The elimination of a senior Hamas operative and several others in Beirut on the evening of January 2nd has caused the BBC to finally provide its audiences with some of the information concerning Saleh al Arouri that has been absent from its coverage for nearly a decade.
At the time of writing, the BBC News website had published four reports relating to that story:
‘Who was Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri killed in Beirut?’ by Shaimaa Khalil & Ali Abbas Ahmadi, January 2nd 2024
‘Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri killed in Beirut blast’ by Raffi Berg & Graeme Baker, January 2nd 2024
‘Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri’s assassination sparks wider war fears’ by Lyse Doucet, January 3rd 2024
‘Saleh al-Arouri: Hamas leader’s death ‘won’t go unpunished’, says Hezbollah chief’ by Kathryn Armstrong, January 3rd 2024
Three of those four reports include a photograph with the same caption:
However, for years the BBC failed to inform its audiences about al Arouri’s direction and facilitation of terror attacks in Judea & Samaria, even when he did so from the haven of a NATO member country.
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The report by Berg and Baker includes the following:
“Arouri was also considered the de facto leader of Hamas’s military wing in the West Bank, overseeing attacks there, according to Israeli media reports.
He is believed to have been involved in the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank in 2014, reports say, and had served time in Israeli jails for other attacks.”
As readers may recall, in 2014 the BBC ignored both the news of al Arouri’s attempt to bring about a coup against the Palestinian Authority and his filmed acknowledgement of Hamas’ murder of three Israeli teenagers:
BBC STICKS TO INACCURATE NARRATIVE DESPITE HAMAS CLAIM OF JUNE KIDNAPPINGS
The first of the BBC’s reports tells readers that:
“Saleh al-Arouri was one of the most senior figures in the Hamas hierarchy – a leading man on both the political and military fronts.
The 57-year-old was the deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau…”
The second BBC report states:
“Lebanese media report that Arouri, a deputy political leader of Hamas, was killed in a drone strike in southern Beirut on Tuesday…“
Lyse Doucet tells BBC audiences that:
“Arouri, a deputy political leader of Hamas, was killed in a drone strike in southern Beirut.”
Armstrong’s report refers to al Arouri as:
“Hamas’s powerful deputy leader…”
Notably, the BBC failed to report the 2017 appointment of al Arouri to the position of deputy political leader of Hamas.
BBC IGNORES APPOINTMENT OF NEW HAMAS DEPUTY CHIEF
The report by Khalil and Ahmadi states:
“Arouri was living in Lebanon at the time of his death.”
The reports by Berg and Baker, Doucet and Armstrong all tell readers that:
“He had been in Lebanon acting as a connection between his group and Hezbollah.”
In 2017 the BBC failed to report on al Arouri’s departure from Qatar and relocation to Lebanon:
QATAR’S EXPULSION OF HAMAS OFFICIALS NOT NEWSWORTHY FOR THE BBC
FILLING IN THE BLANKS IN BBC REPORTS ON HAMAS, QATAR AND IRAN
None of the BBC’s four reports inform audiences that since 2010 Al Arouri was previously based in Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Qatar before he relocated to the Hizballah neighbourhood in Beirut.
The BBC has also repeatedly ignored the topic al Arouri’s visits to Hizballah and Hamas’ Iranian patrons:
NO DOTS TO JOIN IN BBC NEWS GULF CRISIS BACKGROUNDER
REPEAT OMISSION IN BBC ACCOUNT OF THE INAUGURATION OF IRAN’S PRESIDENT
Lyse Doucet tells her readers that:
“Hamas’s deputy leader was also on the US terrorism list with a bounty of $5m (£4m) on his head since 2018.”
Armstrong also states:
“Arouri was on a US blacklist too, with a bounty of $5m ($3.9m) on his head since 2018.”
Al Arouri was designated by the US Treasury in 2015 but the BBC ignored that story at the time:
MORE HAMAS TERROR DESIGNATIONS IGNORED BY BBC NEWS
The BBC likewise failed to report the US State Department’s offer of a reward for information concerning al Arouri in 2018:
BBC NEWS WEBSITE IGNORES HIZBALLAH AND HAMAS TERROR DESIGNATIONS AND REWARDS
It is all too obvious that for years BBC audiences have been serially under-informed about the senior Hamas official who was responsible for much of the terrorism in Judea & Samaria that the corporation reported in the past decade and who, in August of this year, publicly stated that his terrorist organisation sought “total war” with Israel.
