Live ticker on the war in the Middle East: WHO: Aid convoy fired upon by Israeli tanks

In an open letter, media companies from Germany are demanding that the governments of Israel and Egypt grant their reporters access to the Gaza Strip. The joint appeal states: “Almost a year of war, and your governments are still preventing us from gaining an unaccompanied and independent picture of the situation in Gaza.” The rapid, absolute exclusion of international media in a crisis of this enormous global scope is unprecedented in recent history.”

The open letter is from Chief editors and directors of public and private national media houses signedThey are “Der Spiegel”, “Die Zeit” and “Zeit Online”, ARD, ZDF, “taz”, “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, “Stern”, Deutsche Welle, “Bild”, “Welt”, Arte, the editorial network Germany, “Handelsblatt”, RTL and ntv as well as the organizations Reporters Without Borders and the German Journalists Association. Germany's largest news agency, the German Press Agency, has also signed. dpa editor-in-chief Sven Gösmann says: “Nothing is more truthful than the eyewitness testimony of independent journalists – especially for us as a news agency.” That is why we support the demand to enable this independent reporting.”

In the open letter, which was reportedly sent on Monday and which specifically addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisicontinues: “We are not a party to the conflict.” Anyone who makes independent reporting on this war impossible is damaging their own credibility. “Anyone who prohibits us from working in the Gaza Strip is creating the conditions for human rights violations.” The appeal concludes with the following sentences: “We know the risk we are taking. We are prepared to take it. Grant us access to the Gaza Strip. Let us work – in the interest of all!”