BBC and news agencies launch film calling on Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza

BBC and three international news agencies released a short film calling for Israel to allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza.

David Dembbelli tells veteran journalist BBC Davidby.

He said: “International journalists must now be allowed to enter Gaza to share the burden with Palestinian correspondents there so that we can bring the facts to the world.”

Foreign journalists have been banned from entering Gaza independently since Israel launched its attack in 2023 after the Hamas attacks October 7. A small number in the tape was taken by the Israeli forces under access to control.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have already said that “allowing reporters to report safely” in Gaza, the army “accompanies them in the battlefield.

BBC contacted the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to comment.

Last year, the Supreme Court of Justice in Israel ruled that the restrictions imposed on entering Gaza were justified on the basis of security.

“It has been nearly two years since October 7 when the world has witnessed the atrocities of Hamas. Since then, the war has been raging in Gaza, but international journalists are not allowed to enter,” said Deborah Tennis, CEO of BBC News.

“We must now allow the entry of Gaza. To work alongside local journalists, so that we can bring the facts to the world.”

The film was presented for the first time in New York on Wednesday evening at an event hosted by the Committee to protect journalists, to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly. It is characterized by clips of historical events and tests that journalists receive.

They include the scenes of D-Day during World War II, the Vietnam War, Ethiopia’s famine in 1984, the protests of the Chinese Tiananmen Square, the Rwandan genocide, the Syrian refugee crisis and the war in Ukraine.

“In Ukraine, journalists from all over the world risk their lives every day to report the suffering of people.”

“But when it comes to GAZA, the reporting function is only for Palestinian journalists, who pay a terrible cost, leaving less than witnesses.”

This is not the first time that news organizations have invited the Israeli authorities to allow reporters to enter the region.

In July, BBC News, Agence France Presse and Reuters issued a statement expressing “desperate concern” for reporters in Gaza suffering from dire conditions, including hunger and displacement.

In August, 27 countries, including the United Kingdom, supported a statement calling for Israel to allow the immediate foreign media to reach Gaza and attacks on journalists there.

According to the United Nations Office for Human Rights, at least 248 Palestinian journalists were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza.

Israel has repeatedly denied that its forces would target journalists.

The Israeli army launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas -led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, where about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others took hostage.

At least 65,419 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health in the region. The ministry’s figures were transferred by the United Nations and others as a more reliable source of statistics available to the victims.