Germany's leading media outlets on Tuesday called on Israel to allow them to enter the Gaza Strip, claiming that “the almost total exclusion” of the international press “is unprecedented in recent history”.
“After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government to allow us to enter the Gaza Strip,” the editors-in-chief of around 15 print, television and agency media wrote in an open letter.
They also asked the Egyptian authorities for permission to enter Palestinian territory through the Rafah crossing, on the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel has been at war with Hamas since the deadly attack on its territory by the Palestinian Islamist group on October 7, 2023.
The German media considered that anyone who makes it impossible to produce independent news about the war “is damaging their own credibility”.
“Anyone who forbids us to work in the Gaza Strip is creating the conditions for a violation of human rights,” they added.
The open letter, addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was delivered on Monday, according to the French news agency AFP.
The signatories include editors and journalists from the newspapers Der Spiegel and Die Welt, the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, the German news agency DPA and the Association of German Journalists.
They all claim to have decades of experience reporting in conflict zones.
“We know the risk. We're prepared to take it. Give us access to the Gaza Strip. Let us work, in everyone's interest,” they said in the document.
According to the Israeli authorities, the October 7 attack killed around 1,200 people.
Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 97 are still being held in Gaza, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the army.
In response, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and, after around 11 months of fighting, more than 41,200 people have been killed, according to the Hamas government's Health Ministry in Gaza.
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