International journalists in Israel have called for reporters to be granted immediate access to Gaza after the rapidly negotiated ceasefire came into effect, joining a long list of international media organizations demanding press freedom in the devastated territory.
In a statement released on Friday, the Foreign Press Association (FPA) urged Israel to “immediately open the borders and allow international media free and independent access to the Gaza Strip” now that hostilities have ceased. The organization also noted that the supreme court is expected to hear arguments on 23 October, “after more than a year in which the state has been allowed to delay its response”.
Since 7 October 2023, Israel has prevented international journalists from entering Gaza and reporting on the war, with the few allowed in under strict military supervision on guided tours arranged by the Israel Defense Forces.
The international media has relied on Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza, and contact with individual Palestinian civilians, aid agency staff and medical workers. But Palestinian journalists and media workers are the most at risk in the world, with 197 killed by Israeli attacks in the past two years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Among those most recently killed were Mariam Dagga, who worked for the Associated Press and Independent Arabia and was killed in an Israeli strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis on 25 August, and Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri, who was killed in the same attack.
Israel carried out 25 targeted killings of journalists in that period, the CPJ said, describing them as murders.
Israel has consistently denied that it deliberately targeted journalists in its strikes, but its military has also acknowledged killing reporters, including Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, who the IDF described, without evidence as “the head of a terrorist cell”.
A UN rapporteur on Friday said an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon on 13 October 2023 that killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded six others, including two AFP journalists, was a war crime. Morris Tidball-Binz, a UN special rapporteur, described it as “a premeditated, targeted and double-tapped attack” that violated international humanitarian law.
The FPA joined numerous international organizations that have demanded press access throughout the years of war. In July 2025, major news agencies including AFP, AP, BBC and Reuters released a joint statement emphasizing the importance of international media access for accurate reporting, and the July prior CPJ and more than 70 media and civil society organizations urged Israel to grant independent access to international journalists.
In February 2024, more than 30 news organizations, including the Guardian, signed a letter demanding protection for Gaza journalists.
This week, the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA) posted a statement calling for Israel to release detained American reporter Emily Wilder, who had been on a flotilla for media workers, healthcare workers and human rights defenders called Conscience traveling into Gaza.
