On March 15th the BBC News website published a report titled “Israel downplays truce prospects after Hamas response” which opens with three sentences relating to that declared subject matter.
“Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has downplayed the chances of a truce in Gaza after Hamas gave what it called a “comprehensive vision” to mediators.
Mr Netanyahu’s office said the proposals were “unrealistic”.
Hamas wants a permanent end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.”
Immediately following those three paragraphs, the unidentified writer of this report chose to turn readers’ attentions to a different topic:
“On Thursday night Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 20 people had been killed as they waited for aid. Israel denies involvement and accuses armed Palestinians of firing at the crowds.
The incident took place at the Kuwaiti roundabout on the southern outskirts of Gaza City, a known drop off point for the little aid that reaches northern Gaza where the UN says children are dying of malnutrition and famine is looming.
In its latest update, the health ministry said 155 people were injured in the incident. People wounded in the attack were lying on the floor of Shifa hospital in Gaza City and medical teams struggling to deal with the number and type of injuries they had, it said.
In a statement the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had facilitated the passage of 31 aid trucks to northern Gaza.
“Approximately one hour before the arrival of the convoy to the humanitarian corridor, armed Palestinians opened fire while Gazan civilians were awaiting the arrival of the aid convoy,” it said.
The firing continued as a crowd looted the trucks and some people were run over, the IDF said, adding that it was continuing to review the incident.”
As reported by the Times of Israel and others, contrary to the BBC’s portrayal, the Hamas health ministry did not merely ‘say’ that “20 people had been killed as they waited for aid”: it directly accused Israeli forces of having killed them:
“The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip accused Israeli troops of opening fire from “tanks and helicopters” at the civilians gathered at Kuwait Square late Thursday, killing 21 people and wounding more than 150 others.”
Just after noon on March 15th the IDF published the results of its investigation into the Hamas allegations, including video footage.
““A review of our operational systems and IDF troops [on the ground] found that no tank shelling, airstrike or gunfire was carried out toward the Gazan crowd in the area of the aid convoy,” the military said.
The IDF also issued aerial footage of what it said showed Palestinian gunmen opening fire amid the crowd during the first incident, an hour before the aid trucks had arrived.”
The original version of this BBC report was amended to include parts of that statement at around 13:00 Israeli time. Nevertheless, at least five subsequent versions of the report, including the one currently appearing on the BBC News website, continued to amplify a terrorist organisation’s propaganda that had not been verified by the BBC and that ‘he said – she said’ account.
Notably, readers of this report are not provided with any background information, including on relevant topics such as Hamas’ efforts to incite violence during Ramadan, Hamas’ record of stealing humanitarian aid or the activities of armed criminal gangs which loot aid and then sell it at inflated prices.
There is of course no excuse for the BBC’s ‘can’t be bothered to do journalism’ presentation of this story which results in the failure to inform BBC audiences what happened – and what did not – and the uncritical amplification of any and every old propaganda put out by a terrorist organisation.
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The BBC News output of the conflict is not only Islamist biased, it is grossly deficient of checked facts and plausible evidence because the information is coming direct from Hamas, who being followers of Islam are allowed under Islamic law to tell lies. It is hight time the government took action on this issue as citizens are fed up of their indoctrination of the masses #defundthebbc