On the morning of April 1st Israel’s air defences intercepted a rocket launched at the Sderot area from the northern Gaza Strip. On the evening of April 2nd, two rockets were launched at Sderot and surrounding communities from Jabaliya. Both were intercepted and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. On the evening of April 3rd a rocket launched from Gaza City towards Kibbutz Nahal Oz was intercepted. That attack was also claimed by the PIJ.
None of those attacks on three consecutive days was considered newsworthy by the BBC News website.
On the evening of April 6th a barrage of ten rockets was launched by Hamas from the Deir al Balah areas towards Ashdod, Ashkelon and surrounding communities. Five of the rockets were intercepted, with one of the others landing in Ashkelon and one person injured as a result. Later the same evening, the IDF struck the launch site in Deir al Balah after issuing evacuation warnings to local residents.
On the afternoon of April 7th (local time) the BBC News website published a report headlined “Gaza air strikes follow heaviest rocket fire by Hamas in months”. Credited to Raffi Berg, that report underwent amendments in the hours following its appearance. The following day its headline was changed to read “Israel carries out air strikes on Gaza after Hamas fires rockets” and a footnote was added:
Those amendments can be seen here.
The version of the report currently appearing online opens in typical ‘last-first’ BBC style:
“Israel has carried out fresh air strikes on Gaza, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying on Monday morning that at least 56 Palestinians had been killed over the previous 24 hours.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered a “strong response” after Hamas fired 10 rockets into Israel on Sunday.
It’s the heaviest barrage for several months and comes weeks after Israel resumed its military campaign in Gaza.
About half of the rockets landed inside Israel with the remainder being shot down, the Israeli military said. One person was wounded by falling debris, Israeli medics said.”
Later in the report, readers find the following:
“Earlier, the IDF said it had hit the launcher which fired the rockets at Israel, after ordering residents in several districts of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza to evacuate.
Issuing the order, IDF Arabic spokesman Lt Col Avichay Adraee warned that Israel would “launch a severe strike on any area from which rockets are fired”.
Hamas said it fired the rockets in response to Israeli “massacres of civilians in Gaza”, Reuters news agency reported.”
In paragraph sixteen (out of 24) readers find another one-sentence description of the April 6th rocket attack:
“Footage from the Israeli city of Ashkelon showed flashes in the sky as sirens wailed and an explosion at the bottom of a block of flats during the rocket attack on Sunday night.”
By contrast, readers find six earlier paragraphs relating to a different story:
“In Gaza, a Palestinian journalist was killed and nine others wounded when an air strike hit a tent used by local media in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, the Hamas Government Media Office and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) said.
Reuters news agency said footage showed people trying to put out a blaze in the tent which it said was inside the compound of Nasser hospital.
The dead journalist was identified by the PJS as Helmi al-Faqaawi of Palestine Today TV.
The PJS said it “strongly condemned, in the harshest terms, this appalling massacre”. It called on the UN to take action to stop Israel from “targeting the entire Palestinian people, including journalists”.
In a joint statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet intelligence agency said they had struck a “Hamas terrorist… who operates under the guise of a journalist and owns a press company”.
They said the man, Hassan Eslaih, had participated in the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel which triggered the war.”
Berg does not adequately clarify that the target of the strike, Hassan Eslaih, was one of those wounded or that the IDF’s statement also noted that Eslaih is a terrorist operative in Hamas’ Khan Yunis Brigade.
Neither does Berg have anything to tell BBC audiences in his own words about Eslaih having been employed as a freelancer by CNN and AP or his self-documented illegal entry into Israel together with terrorists during the October 7th attacks.
While Berg was happy to amplify the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate’s condemnation, he had nothing to tell his readers about that organisation and its involvement in lawfare against Israel. Neither did he inform BBC audiences the CPJ’s announcement concerning that strike describes Helmi al-Faqawi as “a social media manager for pro-Palestinian Islamic Jihad broadcaster Palestine Today TV”. [emphasis added]
Berg goes on to amplify redundant Hamas denials concerning its exploitation of medical facilities, including Nasser hospital.
“Nasser, which is the largest hospital still functioning in Gaza, has been struck multiple times by the IDF since the war began.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as covert bases and for storing weapons, which the group denies.”
The CPJ’s list of those injured in that strike on what the BBC describes as “a tent used by local media” includes a name which, notably, does not appear in Berg’s report: BBC Arabic contributor Ahmed Al-Agha, who only days earlier had been the topic of a statement put out by the BBC in light of an article published by the Telegraph.
Apparently the BBC News website’s Middle East editor did not consider the fact that a BBC Arabic contributor was keeping company with a Hamas terrorist and journalists from a terrorist supporting media outlet to be newsworthy.
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