High Court gives final extension for state to explain ban on press access to Gaza

After months of delays, judge scolds government, says it has until January 4 to respond; Foreign Press Association welcomes decision, calls for ‘unfettered’ press access

The High Court of Justice on Sunday gave the state a final extension to respond to a petition by the Foreign Press Association (FPA) demanding unfettered media access to Gaza, and scolded the government for its repeated delays despite a long series of extensions granted by the court.

The FPA filed its petition in 2024, and the state has since been repeatedly granted delays on requests to update its position, first given in June of last year, that it cannot grant press access to Gaza on security grounds.

In his decision, Justice Ofer Grosskopf pointed out that the state had agreed to file a response by November 23 but then requested and received two extensions, which gave it until Sunday to update the court on its position on granting journalists free access to Gaza, in light of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect on October 10.

“Now the respondents [the state and the defense minister] are requesting another extension, this time of three weeks, and they [may yet] ask for more. It is not possible to agree to this,” said Grosskopf, giving the state until January 4, instead of January 11 as requested, to file its response.

If the state fails to file its position by then, Grosskopf said, the court will issue a decision regardless.

The court’s decision was welcomed by the FPA: “After two years of the state’s delay tactics, we are pleased that the court’s patience has finally run out.”

“We renew our call for the State of Israel to immediately grant journalists free and unfettered access to the Gaza Strip. And should the government continue to obstruct press freedoms, we hope that the Supreme Court will recognize and uphold those freedoms,” the FPA said in a statement.

Israel’s policy, determined by the defense minister and the IDF, has been to deny independent access to all journalists to Gaza since the beginning of the war.

It has, however, allowed Israeli journalists, and to a lesser extent foreign journalists, to enter Gaza as embedded reporters with IDF forces.

The state has argued against allowing independent access to Gaza for the press on the grounds that the entry of journalists into the Strip would pose security risks to IDF soldiers and to the journalists themselves — concerns that have presumably been mitigated by the cessation of hostilities.

Since the petition was filed a year ago, the state has requested eight deferrals for submitting its response, which were all granted by the court. The war against Iran in June this year also led to the postponement of a hearing.

In its petition, the FPA argues that the blanket ban on independent access to Gaza for journalists “contravenes the foundational principles of the state as a democratic country, and represents a severe, unreasonable and disproportionate injury to the freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and freedom of employment for journalists and the right to information.”

The FPA contends that the IDF has granted limited opportunities for embeds to foreign reporters compared to Israeli reporters, has chosen which reporters can enter mostly without consulting the FPA, and that the embeds are tightly controlled and do not allow for full and proper coverage of the war.