In the early hours of March 18th, around two hours after the commencement of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, the BBC News website published the first of several reports on that topic.
The current version of that report – “Israel launches waves of strikes on Gaza with more than 400 reportedly killed” – is credited to Rushdi Abualouf, Robert Greenall and George Wright and it opens by telling BBC audiences that:
“The Israeli military says it is carrying out “extensive strikes” in the Gaza Strip, with the Hamas-run health ministry reporting more than 400 Palestinians have been killed.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was attacking what it called “terror targets” belonging to Hamas. The strikes are continuing and the IDF has issued fresh evacuation orders for many areas.
Mahmoud Abu Wafah [sic], deputy interior minister in Gaza and the territory’s highest-ranking Hamas security official, is among the dead. Four other senior officials were later reported killed.”
No further details about those “four other senior officials” are provided but the report does include extensive accounts of events given to media organisations including the BBC.
“Essam Abu Odeh and his family said they had been sleeping when the strikes started.
“Around 02:00 [midnight GMT], we were suddenly awakened by the sounds of heavy shelling,” he told the BBC’s Gaza radio service. […]
“It was a tough night for everyone,” Rosalia Bollen, a spokesperson for the UN’s children’s charity Unicef working in al-Mawasi, Gaza, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. […]
Mohammed Zaquot, director general of the Gaza Strip’s hospitals, told BBC Arabic the injured included people with burns and fractures, with many still waiting for surgery.”
Some of those accounts of events appeared along with others in a March 18th report by Frances Mao headlined “‘Once again, fear has gripped the people’”. Notably, no mention whatsoever is made in that report of the terror operatives targeted in the strikes.
“Essam Abu Odeh and his family had been sleeping when the war planes came again.
“Around 02:00 [midnight GMT], we were suddenly awakened by the sounds of heavy shelling,” he told the BBC’s Gaza radio service. […]
The BBC met the family of one injured man, Ahmad Mo’in al-Jumla, at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. He had been at the Beach refugee camp in al-Ahrar when it was hit. […]
“I was shocked that the war started again, but at the same time, this is what we expect from the Israelis,” Hael a resident from Jabalia al-Balad told BBC Arabic.”
Another BBC report published on March 18th – “Is the war starting again in Gaza?” – is credited to Raffi Berg.
“A ceasefire which had halted fighting between Israel and Hamas for two months appears to be over following an intense wave of air strikes by Israel on what it said were Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.”
That report also does not include any information concerning the terror operatives targeted in the air strikes.
An additional report which appeared on the same day is titled “Why has Israel bombed Gaza and what next for ceasefire deal?”. Credited to Emir Nader, that report also fails to provide any information concerning the terror operatives targeted but does tell readers that:
“Israeli fighter jets unleashed a wave of bombardment across the Gaza Strip through the night, ripping into a fragile truce that has mostly held since it came into effect in January. […]
In recent weeks, the Israel military has said it’s repeatedly struck targets they’ve identified as Hamas fighters posing a threat to its troops stationed in Gaza.
But the reasons for Netanyahu’s decision to return to attacking Hamas is a subject of contention.”
The synopsis to a filmed BBC Verify report which appeared on March 18th under the title “BBC Verify: Mapping Israel’s wave of strikes” states:
“More than 400 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel’s military says it’s been hitting “terror targets” across the territory.”
Towards the end of that video viewers are told that “Hamas announced that some of its most senior officials have been killed in the overnight strikes” but no details are provided.
The synopsis to another filmed report – “Watch: Explosions over Gaza as Israel launches new strikes against Hamas” – tells BBC audiences that:
“More than 400 people have been killed by Israeli air strikes on Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The Israeli military says it’s hitting “terror targets” across Gaza after talks to extend the ceasefire failed – it’s the biggest wave of strikes since 19 January, when the ceasefire began.”
Again, no details are provided concerning those terror targets.
The seventh report to appear in the 24 hours following the commencement of air strikes is credited to Gabriela Pomeroy and headlined “Netanyahu calls strikes on Gaza ‘only the beginning’ as hundreds reported killed”.
“More than 400 people have been killed in the attacks, the Hamas-run health ministry said, and hundreds more injured.”
That report includes the following:
“Key Hamas figures were killed in the airstrikes, including Major General Mahmoud Abu Watfa, deputy interior minister in Gaza and the highest-ranking Hamas security official.”
As we see, out of seven items of content published on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page on March 18th – which will remain online as “permanent public record” – four make no mention whatsoever of the terror operatives targeted in the strikes that are their topic. Two name one senior Hamas official (with different spellings), with one also referring to four others who go unnamed. One report makes a mention of “some” Hamas officials.
The BBC’s failure to provide details of the targets of the strikes in most of its reporting was not however due to a lack of information, which had already begun to become available on the morning of March 18th. By early evening Israel time, Hamas had already named six senior officials.
“The IDF confirmed Tuesday evening that it has killed four out of six senior Hamas officials who the terror group itself have announced as being hit by IDF strikes. […]
The four were: Issam al-Da’alis, who has served as Hamas’s political Gazan prime minister, Mahmoud Abu Watfa, the director-general of Hamas’s Interior Ministry and related terror forces, Bahjat Abu Sultan, operational chief of Hamas’s internal security apparatus, and Hamas justice minister Ahmed Omar al-Hatta.
Hamas also said that senior officials Muhammad al-Jamasi and Yasir Herev were killed in IDF strikes, though the military has not yet confirmed those deaths.”
That confirmation came the following day.
Moreover, a BBC News website live page included several relevant entries posted throughout the day.
In other words, the BBC could have updated the reports published on March 18th to include that context and thereby help audiences understand unnecessarily qualified statements such as:
“The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was attacking what it called “terror targets” belonging to Hamas.”
And:
“Israel’s military says it’s been hitting “terror targets” across the territory.”
Moreover, in light of its repeated amplification of Hamas claims concerning “more than 400 people killed” and given the involvement (as documented in some of the above reports) of BBC Arabic reporters in its coverage, the BBC should have been able to inform its audiences that some of those casualties were family members being used as human shields by the Hamas officials and PIJ operative targeted in the strikes.
In some ways the Daily Telegraph was even worse. In the ‘Live’ news section it stated that hundreds had been killed, including “children and babies” with no obvious accreditation or verification. Pure sensationalism.