BBC’s silence on missile attacks from Gaza Strip continues

For the tenth time this year, the BBC's English language services ignore a missile attack on Israel.

On the evening of June 26th a missile fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in the Western Negev district.

“A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel Monday night, not causing any damage, but breaking a tense calm amid rising tensions with the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli military said the projectile landed in open area in the Sha’ar Hanegev region.

“No injuries have been reported. Forces are searching the area,” the army said in a statement.”

An ISIS affiliated group in Gaza claimed the missile fire. The IDF subsequently responded to the attack with strikes on two Hamas installations in the Gaza Strip.

Neither the missile attack nor the response received any BBC coverage.

Since the beginning of this year ten separate incidents of missile fire from either the Gaza Strip or the Sinai Peninsula have taken place. The BBC’s English language services have not informed audiences of any of those attacks.

The pattern of reporting whereby the vast majority of missile attacks from the Gaza Strip are not covered in the English language but Israel’s response to those attacks is sometimes reported in Arabic has been in evidence since the end of the summer 2014 conflict. Throughout 2016 just one of the ten attacks that took place received BBC coverage in the English language.

A similar policy of omission appears to have been adopted regarding missile attacks perpetrated by a terrorist group located in a neighbouring country, with all of the four attacks launched from the Sinai Peninsula since the beginning of 2017 having been ignored by the BBC’s English language services.

Related Articles:

BBC News coverage of terrorism in Israel – May 2017 

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