Early on the morning of March 31st a report appeared on the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page under the headline “Red Cross outraged over killing of eight medics in Gaza”. Originally credited to Jaroslav Lukiv, the report underwent several amendments in the hours following its publication, with the version currently appearing online titled “Red Cross outraged over killing of medics by Israeli forces in Gaza” and credited to Lukiv and David Gritten.
That report (links to which later appear in at least two other BBC articles) opens with versions of events as promoted by the Red Cross, a UN OCHA official and the PRCS but fails to inform BBC audiences that the Gaza Civil Defence force is run by Hamas.
“The Red Cross movement has expressed outrage that eight Palestinian medics were killed along with six Civil Defence first responders and a UN staff member by Israeli forces in southern Gaza.
Five ambulances, a fire truck and a UN vehicle were struck “one by one” in the al-Hashashin area on 23 March, according to a UN official. The 15 bodies were recovered from a “mass grave” on Sunday, he said.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said a ninth medic was missing and accused Israel of targeting staff.”
Only in paragraph four do readers find a clue as to why vehicles in that uncoordinated convoy came under fire.
“Israel’s military said troops fired on vehicles “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals. It said a Hamas operative and “eight other terrorists” were among those killed.”
The report continues with a further fifteen paragraphs of uncritical portrayal of the narratives of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza Jonathan Whittall, the head of UNRWA, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the father of one of those killed.
Only from paragraph twenty do readers find a statement from the IDF:
“The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that during an operation in southern Gaza on 23 March “several vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights, or emergency signals, their movement was not co-ordinated in advance. Thus, IDF troops opened fire at the suspected vehicles.”
“Following an initial assessment, it was determined that the forces had eliminated a Hamas military operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, along with eight other terrorists from Hamas and the PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad],” it added.
“Following the strike, the IDF co-ordinated with international organisations to facilitate the evacuation of the bodies.”
A previous IDF statement about the incident said an initial inquiry had determined that “some of the suspicious vehicles that were moving towards the troops were ambulances and fire trucks”. It also condemned what it called the “repeated use of civilian infrastructure by terrorist organisations”.”
In other words, readers found over four times more presentation of a version of the story which does not mention that the majority of those killed were terror operatives. Promotion of that narrative continues with quotes from Hamas official Basem Naim and OCHA promoting dubious interpretations of ‘international humanitarian law’:
“Senior Hamas official Basem Naim condemned the attack.
“The targeted killing of rescue workers – who are protected under international humanitarian law – constitutes a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime,” he said.
OCHA spokeswoman Olga Cherevko said there needed to be a full investigation to establish exactly what happened.
“They were aid workers in clearly marked vehicles, so this is why it’s obviously important to get to the bottom of it and get all the facts,” she told the BBC.
When asked about the IDF statements that Hamas and PIJ members had been killed, she said: “There are certain rules that all wars have, and this is why all parties to the conflict have to, obviously, abide by these rules. And this is what we’ve always said… But that doesn’t negate the fact that humanitarian aid workers and emergency responders shouldn’t be targeted.””
The morning after that report was published – April 1st – saw the appearance of a report by Tom Bateman and Sofia Ferreira Santos which was originally headlined “US says international humanitarian law should be followed in Gaza” but after a couple of hours had its title changed to “US says law applies to ‘all parties’ in Gaza after Israel kills medics”.
Once again that report promotes unverified claims made by UN OCHA
“The UN’s humanitarian agency has said five ambulances, a fire truck and a UN vehicle were struck “one by one” on 23 March and that 15 bodies, including paramedics still in their uniforms, had been gathered and buried in a mass grave.
The Israeli military said its troops had fired on vehicles “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals and that a Hamas operative and other militants were among those killed, but it did not offer any comment on the accounts of bodies being gathered up and buried in the sand. […]
Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN’s humanitarian agency in Gaza, said the mass grave had been “marked” with an emergency light from one of the ambulances hit in the strike.
“It’s an absolute horror what has happened here,” he said in a video on X, adding that “healthcare workers should never be a target”.”
Like their colleagues, Bateman and Santos do not bother to inform their readers that when “healthcare workers” double as terror operatives, they lose their protection – as noted by the ICRC itself:
“Whereas the First Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I provide for the loss of protection of medical units and transports in case they are used to commit, “outside their humanitarian function, acts harmful to the enemy”, Additional Protocol II provides for the loss of protection in case they are used to commit “hostile acts, outside their humanitarian function”. According to the Commentary on the Additional Protocols, the meaning of both terms is the same. Although these provisions specifically apply to medical units, the rule on loss of protection contained therein can be applied by analogy to medical personnel.”
As we see, the framing that the BBC is trying to promote in these two reports is that Israel ‘targeted’ healthcare workers and then buried them in a mass grave. The fact that the latter claim comes from UN OCHA alone does not appear to have concerned the four BBC journalists, who obviously did not verify the claims before promoting the story.
Particularly remarkable, however, is the lack of interest of these four BBC journalists in the fact that nine out of the fifteen people killed while travelling in that uncoordinated convoy of ambulances, a fire truck and a UN vehicle were operatives for terrorist organisations. Notably too, neither of these reports provides BBC audiences with context concerning past cases in which the PRCS has used ambulances for the purpose of terrorism.
