French journalists call on France to help evacuate collaborators from Gaza
Several French journalist associations are calling on the French government to help the evacuation of Palestinian journalists, fixers and drivers who have been covering or helping to cover the war in Gaza for the past 18 months.
'Without them, Gaza would be a black hole of news,' reads a statement signed by associations of journalists of about 20 French media organisations, including RFI.
French news organisations have relied on local journalists and support staff for reporting from Gaza, which has been under bombardment from Israel since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing over 1,200 people and abducting over 250.
Local journalists 'keep you informed about the ongoing horror in the territory, while the Israeli government has constantly hindered coverage of the war by the international press by denying access to the Gaza Strip', the statement continues.
The journalist associations have called on the French government to help evacuate the employees, much like it did for Afghan interpreters and other support staff for the French army.
The journalists are in particular danger now that Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has threatened to take control of Gaza, the journalist associations warn.
"Our colleagues and their families are in mortal danger," the statement reads.
Read more on RFI EnglishRead also:French journalists rally in solidarity for colleagues killed in GazaRSF says Israel responsible for one-third of journalist deaths in 2024'I want a loud death': Cannes Film Festival to honour slain Gaza journalist
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
35 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Israel and Iran trade strikes for a third day as hundreds are reported dead
DUBAI — Israel unleashed airstrikes across Iran for a third day Sunday and threatened even greater force as some Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses to strike buildings in the heart of the country. Planned talks on Iran's nuclear program, which could provide an offramp, were canceled. Israel's strikes have killed at least 406 people in Iran and wounded 654, according to a human rights group that has long tracked the country, Washington-based Human Rights Activists. Iran's government has not offered overall casualty figures. The region braced for a protracted conflict after Israel's surprise bombardment Friday of Iranian nuclear and military sites killed several top generals and nuclear scientists. Neither side showed any sign of backing down. Iran said Israel struck two oil refineries, raising the prospect of a broader assault on Iran's heavily sanctioned energy industry that could affect global markets. The Israeli military, in a social media post, warned Iranians to evacuate arms factories, signaling a further widening of the campaign. Israel, the sole though undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, said it launched the attack to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The two countries have been adversaries for decades. Explosions shook Iran's capital, Tehran, around noon and again around 3:30 p.m. Semiofficial news agencies close to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reported one strike in the area of Vali-e Asr Square downtown and another in a neighborhood named for the air force, which is headquartered there. Sirens went off across much of Israel again around 4 p.m., warning of what would be Iran's first daytime assault since the fighting began. There were no immediate reports of casualties. President Trump has expressed full support for Israel's actions while warning Iran that it can avoid further destruction only by agreeing to a new nuclear deal. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that if Israel's strikes on Iran stop, then 'our responses will also stop.' He said the United States 'is a partner in these attacks and must take responsibility.' Israel said 14 people there have been killed and 390 wounded. Iran has fired more than 270 missiles, 22 of which got through the country's sophisticated multi-tiered air defenses to make impact, according to Israeli figures. The country's main international airport and airspace remained closed for a third day. Israeli strikes targeted Iran's Defense Ministry building early Sunday after hitting air defenses, military bases and sites associated with its nuclear program. The killing of several top generals and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes indicated that Israeli intelligence has penetrated Iran at the highest levels. Araghchi said Israel targeted an oil refinery near Tehran and another in a province on the Persian Gulf. He said Iran targeted 'economic' sites in Israel, without elaborating. Semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported that an Israeli drone strike caused a 'strong explosion' at an Iranian natural gas processing plant. The extent of damage at the South Pars natural gas field was not immediately clear. Such sites have air-defense systems around them, which Israel has been targeting. In a sign that Iran expects Israeli strikes to continue, state television reported that metro stations and mosques would be made available as bomb shelters beginning Sunday night. In Israel, at least six people, including a 10-year-old and a 9-year-old, were killed when a missile hit an apartment building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Daniel Hadad, a local police commander, said 180 people were wounded and seven were missing. An Associated Press reporter saw streets lined with damaged or destroyed buildings, bombed-out cars and shards of glass. Some people could be seen leaving with suitcases. Four other people, including a 13-year-old, were killed and 24 wounded when a missile struck a building in the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel. A strike on the central city of Rehovot wounded 42. The Weizmann Institute of Science, an important center for research in Rehovot, reported 'a number of hits to buildings on the campus.' It said no one was harmed. An oil refinery was damaged in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, according to the firm operating it, which said no one was wounded. World leaders made urgent calls to de-escalate. The attack on nuclear sites set a 'dangerous precedent,' China's foreign minister said Saturday. The region is already on edge as Israel seeks to annihilate Hamas, an Iranian ally, in the Gaza Strip, where war still rages after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has brushed off such calls, saying Israel's strikes so far are 'nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.' Iran has always said its nuclear program was peaceful, and the U.S. and others have assessed that it has not pursued a weapon since 2003. But Iran has enriched ever larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to have the capacity to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so. The United Nations atomic watchdog issued a rare censure of Iran last week. A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive nuclear talks, said Washington remained committed to them and hoped the Iranians would return to the table. Iran's foreign minister on Saturday called the nuclear talks 'unjustifiable' after Israel's strikes. In a social media post early Sunday, Trump reiterated that the U.S. was not involved in the attacks on Iran and warned that any retaliation directed against the United States would bring an American response 'at levels never seen before.' 'However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!' he wrote. In Iran, satellite photos analyzed by AP show extensive damage at Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. The images shot Saturday by Planet Labs PBC show multiple buildings damaged or destroyed. The structures hit include buildings identified by experts as supplying power to the facility. U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Mariano Grossi told the Security Council that the aboveground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to be hit, but the loss of power could have damaged infrastructure there, he said. Israel also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said four 'critical buildings' were damaged, including Isfahan's uranium-conversion facility. The IAEA said there was no sign of increased radiation at Natanz or Isfahan. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity Sunday in line with official procedures, said it would take 'many months, maybe more' to restore the two sites. Gambrell, Melzer and Goldenberg write for the Associated Press. Gambrell reported from Dubai, Melzer from Nahariya, Israel, and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv. AP writers Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Sam Mednick and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
