Listeners to the first hour of the BBC World Service radio programme ‘OS’ on July 5th heard a news bulletin read by Debbie Russ (from 25:33 here) which included the following fourteen-second item: [emphasis in italics in the original]
Russ: “Palestinian health officials in the occupied West Bank say an Israeli raid in the city of Jenin has killed at least seven people. The Israeli army said that there was an exchange of fire after soldiers encircled the building in which militants had barricaded themselves.”
Clearly BBC audiences around the world would have understood very little about what happened – and why – during that incident which had taken place on the morning of the same day. However, there was in fact no need for the BBC to broadcast such a vague item about the killing of “seven people” because by the time that programme went on air at 16:06 UK time (15:06 GMT, 18:06 Israel time), details of the story had been in the public domain for several hours.
On the afternoon of July 5th the Times of Israel published a report on the topic which was last updated at 15:56 Israel time (13:56 UK time) – two hours before the BBC programme went on air. That report clarifies the circumstances of the incident and provided details of those killed:
“Seven Palestinian gunmen, including members of a cell behind a deadly roadside bombing attack last week, were killed in a drone strike and in clashes with troops in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Friday morning, the Israeli military said.
The Israel Defense Forces said troops of the Duvedevan commando unit and Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit raided Jenin following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet on the location of the cell that killed Cpt. Alon Sacgiu and wounded 16 other soldiers on June 27.
The special forces encircled a building in Jenin where Hammam Hashash, 23, and his brother Harith Hashash, 19, — who according to the IDF were behind the roadside bomb attack — were holed up, and carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker” that involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force suspects to come out.
The soldiers fired several shoulder-launched missiles at the building and exchanged fire with the two gunmen, a military source said.
The pair were eventually killed in the clashes, the IDF said.”
In other words, the BBC should have known by the time that news bulletin was broadcast that the “militants” who had “barricaded themselves” inside the building were part of the terror cell (another member of which had been killed two days earlier) that was responsible for the attack reported on the BBC News website on June 27th.
The Times of Israel report goes on:
“Separately, amid the operation, the IDF said the troops clashed with other terror operatives, and a drone strike was carried out against a cell of four gunmen that was identified in the area. […]
In all, seven Palestinian gunmen were killed in the operation on Friday — including two in the building, four in the airstrike, and another gunman in clashes — according to the IDF.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry also reported seven dead.
In addition to the Hashash brothers, the other five men were named by the ministry as Ahmed Amouri, 20, Qusay Hazouz, 23, Fouad Ashqar, 25, Yassin al-Aridi, 30 and Muhammad Jabareen, 54.
The Hamas terror group named al-Aridi and Hammam Hashash, as well as Nidal Amer, as members; and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group claimed Ashqar, Amouri, and Hazouz as members. Jabareen was not claimed by either group, but was referred to as a “fighter” by Hamas.”
The Abu Ali Express website reported on the afternoon of July 5th (12:52 UK time) that Jabareen – whom Fatah said was a member of the Palestinian Authority security forces – was buried wrapped in the flag of Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades terror group.
In other words, by the time the BBC World Service told its audiences around the world that “seven people” had been killed in Jenin, it was already known that at least five of them had been claimed by the terrorist organisations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and that two of the seven had carried out a fatal attack days earlier.
BBC editorial guidelines on accuracy state that “In news and current affairs content, achieving due accuracy is more important than speed”. In this case the BBC chose to tell just part of a story that was already in the public domain, dumbing it down to a two sentence ‘he said-she said’ account which fails to contribute to audience understanding of the full story.
As the BBC itself told us a year ago, trust is earned. Slapdash reporting such as this only undermines trust.
This is not just “slapdash reporting”. It is a deliberate attempt to turn the brave elimination of terrorists by Israel into a story of Israeli murder of innocent people.
BBC World Service is partially funded by UK Foreign Commonwealth Development Office – how come this libel is permitted by HM Government to world wide listeners? BBC now is deliberately racist!
“BBC World Service provides trusted news to radio, TV and digital audiences around the world in 42 languages including English, reaching a global audience of 318 million. It is chiefly funded by the UK Licence Fee with additional grant funding of £104.4mn [FY 23/24 and 24/25 respectively] from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Under this arrangement, the BBC World Service has agreed not to close any language services – but this condition set to be lifted in 2025.”
https://committees.parliament.uk/work/8391/future-funding-of-the-bbc-world-service/#:~:text=It%20is%20chiefly%20funded%20by,to%20be%20lifted%20in%202025.