Mourners at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip carry the shrouded body of Palestinian Abdul Jawad al-Ghalban, 14, who died of starvation, before his burial on July 22, 2025 [AFP] v |AJE

Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians as they were trying to access food in Gaza since the United States- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operations at the end of May, according to the United Nations.

“As of July 21, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organisations’ aid convoys,” UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told the AFP news agency on Tuesday, stating the victims had been “killed by the Israeli military”.

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Media personnel

The AFP journalists union has warned that its journalists working in Gaza are at risk of dying due to hunger.

One of its 10 freelancers posted a message on social media on July 19, saying: “I don’t have the strength to work for the media. My body is thin, and I can’t work.”

The AFP news agency warned that most of its workers in the Strip do not have the physical capacity to do their jobs any longer and the situation is worsening. “Their heartbreaking calls for help are now daily,” it said.

Despite the journalists receiving a monthly salary, there is either nothing to buy or food is available only at exorbitant prices, the union said. “We risk learning of their deaths at any moment, and this is unbearable for us.

“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 remember seeing a colleague die of hunger. We refuse to see them die.”