In January 2025 the BBC heavily promoted a multi-platform ‘investigation’ by Nawal Al-Maghafi – “senior international investigations correspondent, BBC World Service” – which was designed to persuade viewers, readers and listeners that an Israeli strike on a building in Lebanon in September 2024 was not justified.
BBC EYE LEBANON INVESTIGATION PROMOTES ‘SPITEFUL ENEMY’ NARRATIVE
As noted here previously, in April 2026 the BBC sent Al-Maghafi to interview Hizballah official Wafiq Safa in Beirut – presumably with the approval of the corporation’s Director of Editorial Policy and Standards.
Al-Maghafi also produced additional reporting from Lebanon which appeared on May 6th in written and filmed formats on the BBC News website and on Youtube and was promoted on social media:
“BBC traces how 10 minutes of Israeli bombing brought devastation to Lebanon”
“Watch: The Lebanese neighbourhoods shattered by Israel’s ten minute bombing raid”
“How 10 minutes of Israeli bombing brought devastation to Lebanon” – also titled “Lebanon’s Black Wednesday”
Al-Maghafi’s reports focus primarily on events in three locations, one of which is Hay el Sellom in the Hizballah dominated Dahiya neighbourhood. There she interviews a man – presented only as Mohammed – whose son, named as Abbas, was killed in one of the strikes which took place on April 8th.
While Al-Maghafi states that Abbas was “the family breadwinner”, Mohammed himself claims to have been at work when he got news of the strike. BBC audiences are told that:
“He [Mohammed] is adamant that everyone who died were residents of the building. “If I thought there was even a 1% chance that someone from Hezbollah lived here, I wouldn’t have stayed,” he says. “I would never risk my son’s life.””
Despite her interviewee’s tacit admission that members of Hizballah do use residential buildings, Al-Maghafi does not inform her viewers and readers that the Dahia district is a Hizballah stronghold or that the terrorist organisation has long made use of civilian buildings and facilities. Her report does however promote its related denials, similarly without any clarification of the fact that the terrorist organisation that claims to have “never wanted war” launched attacks on Israel on October 8th 2023 and again on March 2nd 2026.
Al-Maghafi then tries to persuade BBC audiences that Hizballah’s popularity is the result of Israeli attacks:
“Following the death of his son, Mohammed expressed his sympathies for Hezbollah, asking it to defend Lebanon, in an interview with local media. That’s a sentiment echoed by many people we spoke to in areas that have been consistently attacked by Israel.”
She goes on:
“Some Israeli media reported Ali Mohammed Ghulam Dahini was killed in the neighbourhood, and say he was a senior Hezbollah figure. We also found a memorial poster which describes him as a Hezbollah fighter. We asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) if Dahini was a target, but it did not respond to this question, nor did it provide specific information about who or what was being targeted in Hay el Sellom.”
The BBC’s investigations apparently did not uncover the Hizballah announcement issued on the evening of April 8th stating that an operative named Yahya Mohammad Hadrj had been killed in the Hay el Sellom neighbourhood. Neither does the BBC appear to have researched the son of the interviewee named only as Mohammed. David Collier however did just that, finding a picture of his grave, complete with martyr images and visible Hezbollah affiliation.
Another location visited by Al-Maghafi is Corniche al Mazraa. There she interviews a fitness instructor named only as Noha, who in the filmed version is allowed to promote the false claim that Israel “wants” Lebanon with no challenge from her BBC interviewer despite the fact that it actively hinders audience understanding of the real story.
Noha: “Why can’t we live a life like the rest of the world? Why? Why? Because Lebanon is beautiful and they want it? They don’t have a right to it. Lebanon is beautiful and it is ours. They cannot strike it because they want it.”
In the written version of her report (which, like the one from January 2025, cites “additional reporting” by Jake Tacchi) Al-Maghafi tells readers that:
“Noha questions why the area was struck. “The target was civilian. Certainly, a civilian target,” she says. “We are the ones who were hurt.”
We searched for evidence of a Hezbollah target and could not find one. We also asked the IDF, but it did not respond.”
The Long War Journal reports that strikes in Corniche al Mazraa targeted a hangar and the Alma Center notes that strikes in that area and others in central Beirut targeted “safe apartments and command centers used by mid- and senior-ranking commanders”.
Al-Maghafi also visited Sidon, with her written report telling readers that:
“The southern city of Sidon was among those struck without warning, with bombs flattening the Hezbollah-affiliated al Zahraa religious complex. […]
Al Zahraa’s cleric, Sheikh Sadiq Naboulsi, was also killed in the attack. He had deep ideological and family ties to Hezbollah, although did not himself hold an official position. Another man killed here – Mohammed Ma’ani – was a senior Hezbollah official in the group’s liaison and co-ordination unit. The IDF declined to confirm whether either men [sic] were the intended targets.
It has also been possible to identify seven of the other nine individuals reportedly killed here. All the available evidence suggests they were civilians.”
Reports from around the time of the strikes include the name of another Hizballah sheikh in addition to al-Nabulsi:
“Sheikh Sadeq al-Nabulsi, a Shia cleric, professor of political science at Lebanese University, helped run a seminary in Sidon, and contributed for Al-Akhbar. He was the brother of Mohammad Afif, Hezbollah’s former spokesman and head of media relations (he was killed in 2024). He was killed in a strike on the al-Zahraa complex in Sidon.
Muhammad Sbeity served as a Shia sheikh and was well-known for his sermons and online profiles. He was also killed in strikes on the al-Zahraa complex.”
Also killed in Sidon were members of a Hizballah-allied terrorist organisation:
“The IDF also said Thursday that it had killed a top commander in a Hezbollah-allied militia in Lebanon, along with eight other operatives, in a strike in Sidon on Wednesday.
The strike killed Maher Qassem Hamdan, who the IDF said had been the commander of the Lebanese Resistance Companies in the Shebaa area, close to Israel’s border. The militia, also known as the Lebanese Resistance Brigades, is funded, trained, armed, and was founded by Hezbollah.
The military said Hamdan had been responsible for “recruiting terrorists, supplying weapons, and funding the Lebanese Companies” in Shebaa.
According to the IDF, Hamdan and seven other members of the militia fled from Shebaa to Sidon, where they were targeted and killed.”
Notwithstanding Hizballah’s recent policy change regarding the announcement of deaths of its members, in the days following the April 8th strikes, mourning notices were issued for scores of operatives belonging to both Hizballah and its Amal affiliate. Reports also emerged concerning members of Iran’s IRGC.
That, however, is not the story that Nawal Al-Maghafi chose to tell. Towards the end of her written report (which was also translated into other languages), she promotes an unverified claim from “Lebanon’s health ministry”, without informing readers that it is headed by a minister who belongs to the same terrorist organisation as the “senior Hizballah political figure” whom she interviewed on April 17th. [emphasis added]
“The IDF says it targeted 250 Hezbollah operatives that day but has not provided a full list of names. Lebanon’s health ministry disputes this, saying the vast majority of those killed were civilians. […]
The IDF also said that most of the targeted sites were located “within the heart of the civilian population, as part of Hezbollah’s cynical exploitation of Lebanese civilians as human shields to safeguard its operations”.
Hezbollah denies this, stating that Israel targets civilians as a pressure tactic. The group, proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK, US and some gulf Arab states, added that it never wanted war and is acting in self-defence.”
Just as has so often been seen in BBC reporting on events in the Gaza Strip, the BBC once again demonstrates that it is willing to uncritically amplify the propaganda – no matter how absurd – of terrorist organisations that launch attacks on Israel in order to promote the narrative of “Israel targeting civilians”.
