Early on the afternoon (Israeli time) of February 15 the BBC News website published a report by Joel Gunter and Fiona Nimoni headlined “Eleven killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, rescuers say” which was updated some eight hours later.
The opening paragraphs of the version currently appearing online tell readers that:
“Eleven people were killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza on Sunday morning, according to Palestinian civil defence and health officials.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said a strike on a tent encampment in northern Gaza killed at least six people, while another strike in the south of the strip killed five.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had struck terror targets in response to ceasefire violations by Hamas, and that militants had been killed after emerging from a tunnel into the area of the strip controlled by the Israeli military.”
No further information is provided concerning the ceasefire violations the previous day that had prompted Israel’s response, despite that information having been in the public domain for over twelve hours.
The first of those incidents on February 14 involved a Palestinian who was shot dead after crossing the “yellow line” in the north of the Gaza Strip and posing a threat to soldiers in the area under Israeli control. The second incident – also in the northern Gaza Strip – involved five armed terrorists who exited a tunnel and entered a damaged building on the Israeli-controlled side of the “yellow line,” near troops operating in the area. At least two of the terrorists were eliminated.
However, Gunter and Nimoni did find fit to promote the notion of equivalence in their next paragraph:
“Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of near-daily violations of the ceasefire agreement since it took effect on 10 October.”
The same messaging is promoted in the caption to the main image illustrating the article – “Hamas and Israel have both repeatedly accused each other of breaching a ceasefire agreement” – even though the original caption to that photograph is entirely different, stating that it was taken at “the funeral of several Palestinians killed in an overnight Israeli strike.”
Once again failing to inform BBC audiences that “Gaza’s Civil Defense” is a Hamas-run agency, Gunter and Nimoni continue:
“Gaza’s Civil Defence said 11 people had been killed in the strikes, while staff at the Al-Shifa hospital said a 12th person was killed in an exchange of gunfire, separate from the air strikes.”
The target of a strike in the Tel al-Hawa district of Gaza City was a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s al Quds Brigades called Sami al-Dahdouh. That information had been confirmed hours before the BBC’s report was updated but nevertheless was not included.
A strike in Jabaliya killed Iyad Abu Askar, commander of a sniper unit and the son of a former Hamas leader, as well as a Hamas terrorist called Muhanad Krizem (also Karizim).
A strike in Khan Younis killed a Hamas operative called Ahmad al-Bayouk who took part in the October 7 atrocities at the Re’im military base. Also killed in the same strike was Hamas operative Firas Al-Najjar.
According to an AP report published by the Washington Post al-Najjar’s funeral took place “at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis” and the same report quotes the father of another man killed in the same strike – Bara Al-Shaqra – as saying that he was “among the militants…killed by an airstrike” before telling readers that:
“Associated Press footage from the morgue showed at least two of the men had headbands denoting membership in the Qassam Brigades, the militant arm of Hamas.”
The AP report concerned includes photographs taken at the funerals of Firas al-Najjar, Ahmed al-Bayouk, and Bara al-Shaqra at Nasser hospital, all of whom are described as “Hamas militants.” The photograph used to illustrate the BBC’s report – after its caption had been changed – appears to have been taken at that event.
In other words, at least three of the six people that the BBC reported killed “in northern Gaza” were Hamas or PIJ terrorists and at least three of the five it reported killed “in the south of the strip” were also Hamas operatives. Although other media outlets were able to convey that information to their readers, Gunter and Nimoni however had nothing whatsoever to tell BBC audiences about that obviously relevant context.
Instead, they chose to promote Hamas-sourced casualty figures and a link to an earlier BBC report which, like their own, fails to adequately represent ceasefire violations by terrorists in the Gaza Strip and refrains from fully informing BBC audiences about the terrorists targeted in response.
“The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry has said at least 600 people have been killed since the ceasefire went into effect.
At least 32 people were killed in a wave of Israeli air strikes across Gaza earlier this month, according to local officials.”
As we have had cause to note on far too many occasions since the ceasefire came into effect in October 2025, BBC reporting on events in the Gaza Strip now follows a distinct pattern.
Near-daily ceasefire violations by terrorist organizations are for the most part ignored, with any BBC coverage that is published focusing primarily on Israeli responses to major incidents but failing to adequately inform on the topic of the terrorist targets of such strikes.
Unconfirmed claims concerning casualties from Hamas-run sources – which fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants – are uncritically amplified, along with the “both sides” narrative concerning ceasefire violations.
Readers regularly find the BBC’s standard “frozen in time” portrayal of overall casualties, whereby the number of people reportedly killed in the Gaza Strip rises according to updated information provided by the Hamas-run health ministry but the portrayal of Israeli casualties stays static.
BBC NEWS IGNORES HAMAS CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS UNTIL ISRAEL RESPONDS
BBC OMISSIONS COMPROMISE UNDERSTANDING OF CEASEFIRES IN GAZA AND LEBANON
BBC NEWS AGAIN FAILS TO REPORT GAZA CEASEFIRE VIOLATION IN ITS OWN WORDS
BBC NEWS PROMOTES HAMAS PROPAGANDA ON CEASEFIRE VIOLATION
BBC’S DONNISON AIRBRUSHES HAMAS FROM REPORT ON GAZA STRIP
MORE UNHELPFUL CEASEFIRE VIOLATION COVERAGE FROM BBC NEWS
TERRORISTS AGAIN MISSING FROM BBC REPORTING ON STRIKES IN GAZA STRIP
The articles produced using that pattern of reporting cannot by now be dismissed as isolated cases of errors and omissions. Rather, BBC audiences are being serially denied information which would contribute to their understanding of the way in which continued terrorist activity is currently influencing events in the post-ceasefire Gaza Strip.
This post originally appeared at CAMERA UK.