Since the start of the war, on October 7, 2023, with the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, which followed the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israeli territory, Israeli authorities have independently entered the devastated Palestinian territory, and have only taken some communicators to the site on strictly controlled visits with their military.
This Thursday, the highest Israeli court began hearing the appeal presented by the , but the attorney general alleged that “the situation of the conflict has changed during the last ten days and it is too early to estimate what the entry of the press into Gaza would entail.”
The Prosecutor’s Office requested 30 more days to examine the circumstances, in the tenth postponement of the process on the petition presented a year ago by the Foreign Press Association.
The court gave Israeli authorities a month to come up with a plan to allow foreign journalists access to Gaza, but so far no date has been set for the next hearing.
“It is time for Israel to lift the closure”
“We have waited a long time for this day,” FPA president and Jerusalem-based DW correspondent Tania Krämer said before the hearing. “It is time for Israel to lift the closure and allow us to do our work alongside our Palestinian colleagues,” he added.
The FPA declared itself “disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision to grant the State of Israel a new deadline,” according to a statement published after the hearing. However, he hopes that the court will be firm “against further delays on the part of the State.”
“We didn’t get exactly what we wanted. We expected the court to order the state to immediately open the border,” Josef Federman, a member of the FPA board of directors, told AFP. Today, “the State once again used delaying tactics to prevent journalists from entering” Gaza, considers the journalists’ association.
Gilead Sher, a lawyer for the FPA, argued in turn that the decision to continue preventing independent entry of the press into the Palestinian enclave represents “a serious violation of the right to free expression.”
“There are 400 journalists from 30 different countries who are not allowed to do their job, which is to deliver information to millions of people around the world. Only 8 have entered Gaza in the last year”
“There are 400 journalists from 30 different countries in this country who are not allowed to do their job, which is to get information to millions of people around the world. Of those 400, only 8 have entered Gaza in the last year,” he said.
In these more than two years, Israel has only allowed the occasional entry into Gaza of Israeli and foreign journalists embedded with the Army in previously chosen areas and without the presence of Gazan civilians.
The FPA, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists, began calling for independent access to Gaza shortly after the conflict began. Their requests have been repeatedly ignored by the Israeli authorities. The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has joined the FPA’s request.
No excuses
The Israeli Supreme Court already denied another request from the FPA on the same matter in 2024, ruling that the restrictions were justified for security reasons. The Court stated at the time that allowing journalists into Gaza could reveal military operational details, including the location of troops, in a way that could put soldiers in real danger.
FPA lawyer Gilead Sher assured that the case could have been re-evaluated at other preceding times, such as the two previous ceasefires: in November 2023 and early 2025, as well as periods of “reduction in fighting.”
But, now, “the situation has changed radically, there are no longer any excuses,” he said, referring to the entry into force of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, the EU and other countries.
The war caused the death of more than 210 Palestinian journalists in the territory, Antoine Bernard, RSF’s director of defense and assistance, also highlighted on Tuesday.
