German news media outlets called on Israel to grant them access to Gaza, charging that the “almost complete exclusion of international media […] is unprecedented in recent history,” AFP reports.

“After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government: allow us to enter the Gaza Strip,” a group of newspapers, agencies and broadcasters wrote in an open letter.

They also urged Egypt to permit them entry to the widely devastated Palestinian territory via the Rafah border crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip.

The media organisations wrote that “anyone who makes independent reporting on this war impossible is damaging their own credibility”, adding, “anyone who prohibits us from working in the Gaza Strip is creating the conditions for human rights to be violated”.

The open letter was addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and had been delivered yesterday, they said.