Omissions in BBC reporting on terrorism and counter-terrorism

On August 3^rd the BBC News website published a report headlined “Iran says Hamas leader killed from close range”. Written by Matt Murphy “reporting from London” and Jenny Hill in Tel Aviv, most of that report simply repeats unverified claims put out by both the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Western media outlets concerning the elimination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran several days earlier.

Notably, readers discover once again that the BBC is apparently in contact with terrorist organisations, despite the existence of BBC editorial guidelines instructions concerning mandatory referrals before approaching “an organisation (or an individual member of an organisation) designated a ‘terrorist group’ by the Home Secretary under the Terrorism Acts”. [emphasis added]

“But Hamas officials told the BBC earlier this week that Haniyeh had stayed at the same guesthouse before.”

Original BBC reporting from Tel Aviv is confined to the following paragraph:

“Despite the government’s warnings, the mood appeared relaxed on Tel Aviv’s seafront, with bronzed bodies lazing under beach umbrellas.”

Promoting an obviously unverified claim sourced from the terrorist organisation which began the current war, the report tells readers that:

“Meanwhile, at least 10 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, the Hamas-run government media office has said.”

Contrary to the impression given by the BBC in that context-free account, the target of that strike was not “a school” or “displaced people” but a Hamas command and control centre at a site which was formerly known as the Hamama school. As reported by the Times of Israel:

“A Hamas command and control center based out of a former school in Gaza City was struck by fighter jets a short while ago, the IDF says.

According to the military, Hamas operatives were using the Hamama School in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood to plan and carry out attacks against troops in the Strip.

The IDF says the site was also used by Hamas operatives to manufacture and store weapons, as well as train with them before carrying out attacks on Israeli troops.”

Murphy and Hill’s report goes on:

“It comes as Israel said an airstrike it conducted in the occupied West Bank killed a Hamas commander and four senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters on Saturday.

The Israeli military said the air strike hit a vehicle as the men were on the way to carry out an attack.”

The BBC’s report has not been updated to clarify that among the nine PIJ and Hamas terrorists killed in that strike and a subsequent one later the same day were several responsible for previous attacks, including the murder of an off duty reservist in a shooting attack near Bayt Lid last November which was not covered by the BBC and the murder of an Israeli civilian in June of this year which the BBC also did not report at the time.

On August 4^th the BBC News website published a report which is now credited to Tom Bennett in London and Hugo Bachega in Beirut and, following amendments, is currently headlined “Calls for foreigners to leave Lebanon as war fears grow”.

Mostly focusing on speculations concerning “a wider conflict in the Middle East”, the initial version of that report also related to the incident at the former school, choosing to amplify Hamas propaganda:

“Meanwhile in Gaza, at least 17 people in a school sheltering displaced persons were killed by an Israeli strike, the Hamas-run authorities said on Saturday.

The Israeli military says the Hamama school in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood was being used as a command centre for militants. Hamas has denied it operates from civilian facilities.”

The current version of that report tells readers that:

“In a separate development on Sunday morning, two people were killed in a stabbing attack in the Israeli city of Holon. The attacker, a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank, was later “neutralised”, police said.”

The names of the two victims – Rina Daniv, aged 66 and Avraham Somichi, aged 78 – are not provided and BBC audiences are not informed that two other people – including the husband of one of the victims – were wounded in the same attack.

That BBC report continues:

“Also on Sunday, officials from the Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza said an Israeli air strike had hit a tent inside a hospital, killing at least five people. The officials said 19 Palestinians had been killed across the day.”

As reported by the Times of Israel, the hospital which is not named by the BBC is the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital (managed by UNRWA and others) in Deir al Balah.

“A separate overnight Israeli strike killed at least five people in a tent area inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound, in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, the Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry said.

The IDF said it struck a gunman in Deir al-Balah who “conducted terror activities” and that secondary explosions were identified, indicating weapons were present in the area.”

That incident is given the following context-free presentation in an uncredited BBC report published on August 4^th under the headline “Casualties after third Israeli strike on school in a week”:

“…an attack on a camp for displaced people in a hospital in central Gaza, which reportedly killed at least five people.”

The same article mentions the terror attack in Holon, again without identifying the victims or mentioning that two additional people were wounded.

“In a separate development on Sunday morning, two people were killed in a stabbing attack in the Israeli city of Holon. The Palestinian attacker was later shot dead, police said.”

Readers are also told that:

“Dozens of people have reportedly been killed in Israeli air strikes on two schools in Gaza, according to Palestinian rescuers and news outlets.

Some of those killed were displaced people sheltering at the schools, rescuers said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the strikes, saying it had targeted Hamas “command and control centres” within two schools in Gaza City.

The strikes were the third time in a week schools in Gaza have been hit by Israeli strikes.

The IDF said: “The schools were used by Hamas’s al-Furqan Battalion as a hiding place for its terrorist operatives and as command centres used to plan and execute attacks against IDF troops and the state of Israel.””

As is more often than not the case, the BBC’s report fails to clarify that the quoted “Palestinian civil defence” spokesman works for a Hamas-run body.

“Palestinian media said at least 30 people were killed in the strikes. Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defence, said most of the dead were women and children.

He added that more people were believed to be buried under the rubble.”

The BBC’s report has not been updated to inform audiences that among the Hamas terrorists hiding in the Nasr and Hassan Salama schools in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood was a prominent Hamas commander.

“The IDF struck Hamas terrorist Jaber Aziz, Commander of Hamas’s Al-Furqan Battalion, and several other terrorists who were operating in a Hamas command and control center that was embedded within the “Hassan Salame” and “Nasser” schools in Gaza City on Sunday, the IDF reported Monday evening.

Aziz was in this role since 2020, and was previously the Deputy Commander of the Al-Furqan Battalion, Deputy Commander of the Zaytun Battalion, and the Commander of the Zaytun Battalion.

Aziz played a significant role in planning the October 7 attack and led the preparations and training of the Al-Furqan Battalion. He also infiltrated Gaza border communities on October 7.”

This BBC report also tells readers that:

“Days earlier, a strike on Dalal al-Mughrabi School killed 15, according to officials.”

That strike took place on August 1^st.

“Based on IDF and ISA intelligence, the Israeli Air Force struck terrorists operating inside a compound within the Dalal School in the area of Shejaiya in Gaza City. The compound was used by Hamas as a hideout for commanders and operatives and to plan terror attacks against the State of Israel, the IDF announced on Thursday afternoon.”

Interestingly, the BBC did not find it necessary to explain to its audiences why a school is named after one of the terrorists who perpetrated the Coastal Road Massacre.

These three BBC News website articles follow a pattern already long evident in reporting on incidents at schools in the Gaza Strip. In addition to uncritically promoting Hamas claims concerning casualties, which of course have not been verified by the BBC and do not differentiate between combatants and civilian “displaced people”, the corporation’s journalists mostly display a remarkable lack of curiosity regarding the issue of why a specific site was targeted but are at the same time quite happy to recycle Hamas denials concerning its use of “civilian facilities”.

The exploitation of civilian infrastructure – including schools, hospitals and UNRWA buildings – by Hamas and others for the purposes of terror was a well-documented fact even before the current war began. However, rather than informing BBC audiences about the dangers presented to displaced people sheltering at schools and hospitals by the presence of terrorists at those facilities, the BBC’s journalists instead prefer to provide a platform for Hamas’ blatant disinformation in the form of denials of its long-practiced use of human shields.

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