CNN
Gaza: CNN reporter Clarissa Ward was able to enter the enclave without IDF supervision, she testifies
GAZA – Watch the horror, report the unspeakable. CNN's chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward was able to enter the Gaza Strip without Israeli army supervision while the area is still under IDF bombardment. A first since the beginning of the war.
In fact, the Erez border crossing between Israel and Gaza has been closed since October 7, banning entry for journalists. It is the Israeli army that allows or prohibits reporters from entering the enclave. And if there is a green light, it must be done under their supervision. Clarissa Ward managed to bypass this strict protocol and this Thursday, December 14, revealed the chaos she observed on site.
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In her report, the correspondent explains that she and her team benefited from a “very privileged position.” “We felt relatively safe, we were only on the ground for a few hours. ” she adds.
“The Horror of Modern War”
A few hours are enough to get an overview of the catastrophic condition of the Gaza Strip and its residents. As for the property damage, “I can honestly say we've never seen this on this scale before,” she believes.
Blasted buildings, destroyed streets, littered with trash and surrounded by standing water due to recent rains – Clarissa Ward evokes “the horror of modern war.”
“Despite the heavy bombing, people are walking around outside like zombies – maybe they're trying to think about their lives, maybe they have nothing else to do,” the journalist continued on CNN. Then follows the visit to the Emirates Field Hospital.
“Even our surgeon was shocked”
Faced with hospital beds occupied by severely injured, traumatized infants and mutilated and amputated adults, it is difficult to contain one's emotions. The reporter talks to a little girl who is completely in a cast. “They bombed the house in front of us, then our house. I sat next to my grandfather and my grandfather held me and my uncle was fine so he was the one who led us out. », explains the little girl crying next to her mother.
In the CNN report, the detonation of an airstrike nearby can barely be heard beyond the entrance to the hospital. “This is real life,” responds the hospital’s medical director, Al-Naqbi. He explains that this occurs in at least 20 strikes per day. “I think we've gotten used to it. “, he adds.
He later described seeing a patient “who had a head wound and worms were coming out of the wound.” “We cannot explain what type of environment this is [les patients, ndlr] were exposed, and medically I cannot explain how messy this situation was. Even our surgeon was shocked. »
“The world doesn’t listen to us,” denounced a 20-year-old patient whose leg was amputated. “No one cares about us, we have been dying for more than 60 days because of the bombings and no one has done anything. »
At least 63 journalists have been killed since October 7th
France expressed on Thursday its “concern about the high price” that journalists are paying in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, stressing that it is continuing its efforts to get journalists working with AFP out of the Gaza Strip.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 63 journalists and media workers have died since October 7 – 56 Palestinians, 4 Israelis and three Lebanese. Around forty journalists working with the AFP and their beneficiaries hope to leave the Gaza Strip.
“We are continuing our efforts regarding the AFP personnel,” Christophe Lemoine, deputy spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told a press conference, recalling that it is “an operational complex.”
“We have been working since October to allow the French there and their beneficiaries to leave the Gaza Strip, and we have secured the exit of Palestinian agents from the French institute in Gaza,” he said. -he recalled, adding that Paris had already allowed the departure of 154 people in total.
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