A few weeks ago we documented the BBC’s response to a CAMERA UK complaint requesting the amendment of a report promoting an NGO’s denial of employment of staff with links to terrorist organizations after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had acknowledged that an MSF physiotherapist was indeed one of its operatives.
Terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip published additional mourning notices in recent months which shed more light on the issue of terror operatives doubling as staff in the healthcare sector – including at some of the hospitals that have been featured in BBC coverage – as well as at the Hamas-run ministry of health, which is of course the prime source of casualty figures quoted and promoted in BBC content.
Examples include staff in the following hospitals:
December 2023: Platoon commander PIJ Combat Ambulance Unit/operating theatre technician
January 2024: Platoon commander PIJ Central Mobilization Unit/nurse
May 2024: Commander PIJ Military Ambulance Unit/nurse
December 2023: Platoon commander PIJ Combat Ambulance Unit/operating theatre technician
October 2023: Platoon commander PIJ al-Jadida Battalion/ administrator
July 2025: Commander PIJ internal security Khan Younis Brigade/radiology technician
May 2024: Platoon commander weapons portfolio PIJ Central Brigade/administrator
June 2024: Platoon commander PIJ Armored Corps/ driver
March 2024: Commander PIJ Military Ambulance Unit/nurse
June 2025: Commander PIJ Central Operations Unit/ nurse
July 2025: Commander Hamas artillery unit/nurse
December 2023: Deputy commander PIJ Military Manufacturing Unit/nurse
September 2024: Commander PIJ al-Balad Battalion/administrator
December 2023: Hamas al-Radwan Battalion/administrator
December 2024: Commander PIJ Military Manufacturing Unit/nurse
Gaza City Eye Hospital
December 2023:Commander PIJ Military Judiciary Unit/nurse
Al-Daraj Health Center
July 2025: Platoon commander PIJ Financial Administration Unit
Healthcare Sector Administration/Management/Technicians:
October 2023: Commander support squad Northern Battalion PIJ Rafah Brigade/administrator
October 2023: Platoon commander PIJ rocket unit Rafah Brigade/laboratory technician
July 2024: Commander PIJ central intelligence unit Rafah Brigade/project manager
October 2023: Platoon commander PIJ rocket unit, Central Brigade/driver
November 2023: Deputy commander PIJ Northern Brigade/physiotherapist
February 2024: Platoon commander PIJ Khan Younis Brigade/electrician
March 2024: Platoon commander PIJ rocket unit, Gaza Brigade/administrator
July 2025: Commander PIJ internal security Khan Younis Brigade/ manager
Additional mourning notices have highlighted the same issue in the field of first responders – including from the Gaza Civil Defense, which the BBC regularly quotes – and aid workers. Examples follow.
October 2024: Hamas commander/director medical services
July 2025: Platoon commander PIJ Central Communications Unit/ Gaza Civil Defense
Aid Workers
July 2025: DFLP commander and four Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades operatives
Mourning notices also identify examples of terror operatives employed by supposedly humanitarian NGOs.
May 2025: Commander PIJ Central Mobilization Unit, Gaza Brigade/ IHH program director
June 2025: Commander PIJ Signal Corps, Rafah Brigade/ ANERA psychologist
Terrorist groups’ mourning notices also cast light on some of the many reports concerning strikes in the vicinity of medical facilities that BBC audiences have seen in recent years, including:
November 2023: European hospital – Hamas commander
March 2024: Shifa hospital – PIJ platoon commander/journalist
September 2024: al Aqsa hospital – PIJ commander
September 2024: al Aqsa hospital – PIJ commander
September 2024: al Aqsa hospital – PIJ commander
October 2024: Yemen al-Saeed hospital – PIJ commander (BBC coverage here)
December 2024: al Awda hospital – PIJ platoon commander/journalist
August 2025: al Aqsa hospital – Hamas commander
Throughout the past two and ahalf years, the BBC has promoted the narrative that Israel deliberately targets medical workers and hospitals while amplifying Hamas denials of exploitation of healthcare facilities for military purposes. More recently, promotion of the same narrative has been seen in BBC coverage of events in Lebanon.
For example, on May 22, BBC reported:
On Tuesday 13 May, Israeli strikes on the European Hospital in Gaza killed 28 people and injured dozens, according to the Hamas-run civil defence agency. …
The Israeli army says it was targeting a Hamas command and control centre beneath the European hospital complex, but did not provide any evidence of this. [Emphasis added.]
Similarly, BBC reported on April 15:
Israel has frequently accused Hezbollah of using ambulances and medical facilities for military purposes, without providing evidence. Lebanon’s health minister has denied the claims.
The various terror organizations’ mourning notices published in recent months provide clear evidence of the fact that the BBC’s promotion of simplistic narratives alleging that Israel deliberately targets medical staff and healthcare facilities compromises its obligation to provide its audiences with accurate and impartial reporting.
Moreover, the BBC has to date displayed no interest in providing its audiences with the new information that would help them understand the issue of the exploitation of infrastructure and professions or in providing information about the terror-linked targets at the center of many of the stories it has reported.
The same pattern has been seen in the corporation’s promotion of similar narratives concerning disused schools sheltering internally displaced civilians and journalists.
It is of course much easier to promote such narratives when terrorists are erased from the picture – even after they themselves confirm that, for example, an MSF physiotherapist was involved in terror activity. The amplification of politically motivated narratives is not, however, the purpose of the publicly funded BBC and blatantly contradicts the editorial guidelines to which it claims to adhere.