Global News Outlets Urge Israel for Journalist Access to Gaza

Wed Oct 22 2025 08:11:21 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

The BBC, AFP, AP, and Reuters have collaborated on a poignant film entreating Israel to open Gaza for foreign journalists, featuring narration by David Dimbleby.

A coalition of major news agencies, including the BBC and Agence France-Presse, has released a short film urging Israel to permit foreign journalists into Gaza. Narrated by David Dimbleby, the film emphasizes the urgent need for international reporting in the region, particularly following the ongoing military conflict sparked by attacks on October 7, 2023. Reports indicate that local journalists are under extreme pressure while the safety of foreign journalists remains a contentious issue.

The BBC and three international news agencies have released a short film calling on Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza.

The film, launched by the corporation with Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Associated Press (AP), and Reuters, is narrated by veteran BBC journalist David Dimbleby.

He said: International journalists must now be allowed into Gaza to share the burden with the Palestinian reporters there so we can all bring the facts to the world.

Foreign journalists have been banned from entering Gaza independently since Israel launched its 2023 offensive following the Hamas 7 October attacks. A small number have been taken into the Strip by Israeli troops under controlled access.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has previously stated that to allow journalists to report safely in Gaza, the military accompanies them when in the battlefield.

The BBC has contacted the Israeli foreign ministry and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

Last year, Israel's High Court of Justice ruled that restrictions on entry to Gaza were justified on security grounds.

Deborah Turness, CEO of BBC News, remarked: It is almost two years since October 7th when the world witnessed Hamas' atrocities. 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.

The film premieres in New York on Wednesday night at an event hosted by the Committee to Protect Journalists, coinciding with the United Nations General Assembly. It features footage of historic events and atrocities captured by journalists.

They include scenes of the D-Day landings during World War Two, the Vietnam War, the Ethiopian famine of 1984, the Tiananmen Square protests, the Rwandan genocide, the Syrian refugee crisis, and the conflict in Ukraine.

In the film, Dimbleby states: In Ukraine, journalists from around the world risk their lives every day to report the suffering of the people. 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.

This isn’t the first call for Israel to allow journalists access to Gaza. In July, the BBC, AFP, AP, and Reuters expressed "desperate concern" for journalists in Gaza facing dire circumstances like hunger and displacement.

In August, 27 countries, including the UK, supported a statement demanding Israel grant immediate foreign media access to Gaza and condemned attacks on journalists there.

According to the UN Human Rights Office, at least 248 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza.

Israel has consistently denied targeting journalists. The Israeli military's campaign in Gaza came in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which resulted in approximately 1,200 fatalities and 251 hostages taken.

Since then, at least 65,419 individuals have died in Gaza, figures reported by the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, deemed the most reliable by the UN and others regarding casualty statistics.