Revisiting two BBC News website reports from February

As Gaza Strip based terror factions launched rocket and mortar attacks against civilians in southern Israel last week, the Lebanese TV station al Mayadeen aired a video of an attack which had taken place along the Gaza-Israel border nine months earlier.

“A Hezbollah-connected Lebanese television channel on Tuesday broadcast never-before-seen footage of an attack on a group of Israeli soldiers on the Gaza border in February, in which an explosive device was set off along the security fence. […]

The footage, from February 17, shows one soldier wearing protective gear walking up to the Gaza security fence and taking down a Palestinian flag that had been affixed to the fence east of the city of Khan Younis.

As he walks over to the other three servicemen in his patrol, a tripwire connected to the flagstaff sets off a bomb that had been buried nearby.

Two of the soldiers were seriously injured in the attack. The other two sustained moderate wounds, the Israel Defense Forces said at the time.”

In fact another video of the same attack had been released some ten days after the Popular Resistance Committees had claimed responsibility for the attack on February 17^th.

Following that February attack the BBC News website produced two reports:

Israel Gaza: Four Israeli soldiers injured in border blast

Israel Gaza: Air strikes follow bomb blast on Gaza border

As noted here at the time, in the first report BBC audiences were told that:

“No group has so far said it was behind Saturday’s explosion, which happened at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) east of the town of Khan Younis.”

Not only was that statement incorrect when it was first published on February 18^th – the PRC had claimed responsibility the previous day – but when, two months later, the BBC corrected an additional error in the first report (the same inaccuracy however remains uncorrected in the second article) that inaccurate claim was left standing.