Int’l Organizations Demand Unrestricted Media Access to Gaza Amid Ongoing Genocidal War

The organizations, including the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, made the appeal in an open letter addressed to the Israeli government on Thursday.

The groups, from over 26 countries, highlighted that no independent media access to Gaza had been permitted since the Israeli war began in October last year.

The military offensive has resulted in the deaths of nearly 38,350 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and has left the Palestinian territory in ruins.

“Nine months into the war, international reporters are still being denied access to Gaza except for rare and escorted trips arranged by the Israeli military,” the letter stated.

“This effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an impossible and unreasonable burden on local reporters to document a war through which they are living,” it added.

The signatories noted that over 100 journalists had been killed since the start of the war, and those who remained were working under extreme conditions.

“The result is that information from Gaza is becoming harder to obtain, and the reporting that does get through is often questioned for its accuracy,” they said.

Commenting on the letter, CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “describes Israel as a democracy. His actions regarding the media tell a different story.”

International journalists, she added, “should be given independent access to Gaza so they can judge for themselves what is happening—rather than relying on organized tours by the Israeli military.”

As Israeli forces partially withdrew from Gaza City's Shujayea a civil defense agency spokesperson said over 85 percent of buildings were uninhabitable, leaving more than 120,000 residents homeless.

The spokesperson also reported the destruction of a medical clinic that served over 60,000 Palestinians and noted that Israeli forces opened fire on residents in designated evacuation routes.

Israeli forces are now invading Gaza City's southern neighborhood of Tal al-Hawa, "destroying all aspects of life," the spokesperson said.

The Israeli regime has ordered Palestinians to evacuate, a directive Gaza officials describe as psychological warfare against civilians with nowhere to go.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning residents to flee, setting out designated escape routes. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA stated up to 350,000 people were in the area.

The United Nations warned that the latest evacuations would "fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced multiple times" and who face "critical levels of need."

The escalation comes as a new round of ceasefire talks begins in Qatar and Egypt, with Hamas warning that increased Israeli military activity could derail the negotiations.