As readers may know, the BBC’s editorial guidelines state that “[t]he archive of the BBC’s online content is a permanent public record and its existence is in the public interest”. Since Israel resumed operations in the Gaza Strip on March 18th, visitors to the BBC News website have seen numerous reports concerning strikes in various locations but notably, those items have contributed very little to audience understanding of the targets of those strikes and thus to the ensuing “permanent public record”.
One such example appears in a report published on April 2nd and now credited to David Gritten and Yolande Knell. The version currently appearing online is headlined “Deadly strikes in Gaza as Netanyahu says Israel will seize new military corridor” and is presented with the near inevitable photograph showing civilians in rubble. 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”. […]
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.” [emphasis added]
However, the following day it emerged that at least four Hamas operatives had been in the building at the time.
“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.”
Two and a half weeks have gone by since that information concerning the targets of the attack was made public but the BBC’s “permanent public record” report has not been amended to provide that part of the story or to insert the obviously necessary qualification of the Hamas denial it promotes.
Another example appeared on April 3rd when the BBC News website published a report by David Gritten under the misleading headline “Israeli strike on Gaza City school kills 27, health ministry says”. Like the rest of the schools in the Gaza Strip, that building had not been used as an educational facility for eighteen months.
Readers are told that:
“At least 27 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in northern Gaza that was serving as a shelter for displaced families, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
Dozens more were wounded when the Dar al-Arqam school in the north-eastern Tuffah district of Gaza City was hit, it cited a local hospital as saying.
The Israeli military said it struck “prominent terrorists who were in a Hamas command and control centre” in the city, without mentioning a school. […]
The spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, Mahmoud Bassal, said children and women were among the dead following the strike on Dar al-Arqam school.
He also said a woman who was heavily pregnant with twins was missing along with her husband, her sister, and her three children.
Video from the nearby al-Ahli hospital showed children being rushed there in cars and trucks with serious injuries.
A statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the site in Gaza City that it struck had been used by Hamas fighters to plan attacks against Israeli civilians and troops.”
On April 4th, the BBC News website published a filmed report by BBC Verify on the same topic under the title “Videos show aftermath of Israeli strike on Gaza school-turned-shelter”.
“On Thursday at least 27 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was targeting “prominent terrorists” inside a Hamas command and control centre in the area.
BBC Verify’s Jake Horton explains what we know about the incident after reviewing videos that were posted online.”
Notably, BBC Verify chose to use footage sourced from pro-Hamas Al Jazeera journalist Anas al Sharif (01:42), from Tamer Lubbad who works for Hamas’ Al Aqsa TV (01:16) and from a person called Ahmed Kouta (00:12) who promotes disinformation on social media, including a claim that has been refuted by a member of the BBC Verify team.
Despite the participation of at least seven members of BBC staff in the production of that two-minute video, it has nothing at all to tell BBC audiences about the targets of that strike or how many of those killed were terrorists.
One analyst has since identified seven of the males killed in that strike as Hamas operatives – including the mayor of Beit Hanoun and his son – and at least eight of the additional casualties as members of their families.
As these two examples show, in both cases terrorist operatives were present at the sites (one a former clinic and one a former school) during the targeted strikes which are the topic of the BBC’s reports. In both cases, however, the BBC showed no interest in providing its audiences either at the time or later with that relevant information which is critical to full understanding of the story.
The same editorial policy is seen repeatedly, with the result being that the BBC’s “permanent public record” is increasingly made up of superficial and partial stories based on unverified claims made by Hamas-run agencies, baseless denials from that terrorist organisation and unconfirmed local eye-witness accounts but with no effort made by BBC journalists – including its fact checking team BBC Verify – to ensure that the record includes the whole of the information relevant to a particular story.
