The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has done it again – but at least this time, the pro-Hamas news outlet was forced to apologize for its report claiming that the IDF was ‘targeting’ medical teams and Arabic speakers in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital.
Here’s the BBC’s latest blood libel:
Good god, this is blood libel from the BBC.
The IDF said it entered the hospital *with* its own medical teams and Arabic speakers, so it can help people.
BBC reports the IDF is *targeting* medical teams and Arabic speakers.
That’s not a coincidence.pic.twitter.com/m4PEcOtFRP
— Oliver Cooper (@OliverCooper) November 15, 2023
And here is the BBC’s milk toast apology:
Finally the BBC apologize! pic.twitter.com/iHk1iPIno2
— Libby Alon ליבי אלון (@libby_alon) November 15, 2023
“As BBC News 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. We apologize for this error, which fell below our usual editorial standards. The correct version of events was broadcast minutes later and we apologized for the mistake on air later in the morning,” the BBC statement read.
The BBC claimed its report had “misquoted” a Reuters report saying the IDF announced that its forces “include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians” as they prepared to enter Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to hunt for Hamas terrorists and the hostages they kidnapped from Israel.
It’s not the first time the BBC has screwed up.
Last month the BBC reported that Israel had shelled the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, killing “hundreds.”
Subsequent investigation soon made it clear that the IDF wasn’t lying when it said its forces had nothing to do with the blast.
In fact, the explosion resulted from a failed Hamas rocket launch aimed at Israel from a spot close behind the hospital. The misfired rocket landed in the hospital parking lot, killing about 30 people – also a tragedy if they were innocent civilians, but certainly not the “at least 500” people the BBC reported, quoting correspondent Jon Donnison.
The news outlet subsequently issued a statement saying that Donnison was “wrong to speculate about the cause of the explosion of the hospital. At no stage did he actually say it was caused by the Israelis . . . but nonetheless, when the impression is left that we’ve speculated, [it] is important to correct that which we’ve done.”
The BBC also scrupulously avoids referring to Hamas as a terrorist organization, although it is unclear why. Anyone who has viewed the bodycam, CCTV and other on-site footage from the massacre and kidnapping by Hamas operatives during their October 7 invasion of southern Israel, should know better.
Moreover, the government of the United Kingdom — in addition to the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Israel, the Organization of American States, Paraguay, and New Zealand – has designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
So what’s the problem, BBC?
The news outlet instead continues to offer completely biased – and inaccurate – coverage of the war imposed on Israel by Hamas.
Earlier this week, the BBC quoted the World Health Organization in saying that Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital was no longer functioning as a hospital, and that a lack of fuel for the hospital’s generators meant incubators for babies could not run, and no surgeries could be performed.
“We deny this entirely,” Israel’s President Isaac Herzog told BBC Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg in response. “There is a lot of spin by Hamas . . . but there is electricity in Shifa, everything is operating.”
When one takes a close look at the photos coming out of Shifa Hospital – including the dramatic photo of tiny babies swaddled in hospital sheets lying in a group on a table who reportedly were supposed to be in incubators – one can clearly see there is, indeed, electricity in the hospital. The lights are on.
There is plenty of fuel, albeit hoarded by Hamas terrorists – at least half a million liters (125 gallons) of it – not to mention the 300 liters of fuel that was delivered two days ago at great risk by IDF soldiers personally to the entrance of the hospital.
Hamas Blocks, Then Seizes Fuel Delivery to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital
The hospital was blocked by Hamas operatives from accepting the precious fuel, which instead ended up it the hands of the terrorists, as have nearly all other deliveries intended to help Gaza’s civilians.
The arrangements for the delivery were documented in this conversation between a senior Israeli official at the Coordination and Liaison Headquarters and a senior Gazan official at the Shifa Hospital, coordinating the delivery of fuel to the hospital’s entrance:
Later, the IDF received evidence that Hamas officials prevented the hospital from receiving the fuel.
Listen to this recording of a conversation between an IDF officer and a senior official in the health ministry in Gaza who states that the CEO of the Hamas Health Ministry, Yosef Abu Rish, forbade them and prevented them from receiving the fuel:
An Arabic-language IDF spokesperson subsequently urged residents, patients, and hospital personnel to evacuate via a designated route to the south.
#عاجل سكان شمال غزة لديّ عدة رسائل مهمة اليكم هذا الصباح:
مئات الآلاف من السكان قد انتقلوا على مدار الأيام الأخيرة عبر الممرّ الآمن الإنساني، سواء بالسيارات أو مشيًا على الأقدام عبر شارع صلاح الدين.
? اليوم (الأحد) أيضًا سيتم فتح شارع صلاح الدين أمام مروركم، اعتبارًا من… pic.twitter.com/9VuWmdN21o
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 12, 2023
Israeli military spokesperson Libby Weiss also told the BBC that IDF officials were in constant contact with hospital personnel, emphasizing that Israeli soldiers were not firing at the hospital.
IDF: No Siege on Gaza’s Shifa Hospital, Israeli Forces to Help Evacuate the Babies
“I would like to clarify that the IDF is not targeting the Al-Shifa hospital. We are responding to fire that is being launched by Hamas adjacent to the hospital which I think just symbolizes the disregard that Hamas has certainly for hospitals and other civilian areas,” Libby Weiss said.
“But we are in touch with the staff at Al-Shifa hospital and will help evacuate that hospital as we already did with the Nasser and Rantisi hospitals.”
IDF Confirms Incubators, Baby Food, Medical Supplies Arrived at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital
Incubators for the tiny babies were also personally delivered by IDF soldiers this week: again, Hamas tried to block the delivery, but the IDF said its soldiers were successful in making sure the badly needed incubators, baby food and other medical supplies reached their intended destination.
Israel made multiple offers to evacuate the babies from the hospital; each was rejected by hospital administrators under pressure from Hamas.
IDF Enters Shifa Hospital Complex after Removing Patients and Staff
Finally, the hospital personnel were forced to choose between Hamas death threats and IDF promises of survival.
For now, it appears they chose life.
