Leila Molana-Allen:
I mean, the first thing to say is, war is horrific anywhere. And I have covered many conflicts over the last 15 years.
But this one is in such a small space. So, to begin with, the number of people killed on October the 7th in the Hamas attacks, everybody in this country of just 10 million people knows someone, and then, of course, such an incredibly small land mass inside Gaza as well.
You have got nearly 2.5 million civilians living there. Now, there's also the incredibly particular difficulty of access with this war. So we were based in Israel. We were going across Israel, across the Palestinian territories, but not inside Gaza. Normally, it is closed, whenever there's a war every couple of years, as there always is in Gaza, and then journalists can go in.
But it's now been six weeks, and there's no sign we will be able to properly go in any time soon. When we have been able to enter, it's with the Israel Defense Force, and, of course, they control what we are able to see. We cannot speak to Gazans in that situation, no matter how close we are to them. We can only see what we're able to see with the army.
And, of course, our colleagues who are covering Gaza are Palestinian journalists themselves; 37 have died already in six weeks, most deadly period for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists began. They're giving their lives to show us what's happening.
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