WHAT'S ISRAEL HIDING? Ban on International Journalists Remains in Gaza
It’s natural that Israel does not want witnesses for its war crimes in Gaza and wants to control the narrative
Tom Bateman, the BBC State Department correspondent, posted a statement from the Foreign Press Association on Tuesday that criticized Israel for upholding a ban in international news media in Gaza.
“Never before has Israel enforced such a long and strict information blackout,” the statement read. “It has repeatedly rejected our appeals for access, fought us in court to uphold this draconian ban and offered just a handful of highly controlled ‘embed’ opportunities for a small number of our members.”
The statement continued: “It raises questions about what Israel doesn’t want international journalists to see.”
The Trends Journal has reported extensively on how Israel routinely targets and kills journalists in Gaza. There have been reports that some of these journalists are followed home and their families are massacred, too.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took to X earlier this year to mention how 2023 has been a particularly dangerous year for members of the press. His followers on social media noted that he failed to mention the country he supports, Israel, which has been killing the most.
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Chen Weihua, the China Daily EU Bureau Chief/columnist, took the opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of the post, “More journalists were killed in Gaza in the last two months than any conflicts in recent decades according to CPJ. And the U.S. was partly responsible because of its full endorsement of Israeli military operations and the weapons/bombs it provided and the ceasefire it vetoed.”
On Saturday alone, five journalists were killed in attacks by Israeli forces, Al Jazeera noted.
The Committee to Protect Journalists put the number of media workers killed as of 5 July at 108.
The conditions in Gaza continue to worsen.
One hundred percent of the Gazan population is suffering from malnutrition to varying degrees as Israel continues to carry out its starvation campaign inside the destroyed enclave in a U.S.-backed attempt at ethnic cleansing.
Dr Saeed Salah, head of nutrition at the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society, announced the dire conditions on Monday and said, “The situation in the north is catastrophic because 700,000 Palestinians are suffering from a politically created famine,” according to The Middle East Monitor.
“Seventy percent of the population in the north, about 700,000 people, suffer from mild malnutrition, and 20 percent suffer from malnutrition, while 10 percent suffer from severe malnutrition, the majority of whom are children,” he said, according to the report.
TRENDPOST: It’s natural that Israel does not want witnesses for its war crimes in Gaza and wants to control the narrative. The U.S. created on-the-field reporting propaganda at the start of the Iraq War in 2003 with “embedded journalists.”