A report headlined “At least 10 killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, state media” appeared on the BBC News website’s Middle East page early on the morning of February 21st. Credited to Hugo Bachega and Tabby Wilson, the two versions of the report that were available in the first eight hours after its initial appearance both began by describing two incidents that had taken place the previous day, starting with the later one.
“At least 10 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on eastern Lebanon, according to state media.
A senior Hezbollah official was among those killed, the Iranian-backed militant group said in a statement.
Israel’s military said it was targeting sites that belonged to the group in the Bekaa Valley, which it alleged constituted “a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon”.
The strikes are among the deadliest in Lebanon since a ceasefire ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024.”
IDF announcements concerning those strikes also stated that “weapons and funds utilized by Hezbollah were being stored” at the three command centres targeted and that the terrorists killed were members of its missile unit who were planning attacks.
The “senior Hezbollah official” who was not named in the BBC’s report had already been identified the previous evening as Hussein Yaghi, the son of one of Hizballah’s founders. A Ynet report quoting Lebanese sources named two other Hizballah commanders killed in the strikes as Ali Zeid al-Moussawi and Muhammad Ibrahim al-Moussawi.
The Times of Israel reported that “[a]n official from the [Hizballah] terror group told AFP that eight Hezbollah members were killed in the strikes” and the Lebanese outlet Janoubia named all eight.
In other words, the majority of the “10 people” that Bachega and Wilson reported “killed in Israeli air strikes” were terror operatives.
The incident that took place earlier in the day was described by Bachega and Wilson as follows:
“The Bekaa attack came hours after an Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
In a statement shared to X, the Israeli army said it had “struck a Hamas command centre from which terrorists operated” in the Ain al-Helweh area.
Two people were killed in the strike on the densely populated camp, which is on the outskirts of the port city of Sidon.”
What the BBC described as a strike “on a Palestinian refugee camp” in fact targeted a specific building which was described in a Ynet report as follows:
“Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that two missiles hit a building that had previously been used by the Joint Palestinian Security Forces operating in refugee camps in Lebanon and had “recently been rented by a certain party to serve as a kitchen for distributing food portions.”
According to the report, the targeted building and nearby structures were damaged. A Palestinian source told Lebanon’s LBCI that a Hamas office in Ain al-Hilweh was struck and that there were casualties.”
An IDF statement that followed the one cited by the BBC noted that:
“The command center was embedded within the center of a civilian-populated area, and recently used by Hamas terrorists to plan & prepare terror attacks against IDF troops and Israel—in violation of the ceasefire understandings.”
Hours before the BBC’s report appeared, Hamas had issued mourning notices for the two men killed in the strike, whom it named as Bilal Dib al-Khatib and Mohammad Tarek al-Sawi.
Some eight hours after that report’s original appearance it was significantly amended, with the headline changed, Wilson’s name removed from the credits and Bachega telling BBC audiences that:
“At least 10 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on eastern Lebanon, Lebanese officials say, despite a ceasefire.
Israel’s military said it targeted sites belonging to Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim militia and political party, in the Bekaa Valley, an area where the group has a strong presence.
Hezbollah confirmed that at least six of its members had been killed, including a senior field commander.”
Bachega went on to link to a report he wrote in November 2025, in which he similarly failed to identify a Hizballah terrorist.
“The strikes are among the deadliest in Lebanon since a ceasefire ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024.
Despite the deal, which followed 13 months of conflict, Israel has carried out near-daily strikes on Lebanon.”
Linking to another of his previous reports, Bachega next promoted an inaccurate Hizballah claim regarding the November 2024 ceasefire agreement.
“Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organisation by countries including the UK and the US, says the ceasefire deal only applies to southern Lebanon, in the area between the Litani river and the Blue Line, the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel.
There, the Lebanese army has dismantled infrastructure used by the group, in the first stage of a plan to disarm Hezbollah after its devastating 13-month war with Israel.”
Bachega once again failed to clarify that the removal of Hizballah forces from the area south of the Litani river is only the first stage of that agreement, which in fact requires the implementation of UN SC resolution 1701 (which yet again is not mentioned at all in Bachega’s report) including the “disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon”.
On the topic of the earlier strike on February 20th, Bachega told BBC audiences that:
“Hours before the attacks in the east, an Israeli strike hit the densely populated Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Helweh, on the outskirts of Sidon, in the country’s south.
The Israeli military said it had struck a “command centre” that had been used by Hamas, which said two members had been killed.”
In the hours that followed, the report was twice again amended, with the version that appeared fourteen hours after its original publication finally informing BBC audiences that:
“Hezbollah confirmed that at least eight of its members had been killed, including a senior field commander.”
However, even the latest version of the report still carries the headline “Israeli strikes kill at least 10 in Lebanon, officials say” without clarifying that the majority belonged to a terrorist organisation and BBC audiences are still not told the names of the operatives targeted in the Bekaa valley – including that of the “senior field commander” – or informed that they were members of Hizballah’s missile unit.
As we see, just as it does when reporting on incidents in the Gaza Strip, the BBC rushed to put out a report about “Israeli strikes” but failed to explain their targets, despite that information being available. Of course members of the BBC’s audience who had read the early versions of this report would not be likely to return to it fourteen hours later on the offchance that more information may have been added.
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It follows closely the practice of Al Jazeera in its reporting namely to very rarely mention Hamas/ PIJ but no reticence naming & detailing activies of independent often por Israel groups in Gaza.
It will be noted that all casualties in Gaza & Lebanon are referreed to as “Palestistians” or locals until, as you rightly explain likes of BBC, Guardian, Independent and AJ have no alternative. In my opinion and knowledge, this war is the first time in mordern history an adversary or its casualties are virtually “invisable” and its accepted as “normal”