Ottawa urges Israel ensure safety, access for media in Gaza
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OTTAWA – Canada is again urging Israel to allow foreign journalists to enter the Gaza Strip and to better protect Palestinian journalists, as activists demand consequences for the killing of media workers.
“Canada should take immediate and decisive diplomatic action to compel Israel to allow foreign journalists safe and unrestricted entry into Gaza,” said Samira Mohyeddin, a founding member of the grassroots group Canadian Journalists for Justice in Palestine.
Last week Ottawa issued a joint statement with multiple European governments, Australia, Chile and Qatar, calling on Israel to also allow Palestinian journalists who want to leave Gaza to do so, and to ensure the safety of those reporting in the territory.
The move follows a similar call in August that Canada joined through the Media Freedom Coalition, after 27 other countries endorsed a statement.
Israel bars foreign journalists from entering Gaza if they aren’t embedded with Israel’s military, a practice that the Committee to Protect Journalists says is unheard of during modern times.
The press-advocacy group says 237 journalists have been killed in the conflict, what they say is a record-setting death rate for a war. It alleges “Israel is engaging in the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists” that the group has ever documented.
Israel insists it has only intentionally killed media workers who have helped Hamas. Canada and others have rejected Israel’s claims that journalists like Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif were legitimate targets.
Israel has further said that it has killed journalists and civilians who happened to be in areas with Hamas fighters, blaming militants for sheltering in populated areas or in buildings protected under international law.
Mohyeddin joined other activists Monday on Parliament Hill, urging Ottawa to back independent investigations into these deaths, and allow Gaza journalists to seek refuge in Canada.
She said the statements Canada has signed onto don’t do enough to create consequences for the deaths of journalists, nor do they adequately attribute killings by Israel.
“We need to be able to name who is killing journalists, and not just say ‘journalists killed,'” she said. “From what I know Hamas has not been systematically slaughtering Palestinian journalists in Gaza.”
Mohyeddin noted that Italy and France have managed to extract people from Gaza, and said Ottawa should emulate its 1999 airlift of Kosovar refugees which involved flying them to Canada on military aircraft.
The group also argued Canadian media coverage has not fairly portrayed the conflict, claiming media have put more scrutiny on testimonies from Palestinian civilians than Israeli government spokespeople.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2025.