By RIA Novosti,
Tel Aviv/Gaza : Israel on Thursday allowed foreign journalists access to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for the first time in a month, defense ministry spokesman Peter Lerner told RIA Novosti.
“The Erez border post will be opened under a temporary agreement,” Lerner said.
It is still not clear whether the Erez border post will be opened for humanitarian organizations and diplomats. Erez is the only point of entry for groups and individuals of this type into the enclave of one-and-a-half million people.
The refusal of the authorities to allow foreign journalists accredited in Israel access to Gaza caused discontent among foreign journalists accredited in Israel. Journalists wrote letters of protest to government officials, threatened sanctions, and even court action in Israel’s Supreme Court.
A five-month truce brokered by Egypt in June between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza was broken last month and led to the resumption of an Israeli blockade of the border with the enclave, cutting the supplies of essential goods to some 750,000 of its residents.
The radical Islamic group Hamas has controlled Gaza since last June, when it expelled the pro-presidential Fatah movement from the enclave during a series of violent clashes.