A recent Taghreed El-Khodary report from Gaza was published in the New York Times January 10. She states that Israel has "managed to block cellphone bandwidth, so very few amateur cellphone photographs are getting out of Gaza."

This is just one more attempt to put a blackout on news coming from Gaza. Israeli authorities ignored a Supreme Court decision that would have allowed a limited number of foreign journalists into the beseiged territory. They have effectively placed a lock-out on the international press.

Clearly there is a lot they want to hide. The attempt to block cell phone transmissions says a good deal about their concerns. Images have a powerful impact. Paragraphs of text describing the horror of a missile strike involving civilian casualties, lacks the power and immediacy of a photograph that captures scenes of death and devastation.

There has been a concerted effort by Israeli authorities to clamp down on communications from Gaza and control the coverage in the western press. These tactics may work to Israel's advantage in the short term, but over time truth will out.