Washington, November 6 (RHC)-- Companies that provide satellite images to news organisations are restricting images of Gaza since Israeli forces began an advance in the area, despite having no problem disseminating similar images of Russian forces in Ukraine.

The images have been key to understanding how Israeli ground operations have been developing but, beginning on October 22, one of the providers, Planet Labs, stopped releasing high-resolution images to subscribers, reported the U.S. news website Semafor.

Subscribers also told Semafor that between October 30th and November 1st, no low or medium-resolution imagery of northern Gaza was provided by Planet Labs, which was founded by former NASA scientists.

Planet Labs has not said why there have been restrictions, but Semafor reported that the satellite images of Gaza have concerned U.S. security officials, following a New York Times story on October 19th that included detailed images of Israeli tank positions.

Maxar Technologies, a Planet Labs competitor, has also been releasing images on a significant time delay.