Early on the morning of April 13th the BBC News website published a report by Rushdi Abualouf, who is described as a “Gaza correspondent” despite his not having been located in the Gaza Strip for well over a year.
The original version of that report was titled “Gaza hospital hit by Israeli strike, Hamas says”. That headline was subsequently amended to read “Gaza hospital hit by Israeli strike, Hamas-run health ministry says” and it was later changed again to promote a theme previously seen in BBC reporting: “Israeli air strike destroys part of last functioning hospital in Gaza City”.
Later in the day, that headline was changed yet again and its messaging toned down.
The report relates to a strike conducted, following evacuation orders, on a Hamas command and control centre located in a building within the al Ahli hospital compound. Earlier versions told BBC audiences that:
“An Israeli air strike has destroyed part of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, the last functioning hospital in Gaza City.
Witnesses said the strike destroyed the intensive care and surgery departments of the hospital.
Video posted online appeared to show huge flames and smoke rising from the hospital after missiles hit a two-storey building. People, including some patients still in hospital beds, were filmed rushing away from the site.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the hospital contained a “command and control center used by Hamas”. No casualties were reported, according to Gaza’s civil emergency service.”
None of the versions of Abualouf’s report inform BBC audiences that three rockets were launched by Hamas towards Israeli communities from the Gaza Strip on the afternoon of April 12th or that on the evening of the same day, as Israelis celebrated Passover, another rocket attack took place.
The version of the report currently available online tells readers that:
“Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said al Ahli Arab Hospital’s building was “completely destroyed”, leading to the “forced displacement of patients and hospital staff”.”
By contrast, a statement from Israel’s MFA notes that:
“This was a precise strike on a single building that was used by Hamas as a terror command and control center. There was no medical activity taking place in this building. Prior to the strike, an early warning was issued. There were no civilian casualties as a result of the strike. The strike was carried out while avoiding further damage to the hospital compound, which remained operational for continued medical treatment.”
The latest version also tells readers that:
“World Health Organization director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the hospital was out of service following the evacuation order and attack, according to an update he received from the hospital’s director. […]
“Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law. Attacks on health care must stop,” he stated.”
Abualouf failed to clarify to audiences that “the hospital’s director” is Dr Fadl Naim who has been quoted by the BBC on previous occasions despite his links to Hamas. He also made no effort to inform his readers about the limitations on protection of hospitals when they are used to commit hostile acts.
Notably, all the versions of the report include the following:
That link takes readers to a report by David Gritten dating from October 18th 2023 which was discussed here at the time. In the eighteen months that have gone by since the explosion in a car park at the al Ahli hospital caused by a shortfall PIJ rocket, the BBC has made no effort to amend Gritten’s report in order to remove or clarify the various inaccurate claims that it promotes, including the following:
“”We were operating in the hospital, there was a strong explosion, and the ceiling fell on the operating room. This is a massacre,” said Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a Médecins Sans Frontières plastic surgeon who had been helping to treat people wounded in the war.” […]
“Zaher Kuhail, a British-Palestinian civil engineering consultant and university professor who was nearby at the time, told the BBC that what he had witnessed was “beyond imagination”.
“I [saw] two rockets coming from an F-16 or an F-35 [fighter jet], shelling these people and killing them ruthlessly, without any mercy,” he said.” […]
“The health ministry in Gaza said 500 people had been killed and hundreds more were feared trapped under the rubble.”
Now, as we see, Gritten’s colleague Rushdi Abualouf not only recycles those false claims (which are still being promoted by Abu Sittah) by linking to that inaccurate report but also continues to promote the BBC’s chosen stance, according to which it “cannot yet establish as fact who was responsible for the blast” and hence refuses to tell its funding public that the incident was caused by a shortfall rocket fired from nearby by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation.
So much for the BBC’s long-touted claim to provide “news you can trust” and “fight against disinformation”.
Related Articles:
WHY BBC REPORTING ON THE AL AHLI HOSPITAL INCIDENT SHOULD NOT SURPRISE
REVIEWING BBC VERIFY REPORTING ON THE AL AHLI HOSPITAL INCIDENT
BBC RESPONSES TO CRITICISM OF COVERAGE OF THE AL AHLI EXPLOSION – PART ONE
BBC RESPONSES TO CRITICISM OF COVERAGE OF THE AL AHLI EXPLOSION – PART TWO
BBC LONDON PROMOTES ACTIVIST DOCTOR AND MORE AL AHLI MUDDYING