San Francisco Chronicle
43 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Huge turnout at a second Dutch protest seeking government action against Israel
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Tens of thousands of demonstrators in the Netherlands donned red and marched on Sunday to protest the Dutch government's policy toward Israel, exceeding the turnout for a similar event in May. Protesters walked a 3-mile (5-kilometer) loop around the center of The Hague to symbolically create the red line they say the government has failed to set to halt Israel's campaign in Gaza. 'I don't want to be complicit in these horrendous crimes happening there and I want to speak out,' protester Marin Koning told The Associated Press. The human rights groups and aid agencies — including Amnesty International, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders — that organized the march estimated the peaceful crowd at more than 150,000 people. Local media put the numbers closer to 100,000. The protest sent a 'clear signal,' according to Marjon Rozema of Amnesty International Netherlands. Dutch officials must 'act now, at both the national and international level, to increase the pressure on the Israeli government,' she said in a statement. As during the first Red Line protest in May, the march took the crowds past the Peace Palace, headquarters of the United Nations' International Court of Justice, where last year judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza. Israel strongly denies that it is violating international law in Gaza. The event takes place weeks after the country's ruling four-party coalition collapsed, leaving the Netherlands with a caretaker government when it hosts a summit of NATO leaders at the end of June. Hamas started the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, with militants killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251 hostage. The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's military campaign has killed over 55,300 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It says women and children make up most of the dead but doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. ___
Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Trump says Israel-Iran will come to deal ‘soon' and warns Tehran against retaliating against US
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday issued a stark warning to Iran against retaliating on U.S. targets in the Middle East while also predicting Israel and Iran would 'soon' make a deal to end their escalating conflict. Trump in an early morning social meeting posting said the United States 'had nothing to do with the attack on Iran' as Israel and Iran traded missile attacks for the third straight day. Iran, however, has said that it would hold the U.S.—which has provided Israel with much of deep arsenal of weaponry—for its backing of Israel. Israel targeted Iran's Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran and sites it alleged were associated with Iran's nuclear program, while Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses and slammed into buildings deep inside Israel. 'If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,' Trump said. Hours later Trump took to social media again to predict 'Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal.' The U.S. president made the that he has built a track record for de-escalating conflicts, and that he would get Israel and Iran to cease hostilities 'just like I got India and Pakistan to make' after the two countries' recent cross-border confrontation. India struck targets inside Pakistan after militants in April massacred 26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan has denied any links to the attackers. Following India's strikes in Pakistan, the two sides exchanged heavy fire along their de facto borders, followed by missile and drone strikes into each other's territories, mainly targeting military installations and airbases . It was the most serious confrontation in decades between the countries. Trump on Sunday repeated his claim, disputed by India, that the two sides agreed to a ceasefire after he had offered to help both nations with trade if they agreed to de-escalate. Trump also pointed to efforts by his administration during his first term to mediate disputes between Serbia and Kosovo and Egypt and Ethiopia. 'Likewise, we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran!' Trump said. 'Many calls and meetings now taking place. I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that's OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!' The growing conflict between Israel and Iran is testing Trump who ran on a promise to quickly end the brutal wars in Gaza and Ukraine and build a foreign policy that more broadly favors steering clear of foreign conflicts. Trump has struggled to find an endgame to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. And after criticizing President Joe Biden during last year's campaign for preventing Israel from carrying out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Trump found himself making the case to the Israelis to give diplomacy a chance. His administration's push on Tehran to give up its nuclear program came after the U.S. and other world powers in 2015 reached a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday about the growing Israel-Iran conflict. And Trump is set to travel later Sunday to Canada for Group of Seven leaders summit where the Mideast crisis will loom large over his talks with the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan and the European Union. Some influential backers of Trump are him urging to keep the U.S. out of Israel's escalating conflict with Iran. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson are among the prominent backers of Trump who have argued voters backed Trump because he would not involve the nation in foreign conflicts. Kirk said last week that before Israel launched the strikes on Iran that he was concerned the situation could lead to 'a massive schism in MAGA and potentially disrupt our momentum and our insanely successful Presidency.' Kentucky Republican, Sen. Rand Paul praised Trump for having shown restraint and said he hoped the president's 'instincts will prevail.' 'So, I think it's going to be very hard to come out of this and have a negotiated settlement,' Paul said in an appearance on NBC's 'Meet the Press. 'I see more war and more carnage. And it's not the U.S.'s job to be involved in this war.' — AP writer Gary Fields contributed reporting. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
