On November 19th a terrorist was neutralised after a group of operatives crossed the yellow line and approached IDF troops in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Another breach of the ceasefire agreement took place on the same day when terrorists opened fire on IDF soldiers in the Khan Younis area. The IDF then announced that it had begun striking terrorist targets in response.
Later that evening, the BBC News website published a report by Rushdi Abualouf and David Gritten headlined “Israeli strikes across Gaza kill 25 Palestinians, health ministry says” which was updated the following morning.
Only in paragraph three of the updated version do readers discover the context to those “Israeli strikes” – albeit immediately followed by a Hamas denial.
“At least 25 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Hamas-run health ministry has said, in what was one of the deadliest days since the ceasefire came into effect five weeks ago.
Ten people were killed when a ministry of religious endowments building in the eastern Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City was hit, according to rescuers.
Israel’s military said it struck “Hamas terrorist targets” after gunmen opened fire towards an area where its soldiers were operating in the southern city of Khan Younis in violation of the ceasefire deal.
Hamas questioned the claim and denounced what it said was a “dangerous escalation” that could jeopardise the ceasefire.”
Abualouf and Gritten’s report goes on to extensively promote claims made by Hamas operative Mahmoud Bassal, despite their obviously not having been confirmed by the BBC.
“Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, told the BBC that Israeli air, drone and artillery strikes hit several locations in Gaza City and Khan Younis shortly after sunset on Wednesday.
The attacks marked a sharp escalation after several days of relative calm, he said.
The Civil Defence reported that the strike in Zeitoun caused severe damage to the religious endowments ministry’s building and surrounding structures, and posted a video showing its rescue workers appearing to find two people buried under rubble.
Photos published by the Anadolu news agency meanwhile showed the bodies of three young children reportedly recovered from the scene.
In a separate incident in Gaza City, one person was killed and several others were wounded when a drone struck a group of people at Shejaiya junction on Salah al-Din Street, Gaza’s main north-south road, according to Mr Bassal.
He said another person was killed when a tank shell struck a house belonging to the Balboul family in Shejaiya’s Mushtaha Street, which is also in eastern Gaza City.
The Civil Defence reported that another 13 people were killed in the Khan Younis area.
Mr Bassal said three of them were killed in a strike on a group inside a sports club run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa).”
In paragraphs fourteen and fifteen, readers find another reference to one of the ceasefire breaches earlier in the day, although again not in the BBC’s own words.
“In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that “several terrorists opened fire toward the area where IDF soldiers are operating in Khan Younis” earlier on Wednesday.
“This action constitutes a violation of the ceasefire agreement. No IDF injuries were reported,” it added. “In response, the IDF began striking Hamas terrorist targets across the Gaza Strip.””
In the next paragraph readers are told that:
“Israeli public broadcaster Kan cited a security source as saying the targets of the strikes were the commander of the Zeitoun Battalion of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and the commander of its naval force.”
The BBC’s report was however not updated to provide the information made available later that day concerning the Hamas terrorists confirmed eliminated.
“The Israeli military and Shin Bet security agency announced Thursday that the chief of Hamas’s naval forces and another terrorist who previously held Israeli hostages were killed in airstrikes in the Gaza Strip a day earlier, which were launched in response to an attack on troops. […]
On Wednesday, Israeli forces stationed in the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza came under fire from terror operatives. No injuries were caused. In response, the Israel Defense Forces launched a wave of strikes on Hamas targets.
Those strikes killed Abdallah Abu Shamala, the Hamas naval forces chief, and Fadi Abu Mustafa, who took part in holding Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio and other hostages captive in Gaza, the IDF and Shin Bet said.
Abu Shamala was a senior Hamas commander who held various roles in the terror group’s naval forces over the years.
The IDF said Abu Shamala was involved in Hamas’s sea-borne infiltration in the Zikim area during the 2014 Gaza war, and he also took part in planning and training the naval forces for its infiltration of Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
The naval forces commander also advanced “numerous terror attacks throughout the war against IDF troops, and naval targets in particular,” the military said.
Abu Mustafa, in addition to his role holding the Israeli hostages, was also responsible for tunnel digging in Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, the military and Shin Bet said.”
While that information was apparently not considered essential for audience understanding of the story, Abualouf and Gritten did make sure to provide uncritical amplification to Hamas’ baseless ‘genocide’ smear:
“Hamas denounced the Israeli strikes, saying in a statement that it considered them a “dangerous escalation through which the war criminal [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu seeks to resume the genocide against our people”.”
Abualouf and Gritten close their report with a reference to unrelated incidents in Lebanon on November 19th:
“On Wednesday afternoon, Israel’s military also carried out several strikes in southern Lebanon saying it targeted weapons storage facilities belonging to Hezbollah.
Israel accuses the Iran-backed armed group of trying to rebuild its capabilities following a war that ended last November.”
The BBC’s reporters clearly did not consider it necessary to inform their readers that under the terms of the ceasefire agreement that ended that war a year ago, Hizballah is obliged to evacuate its forces from southern Lebanon and disarm. Neither did they clarify that Hizballah’s rebuilding of its capabilities is by no means solely an Israeli ‘accusation’.
Breaches of the Lebanon ceasefire agreement by Hizballah and Hamas’ repeated breaches of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip are obviously issues that BBC audiences need to know about in order to be able to understand the stories the BBC purports to report. As we see, BBC audiences are instead provided with accounts of events sourced primarily from Hamas agencies, along with Hamas claims, smears and propaganda.
Related Articles:
LOOKING BEHIND THE TITLES OF TWO BBC SOURCES IN THE GAZA STRIP
