US State Department: International journalists should be allowed into Gaza

WASHINGTON

The US State Department said Wednesday that international journalists should be allowed into Gaza and that the agency raised the issue with Israel.

Spokesman Matt Miller said the US raised the issue at senior levels to make it clear that journalists should able to operate inside Gaza.

"We think journalists ought to be able to cover the war in Gaza, that includes journalists from outside Gaza. A lot of what the world knows is happening in Gaza is precisely, as you point out, it's because of the work that journalists do, sometimes with incredibly tragic consequences," Miller told reporters.

"We support that work and we want to see it continue and we think that ought to be allowed in Gaza," he added.

Forty-nine journalists remain in Israeli custody, including four female reporters, according to figures released by the Palestinian Prisoner Society.

At least 147 journalists and media professionals have been killed by the Israeli army fire since Oct. 7, official Palestinian figures showed.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 36,580 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and over 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Michael Hernandez contributed to the story