[cutemonster]

The authors hint that they think the photos are low resolution, to make it harder to see how many buildings got bombed in Gaza.

Which would indicate that the current politicians in Israel have some leverage over Google? (Which I find interesting.)

(Other nearby regions, eg Syria, are high resolution they write.)

The authors mention that, elsewhere, satellite photos were used to measure "the destruction of Rohingya villages by the military in Myanmar".

[pydry]

Whether or not it was leverage related, I remember thinking the same thing when I saw that Google routinely placed me in Israeli settlements (e.g. Kiryat Arba, pop 700) when I was in Palestinian territory (Hebron, pop 215,000).

[542458]

They wouldn’t need leverage over Google, only over the companies (or the approvals and regulations that govern the companies) that take the arial photos that Google uses.