Following Israel withdrawal from Gaza there were number of cases of violence targeted at foreign journalists claimed by previously unknown groups sometimes linked to Al Qaeda.
Palestinian security sources urged all foreigners (especially Europeans and Americans), including aid workers of international organizations, to leave Gaza soil "for fears of new kidnappings".
[3] The Israeli Supreme Court ruled on 29 December that journalists must be allowed access to Gaza at times when the main border crossing is open,[4] but the military has not complied.
[14] On 9 January, the IDF hit the Johara tower of Gaza City, which houses more than 20 international news organizations, including Turkish, French, and Iranian outlets.
[20] One Italian journalist, after obtaining clearance from the IDF to travel to Netzarim, was fired on at an Israeli checkpoint even after renewed telephonic contact with the military authorities about the incident led to assurances he could proceed safely.
Press restriction appears to have been part of the propaganda campaign of Operation Cast Lead Nachman Shai, a former Israeli army spokesman, claimed that Israel's tight regulation of the media was a reaction to "confusing" reporting during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.
[23] Haaretz reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni "instructed senior ministry officials to open an aggressive and diplomatic international public relations campaign in order to gain support for Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip."
Israeli officials at embassies and consulates worldwide have mounted campaigns in local media, and to that end have recruited people who speak the native language.
[26] The accuracy of one of the videos has been disputed B'Tselem and Human Rights Watch who claimed that a purported Israeli strike on militants, in fact, killed several civilians.
[30] Israel's media has been criticized for practicing alleged self-censorship and muzzling dissent with coverage on the conflict that has been described as overtly patriotic and biased against Hamas.
Eight Israeli human rights groups wrote a letter to newspaper editors, broadcasters and websites claiming, "opinions criticising the decision to launch the offensive or the army's conduct during the war are hardly heard."
Some protests have accused the company of giving in to pressure from Israel or Jewish groups, while others attribute it to a fear of controversy in light of prior embarrassments over Middle East coverage; the BBC has strongly denied both claims.
An Arab Media Watch advisor said "inevitably, these trends in reporting leave Palestinian violence largely unexplained, causing it to appear as unwarranted 'aggression.
"[36] And of publishing a distorted picture of, as El-Khodary expressed it, a situation in which "ordinary people are squeezed between suicidal fighters and a military behemoth," and of covering civilian casualties in Gaza "to the virtual exclusion of any other issues.
"[35] The conflict also engendered considerable propaganda, hacktivism and cyber warfare[37] (both on the part of the combatants and polities directly involved and of independent, private parties)[38] which resulted in numerous website defacements,[37] denial-of-service attacks and domain name and account hijackings.