On the morning of January 8th the BBC News website published a report headlined “Children in Gaza return to school after years without formal education” which is credited to the BBC’s Tokyo correspondent Shaimaa Khalil who, according to the by-line, appears to be visiting Jerusalem.
Part of Khalil’s report describes lessons being held in temporary classrooms in the grounds of a boys’ school formerly run by the Hamas government that chose to start the war on October 7th 2023.
“After two years of war, the hum of lessons and chatter of classmates resonates around the ruins of what was once Lulwa Abdel Wahab al-Qatami School, in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in the south-western part of Gaza City.
It was hit in January 2024, and for months afterwards, its grounds served as a shelter for displaced families. Today, it is again a place of learning – albeit in a more basic form.”
While Khalil does not inform readers why that particular school was targeted, she does go on tell them that: [emphasis added]
“According to Unicef, more than 97% of schools in Gaza were damaged or destroyed during the war. The IDF has made repeated claims that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure including schools to carry out operations but has rarely provided solid evidence.”
As regular readers will be aware, the BBC has generally avoided informing its audiences of the exploitation of school buildings – and civilians sheltering in them – by terrorist groups.
For example, on August 4th 2024 the BBC News website published a report titled “Casualties after third Israeli strike on school in a week” which failed to inform readers that among the Hamas terrorists hiding in the Nasr and Hassan Salama schools in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood was a prominent Hamas commander. Additional Hamas fighters and members of their families were killed in the same strike.
Other examples include the following:
BBC NEWS FRAMING OF A STRIKE ON TERRORISTS USING HUMAN SHIELDS
BBC NE WS STICKS TO THE NARRATIVE IN REPORTS ON UNRWA SCHOOLS
BBC NEWS TELLS PARTIAL STORIES FROM DEIR AL BALAH AND BALATA
THE SOURCES BEHIND ANOTHER BBC “TARGETING SCHOOLS” REPORT
AIRBRUSHING TERRORISTS FROM THE BBC’S ‘PERMANENT PUBLIC RECORD’
BBC NEWS FRAMING OF A STRIKE ON TERRORISTS USING HUMAN SHIELDS
Had Shaimaa Khalil wished to meet her journalistic obligation to check facts, she could have consulted the IDF webpage which provides dozens of documented examples of “solid evidence” of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad exploitation of schools as command and control centres, weapons stores and meeting points.
Instead, however, Khalil chose to uncritically promote yet another UNICEF narrative:
“Unicef says the situation is made worse by restrictions on aid supplies entering Gaza.
Standing outside one of the school tents, Jonathan Crickx, a Unicef spokesman, points to what is missing.
“Paper, notebooks, pens, erasers, rulers… we’ve been asking for a long time that these supplies can enter the Gaza Strip and they haven’t been allowed in. It’s the same for mental health and psychosocial recreative kits – toy kits that can be used to do mental health activities and recreational activities with the children,” he says.
An Israeli security official referred us to the prime minister’s office, which did not respond to the BBC’s questions.
Israel says it is meeting its obligations under the ceasefire deal with Hamas and facilitating increased aid deliveries. The UN and multiple aid agencies dispute that, accusing Israel of continuing to restrict access to essential supplies.”
Once again, had Khalil wished to do so she could have quickly discovered that increased aid deliveries are not merely something that “Israel says” is happening – albeit with the focus being on life-saving essentials such as food, fuel, medicine and shelter rather than rulers and erasers – and that UN agencies are only responsible for some 20% of the aid entering the Gaza Strip.
As we see, even after two years of war, the BBC still has no interest in reporting accurately and impartially on the topic of the exploitation of educational buildings (and other public facilities, including hospitals) by terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip in order to facilitate audience understanding of why such buildings may have been damaged or destroyed during that time.
Related Articles:
BBC PROMOTION OF UNICEF SPOKESMAN’S AID TRUCK TALE
BBC NEWS YET AGAIN UNCRITICALLY PROMOTES UNAUTHENTICATED UN CLAIMS
