Over 70 media, civil society organisations urge Israel to allow journalists independent access to Gaza

Dozens of media and civil society organisations have called on Israel to allow journalists independent access to Gaza.

BBC News, The New York Times, the AFP news agency, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, and the European Federation of Journalists were among over 70 signatories to an open letter calling for access to Gaza.

"We, the undersigned, request that Israeli authorities end immediately the restrictions on foreign media entering Gaza and grant independent access to international news organizations seeking to access the territory," the letter read.

"Nine months into the war, international reporters are still being denied access to Gaza except for rare and escorted trips arranged by the Israeli military.

"This effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an impossible and unreasonable burden on local reporters to document a war through which they are living."

The letter, coordinated by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said over 100 journalists have been killed since Israel's war on Gaza began and those left are working in serious deprivation.

"The result is that information from Gaza is becoming harder and harder to obtain and that the reporting which does get through is subject to repeated questions over its veracity," the letter added.

Palestinian journalists including Motaz Azaiza and Al Jazeera's Wael Al-Dahdouh have become famed across the world for their bravery in covering Israel's war on Gaza, despite the immense personal risk.

"[Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu describes Israel as a democracy. His actions with regard to the media tell a different story", CPJ chief executive officer Jodie Ginsberg said in a press release.

"International, Israeli, and Palestinian journalists from outside Gaza should be given independent access to Gaza so they can judge for themselves what is happening in this war – rather than being spoon-fed with a handful of organized tours by the Israeli military."

The letter signatories said they fully understood the dangers that come with reporting from war zones and that these were risks many of their organisations had taken over decades to document events as they take place.

"A free and independent press is the cornerstone of democracy," the letter added.

"We ask that Israel uphold its commitments to press freedom by providing foreign media with immediate, independent access to Gaza, and that Israel abides by its international obligations to protect journalists as civilians."

Israel's war on Gaza has killed 38,345 people, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry.