CAMERA UK has on several occasions in the past noted the BBC’s habit of publishing reports concerning alleged events in the Gaza Strip based on unverified claims made by local – including Hamas linked – sources and without waiting for the full range of information to become available.
BBC NEWS CONTINUES TO TELL INCOMPLETE STORIES FROM GAZA
It was therefore all the more interesting to see that the BBC News website recently published three reports about the same story over a period of eight days.
The first of those reports appeared on June 30th and is currently titled “Israeli strike on Gaza seafront cafe kills at least 20 Palestinians, witnesses and rescuers say” and credited to Rushdi Abualouf and Wyre Davies. The report opens by telling BBC audiences that: [emphasis added]
“At least 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a popular seafront cafe frequently used by activists, journalists, and local residents in western Gaza City on Monday, according to medics and eyewitnesses.
Rescue teams evacuated 20 bodies and dozens wounded from Al-Baqa Cafeteria, an outdoor venue which consisted of tents along the beach, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence told the BBC. […]
The Israeli military later said it struck “several Hamas terrorists” in northern Gaza and that it was reviewing the incident.”
It continues:
“Al-Baqa Cafeteria had become a well-known space for journalists, activists, and remote workers, offering internet access, seating, and workspace along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the strike targeted Hamas operatives, but it did not identify them.
“Prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance,” it added. “The incident is under review.””
On July 4th the BBC News website published a report by Alice Cuddy headlined “Israel’s strike on bustling Gaza cafe killed a Hamas operative – but dozens more people were killed”. Five additional BBC employees – including two BBC Verify staff members – are also credited:
“Additional reporting by Rushdi Abualouf, Riam El Delati and Muath al-Khatib
Verification by Emma Pengelly and Richard Irvine-Brown”
Linking to the previous report, Cuddy tells readers that:
“Moments before the explosion, artists, students and athletes were among those gathered at a bustling seaside cafe in Gaza City.
Huddled around tables, customers at al-Baqa Cafeteria were scrolling on their phones, sipping hot drinks, and catching up with friends. At one point, the familiar melody of “Happy Birthday” rang out as a young child celebrated with family.
In a quiet corner of the cafe overlooking the sea, a Hamas operative, dressed in civilian clothing, arrived at his table, sources told the BBC.
It was then, without warning, that a bomb was dropped by Israeli forces and tore through the building, they said.”
Cuddy goes on to raise the topic of ‘proportionality’:
“The BBC has reviewed 29 names of people reported killed in the strike on the cafe on Monday. Twenty-six of the deaths were confirmed by multiple sources, including through interviews with family, friends and eyewitness accounts.
At least nine of those killed were women, and several were children or teenagers. They included artists, students, social activists, a female boxer, a footballer and cafe staff.
The conduct of the strike and the scale of civilian casualties have amplified questions over the proportionality of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say are aimed at defeating Hamas and rescuing the hostages still being held by the group.” […]
“In a statement after the strike, the IDF said it had been targeting “terrorists” and that steps were taken to “mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance”.
“The IDF will continue to operate against the Hamas terrorist organization in order to remove any threat posed to Israeli civilians,” it added, before saying the “incident” was “under review”.
The IDF did not directly respond to multiple BBC questions about the target of the strike, or whether it considered the number of civilian casualties to be proportionate.”
Contrary to Cuddy’s suggestion to BBC audiences – and as explained by an expert below – the concept of proportionality does not relate simply to “the number of civilian casualties”.
“Proportionality in war does not mean balancing number of lives lost, or buildings leveled, or dollars in damage. Proportionality is one of the core principles of the law of war—to which all recognized states have agreed. Distorting the meaning of the term undermines the values it is meant to protect. […]
Proportionality requires military commanders to balance two incommensurable concepts: expected military advantage and potential damage to civilian life and property. The principle of proportionality prohibits attacks that damage civilian life or civilian property when they are excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the attack. A commander, then, cannot be indiscriminate about their target. The commander must know what military advantage they expect the attack to achieve and seek to avoid or mitigate incidental civilian injury and property damage that are excessive considering the advantage to be gained. Proportionality implies an obligation for the commander to abstain from an attack if they deem incidental civilian injury and civilian property damage to be excessive.
