BBC blasted for describing Hamas bomb assaults as ‘army operations’
The BBC has come under fire for describing a series of Hamas suicide bomb attacks that killed Israeli civilians as ‘military operations’.
A media monitoring group has criticised the news site after it reportedly referred to attacks organised by Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, which claimed the lives of 93 people, including 80 civilians aged 13 to 83, as ‘military operations’.
Deif was killed in an Israeli an airstrike last month, but under his command Hamas carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis on buses and at cafes since the 1990s.
In a story following his death, BBC Arabic reportedly stated Deif ‘took part in several military operations against Israel starting from kidnapping soldiers and rocket attacks’ which culminated in the October 7 attack, according to The Telegraph.
But the corporation has since defended its coverage and argued it has ‘made clear throughout’ its reporting that Deif was listed as a terrorist by the US and the EU.
Mohammed Deif, the chief of Al-Qassam Brigades, was killed in an airstrike last month
An emergency personnel works to extinguish the fire after rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip, on October 7
The committee for accuracy in Middle East reporting and analysis (Camera) also accused the BBC of whitewashing Hamas as it claimed BBC Arabic’s reporting suggested the attacks were aimed at soldiers instead of civilians.
Camera told the Telegraph: ‘Downplaying Palestinian groups’ responsibility for targeting innocent civilians as mere ‘accusations’, which only Israel and the US supposedly aim at them, has been a BBC Arabic habit for years.
‘Even when the Palestinian groups themselves boast about similar murders, BBC Arabic reporters would often use their own voice to falsely describe them as ‘military operations’ carried out against ‘soldiers’ or ‘gunmen’.’
Camera was founded in Washington in 1982, with the organisation claiming it was originally set up to respond to the Washington Post’s ‘general anti-Israel bias’.
It now claims to be ‘devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East’.
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘BBC News Arabic has made clear throughout our coverage that Muhammad Deif was listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US and the EU.
‘We quoted the Israeli military describing Deif as a terrorist and that they hold him responsible for the murder of Israelis, and we referenced the serious accusations he faced around the 1996 attacks.
‘Our audiences were in no doubt about Deif’s actions and the fact that he had been called a terrorist, including by Israel.’
A man stands in front of a damaged shop in Tel Aviv, after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on October 7
The aftermath of the October 7 attack on the Supernova music Festival in the Negev desert in southern Israel
Residents look at the wreckage of destroyed vehicles in Ashkelon following a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on October 7
It was revealed earlier this month that Deif was assassinated in an airstrike on July 13 a day after group leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran.
‘IDF fighter jets struck in the area of Khan Yunis, and following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike,’ the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant added that the strike that killed Mr Deif was a ‘significant milestone’ toward achieving the goals of the war.
‘The results of this operation reflect that Hamas is an organisation in disintegration,’ he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Israel believes that Deif and Yahya Sinwar, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, were the chief architects of the October 7 attack.
The head of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, Deif had been among Israel’s most wanted man for nearly three decades and on a US list of ‘international terrorists’ since 2015.
Israel had reportedly tried to kill him at least eight times – including in 2001, 2002, 2006, 2014 and in May 2021.
The attempts saw both of his legs and an arm blown off and his wife and two children killed.
Amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Israel targeted Deif in a strike on July 13 that hit a compound on the outskirts of the city of Khan Younis, but there had been no immediate confirmation he was killed.
More than 90 other people, including displaced civilians in nearby tents, were killed in the strike, Gaza health officials said at the time.
The house where Deif was believed to have taken residence was hit with a 2,000lb (900kg) bomb, leaving a giant crater.
