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Yomiuri Shimbun
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Rare Aerial Imagery Shows Displacement and Destruction in Gaza
KING ABDULLAH II AIR BASE, Jordan – Blocks upon blocks of crumbling buildings, punctuated by vast tent encampments. Scenes of devastation where neighborhoods once stood. A chance to ride along on a Jordanian aid flight Wednesday carrying out airdrops over the Gaza Strip offered a rare opportunity for low-altitude aerial views of the scale of destruction and displacement in the territory. Gaza has been closed to foreign reporters since Israel began its military operation in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and views from above have been limited largely to satellite imagery, Israeli military photos and drone footage from Gazan journalists and media workers – at least 186 of whom have been killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The images show the destructive impact of Israeli bombardments that have damaged or destroyed much of Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its population and left more than 60,000 people dead, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Israel Defense Forces says it only targets militants. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying the militants operate in populated areas. 'IDF actions are based on military necessity and in accordance to international law,' the IDF said in a statement Saturday. Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people, Israel says, and took about 250 others back to Gaza as hostages in the 2023 attack. More than 450 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza. Sky News and BBC journalists who reported from aid flights from Jordan this week said they were told that Israel had prohibited filming Gaza from above. The organizations did not say how the directive had been conveyed. Sky reported that it was informed Israel could delay or cancel aid flights if its journalists filmed Gaza. The IDF declined to comment on the matter. A Washington Post photojournalist was given no such instructions before boarding a Royal Jordanian Air Force flight on Wednesday. On a subsequent flight Friday, a member of the Jordanian flight crew told her she was not allowed to film Gaza, only the airdrop. The imagery here is from Wednesday, when two Jordanian C-130 transport planes, in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates Air Force, dropped more than 16 tons of food and baby formula into Gaza, with Israel's permission. Most of the photographs were taken through the plane's windows, looking east toward Gaza City. A close-up shows seven schools flattened by Israeli strikes: al-Zahawi Preparatory School for Boys, Asdood Secondary School for Boys, Abo Thar al-Ghafary School, Julis Secondary School for Boys, al-Awda Primary School, Sarafand Preparatory Male School and Samy al-Alamy Male School. Tents for displaced people occupy the school courtyards. Photos posted on Facebook just days before the war began showed young students lined up there. A lone building standing in a lot occupied by displaced peoples' tents is El-Helou International Hotel, home to a cavernous ballroom adorned with gold gossamer and lit by chandeliers. It was once a popular venue for weddings and gatherings in the north of Gaza City. Rubble, collapsed buildings and tent encampments occupy ground where Maqoussi Mosque and the Ministry of Economy stood. The mosque's dome slumps into its flattened roof. Next to the mosque stands the ruined facade of Sheikh Radwan Health Center, a clinic destroyed earlier in the war that was run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. A zoomed-in image shows the ruins of the Jabalya refugee camp. Jabalya, the site of fierce fighting between Hamas and the Israeli military in previous conflicts, was effectively besieged by the Israeli military from October to December 2024. The delivery of food and water and access by civil defense and paramedics were mostly denied, and large swaths of the neighborhood were demolished. Adel, the Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot who flew the aid drop mission, said the sight of Gaza from the air 'made me shocked.' Adel saw 'growing' destruction compared with when he last flew over Gaza during the first round of airdrops last year, he added. He withheld his last name because he was not authorized to speak publicly. 'Everyone who will see this area will be shocked,' he added. 'We hope [for] this war to finish. We need to give them more and more food, because they are starving over there.' It was 'very sad' to see the Gaza Strip from above, Maher Halaseh, 36, a Royal Jordanian Air Force navigator who also took part in last year's airdrops, said Friday. 'Everything is different. There's no buildings, nothing. A lot of tents on the shoreline. I start to see it when all the buildings were there. Nowadays, there's nothing. They are dying over there.' A closer look shows how hundreds of thousands of Gazans are living, in makeshift tents erected anywhere space can be found, including on the beach in Gaza's south. Humanitarian groups say the airdrops that resumed this week, while better than no aid at all, are much less efficient than sending aid by land. Aid organizations have called them 'an absolute last resort.' Instead, they have urged Israel to open land crossings and allow a high volume of trucks to enter Gaza. Israel says it does not restrict aid to Gaza. Jordan has become a staging area for the airdrop effort, with support from governments in the region and Europe, in response to escalating scenes of starvation. Airdrops are neither precision-guided nor do they come with the ability for organized distribution on the ground. In past waves of airdrops, heavy boxes of aid fatally crushed aid seekers and led them to the sea, where they drowned trying to reach food, health officials said.
