• Lazzarini said Israeli authorities’ refusal to grant access to foreign media since the beginning of the war in Gaza was unprecedented in modern conflict

Arab News

AMMAN: The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has sharply criticized Israel for barring international journalists from entering the Gaza Strip, calling the ongoing restriction a “ban on reporting the truth.”

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, said the Israeli authorities’ refusal to grant access to foreign media since the beginning of the war in Gaza was unprecedented in modern conflict.

“This is unlike any other conflict in contemporary history,” Lazzarini wrote in a post on X. “It essentially prevents journalists from reporting the truth from the Gaza Strip.”

The Israeli Authorities have banned the entry of international journalists to #Gaza since the war began, 20 months ago.

This is unprecedented in any other conflict in modern history.

It is a ban on the truth.
It is a ban on reporting the facts.
It is the perfect recipe to…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) June 6, 2025

He warned that the continued ban on international coverage had grave consequences, describing it as “the perfect recipe for fueling media misinformation, deepening polarization, and obscuring humanity.”

Lazzarini called for an immediate end to the ban on foreign media organizations and urged Israel to facilitate access for international journalists. He also called for support for Palestinian journalists who remain in Gaza and continue to report under extremely difficult and dangerous conditions.

“The world must not be kept in the dark,” he said.

The remarks come amid growing international concern over press freedom in Gaza, where Palestinian reporters have borne the brunt of the conflict with limited external scrutiny due to access restrictions.