No follow up to BBC reports on strike in Jabaliya

The April 2^nd edition of the BBC World Service’s ‘Global News Podcast’ goes under the title “Israel expands offensive in Gaza”, with its synopsis telling audiences that:

“An Israeli air strike is reported to have killed at least 19 people at a UN clinic in northern Gaza, after Israel announced an expansion of its offensive in the territory.” [emphasis added]

The same description of the location of that incident was used by presenter Jackie Leonard in her introduction to the podcast:

Leonard: “An Israeli airstrike is reported to have killed at least 19 people at a UN clinic in northern Gaza, after Israel announced an expansion of its offensive in the territory.”

Leonard’s introduction of the item itself [from 01:02] includes another reference to “a UN clinic” as well as an arrogant but unevidenced claim about what “many Israelis thought”.

Leornard: “Defeating Hamas in Gaza is proving far tougher than many Israelis thought following the October the seventh massacre. Eighteen months after that attack, the defence minister Israel Katz has announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza, promising to seize large areas of the Palestinian territory which he said would be added to the security zones of the State of Israel. As ever though, civilians seem to be paying a heavy price. The Hamas-run health ministry said that 19 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a UN clinic – nine of them children. Israel’s military confirmed it did strike a United Nations facility, which it said had been used by Hamas. Our Middle East correspondent Yolande Knell is in Jerusalem.”

Even UNRWA’s commissioner general stated that the site concerned was not functioning as “a UN clinic”:

“Israeli Forces airstrikes hit an UNRWA building in Jabalia northern Gaza today. The building was previously a health centre, heavily damaged earlier in the war.”

Like Leonard, Yolande Knell based her reporting entirely on unverified information provided by the terrorist organisation which started the current war.

Knell: “Well overall at least 41 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza in the course of the day, according to the Hamas-run health ministry that’s just put out its latest figures and that includes 19 killed at this UN health clinic-turned-shelter for displaced people in Jabaliya in the north of Gaza. Now the Israeli military has put out a statement saying that it was targeting Hamas terrorists with an airstrike here, saying that they were using this site as a command-and-control centre. We’re still waiting for more details – a lot is still sketchy – but there’s been condemnation from the internationally-backed Palestinian Authority calling this action by Israel a massacre. And there’s really harrowing footage, which the BBC has not yet verified, which shows a baby among those killed, a small child as well, you can see smoke just pouring out of this building.”

Notably, the fact that “we’re still waiting for more details” and that the BBC had not verified the uncredited footage did not prevent Knell from promoting it.

On the same day – April 2^nd – the BBC News website published a report now credited to Yolande Knell and David Gritten which currently goes under the headline “Deadly strikes in Gaza as Netanyahu says Israel will seize new military corridor”.

Readers of that report are told that:

“Meanwhile, 19 Palestinians, including nine children, were killed in an air strike on a UN clinic-turned-shelter in the northern town of Jabalia, a local hospital said. Israel’s military said it targeted “Hamas terrorists”.”

And:

“The Civil Defence said the strike in Jabalia on Wednesday morning hit two rooms in a clinic run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) which was being used as a shelter.

Video verified by the BBC showed dozens of people and ambulances rushing to the building. Smoke was seen billowing from a wing where two floors appeared to have collapsed.

Unrwa’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, wrote on X that the building was previously a health centre that it had been heavily damaged earlier in the war. […]

The Israeli military said that it targeted Hamas operatives who were “hiding inside a command and control centre that was being used for co-ordinating terrorist activity and served as a central meeting point”.

It said “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of aerial surveillance and additional intelligence”.

Hamas denied that its fighters had been using the building.”

The day after the BBC published that report, details concerning the targets of the strike were provided and the Hamas denial uncritically promoted by the BBC was shown to be false.

“According to the military, among those killed in the strike was Shadi Diab Abd al-Hamid Falouji, a member of Hamas’s East Jabalia Battalion, who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, and participated in the onslaught.

Additionally, the IDF says the strike killed Mohammed Sharif, a member of Hamas’s general security mechanism, who was involved in the release ceremony of hostage soldier Agam Berger; Mohammed Hani Atiya Daour, a Hamas operative who headed a rocket and mortar squad; and Mohammed Issa Mahmoud Askari, member of a rocket unit in Hamas’s Northern Brigade and a member of the general security mechanism.”

In other words, at least four senior Hamas operatives were present in what the BBC repeatedly portrayed as “a UN clinic”.

The BBC, however, did not bother to update Gritten and Knell’s report to add that relevant context and the next day’s edition of the ‘Global News Podcast’ – which did include an item about the Gaza Strip from 19:44 – likewise failed to provide audiences with that essential information.

Once again, the method of reporting seen so often throughout the past eighteen months is on display in these two items. The BBC rushes to amplify unverified claims and casualty figures provided by the very terrorist organisation that started the war eighteen months ago but when additional information important to audience understanding of the incident becomes available, it shows no interest in providing follow up reporting.