Proportionality is violated only when incidental civilian injury and collateral damage is “excessive.” The term “excessive” is the crux of the commander’s balancing test and remains undefined in law. […] Rarely, if ever, does the calculation boil down to a simple numerical equation.”
In other words, without knowing the identity of the targets of the strike and their activities, Cuddy had no justification for raising the issue of “proportionality” – as one would have expected her editors to point out. Cuddy goes on to tell readers that:
“A cafe manager told the BBC that there was a strict entry policy. “It was known to our customers that if any person looked like a target, then they were not let inside the cafeteria – this was for our safety and the safety of the people there,” he said.”
A later part of Cuddy’s report suggests that policy was not effectively implemented:
“Twenty-seven-year-old Hisham Ayman Mansour, whose deceased father had been a leading figure in Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, was among those in the men’s section by the sea. […]
A local Hamas source said Hisham was the target of the strike, and described him as a field commander with the group, a “mid-ranking role”.
Tributes posted on social media also referred to him as a “fighter” and “member of the resistance”. His cousin also described him to the BBC as a “fighter” with the proscribed group, but said he thought he was “low-level” and not currently active.
It is unclear what he was doing in the cafe that day, with two sources telling the BBC he was believed to be there for a “money drop”, while another suggested he was there for “coffee and a short respite” and that he had not been involved in “militant activities” during the war.
A photo shared on social media purported to show Hisham at the same spot in the men’s area of the cafe the day before the strike, wearing a cap and sports t-shirt. Photos of his body after the strike in the same outfit were shared by family and friends.
Two members of his family – one of them a child – were also killed.
The IDF would not confirm whether Hisham was the primary target, or one of a number of targets of the strike.”
As later reported by the Times of Israel and others, Hisham Ayman Atiya Mansour was the deputy head of a Hamas mortar unit.
Three days later – on July 7th – the BBC News website published another report credited to Alice Cuddy, along with Ruth Comerford, under the headline “IDF says it killed Hamas commander in cafe strike that killed dozens of civilians”. That report opens as follows:
“Israeli forces say they killed the commander of Hamas’s naval force in northern Gaza in a strike on a seaside cafe in which dozens of civilians were killed.
After the attack on the popular al-Baqa cafe in Gaza City on Monday, family members in Gaza and abroad told the BBC of their shock at the scale of civilian casualties.
In a statement on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike killed Ramzi Ramadan Abd Ali Saleh, along with Hisham Ayman Atiya Mansour, deputy head of Hamas’s mortar unit, and Nissim Muhammad Suleiman Abu Sabha.
Saleh was a “significant source of knowledge” within Hamas and had been involved in planning and advancing “maritime terrorist attacks”, the IDF said.”
BBC audiences were not informed that – like Mansour – Abu Sabha was a member of Hamas’s mortar unit. Notably, Cuddy and Comerford also failed to clarify that:
“Salah, identified by the IDF as a key figure in Hamas’s maritime capabilities, had been actively planning attacks against Israeli forces operating in the Strip. He was targeted inside a building in Gaza City, where he was meeting with other operatives.”
Even after discovering that at least three of those killed in the strike were Hamas operatives, Cuddy and Comerford once again touted the topic of ‘proportionality’:
“The IDF did not directly respond to multiple BBC questions about whether it considered the number of civilian casualties to be proportionate.”
While there is of course nothing remotely novel about BBC journalists trying to promote the theme of proportionality, one would expect the corporation to ensure that any of its staff covering a war understand what the term means in that context and hence be aware of the fact that if the IDF had not “considered the number of civilian casualties to be proportionate”, the strike would not have gone ahead.
Given that the BBC has published no fewer than three reports on this story, one would also expect that a link to the article providing the most up-to-date information would be added to the earlier ones, which both remain available online, despite clearly not telling the whole story.
The strike was in a Cafe in Gaza. I thought the BBC and other MSM had decided that starvation and malnutrition were rife in Gaza. How come people were hanging around in a cafe?