Narratives replace news in BBC TV reporting on the Gaza Strip

Previously we discussed BBC News website coverage of an IDF counter-terrorism operation at the Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern Gaza Strip:

BBC BASES GAZA HOSPITAL REPORT ON CLAIMS FROM HAMAS FUNCTIONARIES

As noted, that report promoted disinformation put out by the health ministry run by the terrorist organisation which started the current war and which exploits hospitals – including the one that is the topic of the report – for military purposes.

“The third paragraph of the BBC’s report promotes another claim from the Hamas health ministry: [emphasis added]

“On Friday an estimated 50 people, including medical staff were killed in Israeli air strikes targeting the vicinity of the hospital, the health ministry said.”

A report from the Times of Israel (which includes a link to this BBC article) clarifies that inaccurate allegation:

“The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that a military raid, completed Saturday, on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza had killed 19 terror operatives, without any known civilian casualties, after Hamas-run health authorities previously claimed — and some international media reported — that 50 people had been killed, including hospital staff.””

That same disinformation – this time attributed to “staff” at the hospital rather than to the Hamas health ministry – was promoted in a BBC News Channel TV report aired on December 28^th, with presenter Rich Preston telling viewers that:

“Staff say airstrikes there on Friday killed fifty people.”

Preston also told viewers that:

“Israel says the hospital was being used by Hamas as a command centre but has not provided any evidence to support this.”

Preston – who claims to have a “special interest” in security and defence – conveniently managed to ignore the fact that not only were some 240 suspected terror operatives detained in this latest operation but also that a year ago, the same hospital’s former director stated that Hamas had offices inside the hospital and used it as a base for operational activity.

The item continued with Preston bringing in Emir Nader, who wrote the original version of the BBC News website report on the same topic. As in that written report, Nader’s account cited claims made by “the deputy minister of health in Gaza” but viewers were not informed that Dr Yousef Abu-Al Rish is a member of Hamas with a record of promoting disinformation. Emir also noted that the hospital’s director had been detained, but viewers were not informed of his Hamas links either.

Like Preston, Nader ignored the discovery of weapons and military equipment during the operation in order to amplify Hamas denials of its use of the hospital for military purposes.

“The Israeli military after it cleared the hospital yesterday said that it was being used by Hamas as a terrorist stronghold – something that Hamas have…have denied.”

The item continued (from 02:41) with Preston introducing a guest as follows: [emphasis in italics in the original]

“Well let’s speak now to Dr James Smith, an emergency doctor who’s been to Gaza twice in the last year…”

Ignoring BBC editorial guidelines on the topic of “Contributors’ Affiliations”, Preston failed to inform viewers that Dr Smith’s trip to the Gaza Strip was arranged by the anti-Israel NGO ‘Medical Aid for Palestinians’ (MAP) – as the BBC knows because it interviewed him in January 2024, stating:

“Another doctor placed at al-Aqsa with MAP, James Smith, told the BBC that he had heard gunfire on several days.”

Neither did Preston inform viewers that his interviewee has called for an end to UK arms sales to Israel or that his “particular viewpoints” – as expressed in numerous media interviews – include the opinion that “the UK government is clearly complicit in not only the ongoing genocide in Gaza but the protracted occupation of Palestine” or that even before travelling to the Gaza Strip, he co-authored a paper claiming that “[f]raming Palestinian violence on October 7 as provocation and Israeli violence as response is ahistoric”.

Preston’s failure to provide his viewers with such relevant context enabled the following conversation with his guest (from 04:33):

Preston: “A spokesperson for the WHO says that for those who are severely injured in Gaza, this is a death sentence. Is that fair?”

Smith: “I think that’s more than fair. I think that’s probably an understatement. I think it’s been a death sentence for Palestinians in Gaza for months now. More than 14 months I’ve watched Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the UN special rapporteur have described as a genocide and ethnic cleansing. Now the strategy of deliberately targeting healthcare facilities, healthcare workers and health infrastructure forms part of that wider strategy. Kamal Adwan was the last remaining hospital; the northernmost hospital in…in…in Gaza. At last estimates provided by the UN suggested that there were about 75 thousand people still sheltering and fearing for their lives in the north of Gaza, without any access to healthcare, any access to water, to food, to medicine. What is left other than to…to die, to be killed or to be forcibly displaced to the south?”

Preston made no effort to clarify to viewers that – as recently noted by the US ambassador to Israel – the number of people estimated to currently be in northern Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000 rather than 75,000 as claimed by UNOCHA. Neither did he bother to inform viewers that in the week that this item was broadcast, 266 truckloads of aid entered the northern Gaza Strip or that the water supply to that area stands at around 107 litres per person per day.

So what did BBC television audiences learn from this item? While they were not provided with any serious reporting on the topic of the exploitation of hospitals in the Gaza Strip for the purposes of terrorism, they did hear repeated promotion of related Hamas denials. In addition, they heard an inadequately presented activist promote unchallenged falsehoods and smears in order to advance the narrative that fits his politically motivated agenda.

And so, once more the BBC demonstrates that its priority is to promote narratives rather than to report news.