No BBC reporting on serious Gaza border incident

Although infiltrations of the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip are fairly regular, they are barely mentioned by the BBC.

As we saw once again just earlier this week, most BBC reporting on events along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip over the past 16 months has promoted very specific framing which:

  • Erases the fact that around 80% of those killed during the violent rioting at the border have been shown to be affiliated with various terror organisations – primarily Hamas.
  • Erases or downplays the violent nature of the events by failing to provide audiences with a representative view of the number of attacks using firebombs, airborne incendiary devices, IEDs, grenades and guns, the number of border infiltrations and the number of rockets and mortars launched.
  • Erases or downplays the violent nature of the events by uniformly describing them as ‘protests’, ‘demonstrations’ or ‘rallies’.
  • Fails to provide adequate context concerning the stated aims of the events including ‘right of return and lifting of counter-terrorism measures.
  • Erases or downplays Hamas’ role in initiating, facilitating, organising, financing, executing and controlling the events and portrays terrorists as ‘militants’.
  • Cites casualty figures provided by “health officials” without clarifying that they are part of the same terror group that organises the violent rioting.

Border infiltrations have barely been mentioned in BBC reporting even though they are a fairly regular occurrence.

Early on the morning of August 1st another infiltration took place.

“An Israeli officer was moderately wounded and two other soldiers had been lightly hurt after a Gaza militant breached the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip and opened fire at IDF troops in a pre-dawn attack on Thursday. The military shelled a Hamas outpost adjacent to the border in response.  […]

IDF Spokesperson Brigadier General Ronen Manelis said the Gaza militant was armed with an AK-47 rifle and several hand grenades. […]

The militant was identified approaching Israeli territory around 2am by the soldiers remotely monitoring the area along the security fence. […]

The Golani force that arrived on the scene shortly after, found themselves under attack by the Palestinian who hurled a hand grenade and fired shots toward the troops. A platoon commander was moderately wounded in the shootout, while two other soldiers had been lightly hurt by shrapnel.

The Hamas operative then hid a few dozen meters away from the security fence, separating Kibbutz Kissufim and the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. He was located by the security forces an hour later and fatally shot.”

Over twelve hours after that serious incident ended, it has still received no coverage on the BBC News website.

That of course means that the BBC can continue to tell its audiences that what Israeli soldiers stationed on that border face are “protests” by “unarmed protesters”.

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