BBC News framing of Israeli strikes on Hizballah assets in Beirut

On the eve of the 2025 Pessach holiday a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip, triggering alarms in towns in southern Israel. The following afternoon – the first day of that holiday –  a missile was launched from Yemen, triggering sirens in central Israel and that was followed by another rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. Shortly before the beginning of the Shavuot holiday on June 1^st, a ballistic missile was launched by the Houthis in Yemen, again sending residents of central Israel and Jerusalem rushing for shelter. None of those attacks were reported on the BBC News website.

On June 5^th the BBC News website did however publish a report with a headline including the words “eve of religious holiday”.

Additional references to that holiday came in three quotes: [emphasis added]

“Lebanon’s prime minister said he “strongly condemns” the strikes.

“I consider them to constitute a systematic and deliberate attack on our homeland, its security, stability, and economy, especially on the eve of the holidays and the tourist season,” Nawaf Salam said in a post on X.” […]

“Lebanese President Joseph Aoun described the strikes as a “flagrant violation of an international accord” while noting it had occurred “on the eve of a sacred religious festival“.

The strikes “generated renewed panic and fear on the eve of Eid Al-Adha,” the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon wrote on X.”

Credited to Ruth Comerford, that report includes the following generously punctuated portrayal of the target of the strikes:

“The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had identified a Hezbollah unit producing “thousands” of drones underground, funded by “Iranian terrorists”.”

As reported by the Times of Israel:

“The strikes in Beirut hit several underground drone manufacturing facilities belonging to Hezbollah’s aerial forces, also know as Unit 127, according to the military.

Ahead of the strikes, which began shortly after 10 p.m., the IDF said it had “identified that Hezbollah’s aerial unit is working to produce many thousands of UAVs, under the guidance and funding of Iranian terror officials.”

This was happening, the military said, “despite the understandings between Israel and Lebanon” as laid out in a November ceasefire agreement that halted more than a year of fighting along Israel’s northern border.

“This activity is a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The Hezbollah terror organization creates challenges for the Lebanese state and thus impairs the implementation of the understandings,” the IDF asserted. […]

“The unit was working to manufacture many thousands of drones under the direction and funding of Iranian terror officials, as part of Iran’s efforts to harm Israel,” the IDF said.

“Over the years, Iran has funded and directed terrorist attacks through this project, in coordination with Hezbollah. Hezbollah terrorists travel to Iran for training in production systems, which supports the group’s ability to independently manufacture UAVs inside Lebanon,” the military continued.

“The IDF has identified that Hezbollah terrorists have been continuing this activity even since the understandings came into effect, and the IDF is determined to take action against terrorists trained in Iran for terrorist attacks.””

Comerford reported the advance warning giving notice of the locations of the later strikes but did not clarify that the Dahieh neighbourhood is a known Hizballah stronghold.

“An hour before the attack occurred, the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesman, Avichay Adraee, ordered residents living in the neighbourhoods of Hadath, Haret Hreik and Borj el-Barajneh in the Dahieh area to evacuate.

“You are next to infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah,” he said in a social media post that included a map identifying specific buildings.”

Comerford’s report frames Israeli strikes as a violation of the ceasefire agreement but does not include similar portrayal of the manufacture of weapons in a populated area of Lebanon’s capital city.

“The attack occurred despite a ceasefire being in effect between Israel and the armed group for the past six months. […]

Following Thursday’s strikes, the Lebanese army threatened to partially suspend its co-operation with the committee responsible for monitoring the ceasefire.

Israel has carried out air strikes in Lebanon on targets it says are linked to Hezbollah in the months since the ceasefire was agreed. […]

Lebanon’s government said those attacks, as well as the continued stationing of Israeli soldiers in five locations in southern Lebanon, constitute violations of the truce.”

Notably, Kan 11’s Arab Affairs correspondent reported that:

“…an Israeli security source told the Saudi Al-Hadath channel that Israel had provided the Lebanese president with information about Hezbollah’s drone production facilities in Dahiyya through the Americans about two weeks ago, but the Lebanese army did nothing about them. The Israeli security source said that it appears that the Lebanese army was unable to act regarding Hezbollah’s facilities in Dahiyya, which is why they were attacked…”

Background to the story provided by Comerford includes casualty figures which fail to clarify that the majority of those killed in Lebanon during the latest war were members of Hizballah and other terrorist organisations.

“Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah fought an escalating conflict for 13 months from 2023-24. It culminated in an intense Israeli bombing campaign and ground incursion into southern Lebanon in October.

Lebanese authorities say Israel’s attacks killed about 4,000 people there – including many civilians – and led to the displacement of more than 1.2 million residents. Israeli authorities say more than 80 of its soldiers and 47 of its civilians were killed in the hostilities.”

Comerford also promotes unsatisfactory framing of UNIFIL’s failure to meet its purpose of implementing UN SC resolution 1701:

“Israel said the military intervention was necessary to dismantle Hezbollah installations near the border that it argued a UN peacekeeping mission had failed to stop.”

Nearly nineteen years have gone by since that resolution was passed and yet the BBC continues to avoid informing its audiences of how the amply documented failure to enforce it – including on the part of the Lebanese president quoted by Comerford – was the background to the latest war in Lebanon and northern Israel.

Information concerning the terms of UN SC resolution 1701 is also crucial to audience understanding of the November 2024 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, which includes the following:

“Consistent with UNSCR 1701 and its predecessor resolutions, in order to prevent the reestablishment and rearmament of non-state armed groups in Lebanon, any sales or supply of arms and related materiel into Lebanon will be regulated and controlled by the Government of Lebanon. Additionally, all production of arms and related materiel within Lebanon will be regulated and controlled by the Government of Lebanon.”

Nevertheless, Comerford chose not to inform BBC audiences of that crucial context, preferring instead to promote the Lebanese president’s framing of strikes on arms production facilities as a “violation of an international accord”.

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