Shafaq News
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Palestinian Journalist killed in Israeli airstrike in Gaza
Shafaq News – Gaza Palestinian journalist Ibrahim Hajjaj was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting eastern Gaza City on Wednesday, according to local media sources. Hajjaj's death adds to the growing toll on media workers in the conflict. Since the beginning of Israel's military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, at least 230 journalists and media professionals have been killed, with 46 reportedly targeted in connection with their reporting, according to press watchdogs. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based media freedom organization, and the Costs of War project at Brown University's Watson Institute have consistently ranked Gaza as one of the most dangerous environments for journalists worldwide. Beyond fatalities, many journalists in Gaza have lost family members, homes, and access to necessities. With Israel barring international reporters from entering the enclave, Palestinian journalists remain the only source of on-the-ground coverage from within the war zone. Major international news organizations, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Associated Press, BBC News, and Reuters, issued a joint statement expressing grave concern for their Gaza-based colleagues. They warned that many are 'increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families' amid mounting food insecurity and infrastructure collapse.
Scroll.in
27-07-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Starvation in Gaza: How Israel is attempting to hide the truth of its brutal war
On October 7, 2023, hours after Palestine group Hamas led unprecedented incursions into southern Israel, killing 1,195 people and taking about 250 hostage, Palestinian photojournalist Mohammad al-Salhi was shot dead while reporting on Tel Aviv's reprisal on Gaza. The 29-year-old al-Salhi had been wearing his press vest and helmet. He had grown up in the Bureij refugee camp, near a fence separating Gaza from Israel. This barricade, a 'symbol of division and apartheid' became a 'recurring theme in his work', said one online tribute to him. The same day, at least two more Palestinian journalists were killed in the course of work. The deaths were roundly condemned. The Unesco director-general noted that 'media workers provide verified news in times of conflict and must therefore be protected against all forms of attack'. The Israelis ignored the advisory. By the end of the fortnight, 24 journalists were among the 6,000 Palestinians killed by the Israelis in Gaza. As Israel's attacks continued and casualties mounted, 141 media workers were dead by December 2024 – and the toll in the territory had risen to 46,376. Estimates of the number of media workers killed since Israel began its war on Gaza vary from 186 (according to the Committee to Protect Journalists) to 232 (according to the Costs of War Project run by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs). During those 21 months, Israel has flattened large portions of Gaza. At least 92% of all homes have been destroyed or damaged, the United Nations says, as have 70% of all structures – schools, universities, hospitals, administrative buildings and businesses. More than 90% of Gaza's population has been displaced, some as many as 10 times. The majority of Gazans have little access to regular supplies of food, water or adequate healthcare. Since October 2023, the territory's population is estimated to have fallen by 6% – about 100,000 residents have fled, while almost 60,000 have died. Because Israel has tightly controlled foreign journalists visiting Gaza, the world has relied on Palestinian media workers to report on the horror being visited on the territory. The killings of these journalists is not a coincidence. Israel's stranglehold on the media is part of its strategy to project its ruthless attacks on Gaza as a just war. Tel Aviv has acknowledged that it has assassinated some journalists, claiming that they were 'terrorists' who were aiding Hamas. Other journalists, say their colleagues, have been deliberately targeted. As Palestinian journalist Ibrahim Abu Ghazaleh told The Intercept after an Israeli strike on a cafe where reporters gathered to work, 'In Gaza, a camera is a threat. When you witness the truth, you become a target.' Earlier this week, as the effects of Israel's tight control of food convoys into Gaza intensified the spectre of starvation, four Western news organisations issued an alarming joint statement. 'We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,' said The Associated Press, AFP, BBC News and Reuters. 'For many months, these independent journalists have been the world's eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.' As a result of the courageous reporting from Gaza, there is evidence that the conscience of some world leaders is finally being pricked. This week, France became the first G7 nation to announce that it would recognise the state of Palestine. In the United Kingdom, 221 members of parliament signed a letter asking their prime minister to follow suit. On the street, millions of people across the Western world have participated in marches demanding justice for Palestine. None of this is likely to move Israel to end its occupation of Palestine. As it persists with its campaign to starve Gaza, Tel Aviv knows that starving Palestinian journalists helps it build a barricade that hides from the world the full extent of its crimes against humanity. Here is a summary of the week's top stories. Dhankhar's exit. The Election Commission on Wednesday started preparations to conduct the election for a new vice president, two days after Jagdeep Dhankar resigned from the post. Dhankhar had cited medical reasons for stepping down with immediate effect on Monday, which was the first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament. A day after Dhankhar resigned, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished him good health and said that the Rajya Sabha chairperson had 'got many opportunities to serve our country in various capacities'. Several Opposition leaders raised questions about the timing of Dhankhar's resignation. