Britain’s public broadcaster issues another mea culpa on the Israel-Hamas war, admitting it was mistaken in publishing Hamas’ claim Israel ‘executed’ Gazans.
By World Israel News Staff
The British Broadcasting Corporation walked back a story this week, admitting that the news item in question on the Israel-Hamas war was not properly investigated before being aired on the radio.
On December 24th, the BBC aired a radio news bulletin which carried claims promoted by the Hamas terrorist organization, accusing Israel of ‘summarily executing’ at least 137 Gaza civilians during the war in the coastal enclave.
The broadcast, which appears to have been based off of an unverified AFP report, noted that the source of the claim was the Hamas terror organization, but, as the BBC acknowledged this week, the accusation itself had not been properly scrutinized.
“In overnight output we ran a story about Hamas accusing the Israeli army of carrying out summary executions in the Gaza Strip,” the BBC wrote in its “Corrections and Clarifications” section.
“This was a Hamas statement, but although the accusations were attributed and our story contained a response from the Israeli military saying they were unaware of the incident and that Hamas was a terrorist organisation that did not value truth, we had not made sufficient effort to seek corroborating evidence to justify reporting the Hamas claim. We apologise for this mistake.”
This is not the first time the UK’s public broadcaster has issued a mea culpa regarding its coverage of the Israel-Arab conflict.
In July, the BBC issued a statement walking back claims by anchor Anjana Gadgil accusing the IDF of being “happy to kill children.”
Following the October 7th invasion of Israel, the BBC again apologized over its coverage, acknowledging that the broadcaster mishandled coverage of the explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, inappropriately speculating that the explosion could have been the result of an Israeli air strike.
Speaking without evidence, BBC correspondent Jon Donnison said that the hospital explosion was likely caused by an Israeli strike.
Shortly thereafter, evidence emerged implicating a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization.