: [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION Oct. 16, 2026: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that 247 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israel's military in Gaza. In fact, that’s the number of journalists and people who support their work who have been killed across the Middle East since Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Of those, 189 were killed in Gaza.]
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It's been more than a year since a ceasefire was declared in the - in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, but Israel has still not allowed foreign journalists to have independent access to the enclave in more than three years. So Palestinian journalists still bear the responsibility of reporting inside Gaza while their colleagues outside lobby to come in. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf reports from Tel Aviv.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: The other day, a message popped up on my phone from my friend and colleague, NPR's Anas Baba in Gaza City.
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LONSDORF: It was a picture of the beautiful sunset he was seeing in that moment. I looked up from where I was sitting in Jaffa in southern Tel Aviv and saw the same sky, with streaks of bright pink and orange. I took a picture and texted back.
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LONSDORF: Oh, wow, he wrote. That's so sweet - we're watching the same sunset, the closest ever. Gaza City and Jaffa are only about 40 miles from each other. For three years now, Anas and I have texted and talked over the phone a lot, sharing reporting and life updates, but we've never met in person. We can't. Israel bars most Palestinians from leaving Gaza, and Israel has not allowed foreign journalists to enter Gaza independently since the war started - even now, with a declared ceasefire in place for more than a year.
JOE FEDERMAN: We haven't really been able to get a straight answer as to why this ban continues.
LONSDORF: Joe Federman is deputy director of the Middle East for The Associated Press based in Jerusalem. He's also a longtime member of the Foreign Press Association in Israel. The FPA, of which NPR is also a member, filed a petition with Israel's Supreme Court early in the war, arguing for press access to Gaza. The court rejected that petition. The FPA filed another one. A decision on that has been postponed numerous times.
FEDERMAN: I don't think anybody could have expected things to drag on for this long.
LONSDORF: Israel has repeatedly said it's too dangerous for journalists to independently enter Gaza. It's allowed tightly controlled media embeds with the Israeli military into the enclave, but it controls what journalists see and where they go and does not allow any interviews with Palestinians. Now with the ceasefire in place, it is still dangerous. Israeli strikes have killed Palestinians almost daily, according to health officials there. But the FPA has argued that the level of combat is now much, much lower.
FEDERMAN: This is a risk that most journalists are willing to take. We believe it's a decision the news organizations should take.
LONSDORF: NPR reached out to the Israeli government to ask why press access is still limited. We did not get a response.
JODIE GINSBERG: My fear is, the longer this goes on, the more normalized that lack of access becomes.
LONSDORF: Jodie Ginsberg is chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, an organization that promotes press freedom worldwide and has also been pressing Israel on the issue. She stresses that Palestinian journalists have been doing heroic work for years documenting the war, but Israel has repeatedly attacked their credibility.
GINSBERG: And so having international journalists in who are able to corroborate what is being documented by their colleagues is also really important.
LONSDORF: Israel's military has also killed many of the Palestinian journalists in Gaza - 189, according to the CPJ - saying, often without providing evidence, that they are members of Hamas. Clayton Weimers is the North American director for Reporters Without Borders, which has also been pushing for press access.
CLAYTON WEIMERS: You have to ask yourself, if the policy is don't let international journalists observe what's going on, what exactly are they trying to hide?
LONSDORF: That policy could change with a change in government, Weimers points out, and Israeli national elections are coming up later this month.
WEIMERS: I remain optimistic, cautiously so.
LONSDORF: I recently asked our colleague Anas Baba what it would mean to have foreign journalists working alongside him again.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: It would mean we are no longer carrying this burden alone.
LONSDORF: He said he's trying to keep up hope. And maybe someday we'll be able to work together in person and watch the sunset from Gaza sitting side by side. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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