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that there were 'far deeper reasons' behind Dhankhar's decision. Samajwadi Party MP Javed Ali Khan said that Dhankhar had appeared in good health on Monday and that 'it did not seem like there was a health issue'. In search of justice. The Supreme Court stayed a Bombay High Court order acquitting 12 persons accused in the 2006 Mumbai train blasts case. However, it said that those who were released following the verdict will not have to go back to jail while the matter is being heard. The case pertains to the seven bomb blasts in suburban trains on Mumbai's Western Railway line on July 11, 2006, killing 189 persons and injuring 824. Following a trial under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, a special court had in October 2015 convicted the 12 persons. However, on Monday, the High Court acquitted all of them holding that the prosecution had 'utterly failed' in establishing their guilt. Five of the accused persons had been sentenced to death. The Maharashtra government challenged the acquittal on Tuesday. A trade deal. India and the United Kingdom have signed a Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement. The free trade agreement will benefit Indian farmers, the micro, small and medium enterprises sector, footwear and jewellery exports, as well as the seafood and engineering goods sectors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the trade deal would help British workers in cutting-edge manufacturing, and would also benefit whiskey distillers across Scotland and the service sector in London, Manchester and Leeds. New Delhi and Britain had announced the agreement in May after more than three years and 14 rounds of negotiations. The free trade agreement was signed during Modi's visit to the UK. Also on Scroll last week
The Guardian
25-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Gaza is starving. So are its journalists
In May, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote about the desperate situation facing journalists in Gaza, who were having to report while dangerously hungry. My colleagues documented the gnawing hunger, dizziness, brain fog and sickness all experienced by an exhausted Palestinian press corps already living and working in terrifying conditions. Eight weeks later, that desperate situation is now catastrophic. Several news organizations are now warning that their journalists – those documenting what is happening inside Gaza – will die unless urgent action is taken to stop Israel's deliberate refusal to allow sufficient food into the territory. 'Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we have lost journalists in conflicts, we have had wounded and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us can recall seeing a colleague die of hunger,' an association of journalists from the Agence France-Presse wrote in a statement on Monday. 'We refuse to watch them die.' Two days later, the Qatari broadcast network Al Jazeera said its journalists – like all Palestinians in Gaza– were 'fighting for their own survival' and warned: 'If we fail to act now, we risk a future where there may be no one left to tell our stories.' Al Jazeera shared a heart-wrenching post from the Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Anas Al Sharif in which he writes: 'I haven't stopped covering [the crisis] for a moment in 21 months, and today, I say it outright … And with indescribable pain. I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion, and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment … Gaza is dying. And we die with it.' Al Sharif's story is one we have heard over and over again from reporters inside Gaza. On Sunday, Sally Thabet, correspondent for Al-Kofiya satellite channel, fainted after a live broadcast on 20 July because she had not eaten all day. She told CPJ she regained consciousness in the hospital, where doctors gave her an intravenous drip for rehydration and nutrition. In an online video, she described how she and her three daughters are starving. The Palestinian journalist Shuruq As'ad, founder of the Palestine Journalism Hub, said Thabet was the third journalist to collapse on air from starvation that week. I have been a reporter for more than a quarter of a century. I know all too well that journalists have always faced risks in reporting in war zones. I have many journalist friends who bear the scars – both physical and mental – of covering such conflicts, and many whose colleagues have been killed in fighting from Libya to Syria, from Bosnia to Sierra Leone. Most take these risks knowingly. But this is not that situation. These are not the usual risks faced by reporters in conflict: a stray bullet, a landmine, ambush. This is something else. This is systematic silencing by Israel. Starvation is its latest and terrible manifestation, but we must be clear that the threats facing journalists in Gaza are not new – nor is the international community's abject failure to address them. More journalists and media workers were killed in 2024 than in any other year since CPJ began keeping records. Nearly two-thirds of all those killed in 2024 were Palestinians killed by Israel. There has been no accountability for any of these killings, despite evidence of numerous targeted attacks. Very few of these journalists chose to become war correspondents. They are war correspondents because war is their daily, inescapable reality. They report because there is no one else to do so as Israel continues to refuse access to journalists from outside Gaza to the territory, a refusal that is without precedent in the history of modern warfare. These restrictions on international access place an unbearable burden on those who are forced to remain and bear witness. CPJ has documented the deliberate targeting of journalists; their offices have been bombed, their homes destroyed. They have been forced to move repeatedly, finding shelter in flimsy tents. They struggle with frequent communications