Visitors to the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page on the morning and early afternoon of September 15th did not find any mention whatsoever of the fact that at 06:32 a.m. on that day, millions of people in central Israel had been forced to run for cover from a ballistic missile attack.
Only after some ten hours – and a statement from the Israeli prime minister – did the BBC News website get round to publishing a report headlined “Israel vows ‘heavy price’ for Houthi missile strike”.
The attack which is the topic of that interestingly illustrated report is described by Christy Cooney and Paul Adams (reporting from Jerusalem) as follows:
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Yemen’s Houthis will pay a “heavy price” after a missile fired by the group landed in central Israel.
The Israeli military said the missile landed in an uninhabited area early on Sunday, but that shrapnel indicated air defence systems had failed to destroy it before it entered Israeli airspace.
It added that it was investigating how the missile was able to reach so far into Israeli territory. […]
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said there had been repeated attempts to shoot the missile down on Sunday but that it most likely fragmented in mid-air. […]
Missile fragments landed at a railway station in the city of Modiin, causing some damage, and in open ground near Israel’s main international airport on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
The damage is believed to have been caused by Israel’s own interceptor missiles.”
In other words, BBC audiences were told nothing about the time of the attack, the number of people affected, the fact that nine people were injured while seeking cover or that fires that broke out as a result of the attack. Notably too, the BBC refrained from publishing any pictures of the damage caused.
The BBC’s report states:
“The Houthis claimed the operation used a new type of hypersonic missile, which may help explain the failure of efforts to intercept it.”
The report has not been updated to clarify that the claim concerning a “hypersonic missile” has been refuted:
“The IAF found that the missile, which had a trajectory and did not maneuver in flight, was not a hypersonic projectile as the Houthis have claimed. The intended target of the attack was not immediately known.”
Cooney and Adams also tell their readers that:
“This is not the first time the Houthis have attacked Israel.
In July, one man was killed and eight people were injured after a Houthi drone landed in Tel Aviv.
Previously, almost all Houthi missiles and drones fired towards Israel had been intercepted and none were known to have reached Tel Aviv.”
The INSS has recorded some 200 Houthi rocket and drone attacks since October 2023.
In July the Times of Israel reported that:
“According to the IDF, Yemen’s Houthis in the past nine months have fired over 220 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at Israel — mostly toward Eilat — ostensibly in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling Hamas terrorists.
The vast majority of the Iran-backed group’s projectiles have been intercepted by US forces stationed in the Red Sea and Israeli air defenses and fighter jets, or missed their target. Before the attack on Tel Aviv on Friday, only one Houthi projectile, a cruise missile, had successfully struck Israel, hitting an open area near Eilat in March.”
BBC News website reporting on Houthi attacks since October 20th 2023 (up to page 13 here) has focused overwhelmingly on attacks on shipping, with the repeated attacks on Eilat – including the one in March – not receiving BBC coverage.
Describing the Houthis, Cooney and Adams tell BBC audiences that:
“They are an armed group that seized much of Yemen in the country’s ongoing civil war and have declared themselves part of the Iran-led “axis of resistance” against Israel, the US, and the wider West.
The Houthis said in a statement that Sunday’s attack was carried out in solidarity with the Palestinians and that Israel should expect more ahead of the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks.”
Remarkably, Cooney and Adams did not update their report to inform readers that Hamas’ leader had congratulated the Houthis on their attack and BBC audiences are not told that Houthi hostility towards Israel – and Jews – long predates the current war.
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