This article was originally published by the Ma'an News Agency and is republished with permission.

Palestinians wait to pass through the Erez border crossing between the northern Gaza Strip and Israel. Media outlets say Israel has been keeping journalists out of Gaza by refusing to issue permits to cross Erez - the only entrance into Gaza from Israel - for over a week. (Wissam Nassar, Maan Images)

Israel has continued to bar international journalists from the besieged Gaza Strip for at least a week in what media condemned on Monday as an unprecedented violation of press freedom.

Steve Gutkin, the Associated Press bureau chief in Jerusalem and the head of the Foreign Press Association told Ma'an that he knows of no foreign journalist that has been allowed into Gaza in the last week.

Gutkin said that while Israel has barred foreign press from entering Gaza in the past, the length of the current ban makes it unprecedented. He added that he has received no "plausible or acceptable" explanation for the ban.

AP itself moved two of its international staff into the Strip before the closure began.

The Foreign Press Association reiterated its condemnation of the closure on Monday, saying: "We regard this as an unconscionable breach of the Israeli Government's responsibility to allow journalists to do their jobs in this region."

"The international media serve as the world's window into Gaza providing vital coverage of all aspects of Gazan life to news consumers around the world," the organization added in a statement.

A journalist for a major international news organization, speaking anonymously on Monday, said that he had been attempting to enter Gaza consistently since November 9th and has been denied entry each time.

Some journalists argued that the media blackout was an attempt by Israel to block coverage of its siege of the Gaza Strip. Israel has almost totally sealed all commercial and humanitarian crossings into Gaza, pushing the territory to the brink of humanitarian disaster.

"This is Israel's policy, to not show what's going on in Gaza," said Conny Mus, a reporter for the Dutch television station RTL, speaking to the AP last Wednesday. Mus spoke from the Israeli side of the Erez crossing, and was among 14 journalists who had unsuccessfully sought entry to Gaza that morning.