Yair Stern, head of the state-run Israel Television, said censorship policy had been relaxed in recent years, and the immediacy of electronic media sometimes pre-empted censorship.

"In the last operation in Lebanon, we were broadcasting live, and Katyusha rockets were falling right through the broadcasts," Stern said.

"We try to be as cautious as possible, but the censor cannot block the direct flow of news as it did in the past."

Military censorship will only be applied in cases involving national security that have a near certainty of hurting Israel's defense interests.