A BBC-led coalition of international news agencies on Thursday launched a two-minute video campaign, urging Israel to let foreign journalists into Gaza.
The BBC, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, and the Associated Press released the film, which is narrated by BBC journalist David Dimbleby.
The film begins with a montage of famous images from war-struck areas, including the D-Day landing in World War II, the Napalm attack in the Vietnam War, the 1984 famine in Ethiopia, Tiananmen Square in China, the Rwanda genocide, the Syrian refugee crisis, and the Russia-Ukraine war.
The narration cites the importance of the media in shedding light on suffering and uncovering truth. It then says, “But when it comes to Gaza, the job of reporting falls solely to Palestinian journalists, who are paying a terrible cost, leaving fewer to bear witness.”
“The Israeli government will not allow international journalists into Gaza to do their work and document freely what they see,” Dimbleby says. “International journalists must now be allowed into Gaza to share the burden with Palestinian reporters there, so we can all bring the facts to the world.”
Israel has prohibited the entry of foreign reporters into Gaza since the October 7 massacre in 2023, unless they have an IDF escort.
Foreign Press Association denounces the 'draconian' ban
The ban was called draconian by the Foreign Press Association, and it was criticized by AFP, AP, BBC World Service, and Reuters in a joint statement this July.
The High Court of Justice maintains that the entry restrictions are justified on security grounds.
“It has been almost two years since October 7, when the world witnessed Hamas’s atrocities,” BBC News CEO Deborah Turness said. “Since then, a war has been raging in Gaza, but international journalists are not allowed in. We must now be let into Gaza to work alongside local journalists, so we can all bring the facts to the world.”