On the evening of March 1st, the BBC News website published a report by the BBC News website’s Singapore-based night editor Alex Binley titled “Israel Gaza: Seven hostages killed, Hamas says”.
The story to which that headline refers is presented as follows:
“Seven hostages being held in the Gaza Strip have died, Hamas said on Friday.
The group blamed the deaths on Israeli bombardment and said a “number” of its fighters were also killed. It said the number of hostages killed might now exceed 70.
The BBC has not been able to independently verify this.
It was not immediately clear if these deaths were among the 31 hostages Israel believes have already died.
There has been no comment yet from Israel, and Hamas did not provide substantiating evidence. […]
It is not known when the reported deaths of the hostages took place.
In a statement released on the Telegram account of the Qassam Brigades – Hamas’ armed wing – spokesman Abu Obeida appeared to suggest that the group was still interested in a deal with Israel to release the hostages in return for prisoners held by Israel.
“We affirm that the price we will take in exchange for five or 10 living prisoners is the same price we would have taken in exchange for all the prisoners if the enemy’s bombing operations had not killed them,” the spokesman said.”
Binley does not inform BBC audiences that Hamas named three of the seven hostages it claimed had been killed as Amiram Cooper (85), Yoram Metzger (80) and Chaim Peri (79). Neither does she bother to report that the same three elderly residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz had previously appeared in a propaganda video put out by Hamas on December 18th 2023.
In addition, Binley fails to clarify to BBC audiences that, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, the quoted statement from the Hamas spokesman came hours after Hamas had released a sadistic video concerning those seven hostages.
“Hamas had released a video teasing their announcement about the fate of a few of their hostages held in Gaza earlier in the day.
The video, which opened with a question mark, showed the images of the Peri, Metzger, and Cooper. Underneath the images, read the text, “What do you think?”
It then proposed three scenarios regarding the fates of the hostages. In the first, all had been killed, in the second some had been killed and others wounded, and in the third, all were still alive.
“Tonight we will inform you of their fate,” the video concluded.”
This is not the first time that the BBC News website has amplified what it admits is unverified Hamas propaganda concerning Israeli hostages without identifying the hostages concerned. While in much of the BBC’s previous reporting, video put out by Hamas has been censored on the grounds that it is “too graphic to publish”, in this case Binley simply ignores the existence of the video published prior to the Hamas spokesman’s statement, with the result being that the story is ‘sanitised’ and BBC audiences continue to be underinformed about Hamas’ cruelty and callousness.
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So 32 dead plus 7 does not seventy make. What they are saying is that because of no food, no medication and murder the hostages are all dead and now they are placing the bodies in buildings they know Israel will target to make it appear Israel killed them. Regretfully the BBC believe every word their Hamas afíliated operatives tell them. #defundthebbc