Afrasianet - Dr. Hani Al-Akkad - Israel has not only banned foreign and Arab press agencies from entering Gaza to cover the devastating effects of the war on the Gaza Strip, but it has also tried to impede the publication of all media reports on the Gaza Strip.  200 journalists, reporters and photographers, and Israel has been preventing any foreign or Arab agencies from entering the Gaza Strip for the past two years, and it does not care whether it violates the freedom of media work or not, as it violates Palestinian rights in general, the most important of which is the Palestinian right to life.

The Israeli Supreme Court had rejected a petition by the Association of Foreign Journalists in Jerusalem to allow Western, Arab and Israeli media teams and news agencies to enter the Gaza Strip without hindrance or to lift the ban imposed by the military and the government without giving a clear reason other than that this is an illegal action that the Israeli government does not allow.

In October 2025, after the ceasefire, the Israeli Foundation renewed its request to the Israeli Supreme Court to issue a decision allowing the entry of foreign journalists into the Gaza Strip as a right that meets the right to access information as a fundamental right, and sent letters to the Israeli government stating that this measure is illegal, and the court held its session on Thursday, October 23, in the presence of Reporters Without Borders as a concerned party as a party friendly to the court, as it considered that the ceasefire decision The mediation reached by the United States, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar constitutes a significant change in the circumstances that require it to review its policy.

The court issued an order obliging the government to provide a clear position on preventing journalists and international television agencies from entering the Gaza Strip, and gave the Israeli government another 30 days to clarify its legal position on the measure, although it had previously given the Israeli government six opportunities to present its arguments before the court, but to no avail. Meanwhile, the Association of Foreign Journalists (AFJ) is still fighting alongside Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to lift the Israeli ban on journalists entering the Gaza Strip and working independently, and the head of the association (Tanya Kramer) said, "It is time for Israel to lift the blockade and let us do our work alongside our Palestinian colleagues." Sector.

Recently, a senior US official admitted to the Times of Israel that the issue of foreign journalists entering the Gaza Strip is not a priority for the administration of US President Donald Trump, allowing Israel to continue to ban the entry of journalists Trump. Perhaps the continued ban on the entry of the foreign press into the Gaza Strip is part of a policy of media blackout and concealment of crimes from the world by Israel and giving the occupation army enough opportunity to carry out its crimes freely and without any pressure from the international street on the governments of the world to pressure Israel to restrict the army's freedom of action during its military campaigns in the Gaza Strip for two years and more. Israeli, especially since we are talking about a plan to end the war in Gaza, how long will this illegal media ban last? 

We say that it is natural and accepted all over the world and during wars that if the cannons stop, the shells and rockets stop, and the ground military operations stop, the warring parties must allow all formations of the free foreign press and media to enter the fields of military operations to convey the truth to the world in detail, expose the crimes that may have been committed during the war, and also inform international institutions of documented reports of violations by the conflicting parties of international law, international humanitarian law, and all human rights conventions. And perhaps what Israel fears in this matter is that the news agencies will be able to provoke more international popular opposition to this war and provoke more international criticism of Israel, which has destroyed the Gaza Strip with its entire civilian structure and deprived more than 2 million citizens of the freedom to live in their cities and deprived them of their freedom.

All humanitarian services after the crushing of public buildings and private housing, and Israel fears the reports and harsh scenes that will come out of Gaza, and the details of the humanitarian situation that the population is living in, and the state of political and economic blockade, that it will incite the world opinion against it and increase its pressure and thus increase its isolation and increase the level of its hatred, which may contribute to creating an unprecedented situation of pressure on friendly governments to freeze many of their joint programs with Israel and suspend the work of many agreements with them.

The world has never entrusted the world with a media siege and isolation like what Israel is doing today in Gaza, and no countries have ever practiced this kind of media blackout like what is happening in Gaza. Despite this, Israel suffers from media, official and unofficial harassment. It seems that the unofficial media, social media platforms and their activists have witnessed today superiority over all official news agencies in media coverage because they conveyed to the world what these agencies could not convey, exposed the false narratives of the occupation and exposed Israel's crimes During the war, this type of indirect coverage had a significant impact on the international street movement, contributing to increasing support for the Palestinian right and calling on Israel to immediately stop this war and stop committing crimes against Palestinian civilians, destroying their civilian structure, and depriving them of the right to life.

I do not believe that the Israeli ban on the entry of foreign press into the Gaza Strip will last long, but it is contingent on changes in the attitudes of the international world, which is a matter of great concern for Israel, and Israel is betting on the time factor that will contribute to hiding many of the details of the crimes committed by Israel during the brutal war that lasted for two years and is still going on, but at a low pace and in specific areas. I think that Israel wants some time to make sure that the world is starting to forget its crimes or is preoccupied with other things than following up on its crimes in Gaza and demanding that it be held accountable for its actions against civilians and its crimes, which have become a flagrant violation of all international humanitarian rules and laws, and after Israel pushes some things to the world to suggest that it now respects the right of civilians to life and reduces its aggressive behavior towards Palestinian civilians. But Israel has some timing, that is, after it has removed a lot of evidence that proves I believe that Israel will allow these agencies to work in the Gaza Strip after it is confirmed that a state of international shutdown of world opinion has been achieved and any trends may not become effective and pressuring the official levels in Israel and the countries that support them.

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