LONDON: Nearly 1,000 days into the war on Gaza, and six months into a ceasefire, the world’s newsrooms still cannot send reporters to independently cover what is unfolding there. Israel’s ban on foreign press access — in place since October 2023 — remains one of the most sweeping and sustained media blockades in modern conflict reporting.
This week, more than two dozen of the world’s most influential media organizations — including the Associated Press, Reuters, the BBC, CNN, The Washington Post and German agency dpa — joined forces to demand that Israel lift the restriction. The coordinated statement, released on Thursday during Press Freedom Week, was notable not just for the breadth of outlets that signed it, but for the frustration it laid bare: Israel had not even responded to their repeated attempts to open a dialogue.
“Being on the ground is essential. It allows journalists to question official accounts on all sides, to speak directly with civilians and report back what they witness firsthand,” said the statement from the executives. “That is why news organizations send their reporters into the field, often at great personal risk.”
The rationale for the ban has shifted over time. Early on, Israeli authorities argued that foreign journalists entering Gaza could compromise troop positions and endanger soldiers. Later, the justification became that the Strip was too dangerous as an active conflict zone. Both arguments have worn thin. The ceasefire has now held — despite daily violations — for more than six months, and aid workers move in and out through established channels that, the editors argued, could equally accommodate journalists.
“The heaviest fighting is over and there is a ceasefire in place,” the editors’ statement said. “The hostages have come home. Journalists do not pose a threat to Israeli troops. There is a mechanism in place — however restrictive — that allows aid workers to enter and exit the territory. Why not journalists?”
Israel has so far fought off legal attempts to force the issue, while occasionally permitting foreign reporters inside on tightly controlled, military-supervised trips that news organizations have long refused to accept as genuine access. The Foreign Press Association has been awaiting a ruling from the Israeli Supreme Court on a petition for independent access since 2024, with a decision repeatedly delayed, most recently in January.
In the absence of foreign correspondents, the burden of coverage has fallen almost entirely on Palestinian journalists — reporters who have not merely been covering the war, but living through it. Their homes have been destroyed and their families killed. When food access became severely restricted last year, some faced hunger. In July, Agence France-Presse raised an alarm about the survival of its Palestinian colleagues inside Gaza, a concern echoed by AP and Reuters, and several other organizations.
“This has pushed the responsibility for covering this devastating war and its aftermath almost entirely on our Palestinian colleagues,” the letter continued. “They should not have to shoulder this burden alone, and they should be protected.”
The dangers have proved fatal on a scale that has no parallel in recent conflicts. At least 258 journalists and media workers have been killed, mostly Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists — a toll that dwarfs the press death count in the Russia-Ukraine war or the Sudan conflict. Other estimates put the figure far higher, underscoring the difficulty of documenting such tragedies without an independent press presence on the ground.
Among the most recent cases, Mohammed Samir Washah, a correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher, was killed on April 8 in what the watchdog describes as an intended targeted drone strike on the car he was traveling in on the coastal road near Gaza City.
The killing of media workers has not been confined to Gaza. In Lebanon, journalists have also died during Israeli military operations — most recently Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, killed in an airstrike in the south of the country, with rescue access subsequently blocked. The incident drew widespread condemnation, and Lebanese leaders accused Israel of war crimes aimed at concealing its actions.
Beyond physical attacks, journalists — particularly Palestinians — have faced coordinated smear campaigns designed to delegitimize their work. Israeli officials, pro-government media and online networks have repeatedly labeled reporters as “terrorists” or accused them of acting on behalf of Hamas, often without evidence, placing them at greater risk and seeking to discredit documentation of potential war crimes.
To date, no one has been held accountable for any targeted killing of a journalist by Israel since Oct. 7, 2023 — nor for any such killing in the preceding 22 years, as documented in CPJ’s report “Deadly Pattern,” which describes a longstanding culture of impunity.
The editors’ push came as Reporters Without Borders released its latest World Press Freedom Index, in which Israel dropped four places to 116 — level with Lebanon. Syria, by contrast, was the region’s biggest climber, rising 36 places to 141 in a sign of shifting dynamics following last year’s political upheaval.
“Freedom of the press is a basic value in any open society,” the statement concluded. “It is time for the delays to end. Let us into Gaza.”
