Journalists trapped inside the Gaza Strip faced the dual challenge of documenting a devastating military campaign while fighting for their own survival, an experience examined in the documentary film Inside Gaza.
The film follows local reporters, photographers, and videojournalists from the global news agency AFP who remained inside the territory following the October 7, 2023, attack. While international correspondents typically cover conflicts and return to safety, Palestinian journalists found themselves trapped with no way out as the war claimed the lives of their families, friends, and colleagues.
“Most international correspondents… cover a war or a news event and then return home to safety,” freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker Hélène Lam Trong told AFP in Los Angeles, where the film was shown as part of The American French Film Festival.
“Palestinian journalists could not do that. They were trapped alongside the civilian population of Gaza, with no way out; as the days passed, they themselves became victims of the war,” Lam Trong said.
The Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and armed men took more than 200 people hostage. Israel subsequently sealed Gaza’s borders and barred international news organizations from entering.
With outside access blocked and no way to send reinforcements, AFP relied entirely on its experienced local staff inside Gaza. Without their continued reporting, transmitted to thousands of media clients worldwide, the outside world would have lacked direct accounts of the unfolding humanitarian crisis, according to Lam Trong.
The documentary combines on-the-ground footage produced by the local team with interviews conducted after they finally left the territory in 2024. Throughout the project, the journalists describe the psychological toll of reporting while under fire and the frustration of seeing their verified work questioned or ignored.
In one sequence, the reporting team details encounters with online skepticism, including claims that authentic photographs of a dead child were staged using a doll. Gaza bureau chief Adel Zaanoun expressed deep distress over the selective use of their reporting.
“At AFP, our photos, news reports and videos are used by world media outlets. But in this war, some of our images were never used,” Adel Zaanoun said. “It worried us, even terrified us, because from the very first days, the thousand of Palestinians killed didn’t count for the media.”
Organizations including the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders estimate that approximately 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began. AFP’s office in Gaza, which transmitted a live feed to international clients, was struck, likely by Israeli tank fire, according to an investigation by the agency and other international media.
Lam Trong emphasized that the documentary shows the physical and professional risks local newsgatherers assume.
“In Gaza, in particular, journalism and journalists have become central issues, as they have been killed, attacked and persecuted,” Lam Trong said.
“We do not deserve to be accused of propaganda when we conduct on-the-ground reporting,” she added.
As the film campaigns during awards season and pursues Oscar eligibility, Lam Trong views the platform as essential for highlighting threats to press freedom. AFP’s staff left the territory in 2024, and the agency continues its regional coverage using trusted freelance contributors.
The awards season campaign is “an opportunity to bring a very important message to Hollywood… that freedom of the press is under threat and that we must defend journalists — not just journalism, but the journalists themselves,” Lam Trong told AFP.
