BBC NEWS COVERAGE OF TERRORISM IN ISRAEL – OCTOBER 2022

The Israel Security Agency’s report on terror attacks during October 2022 shows that throughout the month a total of 401 incidents took place: 326 in Judea & Samaria and 75 in Jerusalem and inside the ‘green line’. No incidents were recorded in the Gaza Strip sector.

In Judea & Samaria, Jerusalem and inside the ‘green line’ the agency recorded 258 attacks with petrol bombs, 60 attacks using pipe bombs, 46 shooting attacks, 32 arson attacks, two stabbing attacks and two vehicular attacks.

Three people were killed and nineteen people were wounded in attacks during October.

On October 8^th a soldier was killed and a civilian wounded in a shooting attack at a checkpoint near Shuafat in Jerusalem. The BBC News website did not report that attack when it happened. The incident was briefly mentioned (without identification of the victim) in a general report published five days later.

On October 11^th a soldier was killed in a shooting attack near Shavei Shomron. That incident was likewise not reported at the time but was briefly mentioned in the same report published on October 13^th, again without identification of the victim. In another report published two weeks after the incident took place, the BBC finally mentioned Staff Sgt Ido Baruch’s name.

On October 29^th a 50-year-old civilian was murdered and three people were injured in a shooting attack in Kiryat Arba. That incident also did not receive any real time coverage on the BBC News website and the first brief mention of it – yet again without identification of the victim – was seen in paragraph twenty-four of a report about the Israeli election published three days later on November 1^st:

“On Saturday, a Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli in the Jewish settlement where Mr Ben-Gvir lives, before being shot dead by a guard.”

On October 2^nd a member of the security forces was injured in a shooting attack near Schem (Nablus), on October 10^th a member of the security forces was injured by a petrol bomb in Jerusalem and two days later two people were wounded in an IED attack in Jerusalem. A civilian was injured in a shooting attack at his home in Beit El on October 14^th and a security guard was injured during a shooting attack in Ma’ale Adumim on October 19^th. A civilian was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem on October 22^nd and on the same day three members of the security forces were injured in an IED attack in Jerusalem. On October 30^th five soldiers were injured in a vehicular attack in the Jordan Rift Valley.

None of those incidents received any coverage on the BBC News website, despite Jerusalem bureau staff being aware of at least one of them.

As we see, the BBC News website did not provide stand-alone or timely coverage of any of the 401 terror attacks – including three fatal ones – which took place during October. In contrast, a counter-terrorism operation in Schem (Nablus) was reported just hours after it concluded.

In the first ten months of 2022 the BBC News website reported just 0.6% of the terror attacks against Israelis which actually took place (not including the rocket fire during Operation Breaking Dawn in August) and 70.8% of the fatalities resulting from those attacks.