On February 9th the BBC News website published an item titled “Rebuilding my home in Gaza as Trump wants me to leave”.
Credited to “Alice Cuddy and the Visual Journalism team”, the report also includes additional credits at the end.
One might assume that an item credited to no fewer than thirteen people in all would provide some new information to the BBC’s funding public. However, that account of one woman’s journey from Deir al-Balah to her former place of residence in the northern part of the Gaza Strip does not present any novel insights – except perhaps for the revelation that it is possible to purchase bouquets of flowers in a place that BBC audiences have been repeatedly told for sixteen months lacks the bare essentials.
The report includes written and visual portrayals of destruction in its protagonist’s neighbourhood in northern Gaza which are exclusively attributed to Israeli actions.
“Access to power and internet is limited in Esraa Shaheen’s neighbourhood in northern Gaza – where Israeli bombing has destroyed much of the infrastructure.”
“The neighbourhood was an early target of Israel’s military campaign, which it says aimed to destroy Hamas. One large building located nearby was flattened within weeks of the war starting, and more destroyed structures and craters are visible in satellite images of the area from the first months of the war.”
However, at no point in the entire item are BBC audiences informed that Shaheen’s home on al Saftawi street is located in Jabalia and neither is any mention made of the terrorist infrastructure in that neighbourhood. BBC audiences are therefore deprived of context such as the following:
“The operation involved airstrikes and ground forces taking control of a compound that the IDF said was used by Hamas’s Central Jabaliya Battalion. Several buildings in the Jabaliya area collapsed; the IDF said they were brought down when Hamas terror tunnels beneath them collapsed following airstrikes targeting the head of the battalion and terror infrastructure.”
“The Israeli army said Tuesday that its forces have completed the encirclement of the city of Jabaliya, and are ready to deepen the fighting as they sought to take control of one of the last major Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip. […]
Three tunnel entrances, with Hamas operatives inside, were struck, the IDF added.”
“The Israel Defense Forces revealed Sunday that it found a large Hamas tunnel network beneath the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, where the bodies of five Israeli hostages were recovered earlier this month. […]
The IDF initially located tunnel shafts after deploying troops based on the intelligence that there were two bodies of hostages being held in Jabaliya, a once-densely populated neighborhood and refugee camp abutting Gaza City in northern Gaza.
The shafts, investigated by troops, including the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, revealed a massive tunnel network with two levels and an elevator heading down dozens of meters to a large hall and command center, the IDF said.”
“The IDF says Hamas turned Jabaliya’s civilian infrastructure into “a fortified combat complex,” opened fire at troops from schools and other sites where civilians were sheltering, and built tunnel networks under civilian buildings.
Some 120 anti-tank projectiles were launched at the troops, along with dozens more incidents of planted explosive devices, sniper fire, and drones that dropped bombs, according to the military. […]
Hundreds of weapons, as well as several weapon-manufacturing sites and several rocket launchers, were located and destroyed by troops in the operation, the IDF says.
Underground, some 12 kilometers (7 miles) worth of Hamas tunnels were demolished by combat engineers, after troops raided the underground networks, the IDF says.”
“The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that troops had encircled Jabaliya amid a new ground operation targeting efforts by Hamas to reestablish itself in northern Gaza. […]
The military said the strikes targeted dozens of Hamas sites in Jabaliya, including weapon depots, tunnels, cells of operatives, and other infrastructure.”
Despite the IDF having had to carry out repeat operations in Jabalia, this BBC report (like others before it) fails to make any mention of the relevant issues of hostages, underground tunnels, weapons stores or booby-trapped buildings.
As has been previously documented here, the BBC News website has already produced numerous reports on the topic of the return of residents to the northern part of the Gaza Strip, with extensive – if mostly context-free – portrayals of “ruined homes” and “destruction”.
THEMES IN BBC NEWS WEBSITE GAZA CEASEFIRE COVERAGE
The BBC News website has also published numerous items relating to the topic of the US president’s proposals for the Gaza Strip.
PREDICTABLE BBC FRAMING IN COVERAGE OF TRUMP’S GAZA STRIP PROPOSALS
It is therefore unclear why the BBC decided to have no fewer than thirteen people work on an item which does not provide audiences with any new information, insights or even context but merely repeats an already over-promoted narrative.
