Inaccuracies in BBC News reports on Tel Aviv gunman

After a week-long manhunt, on January 8th Israeli security forces located the terrorist who murdered three people in Tel Aviv a week beforehand and the attacker was killed after he opened fire on the police unit trying to arrest him.  The BBC News website reported the story in an article titled “Tel Aviv shooting suspect killed in northern Israel” which opens as follows:mosque Arara 1

“An Israeli Arab wanted for shooting dead three people in Tel Aviv on 1 January has been killed by security forces in northern Israel.

Nashat Melhem was tracked down to a mosque in his home town of Arara and killed in a gun battle, police said.” [emphasis added]

As the Times of Israel reported, that information was quickly shown to be inaccurate but, despite several other amendments having been made, the BBC’s report has not been updated accordingly.

“Channel 2 reported that the Israeli forces, from an elite police unit and the Shin Bet, had sought to capture him alive, but were fired upon by Milhem, who was using the same weapon he used for last Friday’s shootings.

Channel 2 said he was tracked down to a building where his family had lived in the past. The building is very close to the family’s current home. An initial report that Milhem was killed in a mosque in Umm a-Fahm was inaccurate.”

That same inaccuracy also appeared in another BBC News website report published on January 9th.

mosque Arara 2

In its reporting of the attack on January 1st, BBC News promoted irrelevant speculations about the background to the incident which still remain in situ on its website. Readers of this latest report are told that:

“Police have not yet established a motive for the Tel Aviv killings.”

BBC News did not cover the subsequent week-long search for the attacker and audiences remain unaware of the fact that in addition to the Simta bar – where two of the victims were shot dead – Nashat Milhem targeted a nearby café and a restaurant. This article also fails to provide that information – which is obviously relevant to any reporting on the topic of motive.

Unlike the BBC, Hamas has no doubts about Milhem’s motive.

“The television network of Palestinian terror group Hamas on Friday evening said Arab Israeli gunman Nashat Milhem “died as a shahid [martyr] from shooting by occupation forces,” after he was killed in a shootout Friday afternoon with officers from the police and Shin Bet security service. […]

The station also showed footage, filmed before Friday’s events, of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh addressing hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza City.

“He went in the streets of Tel Aviv like a brave hero,” Haniyeh said of Milhem, “in order to bring them death.””

The BBC has refrained from informing its audiences about Hamas’ glorification of the attack.

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