On March 9th the BBC News website published a report by Jon Donnison and Lucy Clarke-Billings titled “Israel to cut off electricity supply to Gaza, minister says” which opens as follows:
Similar wording was seen in the promotion of and the synopsis to the March 9th edition of the BBC World Service’s ‘Global News Podcast’ which included a report (from 04:10 here) from Jon Donnison.
The claim that “Israel ordered all of Gaza’s electricity supply to be cut off” [emphasis added] is however inaccurate and misleading. Israel does not supply “all of Gaza’s electricity” and never has.
At most, Israel has in the past provided around 60% of the electricity in the Gaza Strip. Egypt used to supply around 10% but stopped doing so in October 2017.
In paragraph four of the written report readers are told that:
“The decision to cut electricity is expected to primarily affect the operation of desalination plants which are crucial for providing clean drinking water.”
As reported by Israeli media outlets, one desalination plant (out of three in the Gaza Strip) which is located in Deir el Balah– rather than “plants” plural, as also claimed in the podcast – will be affected by the decision to shut down one 5.3 megawatt power line. However, that desalination plant has back-up generators. The Times of Israel reported that:
“The plant serves more than 600,000 Gaza residents through tankers or the networks of Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis governorates in central and southern Gaza, respectively. It is one of three such seawater processing facilities in the Gaza Strip, which before the war met around 15 percent of the 2 million-plus residents’ need for water.”
The report continues:
“The government said it has not ruled out cutting off water supplies.”
Readers are not informed how much of the Gaza Strip’s water supply comes from Israel (around 9%) and so have no idea of the implications of any potential “cutting off”.
In paragraph seven of the written report Donnison and Clarke-Billings inform readers that:
“Israel cut off most of the mains electricity supply to Gaza earlier in the war.”
“Earlier in the war” was in fact October 12th 2023. As was explained at the time by Dr Elai Rettig of Bar Ilan University:
“During times of peace, 50% of the electricity in Gaza is provided by Israel through ten points of entry, amounting to approximately 120MW per day. Israel provides electricity at no cost to Gaza. Although technically, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is responsible for paying for the electricity supply to Gaza, it instead accumulates the debt until it is periodically forgiven and erased. Current electricity debt stands at 2 billion NIS (approximately 500 million USD).
The other half of Gaza’s electricity is generated independently. Gaza has one diesel-fueled power plant that produces around 65MW, providing 25% of Gaza’s supply. The rest of the electricity is generated through a wide array of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and private diesel generators in residential areas, government buildings, and hospitals. During the day, around 25% of Gaza’s electricity is generated through PV panels, representing one of the world’s highest shares. This was made possible through multiple funding projects led by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and other intergovernmental organizations in the past decade. At night, private diesel generators replace the PV panels.”
Donnison and Clarke-Billings however fail to inform their readers that generators and solar panels were wide used before the current war, with their choice of wording even suggesting that their use is due to the current conflict:
“Gaza’s coastal territory and its infrastructure have been largely devastated by the war, and generators and solar panels are used for some of the power supply.”
Notably, they have nothing to tell their readers about the fact that, as in previous conflicts, multiple power lines were damaged by Hamas rockets early on in the war.
The written report goes on:
“Talks to prolong the fragile ceasefire, the first phase of which ended on 1 March, are expected to resume in Qatar on Monday.
Israel wants Hamas to accept an extension of the first phase of their ceasefire.
But Hamas wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase, which would see the release of the remaining hostages from Gaza, withdrawal of Israeli forces and a permanent end to war.” [emphasis added]
Donnison likewise touted the notion that Hamas wants a “permanent end to the war” in the ‘Global News Podcast’. As previously documented here, that claim has been repeatedly promoted in recent BBC content but, like so many of their colleagues, Donnison and Clarke-Billings failed to inform BBC audiences of the statements from various Hamas leaders concerning the intention to resume hostilities at their convenience.
As we see, the misleading presentations and multiple omissions in these written and audio reports mean that BBC audiences did not receive an accurate and impartial account of the story. They did however find a reference to “collective punishment” in the written report and a mention of “war crimes” in Donnison’s audio report.
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