Some nineteen hours after terror factions in the Gaza Strip had begun launching a barrage of mortars and rockets at Israeli civilians living in nearby communities in the early hours of July 14th, visitors to the BBC News website were informed that: “Israel deals hardest blow to Hamas”.
That report – headlined “Israel deals ‘hardest blow’ to Hamas since 2014 Gaza war” – appeared on the website’s main homepage as well as its ‘World’ and ‘Middle East’ pages and it was amended several times throughout the night with the later version opening:
“Israel has carried out its biggest attack against Hamas militant targets in Gaza since the war in 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says.
The raids were a response to rockets fired into Israel, he said. Hamas said a truce had been agreed, but there have been reports of further exchanges.”
BBC audiences were not informed that events spiraled following violent incidents on July 13th during what the report later describes as “mass demonstrations along the border”. The report’s only reference to those incidents is as follows:
“Hamas said another Palestinian had died after being shot by Israeli troops during border protests on Friday.”
The BBC’s report fails to clarify that the youth concerned had been trying to climb the border fence at the time, that another infiltration attempt had taken place or that an IDF officer was wounded in a grenade attack.
Following that violence, a number of Hamas military installations were targeted by Israeli forces, including two attack tunnels which were not mentioned at all in the BBC’s report. At around 01:30 on July 14th terror factions in the Gaza Strip began launching mortars and rockets at Israeli communities and by 6 a.m. at least 31 attacks had been recorded.
The missile attacks continued later in the day, as did the retaliatory strikes on Hamas military installations which were described in the BBC’s report as follows:
“Palestinian health officials said two people were killed and 12 injured in an air strike in Gaza City on Saturday. […]
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had struck facilities used by Hamas, which dominates Gaza, including a battalion headquarters in Beit Lahia, a training camp located in a high-rise building in the al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers. […]
Witnesses told Reuters news agency an Israeli strike had hit an empty building in Gaza City and that the casualties were passers-by.”
BBC audiences were not told that the “high-rise building in the al-Shati refugee camp” – intended to be a library – was used by Hamas as an urban warfare training facility and that a tunnel dug under the building connects to Hamas’ tunnel network.
By 16:30 over a hundred missile attacks had taken place. A children’s playground and several buildings were damaged including a synagogue and a house in Sderot where four members of the family were injured by shrapnel. By late evening the number of missile attacks had risen to over 174 and attacks continued during the night.
The BBC’s report devotes the grand total of 44 words to that side of the story. Although the article was amended five times in the eleven hours following its publication, no effort was made to update the number of missiles fired.
“Three Israelis were hurt by one of more than 90 rockets fired on Israel. […]
The IDF said dozens of rockets had been fired on Israel from within Gaza.
One rocket hit a home in the town of Sderot. Three people suffered shrapnel wounds.”
Only in the ninth version of the report – which appeared around midday local time the next day and some sixteen hours after its initial publication – was an amendment added to reflect the actual number of missiles fired.
“More than 200 projectiles – including rockets and mortars – had been fired into Israel since Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.”
As has been BBC practice since the end of March, readers were provided with casualty figures sourced from Hamas but were not told of that fact or of the terror group’s involvement in organising, facilitating and financing the violent rioting, terror attacks and infiltration attempts that have taken place during the ‘Great Return March’. As usual readers were also not informed that over 80% of those killed have been linked to various Gaza Strip based terror factions.
“The attacks come amid an escalation of violence in the region in recent months.
They coincided with mass demonstrations along the border which saw thousands of Palestinians express their support for the declared right of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel – as well as demanding an end to the blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt.
Israel and Egypt say the blockade is a necessary security measure against militants.
Gaza health officials say more than 130 Palestinians were killed and 15,000 others injured by Israeli forces during the protests.
Hamas does not recognise Israel’s right to exist but last year said it was ready to accept an interim Palestinian state limited to Gaza and the West Bank.”
As we see, just as the BBC’s one-sided headline focused audience attentions on Israeli actions, so did the report itself. Remarkably, the BBC News website could not even be bothered to update readers of the first eight versions of the report regarding the correct number of attacks launched against the thousands of Israeli civilians who were forced to spend their weekend in safe rooms and air-raid shelters and the events which triggered the escalation were concealed from audience view.
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