[News] Blocking international media: Israeli institutional collusion to conceal genocide crimes in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Reports <https://english.palinfo.com/category/reports/>


  Blocking international media: Israeli institutional collusion to
  conceal genocide crimes in Gaza

Sunday 26-October-2025

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GAZA, (PIC)

Since the outbreak of the genocide war on Gaza, Israeli occupation 
authorities have shut down all routes leading to the Strip for 
international journalists. More than two years into the genocide and 
destruction, the Israeli Supreme Court continues to grant the government 
additional extensions to respond to petitions demanding journalists be 
allowed entry, a scene that exposes a deliberate stalling strategy aimed 
at prolonging media isolation and erasing evidence of the crimes committed.

While the occupation authorities insist on justifying the ban with 
“security considerations,” human rights and international organizations 
view this prohibition as a conscious attempt to monopolize the narrative 
and hide the truth from the world’s eyes.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) stated that the Israeli 
court’s decision prolongs the exclusion of international media from 
covering the war and its humanitarian consequences in Gaza, noting that 
the Israeli government requested yet another postponement, the seventh 
since the beginning of the year.

The committee called on the international community to pressure Israel 
to lift the restrictions immediately, emphasizing that the continued ban 
represents a flagrant violation of press freedom and the public’s right 
to information.

CPJ’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg said, “It is unacceptable that international 
journalists are still waiting to independently cover events from inside 
Gaza,” stressing that “the public’s right to know cannot be suspended 
for political or security reasons.”

During the most recent court session, the Israeli attorney general 
admitted that “the situation in the Strip has changed,” but requested 
another month before reviewing the government’s position, claiming that 
Israel “plans to renew army-escorted journalist visits” inside what it 
calls the “yellow zone”, the area where its forces have been stationed 
since the ceasefire was announced two weeks ago , describing the 
situation as “sensitive and difficult to assess.”

A propaganda tool

CPJ described the Israeli army’s journalist escorts as a “propaganda 
tool,” noting that journalists are allowed into Gaza only for a few 
hours under tight supervision, with no freedom of movement or contact 
with Palestinians, a violation of international standards for 
independent reporting.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which includes 113 media 
institutions from 56 countries, also urged Israeli authorities to allow 
full and free access for journalists to Gaza after the ceasefire, 
asserting that Israeli restrictions undermine the principles of media 
freedom, transparency, and accountability, and are no longer acceptable 
under any “security” justification.

The union affirmed that “journalists are the eyes and ears of the 
world,” and their presence in the field is vital to document events, 
verify information, and assess humanitarian needs in the Strip.

In June, more than 200 media outlets signed an open letter urging the 
occupation authorities to grant journalists unrestricted access to Gaza.

Flimsy pretexts

The journalists’ petition was part of a series of demands beginning in 
December 2023, when the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem 
(representing international journalists working in Israel, the West 
Bank, and Gaza) filed a request with the Israeli Supreme Court for entry 
to Gaza. The occupation authorities claimed that allowing journalists in 
would “endanger army soldiers.”

In January 2024, the Supreme Court upheld the ban, claiming that the 
security concerns were not only about the army but also the journalists’ 
personal safety. The same justification was repeated in February 2025.

Christophe Deloire, Secretary-General of Reporters Without Borders 
(RSF), said that the destruction of Palestinian media outlets and the 
prevention of foreign journalists from entering Gaza indicate that the 
occupation authorities “want to conceal the reality on the ground.”

He said earlier that the destruction and ban prevent international media 
from verifying facts and severely harm balanced coverage of this 
devastating conflict for civilians.

Deloire demanded that Israel lift the ban on foreign journalists’ entry 
to Gaza, describing it as “a blatant violation of press freedom,” 
stressing that Israel’s justifications are baseless, “The Israeli 
government has no right to decide on behalf of journalists whether they 
go to Gaza or not, that’s their decision.”

