News - World: Press unions and organizations in Italy have called on the Italian government and the European Union to pressure the Tel Aviv regime to allow unrestricted and immediate access for foreign journalists to enter the Gaza Strip. 

Representatives from the National Federation of Italian Press (FNSI), the National Council of the Order of Journalists (ODG), and the Justice and Peace in the Middle East group held a joint press conference at the Foreign Press Association in Rome on Wednesday, urging prompt action to pressure the Israeli regime.

They called on the Italian government and the European Commission to help remove the blockade preventing international journalists from accessing Gaza and put an end to press limitations in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds.

Gianni Giovannetti, representing the Justice and Peace in the Middle East group, said that almost 300 journalists have lost their lives in Gaza since the onset of the Israeli genocidal campaign on October 7, 2023.

“We believe that killing journalists means killing the truth,” he noted.

Giovannetti emphasized that journalists' demand for access to Gaza is fundamentally rooted in the need to uphold the right to information.

FNSI Secretary General Alessandra Costante, for her part, underlined the need for an unbiased perspective to validate the reports provided by their colleagues who lost their lives in Gaza.

In a video message, Palestinian journalist al-Hassan Selmi from Gaza said that since the ceasefire began on October 10, there has been a noticeable increase in Israel's targeting of journalists reporting on events in Gaza.

“The strategy has changed with the ceasefire. They now target journalists gathered in one place. More journalists have been killed since the ceasefire began,” he said.

Earlier this week, a Palestinian journalists' rights organization reported that the Israeli military has killed 44 Palestinian journalists in displacement tents in Gaza. The figure is part of a broader toll, with over 270 media workers having lost their lives since the start of Israel's bloody onslaught on the blockaded territory in October 2023.

A report released by the Freedoms Committee of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate reveals that journalists' tents near hospitals and UN-operated shelters came under shelling, while sniper attacks directly hit displacement zones. 

The report shed light on the targeted attacks on the Palestinian media sector, focusing specifically on its infrastructure.

The attacks involve the destruction of offices and media outlets, along with the deliberate targeting of journalists in their homes.

Furthermore, journalists have lost their lives within temporary shelters they were forced to use after being violently uprooted.

It emphasized that attacking civilian journalists is considered a war crime under Article 79 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions.

Source: Press TV