BBC reports Palestinian terrorists killed in action as civilian deaths

A report has revealed that British broadcaster BBC misreported information, portraying the deaths of Palestinian militants in clashes with Israeli forces as those of innocent civilians.

The investigation, conducted by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), analyzed numerous reports and stories published by BBC News Arabic, the BBC's Arabic-language edition. CAMERA is an organization that monitors media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to CAMERA's study, the British media outlet distorted information related to the deaths of more than 30 Palestinians.

According to the U.S. organization, the BBC didn’t report that the people killed were linked to Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) or that they were killed fighting Israeli forces.

The BBC reported that they were innocent civilians despite the fact that the same Palestinian media outlet pointed out that they were fighters who had lost their lives in armed clashes.

CAMERA even claimed that, in some cases, the terrorist organizations stated those killed were their militants.

The U.S. organization noted that in one instance from October 2023, BBC Arabic reported that five men had been "killed by Israeli fire" in the West Bank towns of Jenin and Yatah. However, CAMERA pointed out that the BBC failed to mention that three of the men were armed.

The BBC also reported last May that a woman's four sons had been killed in Israeli offensives. However, it did not mention that they were all Hamas members. In fact, two of them had been buried wrapped in flags of the Palestinian Islamist organization, while the remaining two were described by the same terrorist group, both on social networks and on the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, as its "martyrs."

BBC also lied about the Israeli Jewish victims

The investigation also revealed that BBC Arabic distorted the reality not only regarding Palestinian deaths but also Israeli casualties. According to CAMERA, the British outlet reported the killings of Jewish civilians in attacks by Arabs as "resistance operations," falsely portraying them as incidents in which Israeli soldiers were killed.

CAMERA reported that BBC Arabic stated 24 Israelis had been killed in the West Bank since the October 7 attack, categorizing all of them as soldiers. However, the investigation revealed that more than a third of those killed were actually civilians.

The U.S. organization also highlighted that in numerous articles, BBC Arabic referred to Hamas hostages as "prisoners of war," while describing those killed by Palestinian terrorists as "settlers," even though they lived within internationally recognized Israeli territory.

CAMERA lashed out at the BBC

A CAMERA spokesperson told the British newspaper that The Telegraph lashed out at the BBC. "Of particular concern is the way its reporters selectively quote Palestinian terrorist organizations, deeming them a worthy source only insofar as they discuss Palestinian civilians and not when mourning their own gunmen." He added: "This leads to the absurdity whereby even when Hamas, the PIJ and Israel alike agree that a certain fatality was a combatant, the BBC opts not to mention this.”

The spokesman further argued that "the other side of the coin is of course collectively mislabeling unarmed Jewish civilians who were killed in attacks as though they were ‘soldiers,’ ‘militants’ or part of ‘forces.’"

The BBC defends itself

The Telegraph pointed out that, in response to the report, a spokesman for the BBC claimed that the Arabic-language broadcaster "is committed to covering this challenging and polarizing conflict impartially."