blackouts and damaged equipment. They are barred from leaving Gaza and evacuation is all but impossible, even with life-threatening and life-altering injuries. Unlike in other ongoing conflicts, such as Ukraine, which also has a high number of domestic reporters who now report on and from a war zone, Gaza's journalists have no colleagues who can replace them from elsewhere, who can provide them with much-needed rest and respite. Now these journalists are starving to death before our eyes. The international community has the information it needs to act to reverse this course. We know what is happening in Gaza. We know because of the journalists who have documented the attacks at aid stations, who have filmed the starving children and the bombed hospitals, and who are now recording their own demise. There is an adage in journalism circles that explains reporters' reluctance to write about themselves: No journalist wants to become the story. If we do not act now, there will be no one left in Gaza to tell anyone's story. And that silence – those deaths – will be on us. Jodie Ginsberg is CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists
USA Today
11-07-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
ICE still holds journalist arrested covering anti-Trump protest
Salvadoran journalist, Mario Guevara, arrested covering a June protest, is still being held by ICE despite judge's order to release him. A Georgia-based journalist from El Salvador has been in custody for nearly a month after he was arrested while covering a protest. He faces removal from the United States. Mario Guevara, 47, runs MG News, a Spanish language news outlet serving Latino communities in Georgia. An Emmy Award-winning journalist, Guevara has more than 780,000 followers on his Facebook page. Guevara had documented increasing immigration enforcement in the region. He was arrested covering a June protest opposing the Trump administration. His arrest has drawn scrutiny on press freedom in the United States. 'I am a victim of persecution for doing my journalistic work covering operations in the streets,' Guevara said in a July 8 statement. He has asked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, an ally of President Donald Trump, to intervene in his case. Neither Bukele's office nor did the Salvadoran embassy responded to an emailed request for comment. Press organizations condemned Guevara's arrest and continued detention. 'We are dismayed that immigration officials have decided to ignore a federal immigration court order last week granting bail to journalist Mario Guevara,' Katherine Jacobsen, the North American program coordinator at the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. 'Guevara is currently the only jailed journalist in the United States who was arrested in relation to his work. Immigration authorities must respect the law and release him on bail.' Reporting in this country for years Guevara, who fled El Salvador after receiving death threats for his journalism at a conservative newspaper, has been in this country for more than two decades, his lawyer Giovanni Diaz said. He has work authorization and recently applied for a green card. His American citizen son's recent 21st birthday made him eligible to receive residency. During his detention, Guevara has been moved to at least five different facilities across Georgia. Initial charges against him were dropped and an immigration judge allowed him to post bond. But federal officials blocked his release after another set of traffic-related misdemeanor charges ‒ stemming from of an alleged incident nearly a month before his arrest ‒ were issued by a Georgia sheriff's office. On July 10, Guevara's lawyers announced prosecutors dropped the charges, yet Guevara is now in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. Diaz has called Guevara's detention an organized effort by local and federal agencies. 'They're working together to make sure he stays detained as long as possible,' Diaz told USA TODAY. 'Whatever it takes.' In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said Guevara is in the country illegally. The department has begun deportation proceedings. Diaz said Guevara has been allowed to stay in the country since 2012, when the government administratively closed his case. He kept receiving work permit renewals, and he had a pending asylum application, giving him legal right to stay in the country, Diaz said. Why was he arrested? On June 14, Guevara was arrested by local police in DeKalb County while recording a 'No Kings' protest. Videos of his arrest show Guevara, in a red shirt with a protective vest that says 'PRESS,' live streaming as police faced off against demonstrators. Guevara stood on the sidewalk with other journalists until a line of police officers began moving toward a dwindling crowd of protesters. One officer in a parking lot moved toward Guevara. As he moved away another officer ran toward him and grabbed him without warning, bodycam footage showed. 'I'm a member of the media, officer,' Guevara can be heard saying in English. As an officer shuffled him to police cars parked in the street, people could be heard asking why he was being taken. His live stream continued recording in his pocket as he was taken away in a police vehicle. He called for a lawyer. Lengthy court battle as new charges brought On July 1, a federal immigration judge ruled Guevara could be released on $7,500 bond, Diaz said. As his family sought to pay digitally and in person, he was denied release. By July 3, the sheriff's office said Guevara had been booked, released on bond and was no longer in custody. The same day, ICE transferred him to the sheriff's office for the outstanding arrest warrants on the three new misdemeanors. They have since been dismissed by the local solicitor general's office, WSB-TV reported. On July 4, local officials transferred him to ICE custody for removal proceedings. As of July 10, he remains in the Folkston ICE Processing Center, a privately-run facility in southeastern Georgia. Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@ or on Signal at emcuevas.01.
