UN, press groups slam Israel for denying media access to Gaza
In the wake of the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the UN and global press freedom advocates are demanding that Israel allow international journalists into Gaza, which has been sealed off to independent reporting.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the Foreign Press Association (FPA) have urged the regime to lift its restrictions, highlighting the vital role of journalists in documenting the humanitarian crisis.
On Monday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini posted on X: “[It is] time to finally let international journalists come into Gaza freely to support and pay tribute to the heroic work of Palestinian journalists.”
In a statement released on Friday, the FPA, an organization representing international media in Gaza and the occupied territories, demanded that Israel “immediately open the borders and allow international media free and independent access to the Gaza Strip” now that the war has ceased.
“Enough with the excuses and delay tactics. The restrictions on press freedom must come to an end,” the statement said.
Since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, the enclave has been effectively closed to foreign media, preventing independent coverage of the destruction and genocide perpetrated by the regime.
The few journalists granted entry faced strict surveillance and were escorted by Israeli forces to selected, restricted areas, limiting independent reporting.
As a result, much of the world’s coverage of the genocide has depended on Palestinian journalists, who have tirelessly exposed Israel’s systematic destruction and mass killings in the coastal strip.
However, Palestinian journalists remain among the most at-risk in the world, with nearly 300 killed in Israeli attacks over the past two years.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, said the memory of journalists killed in Gaza “should be honored in a Genocide Museum, as an essential part of the reparations owed to the Palestinian people once the genocide ends.”
She also warned that “deleting a killed journalist’s account is to kill them twice,” pointing to the deletion of the verified Instagram account of Gaza journalist Saleh al-Jafarawi, who had 4.5 million followers.
She noted that the move wiped out crucial documentation of Israeli crimes in the besieged territory.
Israel-backed gangs killed the prominent Palestinian journalist al-Jafarawi in southern Gaza City on October 12.
Armed Israel-backed gangs kill a Palestinian journalist in southern Gaza City as the Hamas-Israel ceasefire takes effect.
UNRWA and the FPA are just two among numerous global organizations that have persistently demanded media access to Gaza during Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged strip.
In July 2025, major news agencies, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and Reuters, issued a joint statement stressing the urgent need for international media access to Gaza to ensure truthful reporting.
Israel has ignored these appeals, and even following the current ceasefire with Hamas, continues to bar international journalists from Gaza, apparently concerned that independent reporting would reveal the full extent of the destruction and genocide it has carried out over the past two years in the besieged strip.
