An international media association expressed disappointment after Israel's supreme court again postponed ruling on a petition seeking free and independent press access to Gaza, in a statement sent to media on Wednesday.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, triggered by an attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, the Israeli government has barred foreign journalists from independently entering the blockaded territory.
Instead, Israel has allowed only a limited number of reporters to enter Gaza on a case-by-case basis, on embeds with its military.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) filed its petition in 2024, after which the court granted the government several extensions to submit its response.
The FPA represents hundreds of journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and an AFP journalist sits on its board.
Following its latest hearing on Monday, the court once again postponed ruling on the FPA petition, and said it would give an update by March 31.
- 'Behind closed doors' -
"The Foreign Press Association is deeply disappointed that the Israeli Supreme Court has once again postponed ruling on our petition for free, independent press access to Gaza," the FPA said in its statement.
"All the more concerning is that the court appears to have been swayed by the state's classified security arguments, which were presented behind closed doors and without the presence of the FPA's attorneys.
"This secretive process offers no opportunity for us to rebut these arguments and clears the way for the continued arbitrary and open-ended closure of Gaza to foreign journalists," the statement added.
The FPA said there were no security arguments that justify what it called Israel's "blanket ban" on media access to Gaza.
The ban comes "at a time when humanitarian aid workers and other officials are being allowed into Gaza," it said.
In previous submissions, the government argued that allowing journalists into Gaza posed security risks for the military, particularly while troops were still searching for the remains of the last hostage held there.
However, the remains of Ran Gvili, the last Israeli captive, have now been returned to Israel, which the FPA said opens the way for independent media access to Gaza.
"The FPA urges the court to reconsider its decision and stresses the urgency of free, independent access to Gaza," the association said.
Palestinian fighters took 251 people hostage on October 7, 2023, in an attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,221 others, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 71,662 Palestinians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.
Media restrictions and limited access have meant that AFP and other media have been unable to independently verify casualty figures or freely cover all the violence.
