On August 6th the BBC News website published a short report by the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Yolande Knell headlined “Ten Palestinians dead in West Bank violence” which opens as follows: [emphasis added]
“Israeli forces have killed at least 10 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The Israeli military says it carried out two separate air strikes in the north of the territory targeting members of armed groups.”
Behind that narrative of “ten Palestinians” lie three stories, the last of which is presented by Knell as follows:
“Tensions remain very high across the West Bank. In the south of the territory, a Palestinian was killed after allegedly stabbing an Israeli soldier in Beit Jala, at a main checkpoint on a road to Jerusalem.”
There is, however, nothing ‘alleged’ about that stabbing attack which took place at the Tunnels Checkpoint on August 6th. As reported by the Times of Israel:
“A Palestinian man stabbed a female Border Police officer at the Tunnels Checkpoint near Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, police said, while security forces were questioning passengers to ensure they had valid entry permits.
Magen David Adom paramedics treated the 20-year-old officer at the scene and took her to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem for further treatment of minor injuries.
Alon Pikarsky, the hospital’s director of general surgery, was quoted by the Ynet news site as saying that the officer had been wounded in the back with a screwdriver and would undergo imaging tests.”
As documented by the ITIC, the attacker – who did not have a valid permit to enter Israel – was a member of the PFLP terrorist organisation:
Another of the three incidents is described by Knell as follows:
“Footage from Aqaba, near Tubas, shows a house stained with blood. Locals say that a boy of 14 was among four killed after a dawn raid by Israeli forces resulted in violent confrontations.”
The Times of Israel reported that story as follows:
“According to police, undercover officers operated to arrest wanted Palestinians, including one suspected of terror activities. Police said the suspected terrorist began to flee as troops surrounded his home, along with another gunman.
The Border Police officers then opened fire, killing the gunman and wounding the wanted man.
Additionally, troops returned fire at gunmen and other Palestinians hurling explosive devices at them, killing three and wounding nine others, according to police. No soldiers were hurt in the operation.
Aqabah residents said Israeli troops arrived at dawn and surrounded the house of a man named Amid Ghanam, leading to the clashes. Ghanam and two others were killed in the clashes, while a teenager was killed near a hospital, said Tubas governor Ahmed Assad.
The teenager was shot when the troops “entered the area of the hospital,” Assad said, claiming the teen “was killed in cold blood.””
Notably, all four of those killed appeared on a poster put out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (to which the wanted terrorist Ameed (Amid) Yassin Ghannam (aged 19) belonged) and all four, including 14-year-old Bilal Sawafta, were referred to as “A-Shaheed Al-Majahad” (“The Fighting Martyr”) – a title reserved for military operatives – in posters distributed on social media platforms.
Knell’s description of the third incident reads as follows:
“Meanwhile, in Jenin – a regular flashpoint – an Israeli aircraft attacked what the Israeli military described as “terrorist cells” killing at least five.
A column of Israeli armoured personnel carriers was filmed entering the city, while armoured bulldozers dug up roads.”
The Times of Israel reported that incident as follows:
“The military said an Israeli Air Force drone hit groups of gunmen in two separate strikes in Jenin as troops carried out a counterterrorism operation.
According to a military source, the first strike hit two gunmen on a motorcycle who were shooting at troops. The second strike targeted another cell that opened fire at forces.”
The ITIC reported that:
“On August 6, 2024, during an Israeli security force activity in Jenin, Israeli Air Force aircraft attacked two squads of armed terrorist operatives (IDF spokesperson, August 6, 2024). Wisam Bakr, director of the hospital in Jenin, reported that five bodies had arrived from the eastern neighborhood of Jenin and those who had been identified were Ahmad Hossam al-Saadi, Ayyam Hassan Jaber Bakarna [also Zakarneh – Ed.], and Khattab Majd Badawiya (Wafa, August 6, 2024).”
The other two were later named by Palestinian sources as brothers Saif and Omar Abu Ubaid. Photographs which appeared on social media indicate that Knell’s punctuation around the words “terrorist cells” is superfluous.
In other words, Knell’s headline – “Ten Palestinians dead in West Bank violence” – actually relates to one member of a terrorist organisation killed while carrying out a terror attack and nine others – most, if not all, terror operatives – killed while attacking Israeli forces engaged in counter-terrorism operations.
Her failure to report those three incidents fully and accurately – including pointing out that it was those Palestinians who instigated the violence mentioned in her headline – means that she can promote a Palestinian Authority spokesman who “condemned the recent violence” while avoiding the issue of the PA’s obligation under the Oslo Accords to prevent terrorism in areas under its control, such as Jenin.
By way of background, Knell tells her readers that:
“There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel on 7 October.
The local health ministry says at least 600 Palestinians – members of armed groups, attackers and civilians – have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
In fact – as the BBC should know because it published an unhelpful backgrounder on the topic in February 2023 – the surge in violence in Palestinian Authority controlled areas began over two years before the current war, with facilitation by Iranian proxy terrorist organisations.
Unsurprisingly, Knell makes no effort to clarify to her readers that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians killed fall into the categories “members of armed groups, attackers” rather than “civilians” but does go on to use a tactic seen in past BBC reporting:
“At least 17 Israelis, including 12 security forces personnel, have also been killed in the West Bank, according to a UN tally.”
Knell’s use of that selective geographical framing means that she can avoid informing her readers about fatal terror attacks which have taken place outside that location – including the one in Holon just two days before her report was published – and thus present the number of Israelis killed in terror attacks since October 7th 2023 (not including casualties related to the war) as considerably lower than is actually the case.
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Camera’s scrutinising of IPC (aka BBC) Middle East biased reports for inaccuracies and omissions is all very admirable – but who is reading it ? What is needed now is a means of getting Camera’s truthful research to bypass the Islamist IPC’s anti-Israel wall and on to fair media that would publish it to the British general public.