As the Israeli Defense Forces continue their ground and online offensive for the 18th day now, international journalists still don’t have access into Gaza with the exception of the Al Jazeera Network and some Arabic-language networks.

Al Jazeera has been providing groundbreaking news coverage through their 24-hour Arabic and English news channels from inside Gaza well before Operation Cast Lead.

I’ve quickly tuned into Al Jazeera English online at the start of the offensive to get the perspective of both peoples from inside the area. Here are some examples:

Al Jazeera is quickly filling the gap of underreporting internationally on the situation in Gaza in the same way sophisticated technologies and the Web filled that role in Mumbai’s Taj Mahal hotel attack.

Since Al Jazeera is not widely available in the U.S., many have to tune into YouTube.com/AlJazeeraEnglish or Livestation and also on Twitter for continuous updates on Gaza.

While you can’t find too many people twittering from Gaza most likely due to the lack of electricity, there are some however who have been twittering events as they happen in the region. Here are some examples:

tova_s: Why is Joe the Plumber a celebrity and reporting from Sderot? Does anyone in America actually care?
Jerusalem

ASoldiersMother: Went to deliver supplies to soldiers near Gaza today – got caught in a Code Red in Ashkelon.
Jerusalem

mitzvahmedia: Since New Year’s Eve there’s only been the three W’s… Wedding, Widgets and War
Jerusalem

TalSh: Another siren went off. It’s all good.
Be’er Sheva, Israel

evgenic: 2 rocket alarms one after another in Ashkelon #Gaza #Israel
Ashqelon, Israel

The phrases #Gaza and #Israel allow you to follow news on the situation much more quickly in a Twitter Search.

It is worth mentioning that there are many aid workers and some bloggers who have been filling in the gap of underreporting, too.

Mideastyouth.com interviewed a young Gazan teacher named Ramzy in Gaza at the start of the war. Globalvoicesonline.org has been offering special coverage of the conflict on their site. They also uncovered a blog from a young Italian human rights activist and journalist in Gaza who has been blogging Gazans’ experiences in his blog Guerrilla Radio.

Blogger and journalist Laila El-Haddad has also been blogging from inside Gaza on her blog A Mother from Gaza.

The news also continues on social networking sites.

Over 56,000 people on Facebook have added an application that updates their status with the numbers of Palestinians killed and wounded for their friends to see. Some five people however have added an application on Facebook that updates their status on news from “the Israeli operation in Gaza.” There have also been some people on both Facebook and MySpace that have added “Gaza” as their middle name to show solidarity for the people of Gaza. If you have noticed some other developments, feel free to post them here.

Over 880 Palestinians (including 264 children, 63 women, 12 paramedics and 3 journalists) and four Israelis have been reportedly killed. And more than 4,080 Palestinians and 250 Israelis have been injured since the start of the war.

Each life has a story and most news media won’t get the chance to tell it if journalists are barred from entering the conflict zone. Only time will tell how breaking news will continue to be covered from the region… Al Jazeera and some other outlets can only cover so much.