On January 3rd visitors to the BBC News website found the fourth article published in eight days on the topic of the December 27th/28th IDF counter-terrorism operation at the Kamal Adwan hospital and the broader topic of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
Headlined ‘Israel confirms it is holding Gaza hospital chief Abu Safiya’ and credited to Emir Nader (in Jerusalem) and a freelancer called Rachel Hagan (in the UK), that report opens as follows:
“Israel has confirmed it is holding Gaza hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya after earlier telling a local NGO that it was unaware of his case, sparking concern for his well being.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said he was “currently being investigated by Israeli security forces” in person.
The statement did not offer an explanation for the confusion but repeated that he was suspected of being a “terrorist” and for “holding a rank” in Hamas, the armed Palestinian group at war with Israel in Gaza.
Dr Abu Safiya was arrested as the Israeli military forced patients and medical staff to leave Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza last Friday, alleging the facility was a “Hamas terrorist stronghold”.”
The report goes on to uncritically amplify talking points from ‘Amnesty International’ without providing readers with any relevant information concerning that NGO’s anti-Israel record.
“Meanwhile Amnesty head Agnès Callamard said Israeli authorities must “urgently disclose his whereabouts”.
She said Israel had detained “hundreds of Palestinian healthcare workers from Gaza without charge or trial” and said they had been “subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and been held in incommunicado detention”.
Israel denies mistreating detainees.”
Despite a week having gone by since the counter-terrorism operation at the Kamal Adwan hospital took place, Nader and Hagan’s report has nothing new to tell BBC audiences.
“The IDF ordered everyone inside Kamal Adwan hospital to leave last Friday morning, giving the hospital about 15 minutes to move patients and staff into the courtyard, medical staff told the BBC. […]
On Saturday, the IDF said it apprehended 240 combatants at Kamal Adwan and said Dr Abu Safiya was among medical staff taken for questioning.”
The fact that among the Hamas and PIJ operatives arrested in the hospital managed by Abu Safiya – some of whom have been named – were fifteen who had taken part in the massacre of October 7th 2023 is not mentioned.
As in the BBC News website’s previous reporting on this story and the broader topic of hospitals, readers are not provided with any information in the corporation’s own words concerning the long-known exploitation of medical facilities by Gaza Strip terrorist organisations.
Despite failing to inform readers about the failure of the UN and its assorted departments to condemn – and act against – the Hamas strategy of exploitation of hospitals that compromises the healthcare of civilians in the Gaza Strip, the report goes on to re-promote allegations already reported three days earlier:
“Israeli attacks on Gaza’s healthcare facilities have prompted increasing condemnation.
On Tuesday the UN Human Rights Office says Israeli attacks on and around hospitals have pushed Gaza’s healthcare system to “the brink of total collapse” and raised serious concerns about war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The day before this BBC report appeared, the Israeli news channel N12 published an article based on interviews with members of the military intelligence unit which took part in the operation. Parts of that article were translated by the Jerusalem Post:
“Security forces decided to raid the hospital after intelligence revealed there were hundreds of terrorists hiding inside the compound.
An IDF reservist, Lt. (Res.) D., told N12 that while interrogating terrorists at the hospital, they all pointed to the hospital director and asked for him to come see them and help them. “We understood that the person at the very heart of the event, orchestrating the terror and Hamas activity in the compound, was the hospital director himself,” D. said. […]
Sgt.-Maj. (Res.) A., another investigator present during the raid, confirmed that they discovered that the hospital director was a senior Hamas operative. […]
…”every Hamas terrorist we interrogated confirmed that the Kamal Adwan Hospital is their military base: it’s where they regroup, store their weapons, and manage the intelligence they gather. Some of the hospital rooms have been converted into Hamas operational rooms.”
“Kamal Adwan Hospital is a Hamas operations and organization base, including the preparation of explosives, ammunition, and weapons,” N12 quoted Master-Sgt. (Res.) G. as saying. “Every issue related to hostages has passed through this hospital at various times. Hamas set up operational rooms inside the hospital, and no civilian ever entered those rooms.”
The Unit 504 investigators said that this hospital did not even really function as a hospital. “It was made to look like a hospital, and patients were brought there just for appearances. In reality, there are entire sections meant solely for the entry of Hamas terrorists,” G. explained.”
Rather than providing information about the exploitation of healthcare facilities – including the Kamal Adwan hospital – by terrorist organisations, BBC reporting on this story has instead focused on providing amplification for narratives and publicity campaigns promoted by anti-Israel NGOs and assorted UN departments. That editorial choice means that the corporation is failing to meet the first of its obligations towards its funding public.
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BBC CONTINUES TO PRIORITISE GAZA HOSPITALS NARRATIVE OVER NEWS
