'It's a game of cat and mouse'

2009-01-07 14:30

Israel-Gaza Border - Every morning, a dangerous game of cat and mouse unfolds on the Gaza border as foreign photographers seek to get around the tight grip that Israel has imposed on information on its Hamas war.

As dawn breaks on the 11th day of Israel's war in Gaza, mud-splattered jeeps veer off the main road and drive at breakneck speed across the bumpy terrain in search of action shots of the troops deployed along the border.

Creeping through the undergrowth, a handful of photographers stop several hundred metres from two of Israel's big guns, waiting to catch on film the precise moment the cannons blast their payload toward Gaza - a deafening roar which rocks the ground.

Those who are caught - and Israel's military police are everywhere - are arrested, their cameras seized and in some cases, the images erased. Others say they have been held at gunpoint.

"It's a game of cat and mouse," said one photographer who did not wish to be identified. "The military police are everywhere - it's impossible to work like this."

Keeping foreign journalists away is one of several steps that Israel has taken to control the information about its biggest military operation since the 2006 war in Lebanon.

Others have included confiscating the cellphones of thousands of soldiers ahead of the launch of its massive ground offensive. The army has yet to organise embeds with the troops.

'It's all changed because of Lebanon'

Despite a ruling from Israel's Supreme Court on Friday, which ordered the state to allow groups of up to 12 foreign reporters in to Gaza to cover the war, no-one has yet been permitted to enter.

On the Palestinian side, Hamas fighters are preventing civilians - including photographers - from reaching areas where fighters are battling Israeli ground troops.

The result - the only images available of one of Israel's largest and deadliest offensives in Gaza are night shots of troops walking across the border, smoke rising from Gaza, and pictures of the dead.

The situation was starkly different less than three years ago, when journalists enjoyed much freer access to the fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.

"It's all changed because of Lebanon," admitted one Israeli photographer sitting in a cafe outside Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. "Now there is a totally different set of rules."

Back then, troops coming back from south Lebanon would speak freely with reporters and photographers snared some dramatic footage. Today soldiers are forbidden to talk to the press and those injured in the fighting are kept well away from the media.

"The Israeli army really needs to change its image which was totally destroyed in the Lebanon war - you had pictures of soldiers bleeding on the ground," said a French photographer. "It is impossible to show that any more."

Security concerns

Army spokesperson Avital Leibovich says the experience in Lebanon forced the military to adopt a new strategy vis-a-vis the media.

"In Lebanon, journalists were everywhere with our forces. Sometimes reporters were doing stand-ups with troops moving in the background about to enter some Lebanese villages," she told AFP.

"This causes many security concerns and it can cost the soldiers' lives. We can't make our operations public."

A spokesperson for the foreign ministry denied that there was a concerted effort to deny journalists access.

"I can't say that there is a deliberate and overall decision not to allow reporters in," said foreign ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor. "There is fighting at the crossings. Hamas is shelling the crossings and the army does not want to take responsibility for the lives of civilians."

But Danny Seaman, head of the Government Press Office, said: "No reporters are allowed into Gaza because our soldiers will not sacrifice their lives to protect them."

"The world press doesn't care about the suffering of the Israeli people. They are only worried about the Palestinian. Why isn't anyone reporting on what's happening in southern Israel?"

- AFP