Reporters Without Borders calls for Rafa border crossing to be opened to journalists

The non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called today to open the Rafa border crossing to journalists Gauzewhere the Israeli army expanded its ground operations throughout the Palestinian enclave.

This border crossing between Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, and Egypt is controlled by the Palestinians and the Egyptians.

However, as highlighted in the RSF announcement, Israel oversees all activity on the southern border and bombed this border gate four times at the start of the war.

In this statement, the MCO asks the Israeli and Egyptian authorities to “open the gates” of the border post so that journalists can finally come and go from both sides of the border.

Journalists who were forced to leave the north (of the Gaza Strip) are now being asked by Israel to gather at the border with Egypt, without being able to cross it. Conversely, international journalists are prevented from entering, the NGO underlines.

In two months of war, no journalist has been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip from Rafah, which is a clear blow to the media’s ability to cover the conflict, he says.

It also reminds that 58 journalists were killed in Gaza, 14 of them in the course of their duties, by Israeli strikes.

In retaliation for a bloody October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israeli soil that killed 1,200 people, according to authorities, Israel has vowed to “wipe out” Hamas and its military has been carrying out devastating bombardments of the besieged Palestinian enclave, alongside an extensive ground operation, which began on 27 October.

Hamas’ health ministry announced on Tuesday that 16,248 people have lost their lives, more than 70% of them women, children and teenagers, in the Israeli army’s shelling of Gaza.