On the evening of February 26th the BBC News website published a live page relating to the return of the bodies of four hostages to Israel in phase nine of the ceasefire agreement.
Several entries on that live page concerned the Palestinian prisoners released after the bodies were received, with some telling BBC audiences that the corporation could not report who they were.
A written report by George Wright – published in the early hours of February 27th and currently titled “Israel confirms Hamas handed over hostages’ bodies as Palestinian prisoners released” – includes an unnarrated video and is similarly uninformative, with earlier versions telling readers that:
“Following the handover of the bodies, buses carrying Palestinian prisoners left Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank and then arriving at the Ramallah Cultural Palace, where a large crowd gathered to celebrate their release.
Later, dozens of Palestinian prisoners were seen getting off buses outside a hospital in the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza. They were among more than 400 Gazans detained by Israeli forces without charge during the war.
Dozens of prisoners convicted of carrying out deadly attacks on Israelis are also being sent abroad.”
Given that the release of those prisoners had been delayed by several days, one might have assumed that the BBC would have been able to find out “what crimes these individuals were accused or committed of [sic]”.
As the Jerusalem Post had already reported on February 22nd before the delay was announced:
“In exchange, Israel will release senior Hamas officials such as Salama Qatawi. Another terrorist to be released is Abd al-Nasser Issa, a student of Hamas bombmaker and engineer Yahya Ayash, who was credited with advancing the technique of suicide bombings used by Palestinian terrorists. Issa himself was responsible for two suicide bombings, according to KAN.
Othman Bilal, another terrorist to be released, was serving 27 life sentences for a series of terrorist attacks that led to the murder and injury of dozens of Israelis, the KAN report added.
Another terrorist to be released is Omar al-Zaban, who is responsible for terror attacks that led to 27 Israelis dead. […]
For some terrorists, this will not be the first time they have been released in a prisoner-hostage exchange, as a few dozen of them were released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit deal and then were later rearrested. Others include veteran prisoners who were imprisoned for decades.
One of them is Nael al-Barghouti, who according to KAN is the longest-serving inmate in an Israeli prison, who was convicted in the 1970s for murdering an Israeli officer while he was active in Fatah and later joined the ranks of Hamas.
Another is Samer Al-Makhrom, who was convicted of murdering an Israeli citizen four decades ago.”
Late on February 26th, while the BBC’s live page was still being updated, Ynet reported that:
“Among those to be deported is Nael Barghouti, convicted of murdering Israeli bus driver Mordechai Yekuel in 1978. Barghouti was initially freed in the Shalit deal but later re-arrested for violating his release terms. Another notable prisoner is Salama Qatawi, who led Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails over the past four years. Jailed in 2009 for activities with Hamas’ military wing, he was sentenced to 15 years. Also being released is Bilal Abu Ghanem, sentenced to three life terms for the 2015 attack on Jerusalem’s Bus 78, which killed Chaim Haviv, Alon Govberg and Richard Lakin.
Another prisoner set to be freed is Khalil Jabarin Abu Hamid, who murdered Ari Fuld in 2018 at the entrance to a shopping center in Gush Etzion. He was sentenced to life in prison. Also released will be Omar al-Zaben, who was convicted on multiple counts related to deadly attacks, sentenced to 27 life terms plus 25 years, and imprisoned for more than 19 years. A senior figure in Hamas’ military wing, he was found responsible for multiple attacks that killed 27 Israelis.
This phase of the prisoner release, which was postponed, includes three veteran prisoners who will all be deported outside Palestinian territories. Alongside Barghouti, Samer Mahroun will be released after serving 38 years for the 1986 murder of a yeshiva student in Jerusalem, and Alaa al-Din al-Bazian, who served 42 years for involvement in various attacks, including the 2014 abduction and murder of Israeli teenagers Naftali Frenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrah.”
In other words, had the BBC wished to give its audiences at least some idea of “who the prisoners are or what crimes they were convicted of”, all it had to do was read or watch the local media.
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The BBC self-censors in order not to offend its valuable sources inside Hamas.