BBC News ignores a Hamas related story that contradicts previous reporting

A suicide bombing in the Gaza Strip exposes a story the BBC has not told.

As has been noted here in the past, the BBC has long avoided producing any serious coverage of the topic of collaboration between groups in the Gaza Strip and the ISIS franchise operating in the Sinai Peninsula and has even amplified Hamas’ messaging on the topic in some reports.

In late June reports emerged concerning Hamas’ construction of a buffer zone along its border with Egypt.

“The Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip began work Wednesday to build a buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in order to increase security in the border area and prevent the transfer of arms and passage of ISIS operatives from Sinai to the Gaza Strip and vice versa.

This is part of the understandings reached by the Hamas delegation during its visit to Cairo and its meetings with senior Egyptian intelligence officials.”

That story did not get any BBC coverage at the time.

On August 17th that same area was the scene of a suicide bombing.

“A suicide bomber killed a Hamas guard in southern Gaza early Thursday when forces tried to stop him from infiltrating into Egypt, members of the terror organization said, in what sources described as a rare attack against the Islamist group.

“Early this morning security forces stopped two people approaching the southern border (with Egypt),” an interior ministry spokesman in the Hamas-run territory said in a statement.

“One of them blew himself up,” it added.

Later a medical source confirmed a member of Hamas had died in the attack. […]

The bombing early Thursday is the first time that a Palestinian has set off a suicide bomb against Hamas forces. Officials said he is believed to be an Islamic State member.”

Fighting was subsequently seen in the area.

Khaled Abu Toameh reported that:

“The suicide bomber was identified as Mustafa Kallab, a member of a jihadi group that is affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group. […]

Interestingly, several Palestinian factions, which regularly applaud stabbing and car-ramming attacks, as well suicide bombings, are now calling the August 17 attack along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt a “cowardly terror attack.”

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack that killed the Hamas officer. But this statement has not stopped the Palestinian manipulation machines from pointing a finger at Israel — completely without evidence. […]

Hamas is diverting attention from the fact that ISIS jihadis have long been operating under its rule in the Gaza Strip.

Actually, many of the ISIS jihadis are former members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The emergence of ISIS-inspired groups in the Gaza Strip has long been an open secret. This is the inconvenient truth that Hamas has been working hard to conceal for the past few years. […]

Hamas has been working overtime to improve its relations with Egypt in light of reports that jihadis from the Gaza Strip have been infiltrating Sinai to carry out attacks against the Egyptian army.

Now, the truth is out: this suicide attack demonstrates rather convincingly that the Egyptian charges are not unfounded.

Kallab was among a group of jihadis that was on its way to join ISIS and other Islamist terror groups in Sinai that have been waging a wave of terror attacks against the Egyptian army in the past few years. It is worth noting that Hamas has always denied the presence of ISIS in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has also denied that jihadis from the Gaza Strip were involved in terror attacks in Sinai.”

BBC audiences have, however, not seen any coverage whatsoever of the August 17th incident that contradicts the Hamas messaging amplified in the corporation’s previous reporting

Related Articles:

BBC News continues to ignore the story of Hamas-ISIS Sinai relations

Poor BBC reporting on Hamas-ISIS Sinai collaboration highlighted again

BBC’s Knell amplifies Hamas PR while sidestepping ISIS-Hamas collaboration 

 

 

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