Previously we discussed a BBC News website March 23rd report about a strike on a senior Hamas official at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis:
BBC REPORT PROMOTES HAMAS DISINFORMATION FOR 19 HOURS
The following day – March 24th – BBC Verify published a filmed report titled “BBC Verify: Israel’s hospital assassination in Gaza” which is credited as follows:
“Verification by Kumar Malhotra, Emma Pengelly, Benedict Garman, and Richard Irvine-Brown. Produced by Mohamed Shalaby. Graphics by Mesut Ersoz.”
The synopsis to that report reads as follows:
“An Israeli air strike on a hospital in Gaza has killed a senior Hamas leader, according to the group.
The attack comes as the Hamas-run health ministry says more than 50,000 Palestinians have now been killed since Israel launched military operations following the Hamas assault of 7 October 2023.
BBC Verify’s Nick Beake has been investigating the strike that killed Ismail Barhoum, the head of the Hamas’s financial affairs, and looking at the legality of such attacks on hospitals.”
Nick Beake opens that report by telling viewers that: [emphasis added]
Beake: “Israel’s killing of a senior Hamas leader in Gaza was captured during a live BBC Arabic report.”
The image appearing on screen at the time shows that “live BBC Arabic report” and its presenter.
On April 5th the Telegraph published a report headlined “‘Israelis are not human beings,’ says reporter used by BBC in Gaza”.
The Telegraph’s report notes that:
“Ahmed Alagha has appeared on BBC Arabic reporting from the conflict numerous times since January last year.
He appeared last Sunday reporting from close to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, moments after Israeli forces assassinated Ismail Barhoum, a senior Hamas leader, in an air strike on the medical facility.
The bombing was caught on camera and Mr Alagha’s dispatch also featured on BBC News.”
As reported by the Telegraph and others, Alagha – also Al Agha – has a history of antisemitic, anti-Israel and terror-supporting posts on social media.
“It has now emerged that Mr Alagha, who is billed on air as a Palestinian journalist, appears to have singled out Jews for condemnation and described Israelis as worse than “beasts” on his social media accounts.
Responding to footage of Gaza tower blocks being bombed by Israel following Hamas’s attacks on Oct 7 2023, Mr Alagha posted on X a few days later: “This is not a Hollywood film; this is what was done to these towers in Gaza City at the hands of the Israeli occupation, and it’s happening to us in Gaza.
“It [the Israeli occupation] is the embodiment of filth, the unrivalled swamp of wickedness. As for the Jews, they are the devils of the hypocrites.”
The following day he posted: “And as we know, the ‘Israelis’ are not human beings to begin with, rather they are not even beasts. Perhaps they belong to a race for which no description can capture the extent of their lust and sadism.
“That’s just one snapshot. What if we were to compile all their crimes across that entire dark/black history, from the moment of occupation up until now? It is the entity of filth, and the unrivalled swamp of wickedness.””
The Telegraph’s report includes a response from the BBC:
“A BBC spokesman said: “International journalists including the BBC are not allowed access into Gaza so we hear from a range of contributors in the region. Ahmed Alagha was a contributor, he is not a BBC member of staff or part of the BBC’s reporting team. In this instance, we were unaware of the contributor’s social media activity prior to hearing from him.
“His views were not expressed on a BBC platform, his posts do not reflect the BBC’s view and we are absolutely clear that there is no place for anti-Semitism on our services.””
As we see, while on March 24th BBC Verify showed that Al Agha had presented “a live BBC Arabic report”, less than two weeks later a BBC spokesman claimed that he was not “part of the BBC’s reporting team”.
As noted here previously, Al Agha appears with the description “BBC Arabic contributor” on a CPJ list of journalists injured during a strike on April 7th which targeted a Hamas operative in a PIJ affiliated media outlet’s tent in the grounds of the Nasser hospital.
For well over a year, the BBC has been telling its audiences that it works with “trusted local journalists” (who more often than not go unnamed in English language content) in order to produce reporting from the Gaza Strip. The case of Ahmed al Agha once again highlights the corporation’s failure to adequately vet the sources from whom it solicits accounts of events which are then uncritically promoted worldwide as ‘accurate and impartial’ news.
Related Articles:
OMISSIONS IN BBC REPORTING ON STRIKE ON ‘TENT USED BY LOCAL MEDIA’
MORE ON THE BBC’S ‘TRUSTED LOCAL JOURNALISTS’ IN THE GAZA STRIP
