On Wednesday (15th November), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is very well known for spreading disinformation, issued a public apology for spreading incorrect information against Israel amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The BBC had earlier reported that the Israeli forces had entered Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital and were targeting medical teams and Arab speakers. However, it issued an apology saying that the information being disseminated by the channel was false.
The BBC clarified it should have stated that medical teams and translators were assisting the IDF in the operation, but instead said that the IDF was targeting medical teams and translators in the hospital, adding that they misquoted a Reuters report.
“As BBC covered initial reports that Israeli forces had entered Gaza’s main hospital, we said that ‘medical teams and Arab speakers were being targeted’. This was incorrect and misquoted a Reuters report. We should have said IDF forces included medical teams and Arabic speakers for this operation,” BBC tweeted.
“We apologize for this error, which fell below our usual editorial standards. The correct version of the events was broadcast minutes later and we apologized for the mistake on air in the morning,” the statement added. The channel also aired the apology on air.
According to the reports, the Israeli forces entered the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza and uncovered unspecified weapons and “terror infrastructure” inside the hospital compound. The troops said that there was no fighting inside the hospital with civilians, patients or staff.
The soldiers carried boxes marked ‘medical supplies’ and ‘baby food’ in English for the people trapped inside. “Before entering the hospital our forces were confronted by explosive devices and terrorist squads, fighting ensued in which terrorists were killed. We can confirm that incubators, baby food, and medical supplies brought by IDF tanks from Israel have successfully reached the Shifa hospital. Our medical teams and Arabic-speaking soldiers are on the ground to ensure that these supplies reach those in need,” the military was quoted as saying by Reuters.
However, the BBC reported that the Israeli forces had entered Gaza’s main hospital and that the medical teams and Arab speakers were being targeted.
This is not the first time that BBC has issued an apology for spreading misinformation amid the Israel-Hamas war. Earlier on 16th October, the BBC issued an apology for the way it characterized demonstrations supporting Palestinians.
“Earlier we reported on some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the weekend. We spoke about several demonstrations across Britain during which people voiced their backing for Hamas. We accept this was poorly phrased and was a misleading description of the demonstrations,” Maryam Moshiri, the chief presenter at BBC News was quoted as saying.
Interestingly, the BBC has been notorious for sharing fake information and fake news. In the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, BBC had also spread misinformation by claiming that the Israeli airstrike was responsible for the rocket attack on 17th October at the Gaza hospital in which the initial reports claimed that around 500 people had died.
The BBC later admitted that one of its live air correspondents incorrectly suspected that the rocket attack on a Gaza hospital was the result of an Israeli airstrike. “We accept that even in this fast-moving situation it was wrong to speculate in this way, although he did not at any point report that it was an Israeli strike,” the corporation wrote on its page amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
During early live reporting from Israel on what was reported to be a deadly explosion, BBC correspondent Jon Donnison speculated that Israel’s forces were to blame. He reported, “It’s hard to see what else this could be really, given the size of the explosion, other than an Israeli airstrike or several airstrikes.” An independent evaluation has since established that a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket misfired and struck the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza.
The BBC has already been under fire for refusing to name Hamas as a terrorist organization, despite the fact that it is marked as such by the UK, the US, the EU, and Israel. Earlier, the BBC had defended its stand on not calling Hamas a terrorist organisation saying that calling someone a terrorist would mean taking sides.
Since Hamas terrorists unleashed a wave of strikes along Israel’s border with Gaza on 7th October, thousands have been killed in Israel. Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered outside the BBC in London on October 16th evening, demanding that the corporation name Hamas as terrorists.