https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/26/bbc-jeremy-bowen-accuses-israel-blocking-journalists-gazaBBC’s Jeremy Bowen accuses Israel of blocking journalists from Gaza
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BBC’s international editor says lack of access is ‘because there’s stuff they don’t want us to see’
Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s international editor, has accused the Israeli government of blocking journalists from Gaza because of scenes “they don’t want us to see”.
Bowen said that in the last 18 months, he had been granted only half a day with the Israeli army within Gaza. He said that the lack of access was part of an attempt to “obfuscate what’s going on, and to inject this notion of doubt into information that comes out”.
Speaking after he accepted a special fellowship award for the Society of Editors conference, he said that while Palestinian journalists were doing “fantastic work”, he and other international media colleagues wanted to contribute to reporting on the ground in Gaza.
“Why don’t they let us in,” he said. “Because there’s stuff there they don’t want us to see. Beginning after those Hamas attacks on 7 October, they took us into the border communities. I was in Kfar Aza when there was still fighting going on inside it. They had only just started taking out the bodies of the dead Israelis. Why did they let us in there? Because they wanted us to see it.
“Why don’t they let us in to Gaza? Because they don’t want us to see it. I think it’s really as simple as that. Israel took a bit of flak for that to start with, but none now, certainly not with [President] Trump. So I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
