Dozens Of High-Profile Journalists Urge ‘Unfettered’ Access To Gaza Strip

Dozens of high-profile news anchors and correspondents from around the world wrote to the Israeli and Egyptian governments Wednesday, urging them to grant “unfettered” access to the Gaza Strip in order to report on the ongoing war there.

“We urge the Governments of Israel and Egypt to allow free and unfettered access to Gaza for all foreign media,” stated the letter , which was addressed to the Israeli and Egyptian embassies in the United Kingdom. Neither government immediately responded to HuffPost’s request for comment on the letter.

“We call on the government of Israel to openly state its permission for international journalists to operate in Gaza and for the Egyptian authorities to allow international journalists to access the Rafah Crossing.”

Despite global interest in the war, foreign reporters were “still being denied access” outside of rare “escorted trips” with the Israeli military, the letter noted, and otherwise, “the only reporting has come from journalists who were already based there.”

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists , at least 89 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants staged a bloody attack in Israel, which in turn retaliated with a massive air assault and invasion of the Strip.

Among the prominent signatories to the letter are CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, NBC News’ Richard Engel, and the BBC’s Nick Robinson. In all, the letter has more than 50 signatories from outlets including ABC, CBS, Sky News, Channel 4 and ITN.

CNN’s Clarissa Ward, who marked a rare exception to the foreign non-escorted media blackout in Gaza when she embedded with a United Arab Emirates field hospital crew that entered the Strip in December, also signed the