On the afternoon of December 26th the BBC News website published reports concerning Israeli attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen following that group’s increased drone and missile attacks on Israel in recent weeks.
The first of those reports was originally credited to Raffi Berg and headlined ‘Waves of air strikes hit cities in Yemen – reports’, with readers told that:
“In recent days Israel has warned it was preparing a significant attack on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen after the group fired missiles at it.
Houthis have been attacking Israel with drones and missiles since the first months of the Gaza war, which began in October 2023.”
In the fourteen or so hours that followed, that report was amended six times. After it emerged that the head of the World Health Organisation had been at Sanaa airport at the time of one of the strikes, the headline was changed to ‘Head of WHO at Yemen airport during Israeli air strikes’. The version of the report currently available online is titled ‘UN health chief at Yemen airport during Israeli strikes’ and is credited to Lana Lam.
That report’s portrayal of the background to Israel’s latest strikes on Houthi targets reads as follows:
“Houthi rebels have been attacking Israel since the first months of the Gaza war, which began in October 2023.
A Houthi missile strike injured more than a dozen people in Israel last week.”
The link in that latter sentence leads readers to a report by Grace Dean dating from December 21st and titled ‘Houthi missile strike injures more than a dozen in Tel Aviv’ which did not appear on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page at the time.
A link to the same report also appeared in an entry on a December 26th live page dedicated to the same topic.
That live page also includes an entry purporting to provide readers with a “Timeline of recent attacks between Israel and Houthis”. Notably, that timeline begins with Israeli attacks on December 19th which were reported at the time in an article by David Gritten but completely ignores the Houthi attack that preceded those strikes.
As was reported by the ITIC on December 26th:
“Since the beginning of December 2024, Yahya Saria, the Houthi military spokesperson, claimed responsibility for 21 UAV and ballistic missile attacks on Israel, six of which were carried out in cooperation with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. It was the highest monthly number of attacks since the beginning of the Gaza Strip War. Some of the missiles and UAVs caused significant damage in Israel.”
Of those 21 attacks between December 1st and December 25th 2024, just two got any sort of coverage on the BBC News website.
On December 19th a ballistic missile fired at central Israel hit a school in Ramat Gan. That incident did not get any stand-alone BBC coverage but was mentioned in David Gritten’s report about the subsequent Israeli strikes against Houthi targets.
On December 21st a ballistic missile fired at central Israel hit a children’s playground in south Tel Aviv. That incident was the topic of Dean’s short report which, as noted above, did not appear on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page and was also mentioned in a December 21st report by Thomas Mackintosh headlined ‘US warplane shot down in Red Sea ‘friendly fire’ incident’.
Clearly BBC audiences lack the full background information necessary to put Israel’s responses to the Houthi attacks into their appropriate context.
By contrast, since the Houthis began attacking Israel in October 2023 (with over 370 drone and missile attacks recorded by the INSS in that time), Israel has carried out four rounds of retaliatory strikes, all of which were reported on the BBC News website: July 20th 2024, September 29th 2024, December 19th 2024 and December 26th 2024.
An example of the BBC’s chosen portrayal of the background to this topic – including unnecessary qualification – comes in an article by David Gritten published on December 27th under the headline ‘Houthis vow to continue attacking Israel despite strikes on Yemen’.
“The Houthis, who control north-western Yemen, began attacking Israel and international shipping shortly after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023.
Israel has carried out four rounds of air strikes against the Houthis since July in retaliation for the 400 missiles and drones that the Israeli military says have been launched at the country from Yemen, most of which have been shot down.” [emphasis added]
Another example of superfluous qualification is seen on the live page, where an uncredited entry includes scare quotes around a phrase which BBC journalists should know is an accurate representation.
The main purpose of Gritten’s December 27th report is to provide amplification of messaging from a representative of the militia which has incurred UK government sanctions to whom BBC World Service radio chose to give a platform to promote lies about ‘genocide’ and ‘siege’ in the Gaza Strip.
The report also tells readers about the ‘concerns’ of the UN Secretary General who has had remarkably little to say about over fourteen months of attacks against Israeli civilians perpetrated by a militia in a country over a thousand miles away.
The BBC’s live page on the story chose to provide amplification to condemnations of the Israeli strikes from the Houthi backer and arms supplier Iran, from the terrorist organisation Hamas and from Houthi leaders, with its final entry promoting the ridiculous claim from Shaimaa Khalil that the Israeli military operates according to “wrath”.
“The Houthis, who are also supported by Iran, have been launching attacks since the beginning of the war in Gaza in support of the Palestinians there. The group seems to have taken the fore, intensifying their attacks and drawing in the wrath of the Israeli military, with Netanyahu saying Israel is “only just starting” it’s campaign to destroy them.” [emphasis added]
If BBC audiences are to understand this story and any future developments, they must be accurately informed of the scale of the Houthi attacks against Israeli civilians. However, rather than providing some insight into the experiences of families forced to run for cover from missile attacks night after night, the BBC News website chose to focus audience attentions on the head of the World Health Organisation, publishing yet another report (based on an interview aired on at least four BBC radio programmes) on the evening of December 28th under the headline ‘WHO chief ‘escaped death narrowly’ in Yemen airport attack’.
Related Articles:
BBC BACKGROUNDER ON ‘A WEEK OF MISSILE STRIKES’ ERASES ATTACKS ON ISRAEL
OMISSIONS IN BELATED BBC REPORT ON MISSILE ATTACK ON CENTRAL ISRAEL
BBC Radio 4 Today program report from Yolande Knell at 8:06:36 to 8:07:21 GMT 19 December 2024 re missile strike in Israel – distorted report
It is hard to believe ,but once again Knell has reported the air strike against Yemen first followed by the ballistic missile strike on Israel. The first attack on Yemen occurred at 3:15 am Israel time and subsequently.
Given the distance to Yemen is some 2000km from Israel and F-16 aircraft top speed is 1,345 mph (2160 km per hour) with a Cruising speed: 577 mph (928km per hour) and a range of 1,407 miles (2264km) and F-35 aircraft figures are a top speed of 1200mph (1930km per hour) with a cruising speed of about 600mph (950 km per hour).One would calculate assuming a cruising speed that the planes took off from Israel about 1:00 am.
The Red Alert of the imminent incoming ballistic missile warning in Israel was given at 2:36 am.
Thus, the missile landed some 3/4 hour in Israel before any Israeli strikes on Yemen and the planes had left Israel well before the missile strike occurred
. Hence Knell should have been reporting the attack on Israel was first followed by the action in Yemen – the way she reported to the listeners was the airstrike on Yemen took place and then the Houthis sent the ballistic missiles in retaliation.
The report is available on https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00260s3
How can the BBC employ a journalist who turns facts around to suit her political agenda and bias? Or is the BBC now the voice of the Iranian Axis of Evil. What was put out in the soundbite was not Honest Reporting.