On April 24th the BBC News website published a report by David Gritten, the headline of which was later amended to read “Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 50, Palestinian officials say”.
The version currently appearing online includes the following:
“Another 29 people were reportedly killed elsewhere in the territory.
They included a family of six – a couple and their four children – whose home in the northern Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City was struck overnight, according to the Civil Defence.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) later identified the man who was killed as Ali al-Sarafiti, who it said was a member of the armed group and a former prisoner who was jailed for 13 years in Israel after being convicted over an attempted suicide attack.
The IDF said it was not aware of a strike in that area area. [sic]”
On April 29th the IDF announced that it had indeed targeted that PFLP operative.
“Last week, the IDF and Shin Bet killed in Gaza City the terrorist Ali Nadal Hasani Tserfiti, a key terrorist in the terrorist organization ‘Popular Front’ who operated from the Gaza Strip. The terrorist served a long prison sentence in Israel between 2002 and 2015 for carrying out terrorist activities for the terrorist organization ‘Popular Front’, providing military training, and planning a suicide attack in the country [Israel].
After his release, in recent years he worked to carry out terrorist attacks on Israeli territory. In this context, investigations revealed that he was in contact with terrorists in Judea and Samaria and transferred terrorist funds worth millions of shekels to them for the purpose of establishing terrorist infrastructure and carrying out terrorist attacks.”
That latter relevant context concerning the target’s continued terrorist activity and membership of the PFLP’s Central Committee remains absent from the BBC News website’s “permanent public record”.
As previously documented, 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 their targets. Gritten’s report adheres to that pattern by promoting claims – including from Hamas-linked bodies in the Gaza Strip – without independent verification and with no context provided. For example:
“Palestinian media also said three displaced people were killed when their family tent was hit near Nuseirat, in central Gaza, and that two children died in a strike on another tent in the southern Khan Younis area.”
Another terrorist targeted on April 24th was described by the IDF as follows:
“Said Amin Said Abu Hasnain – a Nukhba terrorist in the Deir al-Balah Brigade of the Hamas terrorist organization who raided and commanded the raid on [Kibbutz] Kisufim in the murderous massacre on October 7.”
According to reports, Abu Hasnain (also Abu Hassanein) was killed in a strike on a tent along with two members of his family. Hamas’ Government Media Office (and others) listed him as a journalist due to his employment as an engineer at Hamas’ Al Aqsa radio station.
Gritten’s report also tells BBC audiences that:
“Nine people died in the morning when a missile hit a police station in the market area of Jabalia town, in the north, a hospital said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck a “command-and-control centre” for Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Jabalia that was being used to plan attacks.
The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said 23 more people were killed later when a family home in Jabalia’s Ard Halawa area was bombed. The IDF said it struck “a key Hamas terrorist who posed a significant threat” to its troops, without identifying him.”
The IDF’s announcement notes the elimination of a member of Hamas’ Jabaliya Battalion:
“Mustafa Youssef Al-Abd Matuk – Operations officer of the Jabaliya Battalion in the Hamas terrorist organization who led terrorist plots against IDF forces in the Gaza Strip.”
Gritten’s report also tells BBC audiences that:
“The IDF later ordered residents of two areas just to the north-west of Jabalia to evacuate immediately.
It warned that forces were “operating intensely” in Beit Hanoun and Sheikh Zayed “due to ongoing terrorist activities and sniper fire”.”
Notably, although his report was twice updated in the 24 hours following its initial publication, Gritten failed to inform BBC audiences that prior to the issue of that evacuation warning, an IDF soldier had been killed and three others wounded by sniper fire near Beit Hanoun which was claimed by Hamas.
As we see, BBC reporting on events in the Gaza Strip continues to focus audience attentions on incomplete stories based on unverified claims made by Hamas-run agencies, with little or no effort made to provide audiences with the full range of information – and hence context essential to full understanding – when that becomes available.
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AIRBRUSHING TERRORISTS FROM THE BBC’S ‘PERMANENT PUBLIC RECORD’
I do not even trust the BBC to tell bedtime stories, they would twist even those in an attempt to denigrate Israel. Their vitriolic hatred of Jews is plain for the world to see.
#defundthebbc