German news media demand access to war-torn Gaza

By AFP

German news media outlets on Tuesday called on Israel to grant them access to war-torn Gaza, charging that the "almost complete exclusion of international media... is unprecedented in recent history".

"After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government: allow us to enter the Gaza Strip," a group of newspapers, agencies and broadcasters wrote in an open letter.

They also urged Egypt to permit them entry to the widely devastated Palestinian territory via the Rafah border crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has been at war with Hamas since the October 7 attack launched by the Palestinian group in a conflict that has brought mass casualties and destroyed swathes of the coastal strip.

The media organisations wrote that "anyone who makes independent reporting on this war impossible is damaging their own credibility.

"Anyone who prohibits us from working in the Gaza Strip is creating the conditions for human rights to be violated."

The open letter was addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and had been delivered on Monday, they said.

Signatories included editors and reporters from Der Spiegel, Die Welt, public broadcasters ARD and ZDF and the German Journalists Association.

They said they have decades of experience in conflict reporting and wrote: "We know the risk. We are prepared to take it. Grant us access to the Gaza Strip. Let us work, in the interest of everyone."

The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Palestinian fighters also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, mostly women and children.