BBC News again ignores abuse of Israeli humanitarian aid to Gaza

While frequently promoting the topic of the 'blockade' on the Gaza Strip, the BBC again ignores a story explaining its necessity.

On November 22nd the Israel Security Agency announced that it had uncovered attempts by Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip to establish a terror network in Judea and Samaria. The plot included exploitation of Israel’s humanitarian aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip.

“The Hamas operation was uncovered with the arrest of Oweis Rajoub, 25, an alleged member of the terrorist group from the Palestinian village of Dura, near Hebron, on September 23, the Shin Bet said.

The goal of the West Bank cells was to conduct large terror attacks against Israeli military and civilians targets at the same time as rockets and mortar shells were being fired from the Gaza Strip, in order to challenge Israel on two fronts simultaneously, the internal security service said. […]

The coordination and planning between the operatives in the West Bank and Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip were conducted, in part, by Palestinians travelling from the coastal enclave to hospitals in Israel. Gazan businessmen with permits allowing them to travel to the West Bank were also reportedly found to have passed messages between the two groups. […]

In August, Rajoub received a cellphone from his Hamas handlers. A few days later, he was told to go to Bethlehem to meet with a woman who gave him “trousers into which a cloth strip had been sewn on which instructions for using his phone had been written,” the Shin Bet said.

According to the security service, the woman was Na’ama Mikdad, 53, a mother of nine, from the Gaza Strip, who had been given a travel permit to accompany her sister who had cancer and received medical treatment in Israel on August 9.

With the phone and the instructions on how to use it, Rajoub began working with an explosives expert to create the bombs needed for the attacks, the Shin Bet said. […]

The Shin Bet said Mikdad and her sister — the nieces of a Hamas military commander, Muhammad Abu Kuwaik — also knowingly passed along messages to another Hamas member in Ramallah: Fouad Dar Khalil, who had been imprisoned by Israel for 14 years for taking part in a shooting attack on an Israeli car.”

Earlier this year viewers of BBC TV saw extensive amplification of allegations concerning patients from Gaza which have been used by anti-Israel activists to delegitimise Israel. BBC audiences have frequently been misled on the topic of medical supplies and referrals to treatment outside the Gaza Strip and when a previous instance of abuse of medical travel permits for terrorism purposes was exposed last year, the BBC ignored the story completely.

With its audiences being repeatedly steered towards the inaccurate belief that all the economic and humanitarian problems in the Gaza Strip are attributable to Israeli counter-terrorism measures, it is significant that once again the BBC has shown no interest in reporting a story which clarifies why such measures are necessary.

Related Articles:

BBC Arabic film on collaborators promotes Hamas messaging – part two

BBC waives chance to balance its reporting on medical issues

BBC’s Knell paints a partial picture of Gaza woes

BBC ignores another story explaining the need for Gaza border restrictions

 

 

 

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