are arriving at Gaza's hospitals every moment," said Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, told CNN Tuesday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/gold-coast-currumbin-creek-womans-body-found-wrapped-in-plastic-and-rope/bb79aedc-cf31-429a-995b-5bd854a15808"><strong><span>Woman's body found 'wrapped in plastic, rope' in popular creek</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Doctors and humanitarians 'fainting' from hunger, UN says</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Gaza was already heavily dependent on aid and commercial shipments of food before Israel launched its war on Hamas, following the October 2023 attack.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel has previously blamed Hamas for its decision to halt aid shipments, alleging the militant group was stealing supplies and profiting from it. Hamas has denied this allegation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israeli authorities have also blamed United Nations agencies, accusing them of not picking up aid that is ready to move into Gaza. But the UN asserts that Israeli forces frequently deny permission to move aid within the enclave, and that much more is waiting to be allowed in.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the statement on Wednesday, the coalition of humanitarian agencies also criticised the controversial Israeli-and-US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which began operating on May 27. The organisations said shootings occurred almost daily at food distribution sites.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/sydney-jetski-crash-georges-river-accident-teen-dead-hospital/dea735da-6057-46f9-8a98-e978de5d651e" rel="" target="" title=""><strong><span>Tributes to boy killed in Sydney jet-ski horror</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Juliette Touma, Director of Communications with the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, </span><a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165457"><span>said</span></a><span> in a separate statement that seeking food had "become as deadly as the bombardments".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She criticised the distribution scheme by the GHF as "a sadistic death-trap", saying "snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they're given a licence to kill".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And she added that care workers were unable to perform their duties due to a lack of food.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians" are among staff who are "hungry … fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel has long sought to dismantle UNRWA, arguing that some of its employees are affiliated with Hamas, and that its schools teach hate against Israel. UNRWA has </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/29/middleeast/unrwa-funding-israel-war-mime-intl"><span>repeatedly denied these accusations.</span></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>As of July 21, 1054 people had been killed while trying to get food in Gaza—766 near GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organisations' aid convoys, according to UN human rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots toward crowds in some instances and denied responsibility for other incidents.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In late June, the military said it had "reorganised" the approach routes to aid sites to minimise "friction with the population", but the killings have continued.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Last Wednesday, GHF said 19 people were </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/middleeast/israel-gaza-aid-site-crush-deaths-intl"><span>trampled to death</span></a><span> and another person was fatally stabbed in a crowd crush at one of its aid sites. It was the first time the group had acknowledged deaths at one of its sites.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>'I don't have the power to cover media anymore'</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Two major media organisations have raised the alarm about their own journalists in Gaza.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Al Jazeera, which operates news channels in English and Arabic, said in a statement on Wednesday that journalists in the enclave now "find themselves fighting for their own survival".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If we fail to act now, we risk a future where there may be no one left to tell our stories," said Dr Mostefa Souag, the network's director general.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion, and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment," said Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Anas Al-Sharif in a social media post. "Gaza is dying. And we die with it."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel banned Al Jazeera from operating in its territory in May 2024 and has called it a mouthpiece of Hamas. Al Jazeera rejected the claims as "unfounded allegations".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>International news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) said on Tuesday it is trying to evacuate its remaining freelance staff from Gaza because the situation has become "untenable".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Alongside Reuters and the Associated Press, Paris-headquartered AFP is one of a trio of major global news agencies that provide other media outlets with text, photo and video images from around the world.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Independent journalists are not able to operate in Gaza because of Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on entry to the strip.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Palestinian reporters have become the eyes and ears of those suffering inside Gaza during the </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/israel-hamas-conflict"><span>21-month conflict</span></a><span> and are living in the same arduous conditions as the rest of the population.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>AFP's main journalist union, Société de Journalistes (SDJ), warned on Monday that some of the news agency's remaining freelance journalists inside Gaza were starving and too weak to work.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die," </span><a href="https://x.com/SDJ_AFP/status/1947299808948973795"><span>the union said in a statement.</span></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The SDJ said AFP had been working with a freelance reporter, three photographers, and six freelance video journalists in the Gaza Strip.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The union shared a social media post from AFP staffer Bashar Taleb, who works for the agency as a photographer, describing the grave conditions in the besieged enclave.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I don't have the power to cover media anymore. My body is lean and I no longer have the ability to walk," Taleb, 30, wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday, according to the SDJ's statement.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Bashar has been living in the ruins of his home in Gaza City with his mother, four brothers, sisters and the family of one of his brothers since February, according to the statement. On Sunday morning, he reported that one of his brothers had "fallen, due to hunger".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Every time I leave the tent to cover an event, do an interview or document a story, I don't know if I'll come back alive," another AFP staffer, identified by a single name, Ahlam, was quoted saying.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Her biggest issue is the lack of food and water, she told the union.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday that France hopes to evacuate some journalists' colleagues "in the coming weeks" following calls from the SDJ.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We are dedicating lots of energy," to get them out, Barrot said in an interview with French radio station FranceInter.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He added that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is "inhumane", describing it as a "scandal that must stop immediately".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>AFP said it successfully evacuated eight of its employees from Gaza and their families between January and April 2024, and the agency is now "taking the same steps for its freelance staff, despite the extreme difficulty of leaving a territory subject to a strict blockade".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Their lives are in danger, so we urgently call on the Israeli authorities to authorise their immediate evacuation with their families," it added.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>CNN has reached out to the Israeli foreign ministry and the Prime Minister's Office for comment.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Israel-Gaza war has killed more journalists over the course of a year than in any other conflict since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data three decades ago.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At least 186 journalists and media workers were killed and 89 were imprisoned since the war began.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>As food struggles to reach displaced people and the journalists among them in Gaza, the SDJ said in its statement: "Since AFP was founded in 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, some have been injured, others taken prisoner. But none of us can ever remember seeing colleagues die of hunger."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em></em><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f"><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the </span></strong></em><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727"><em><strong><span>Apple App Store</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span> and </span></strong></em><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU"><em><strong><span>Google Play</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>.</span></strong></em></div></div>