A fragmented picture

International media outlets rely heavily on local Palestinian 
journalists working in Gaza as correspondents or stringers, many of whom 
have long collaborated with editorial teams and bureau offices outside 
the Strip.

Despite repeatedly accusing Palestinian journalists of lacking 
objectivity, Israel continues to bar most international journalists from 
entering Gaza, allowing only a small, selected group for brief visits, 
“embedded” within Israeli army units.

These journalists and the material they produce, reports and photos, are 
subject to military censorship. Israeli writer Stav Levaton confirmed 
that foreign journalists enter only through tightly controlled military 
programs, in which selected Israeli and foreign reporters are brought to 
Gaza under army supervision with no freedom of movement.

In an article published in The Times of Israel on July 30, she wrote, 
“These visits are usually short, heavily monitored, and prevent any free 
interaction with Palestinian civilians, drawing criticism from press 
freedom advocates who argue this falls far short of genuine journalistic 
independence.”

Levaton also noted that the personal safety risks for foreign 
journalists “are not hypothetical, Palestinian journalists in Gaza, 
including those working for international agencies, have come under 
direct Israeli fire and suffer the same dire humanitarian conditions as 
other civilians.”

According to data from Gaza’s Government Media Office, 254 journalists 
have been killed since the start of the war, most in direct airstrikes 
or deliberate assassinations by the Israeli army.

Levaton added that the Israeli government “is acutely aware of how it is 
perceived internationally and thus has a clear interest in avoiding 
reports of foreign journalists, especially from allied countries, being 
killed or injured while covering the war.”

An information void

Despite the vital role of social media in conveying the Palestinian 
narrative in a raw and unfiltered way, Tania Krämer, head of the Foreign 
Press Association in Jerusalem, argues that the lack of “reliable news 
sources” in Gaza, referring to international media banned from entry, 
has created an information vacuum filled by citizen journalists through 
social platforms.

She said, “While social media provides us with information, verifying it 
is difficult and time-consuming. Posts often lack key details like time, 
place, and source attribution, and original footage is frequently taken 
out of context or altered. Without independent access to the field, 
traditional media are left with fragmented accounts, making it hard to 
distinguish truth from misinformation and propaganda.”

Krämer continued, “The burden of media coverage should not fall solely 
on our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, especially now as they endure 
extreme hardship, risking their lives to report while struggling to feed 
their families.”

She warned that if Palestinian journalists become unable to continue 
working under such deteriorating conditions, and foreign correspondents 
remain banned, “the flow of information could stop entirely. It’s hard 
to imagine such a scenario. Many journalists rely on their Palestinian 
colleagues, they pave the way for us and serve as our eyes and ears.”

According to Krämer, the disappearance of Gaza’s journalists would only 
worsen the information void, giving both sides more room to distort 
reality. Reaching such a situation, where both Palestinian and foreign 
journalists are accused of bias or dishonesty, would make things even 
more difficult.

Institutional collusion

In this context, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stressed 
that the ban on foreign journalists reflects Israel’s policy of 
monopolizing the narrative and hiding the truth by controlling the media 
landscape and preventing victims from sharing their stories with the world.

The Monitor said that the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to give the 
government extra time before allowing independent journalists into Gaza 
“reveals institutional collusion within the Israeli state apparatus, as 
the judiciary provides a legal cover for government policies designed to 
block transparency and erase field evidence.”

It added that preventing journalists and international investigators 
from entering Gaza is part of a comprehensive policy adopted by Israel’s 
executive, security, and judicial branches to keep war crimes beyond 
international scrutiny and obstruct any independent accountability for 
grave violations in the Strip.

The rights organization concluded that these measures amount to a 
deliberate effort to erase traces of the crimes and turn half of Gaza 
into a forbidden zone off-limits to journalists, researchers, and aid 
teams, a blatant violation of the core principles of international 
humanitarian law and international court rulings obligating Israel to 
preserve and not destroy evidence.

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