Three BBC reports on Israel and the Houthis omit vital context

Visitors to the BBC News website on the morning of May 7^th found three reports on the topic of Israel and the Houthis:

1. “Netanyahu vows response after Houthi missile hits near Israel’s main airport” by Tom Bennett, originally published May 4 2025.
2. “Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen a day after missile attack near airport” uncredited, originally published May 5 2025.
3. “Israel attacks main airport in Yemen’s capital Sanaa” uncredited, originally published May 6 2025.

A particularly notable aspect of that coverage of a Houthi missile attack on Ben Gurion airport and Israel’s subsequent responses is the failure – not for the first time – to provide adequate context essential for reader understanding of the story.

Report 1: “The Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group based in Yemen, have regularly launched missile attacks at Israel in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza, but it is rare for one to make it through Israel’s sophisticated air defences.” [emphasis added]

Report 2: No context provided.

Report 3:“Israel has launched several previous rounds of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, including targeting a power plant and ports in January. It previously attacked Sanaa airport in December.”

So what actually lies behind the statement that the Houthis “have regularly launched missile attacks at Israel”? According to the INSS, since the beginning of the war and as of May 5 2025, the Houthis had launched over 370 attacks against Israel (which is some 1,250 miles away from Yemen) by means of drones or missiles.

The BBC’s use of the phrase “regularly launched missile attacks” of course fails to provide readers with any sense of the scale of those attacks.

The statement in report 3 whereby Israel “previously attacked Sanaa airport in December” relates to strikes carried out on December 26^th 2024 (which were covered by the BBC at the time) but fails to inform BBC audiences that prior to that, the Houthis had claimed responsibility for 21 UAV and ballistic missile attacks on Israel since the beginning of that month, just one of which was reported by the BBC.

Similarly, the BBC fails to clarify that the strikes on January 10^th 2025 to which it refers came after the Houthis claimed responsibility for drone attacks the previous day.

Between the resumption of fighting in the Gaza Strip on March 18^th 2025 and the May 4^th attack on Ben Gurion airport, the following attacks (not including shortfalls) were launched by the Houthis:

18/3/25: missile attack Be’er Sheva area.

20/3/25: missile attack central Israel and Jerusalem areas.

21/3/25: missile attack central Israel and Jerusalem areas.

23/3/25: missile attack central Israel.

24/3/25: missile attack central Israel and Jerusalem areas.

27/3/25: missile attacks central Israel and Jerusalem areas.

30/3/25: missile attack central Israel and Jerusalem areas.

7/4/25: UAV attack Tel Aviv area.

11/4/25: UAV attack.

13/4/25: missile attack central Israel and Jerusalem areas.

18/4/25: missile attack central Israel and Jerusalem areas. (two-line mention in BBC report)

23/4/25: missile attack Haifa area.

26/4/25: missile attack Be’er Sheva area.

27/4/25: missile attack Dead Sea and Arava areas. (one paragraph mention in BBC report)

27/4/25: UAV attack.

2/5/25: missile attack Haifa area.

2/5/25: missile attack Haifa area.

2/5/25: UAV attack.

3/5/25: missile attack Jerusalem area and southern Israel.

3/5/25: UAV attack.

With BBC audiences already lacking information about the scale of the attacks launched by the Houthis throughout the past nineteen months, clearly a vague, one-sentence reference to such attacks in just one of three BBC reports comes nowhere near to adequately informing audiences about the hundreds of incidents that are actually the context to this story. 

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