Why Is the BBC Still Promoting Hamas’ Unverified and False Casualty Counts?

Visitors to the BBC News website’s “Middle East” page early on the morning of September 10, were told that Israel had killed 40 people in a safe zone in the Gaza Strip:

Early versions of that report were credited to Rushdi Abualouf in Istanbul and Thomas Mackintosh in London, with the original headline reading as follows:

At least 40 people have been killed in southern Gaza and dozens more injured in Israeli strikes on a designated humanitarian zone, the Hamas-run Civil Defence authority said.

The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked an operations centre in Khan Younis belonging to Hamas militants using precision weaponry.

Local residents said three strikes targeted tents housing displaced people in the humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi, west of the city of Khan Younis, causing huge craters.

“Forty people were killed and more than 60 injured, while many are still under the rubble,” the operations director of Hamas’s civil defence authority told the BBC.” […]

“Hamas rejected the Israeli military’s claims that there were Hamas fighters present in the area, calling it a “blatant” lie.

“The resistance has denied several times that any of its members exist within civilian gatherings or using these places for military purposes.” [emphasis added]

A later headline focused BBC audiences ‘attentions on the “safe zone” element of the story:

At least 40 people have been killed in southern Gaza and dozens more injured in Israeli strikes on a designated humanitarian zone, the Hamas-run Civil Defence authority has said.

The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked an operations centre in Khan Younis belonging to Hamas fighters, and it had taken steps to mitigate risk of harming civilians.

Local residents said three strikes targeted tents housing displaced people in the humanitarian zone of al-Mawasi, west of the city of Khan Younis, causing seven metre-deep craters.

“Forty people were killed and more than 60 injured, while many are still under the rubble,” the operations director of Hamas’s Civil Defence authority told the BBC.

Despite plenty of past experience, clearly the BBC has yet to understand that its blind faith in claims put out by the Hamas-run Gaza civil defence is misplaced.

Some eight hours after the report’s original publication, its headline was changed again and David Gritten was added to the list of those credited:

The number of alleged casualties fell dramatically in that version of the BBC’s report:

At least 13 people have been killed in an overnight Israeli strike in the designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, a local hospital says.

Residents said three missiles hit a tented camp crowded with displaced Palestinians in the al-Mawasi area, south-west of the city of Khan Younis, leaving 7m-deep (23ft) craters.

The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked what it called “a number of senior Hamas terrorists” operating there – a claim Hamas denied.

The military also disputed the initial death toll put out by the Hamas-run Civil Defence authority, which reported that rescue teams had recovered more than 40 bodies.

Nevertheless, that version of the report continued to repeat the original claim:

The Civil Defence’s operations director said overnight that more than 40 people were killed and more than 60 others were injured. He also warned that “many are still under the rubble”.

There was no immediate casualty report from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Later on Monday, an official at the nearby Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said 13 people killed in the strike had been brought there.

Readers were told that:

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said aircraft had conducted “a precise strike on a number of senior Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded inside the humanitarian area”.

They included Samer Abu Daqqa, head of Hamas’s aerial unit, and Osama Tabesh, head of the observation and targets department in Hamas’s military intelligence headquarters, it added.

As reported by the Israeli media, the third senior Hamas officer killed in that strike was named Ayman Mabhouh — and all three were directly involved in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel as well as subsequent attacks on IDF troops.

Nevertheless, the BBC’s report continued with uncritical promotion of blatant Hamas propaganda:

The IDF accused Hamas of embedding its operatives and military infrastructure in the humanitarian zone and using civilians as human shields.

A Hamas statement denounced the strike on al-Mawasi as a “heinous massacre” and rejected the IDF’s claim that it had a command centre there.

“This is a clear lie that aims to justify these ugly crimes. The resistance has denied several times that any of its members exist within civilian gatherings or use these places for military purposes,” it said.

Roughly an hour later, the headline to that BBC report was changed yet again.

That version of the report likewise uncritically promotes Hamas talking points, including via an unidentified “freelance journalist”:

The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked what it called “a number of senior Hamas terrorists” operating there — a claim Hamas denied.”

“Aya Madi, a displaced mother of seven from the southern city of Rafah, told a freelance journalist working for the BBC: “We woke up to nothing but sand and fire. […]

She said all of those killed were civilians, adding that there was “not a single resistance fighter”.

A Hamas statement denounced the strike on al-Mawasi as a “heinous massacre” and rejected the IDF’s claim that it had a command centre there.

“This is a clear lie that aims to justify these ugly crimes. The resistance has denied several times that any of its members exist within civilian gatherings or use these places for military purposes,” it said.

In the space of about 12 hours, the number of people killed according to the BBC went down by over half: from 40 to 19. The story behind that dramatic change is portrayed in that version of Abualouf and Gritten’s report as follows:

The [Israeli] military also disputed the initial death toll put out by the Hamas-run Civil Defence authority, which reported that rescue teams had recovered more than 40 bodies. […]

The Civil Defence’s operations director said overnight that more than 40 people were killed and more than 60 others were injured.

Later on Monday, the nearby Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said 13 people killed in the strike had been brought there. […]

In the afternoon, the Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement that hospitals had received a total of 19 bodies and more than 60 wounded people, some of whom were in a serious condition. It did not say how many were men, women or children.

In other words, sometime overnight on September 9-10, the BBC was told that 40 people had been killed in a strike in Khan Younis.

Whether that information came directly from one of the Hamas bodies promoting that number — the Gaza civil defense and the Hamas Government Media Office — or from a different source quoting them is unclear, but given that Istanbul-based Rushdi Abualouf (who just last month attended Hamas’ memorial for Ismail Haniyeh in Doha) was involved in the writing of all versions of this report, it would seem likely that he was the journalist who received that information.

Apparently though, the BBC has learned nothing from its past experiences and so even though it could not independently verify that remarkably swiftly announced alleged casualty toll — and despite knowing that its sources were the untrustworthy branches of the terrorist organization that initiated the current war — it decided to nevertheless promote it worldwide.

In this case, however, the IDF quickly challenged Hamas’ claims:

“In general, and according to a preliminary review, the numbers published by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza, which has consistently broadcast lies and false information throughout the war, do not align with the information held by the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike,” the military said.

That led Hamas — this time via its health ministry — to issue a “clarification” including a much lower casualty count, and the BBC had to amend its report accordingly.

Hamas, however, got what it wanted: eight hours of worldwide headlines on the website of the world’s largest media organization about Israel killing 40 civilians in a safe zone, and repeated promotion of propaganda concerning its use of human shields.

The BBC nevertheless continues to claim that it produces news you can trust.

The post Why Is the BBC Still Promoting Hamas’ Unverified and False Casualty Counts? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.