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By Toni O'Loughlin
Israel's supreme court today ordered the government to allow the international media into Gaza to report on the effect of the air strikes on Palestinians.
Over the past two months, foreign journalists and representatives have increasingly been restricted from entering Gaza.
Israel has closed the border completely since it began bombing the besieged Palestinian territory on Saturday.
However, the supreme court told the government it must allow up to 12 journalists to enter whenever it opens the Erez crossing, a passenger gateway, for humanitarian reasons.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents foreign journalists and began a legal battle to open the crossing to the media last month, said it had been "left with no other choice" than to accept what is a limited victory.
"The state's prohibition on journalists violates two fundamental rights – the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press," the FPA's lawyer, Gilead Sher, said.
"There are several countries in this world, such as North Korea, Zimbabwe and Burma, that ban press coverage in conflict zones. Israel is a democracy with a free liberal press and it should stay so, even in times of crisis and danger."
The government has until 10am tomorrow to respond to the court ruling as it faces growing pressure to open the crossing with increasing numbers of journalists flying in to cover the conflict.
"We want to be able to see foreign correspondents enter Gaza to report," Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said.
"It would facilitate better coverage of what's going on in Gaza. Hamas, due to its control over civil society, is able to manipulate and exploit the situation to its own benefit." For the past 18 months, Israel has imposed an increasingly tough blockade on Gaza with the stated aim of weakening Hamas's control on the territory.
In early November, it again tightened the closure, banning the international media for several days at a time.
Israel began closing the Erez crossing – through which journalists, foreign dignitaries and humanitarian aid workers walk into Gaza – when its six-month ceasefire with Hamas began unravelling after November 4.
For the first four months, each side turned a blind eye to the other's transgressions, but on November 4 Israel destroyed a tunnel, claiming Hamas was in the process of launching an attempt to kidnap a soldier.
Hamas retaliated, firing 46 rockets at neighbouring Israeli towns the following day and six more on November 6, the day Israel shut Erez to journalists, saying the rocket fire was too dangerous.
Nevertheless, it opened the crossing to journalists for several hours last Friday, the day before it began bombing Gaza.
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