The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation and the Institute of Maltese Journalists (IĠM) are among some 60 media and rights organisations urging the EU to suspend a cooperation accord with Israel and impose sanctions on the country’s military leadership.
In a joint letter to high-ranking European Commission (EC) officials on Monday morning, the organisations accused Isreal of the “unprecedented killing of journalists and other violations of media freedom”.
The group said that since Hamas’ attack on the country in October, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had effectively created a “censorship regime”.
Calling the war in Gaza “the deadliest period for journalists” in decades, the organisations said more than 100 journalists had been killed since October amid reports of “torture and mistreatment” against others.
Drawing on a report from the New York-based press freedom organisation the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the group said Israel had “targeted” journalists during its offensive in Gaza, calling such action a “war crime”.
Other journalists had been held without charge in retaliation for their work and forcibly disappeared, the media coalition said.
Meanwhile, the total ban on independent media accessing Gaza was “unprecedented in modern times,” it said.
“Journalists have been able to report from the frontlines in almost every major conflict over the past three decades: from Ukraine to Rwanda,” the group said.
“By comparison, despite the Israeli government press office issuing media credentials to approximately 2,800 international journalists to enter Israel... only select journalists have been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip — all under Israeli military escort and with restrictions on reporting.”
The letter sent Monday was addressed to EC High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Fontelles and EC Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis.
Earlier this month, Al Jazeera condemned the killing of two of its journalists in an Israeli strike on Gaza, calling the deaths a "cold-blooded assassination" in a statement.
And in May, Israel took the controversial decision to take the TV channel for the news outlet off-air in the country.
In an interview with Times of Malta in July last year, before the start of the war in Gaza, Israel's ambassador to Malta Ze'ev Boker rejected claims his country targeted journalists, saying no Western military force was "as selective and distinctive as the IDF."
Israel's offensive in the region was sparked when Hamas militants crossed into the country in October, killing 1,200 people.
More than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to Palestinian health authorities.