Doha (Quds News Network)- Al Jazeera Media Network has urged the journalistic community, press freedom organisations, and relevant legal bodies to “take decisive action” to halt Israel’s “forced starvation and crimes” against journalists and media professionals in Gaza. “For more than 21 months, the Israeli bombardment and the systematic starvation of the nearly two million people of Gaza have pushed an entire population to the brink of survival,” the network said in a statement on Wednesday. It added: “The journalists on the ground, who have courageously reported on this ongoing genocide, have risked their lives and the safety of their families to shed light on these atrocities. However, they now find themselves fighting for their own survival.” On July 19, Al Jazeera journalists began posting heart-wrenching messages on social media, signalling that their capacity to continue was waning. “I haven’t stopped covering 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,” Anas al-Sharif of Al Jazeera wrote. Mostefa Souag, director general of Al Jazeera Media Network, commenting on the plight of journalists in Gaza, stated, “We owe it to the courageous journalists in Gaza to amplify their voices and put an end to the unbearable suffering they are enduring due to forced starvation and targeted killings by Israeli occupation forces.” “The journalistic community and the world bear an immense responsibility; it is our duty to raise our voices and mobilise all available means to support our colleagues in this noble profession. If we fail to act now, we risk a future where there may be no one left to tell our stories. Our inaction will be recorded in history as a monumental failure to protect our fellow journalists and a betrayal of the principles that every journalist strives to uphold,” he added. At least 231 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since the start of the ongoing genocide in October 2023. Israeli forces have killed five Al Jazeera journalists – Samer Abudaqa, Hamza Dahdouh, Ismail al-Ghoul, Ahmed al-Louh, and Hossam Shabat – and many of the family members of Al Jazeera and other journalists. Al Jazeera Media Network has called for immediate action by concerned international organisations to bring an end to this forced starvation that does not spare journalists who are the bearers of truth. On Sunday, AFP also issued a grave warning: its reporters in Gaza may soon die of hunger, a tragedy the agency has never faced in its 80-year history. “For the first time, we fear losing colleagues to starvation,” the agency’s Journalists’ Society (SDJ) said in a statement. “We have seen war wounds, imprisonment, and death in the field, but never this.” The AFP team in Gaza consists of nine local reporters and photographers. They have endured months of siege, displacement, and now famine. They continue working without food, clean water, or electricity, moving between camps on foot or by donkey cart, as Israeli airstrikes target moving vehicles. One of them, Bashar, who has worked with AFP since 2010, wrote on Facebook: “I no longer have the strength to work. My body is thin. My brother collapsed from hunger.” Although AFP pays their salaries, the reporters cannot buy anything. Shops are empty. Prices are astronomical. The banking system has collapsed. Even accessing cash comes with a 40% commission. The warning comes as the death toll from Israel’s starvation siege continues to rise. A total of 111 people, including 81 children, have died due to hunger and malnutrition since the start of the genocide in October 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Wednesday. On Sunday, at least one Palestinian died of hunger every 80 minutes in Gaza as “Israel maintains a systematic starvation policy against 2 million residents,” said Euro-Med Monitor. The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are “on the verge of catastrophic hunger,” with one in three people in the enclave going days without food.