Exclusive investigation in Gaza (M6)

In the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 massacres perpetrated in Israel by the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, the Israeli response begins. Martine Laroche-Joubert, a senior reporter, mobilized her networks within the Gaza Strip to produce a documentary on this territory at war.

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This report says above all that we must never get used to these images…

Martine Laroche-Joubert : Absolutely. I wanted the people who testify in this report to speak at length, to have time to tell what is happening in their country. Often, in television news, the subjects are short and basic, which is normal. It is impossible to get attached, and I wanted my report to be able to identify with the witnesses. And yet, it is not easy, because the people in Gaza have always been very reserved, because they have lived under the yoke of Hamas. They feel so exhausted…

You say that this is the first time in thirty years that journalists have been banned from reporting there. How did you go about feeding your film?

A fellow journalist, Frédéric Métézeau, told me about Shrouq Aila. Her husband was killed in a bombing. She has degrees in journalism and English, and is raising her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter alone. She has immense courage. She was the one who filmed for us and met the speakers. I thought about Gaza all the time… It helped me to have been there several times, to be able to imagine the place.

You are 70 years old. There is no retirement for senior reporters?

Not for me anyway (laughs). As long as I can, I will continue. It’s not really a job, it’s a way of being and living.