FRANCE 24 correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky entered the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as part of a \u201climited and circumscribed\u201d press visit organised by the Israeli army, which has barred foreign journalists from entering the Palestinian enclave since the start of the Gaza war. Click on the video player to watch her report.<\/p>\n
Since the start of the war between Israel<\/a> and Hamas<\/a>, international media outlets have been barred from entering Gaza to cover the fighting and document the plight of the enclave\u2019s stricken population. <\/p>\n On Wednesday, FRANCE 24\u2019s correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky was among a group of around 20 foreign journalists allowed into the ravaged Palestinian territory\u00a0for what she described as \u201can extremely limited and circumscribed visit\u201d organised by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).<\/p>\n Jerusalem-based Tarnopolsky said the journalists were driven \u201cthrough the same fence that Hamas fighters crossed on October 7, 2023\u201d and taken to a recently established IDF base in a suburb of Gaza City<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were allowed to get up on a kind of sand dune that surrounds this military encampment and see the destruction all around us,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat you see is a wasteland, simply mounds of rubble.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cOne thing that really struck me was the dust in the air. The quality of the air is different there. The reason is not just the complete destruction. There are no buildings left to cut the wind. You’re standing there in a cloud of dust.\u201d<\/p>\n The FRANCE 24 correspondent said the group of journalists\u00a0were not able to see or speak to any of the local population. She said a key takeaway of the visit was the difficulty to locate the so-called \u201cyellow line\u201d that\u00a0marks areas still occupied by the Israeli army under a fragile ceasefire deal brokered by the US.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things we saw very clearly today is that it is close to impossible to see where it is,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cclose to 200 people have been killed in the vicinity of this line\u201d since the ceasefire took effect.<\/p>\n \u201cThe army can’t 100 percent define where it is. I am certain the Gazan civilians and even armed militias can\u2019t really know where it is,\u201d Tarnopolsky said. \u201cSo, this matter of Gazans who keep getting killed for crossing an invisible line I\u00a0think is going to become more important news as the days pass.\u201d<\/p>\n