By Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - The US-based Foreign Press Association Statement (FPA) on Monday called on Israeli authorities to grant the international media "expanded and unfettered" access to Gaza after six months of banning the entry of international reporters.
"The Foreign Press Association is alarmed that six months into the Israel-Hamas war, Israel continues to bar international reporters from entering any part of the Gaza Strip independently," FPA said in a statement, noting that the barring of independent press access to a war zone for this long is "unprecedented".
"It raises questions about what Israel does not want international journalists to see," the statement added.
The statement said that Israeli authorities have repeatedly rejected international journalist's appeals for access - in private meetings and in a Supreme Court ruling - citing a variety of security-related and logistical arguments.
"The military has granted a small number of opportunities for an even smaller number of media outlets to enter Gaza under military escort," it added.
Noting that Palestinian journalists inside Gaza have faced "unprecedented threats and harm," FPA said the decision whether to be on the ground in Gaza "should be up to each individual international media outlet."
"The blanket ban has limited the world's ability to witness the true cost of the war to all sides," they said, "We call on authorities to grant the international media expanded and unfettered access to Gaza. Six months is far too long. The Board of the Foreign Press Association."