As we have documented, BBC reports on the events along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip since March 30th have repeatedly quoted Palestinian casualty figures provided by the “health ministry” in Gaza without clarifying that it is controlled by Hamas – the same terror group co-organising the ‘Great Return March’ – and thus obviously not an impartial or reliable source.
On April 14th the BBC Gaza office’s Rushdi Abualouf sent a rather cryptic tweet:
Obviously if Israel denied targeting four members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, then somebody must have claimed that it did and in this case that was the Gaza health ministry spokesman who, as reported by various Palestinian sources, initially claimed that the four had been killed by “Israeli shelling”.
Khaled Abu Toameh explains the story at the Times of Israel:
“Palestinian terror organization Islamic Jihad said Saturday that four of its members were killed in an accidental explosion near the Gaza Strip border with Israel.
The group said in a statement that the four died during “preparations,” without giving further details. Army Radio reported that the terrorists were killed while carrying explosives in an all-terrain vehicle, suggesting the blast may have been a “work accident.” AFP said they were riding a tuk tuk vehicle which exploded a few hundred meters from the border with Israel. […]
The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry initially claimed the blast east of Rafah in southern Gaza was caused by an Israeli strike. The IDF denied any involvement in the incident and said none of its forces had opened fire in the area.”
That, of course, is the same ‘health ministry’ which has been providing ‘Great Return March’ casualty figures since March 30th that have been unquestioningly promoted by Rushdi Abualouf (see for example here, here, here, here, here and here) and his BBC colleagues without any independent verification.
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When does the BBC need ‘independent verification’ – and when not?
