Media coverage
Radio Bullets (Italy) · 2025-05-16
The “Gaza Beyond the Border” delegation officially began its mission in Cairo, bringing together Italian parliamentarians, MEPs, journalists, academics, and experts with the stated aim of entering Gaza, challenging the siege, and pressing for a permanent ceasefire and full enforcement of international law. Throughout the first day, Palestinian journalists, humanitarian workers, and civil society representatives described the targeting of journalists, catastrophic humanitarian conditions, and the risk of famine, while the organizers and parliamentarians called on the international community, especially the EU and the Italian government, to act decisively to stop what they described as genocide and crimes against humanity.
The “Gaza Beyond the Border” delegation officially began its mission in Cairo, bringing together Italian parliamentarians, MEPs, journalists, academics, and experts with the stated aim of entering Gaza, challenging the siege, and pressing for a permanent ceasefire and full enforcement of internatio…
The mission of the delegation “Gaza Beyond the Border,” promoted by AOI (with Acli, IPSIA, Un Ponte Per, ARCS, CISS, OXFAM Italy, ACS, CRIC, EducAid, Vento di Terra), ARCI, and Assopace Palestina and composed of 11 Italian parliamentarians belonging to the Intergroup for Peace between Israel and Palestine, 3 Members of the European Parliament, 13 journalists, academics, experts in international law and cooperation, officially began in Cairo.
After the 2024 caravan, which had shone a spotlight on the situation in Gaza, this new initiative takes on an even more political and urgent significance: with direct entry into the Strip, the delegation intends to challenge the siege and indifference, break the isolation imposed on the Palestinian population, strengthen ties between civil societies, and forcefully reaffirm the need for a permanent ceasefire and the full application of international law.
The first day, which began with a minute of silence for Ali Rashid, was dedicated to a dense series of meetings with representatives of Palestinian civil society, humanitarian workers, human rights activists, and journalists.
Among the first engagements was an important focus on the role of information through the words of some Palestinian journalists displaced from the Strip to Cairo.
In Gaza, 217 journalists have been killed: 27 of them were women.
To these must be added another 48 colleagues imprisoned in Israeli prisons.
“Journalists in Gaza are no longer mere witnesses to the conflict: they have become targets,” says freelancer Abdul Nasser Abu Aoun.
“The Israeli army persecutes them not only while they are doing their work, but also in their homes, deliberately targeting families and civilian lives. This is unacceptable.”
“Because of the urgency to report, at the beginning they went out into the street with nothing, without any identifying sign. Now some wear improvised vests made on the spot, made of foam and bearing the word ‘Press.’ They are useless for anything except indicating that one is a journalist. The international community has a duty to guarantee them immediate protection, through independent international coverage and decisive political pressure on Israel, so that humanitarian law and freedom of the press are respected,” he says.
“In Gaza I changed house nine times to escape the bombings. You never know if you will see the next day. Once, under the bombs with my mother, we thought we were going to die. There are no escape routes, only precarious shelters. In winter, everything is lacking, even a blanket,” Mohammad, Project Manager and Gaza Office Coordinator – Vento di Terra NGO, said in the afternoon.
“Now we are alive and in Egypt, but I continue to work for those who remained in the Strip. We provide psychosocial support to women and children, including those with disabilities, in dramatic conditions. The dead number more than 50,000, but the resilience of the people of Gaza, their humanity, remains stronger than everything.”
“For 34 years I worked to guarantee food security in Gaza, but after October 7 everything was destroyed: 90% of the agricultural land, 100% of fishing, livestock farming, and infrastructure,” says Mohammad el Bakri, for more than 30 years director of UAWC (Union of Agricultural Work Committees).
“People in the north were eating grass and animal feed. In Rafah, women look for food for their children without even having a bathroom. This is not a conflict, it is the deliberate destruction of a people. We ask Italy and the international community: stop all collaboration with Israel, exert pressure for respect for international law and human rights.”
“In the Gaza Strip they know that we are meeting for them, and they hope that our effort will not be in vain,” says Jumana Shaheen – Coordinator of emergency activities in Gaza for ACS and Italian Center Vik.
From the first day in Egypt, “I continued to tell what is happening, using every possible channel. Everyone in Gaza feels like a journalist since the genocide began: armed only with a phone or a camera, we document what many media choose to ignore. People’s support grows every day, but it is not enough if it does not translate into concrete political choices. We can and must do more: boycott Israeli products, cut trade relations, and take to the streets to make our voices heard.”
“In Gaza right now all essential goods are running out and the population is on the brink of famine,” says another aid worker who must remain anonymous for security reasons.
“The streets are full of wounded and sick people in tents, the hospitals are collapsing or not functioning, and there are not even ambulances to rescue them. We ask you to draw the attention of the international community and your political decision-makers to stop all this. The priority must be to guarantee now the safety of the Palestinian population inside the Strip, because once they are taken out, in all likelihood they will no longer be able to return.”
“I am a Palestinian woman with a disability and I experienced the harshest displacement imaginable: 18 kilometers on foot, without medicines, food, or an accessible bathroom. I help other women with disabilities not to lose hope. From the Italians I learned that rights exist — now I want to return to Gaza to claim them there as well,” says Suzan Al Amassi – peer counselor – EducAid.
“People are disappointed by the inertia of the international community,” explains Omar Shaban, founder and director of PalThink for Strategic Studies.
“Statements are not enough: there is talk of genocide and war crimes, but nothing stops. Palestinians want a new leadership and Hamas’s exit from Gaza, aware that reconstruction is impossible as long as it remains. They have lost faith in the West and in human rights. After ten years of work for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, I believe dialogue is needed. The two-state solution is no longer realistic. We must think about a single state in which to live together with equal dignity, or about a federation.”
“We are romantic revolutionaries who believe in the law. That is why we undertook this mission: to use international law to obtain justice, dignity, and truth for Palestinian civilians who are victims of crimes against humanity and genocide,” explains Raji Sourani, Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
“Ours is highly professional work, requiring specialized expertise and unwavering commitment. Despite the obstacles and the long timeframes, we have never lost hope. Today we have reached two arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant: it is a first step toward establishing their responsibilities.”
“Entering Gaza today means assuming a precise political responsibility: breaking Europe’s complicit silence and denouncing the inertia of the international community in the face of a crime that is being committed day after day before everyone’s eyes. Gaza is an open wound in international law, an open-air prison where the civilian population is reduced to hunger, thirst, and terror. This is no longer the time for generic appeals: an immediate permanent ceasefire is needed, an end to the siege, and the activation of binding protection mechanisms for the population. The international community must choose which side to stand on: either with law and human dignity, or with those who trample them,” declare AOI, ARCI, and Assopace Palestina.
“We heard the dramatic testimonies of Palestinian journalists and representatives of international and local NGOs operating in the Strip: the displaced people of Gaza who survived the deprivation and the ongoing Israeli military operations are at the end of their strength. The continuous bombings and the total blockade of humanitarian aid, imposed by the Netanyahu government at the beginning of March, represent some of the most blatant violations of international law and human rights that we condemn with determination. We call on the international community, and in particular the European Union and the Italian government, to intervene firmly to stop the extermination,” declare the parliamentarians of the Intergroup for Peace between Palestine and Israel.
In the coming days, the delegation will continue its journey, with new meetings and site visits, to bring back to Europe and Italy direct, concrete, urgent testimony.
Text © Radio Bullets (Italy) — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source