BBC News fails to inform on tunnels it reported 4 months ago

On May 29^th the BBC News website published a report titled “Israel controls corridor on Gaza-Egypt border – military” which was credited to Kathryn Armstrong. Following amendments, the version of that report now available online is headlined “Israel extends control of Gaza’s entire land border” and is credited to Armstrong and Raffi Berg.

The current version of that report opens as follows:

“Israel’s military has said it has taken control of the strategically important buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border known as the Philadelphi Corridor, meaning it now controls Gaza’s entire land border.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said about 20 tunnels used by Hamas to smuggle weapons into Gaza had been found within the zone.

Egyptian TV quoted sources denying this, and said Israel was trying to justify its military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.”

Later readers are told that:

“IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday that forces had “established operational control” of the Philadelphi Corridor.

He described the area as a “lifeline” for Hamas, through which the group “regularly smuggled weapons into the Gaza Strip”.

He said troops were “investigating.. and neutralising” tunnels found in the area.

Mr Hagari later said in a briefing with reporters that he could not be sure that all of the tunnels crossed into Egypt, the New York Times reported.”

And:

“Egypt has previously said it had destroyed cross-border tunnels, making any weapons smuggling impossible.

And a “high-level” Egyptian source, quoted by Al-Qahera News, accused Israel of “using these allegations to justify continuing the operation on the Palestinian city of Rafah and prolonging the war for political purposes”.”

BBC audiences would clearly not understand whether or not the IDF had discovered tunnels underneath the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip even after reading this article.

As reported by the Times of Israel:

“Along the [Philadelphi] corridor, adjacent to the southern city of Rafah, the IDF said it has located so far some 20 tunnels that cross into Egypt. Hamas has been known to use such tunnels to smuggle weapons into Gaza, something the IDF believes it can no longer do as the military controls the area.

Some of the tunnels were already known to the IDF, and others were discovered for the first time. Some have already been demolished, and Israel has also been updating Egypt on the developments. Another 82 tunnel shafts leading into the tunnels have been located in the Philadelphi Corridor area, according to the military. […]

Dozens of rocket launchers were also discovered along the corridor, some only a dozen meters from the Egypt border. The IDF said it believes Hamas positioned the rocket launchers along the corridor in an attempt to prevent Israel from striking them, thinking Israel would fear overshooting into Egypt.”

Footage of those rocket launchers has been made public, as have details of the destruction of a 1.5 km long tunnel located close to the Rafah crossing. Neither of those findings are mentioned in Armstrong and Berg’s report.

The ToI also reminds us that:

“The existence of cross-border tunnels between Egypt and the Strip has long been a matter of public record, including a highly shared 2013 New York Times article about the cottage industry of fast food deliveries through the “the scores of tunnels” controlled by Hamas.

Egypt itself has worked for years to thwart the cross-border tunnel network, blowing them up, flooding them with water, pumping toxic gas inside and even razing homes along the border to establish a buffer zone, but many were still believed to remain.”

Footage of some of the recently discovered tunnel shafts has also been made public but again, it is not included in the BBC’s written report.

Back in February and March, the BBC News website published a plethora of ‘doom and gloom’ reports concerning what was at the time a potential IDF operation in Rafah. While most of those reports failed to provide BBC audiences with a fact-based, objective explanation as to why a military operation in Rafah is considered necessary, one in particular is notable.

On February 12^th the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams told BBC audiences that: [emphasis added]

“Israel says that of Hamas’ six remaining battalions, four are in Rafah. It’s possible that some of the group’s main leaders are also there – although the existence of tunnels from Rafah into Egypt also means that some may have escaped the Gaza Strip.”

In other words, four months ago the BBC knew of “the existence of tunnels from Rafah into Egypt” but now it is unable to provide its audiences with any information on that topic beyond Israeli statements and Egyptian denials.

As we have seen so many times in the past, the editorial policies that lie behind the BBC’s ‘he said – she said’ style of reporting fail to contribute to meeting the corporation’s obligation to “build people’s understanding”.

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