Early on the morning of August 14th the BBC News website published a report which currently goes under the headline “New Israeli rules stopping critical aid getting into Gaza, charities say” and is credited to Sydney-based James Chater.
That report’s original headline read “End Israel’s weaponisation of Gaza aid, 100 humanitarian groups say”. Around half an hour after its publication, the headline was changed to read “Humanitarian groups call on Israel to end ‘weaponisation of aid’ in Gaza” and around four hours after that, to “Humanitarian groups say Israel vetting process preventing life-saving aid getting into Gaza”.
Chater’s 631-word report promotes – and links to – a letter dated the previous day.
“More than 100 organisations have signed a joint letter calling on Israel to stop the “weaponisation of aid” into Gaza, as “starvation deepens”.
Humanitarian groups, including Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), say they are increasingly being told they are “not authorised” to deliver aid, unless they comply with the stricter Israeli regulations.
Groups risk being banned if they “delegitimise” the state of Israel or do not provide detailed information about Palestinian staff, the letter says.”
As we learned last month, the BBC does not consider it necessary to adhere to its own guidelines concerning “Contributors’ Affiliations” as long as NGOs have the words ‘human rights’ in their mission statement and so readers of this report are told nothing at all about relevant issues such as Oxfam’s anti-Israel bias, MSF’s past employment of a PIJ terrorist, the dubious links of signatories such as CARE and Islamic Relief or ANERA’s record of ‘coordination’ with Hamas government bodies.
Such information is however highly relevant to the story reported by Chater because the regulations about which those NGOs (which together provided a minimal amount of aid before the new regulations were introduced) are complaining include – as clarified by COGAT – security screening of their relevant employees.
“…prior to the resumption of humanitarian aid entry into the Gaza Strip, the Israeli defense establishment formulated a new mechanism for aid entry designed to ensure that aid reaches the population directly and not Hamas. Under this mechanism, organizations are required to undergo a formal registration process with Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs, which includes, among other things, submitting a list of the organization’s employees operating in Gaza for prior security screening. The registration process is based on clear professional and security criteria intended to safeguard the integrity of the humanitarian system while preventing the infiltration of terrorist elements into the aid mechanism. This is a transparent and clear process that was presented to all organizations in advance.” [emphasis added]
While 29.6% of the wordcount of the current version of Chater’s report is given over to statements from “Israel”, Cogat and a government minister, the topic of security screening of “Palestinian staff” is not properly explained, with Chater only telling his readers that:
“The new guidelines introduced in March update the framework for how aid groups must register to maintain their status within Israel, along with provisions that outline how their applications can be denied or registration revoked.
Registration can be rejected if Israeli authorities deem that a group denies the democratic character of Israel or “promotes delegitimisation campaigns” against the country.”
From the third version of Chater’s report, readers are told that:
“Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of aid, said nearly 20 organisations that completed the registration process are bringing aid into Gaza, with roughly 300 trucks entering daily.”
In other words, the signatories of the letter that is the topic of Chater’s report are organisations that have chosen to refuse to complete that registration process.
However, as explained by Ben Dror Yemini at Ynet, there are other organisations that are not party to that letter which are operating in the Gaza Strip, one of which is the World Central Kitchen (WCK). Yemini notes the tragic incident in April 2024 in which seven WCK workers were killed and explains how that organisation’s work continues.
“The World Central Kitchen (WCK), which is not a signatory to the statement, is one of the most active organizations in Hamas-controlled areas. It employs hundreds of workers. In April 2024, seven staff members were killed in a tragic incident. How did it happen? Terrorists posed as kitchen staff. The Israel Defense Forces investigated and called it an operational mishap. Cooperation with the organization resumed, but Israel later discovered 62 employees were Hamas members and required their dismissal.
This is why Israel demands transparency. Organizations whose requests were denied refuse to provide employee lists.”
Another Israeli journalist – Doron Kadosh – reported that a number of Gazan aid truck drivers were identified as members of terrorist groups.
“In recent weeks, several incidents occurred in the Gaza Strip and near its border, in which humanitarian aid truck drivers were found to be terrorists or involved in terrorism in various ways. Some of these drivers were detained and are currently under Shin Bet investigation. In some cases, suspicions even arose regarding their involvement in the hostage issue. […]
The concern: Aid truck drivers who are authorized to enter Israeli territory may attempt to carry out an attack in Israel or against IDF forces in the Gaza Strip, with whom they come into close contact.”
Just two days prior to the appearance of Chater’s report it was reported that the IDF had identified armed terrorists using the WCK logo on a vehicle. That story has not received any stand-alone BBC coverage.
While Chater fails to provide such obviously relevant background information to his readers in order to help them understand the story, he does devote part of his word count to the uncritical promotion of additional narratives such as the UN’s “600 trucks of supplies a day are needed in Gaza” claim (also repeated in an embedded video), Hamas denials of aid theft, portrayal of the GHF aid distribution scheme as a “death trap” and quotes from an Oxfam employee who, less than a week after Hamas’ October 7th 2023 invasion of Israel was already telling the BBC about “the urgent need for aid and supplies in Gaza”.
The BBC’s self-conscription to coordinated publicity campaigns surrounding the GHF and the topic of humanitarian aid has already been documented here. Chater’s report simply amplifies yet another chapter in those campaigns by politically motivated NGOs, while failing to provide BBC audiences with the whole background to the story.
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