The BBC is tripling down on a baseless, Hamas-generated claim that the IDF killed dozens of Gazan civilians as they approached a US-run aid station, despite the BBC itself debunking a video falsely purporting to prove the claim. Even the White House weighed in, slamming the British news source for taking “the word of Hamas with total truth”.
But behind the BBC may lie a nefarious agenda that will return control of the humanitarian aid to Hamas and starve the people of Gaza.
BBC and CNN repeated Hamas claims on Saturday that Israel opened fire on civilians near a new U.S.-run aid distribution center in Gaza, killing 22 people, later raising that death toll to 31. The report was based on a video posted by an Al Jazeera journalist stating: “New footage reveals the horrific massacre committed by Israeli forces near a US aid distribution site in southern Gaza.” The video purports to show the immediate aftermath of a strike, dust clouds are visible as well as bodies lying on the ground.
The United Nations quickly picked up the BBC claim and Secretary General Antonio Guterres tweeted, “I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday. It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food.”
While calling for an investigation, Guterres immediately accused Israel, parroting Hamas claims.
“I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”
“Israel has clear obligations under international humanitarian law to agree to and facilitate humanitarian aid. The unimpeded entry of assistance at scale to meet the enormous needs in Gaza must be restored immediately. The UN must be allowed to work in safety and security under conditions of full respect of humanitarian principles.”
After an investigation, BBC posted a correction, noting that the video purporting to show the IDF attack was not as claimed: “We have geolocated the clip to a spot in Khan Younis about 4.5km (2.8 miles) from the nearest aid distribution point. The direction of shadows suggests it was filmed in the evening, not the morning, which doesn’t match accounts of the Rafah shootings.”
The BBC story was subsequently reported by The Washington Post. On Tuesday, WAPO posted a retraction on Twitter, emphasizing that it did not meet their journalistic standards:
“We’ve deleted the post below because it and early versions of the article didn’t meet Post fairness standards.
“The background: Early versions of the article on Sunday stated that Israeli troops had killed more than 30 people near a U.S. aid site in Gaza, with the headline attributing the action to “health officials.”
“The article failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by The Post. The article and headline were updated on Sunday evening, making it clear that there was no consensus about who was responsible for the shootings and that there was a dispute over that question.”
“While statements from Israel that it was unaware of injuries and that an initial inquiry indicated its soldiers didn’t fire at civilians near the site were included in all versions, The Post didn’t give proper weight to Israel’s denial and gave improper certitude about what was known about any Israeli role in the shootings. The early versions fell short of Post standards of fairness and should not have been published in that form.”
Despite this revelation, the BBC posted another report on Wednesday claiming that “on Tuesday, at least 27 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire as they attempted to collect aid near a distribution site in Gaza”. The report cited Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency.
BBC included the debunked incident on Saturday in its new reporting, writing, “This was the third deadly incident in as many days to occur on a route to a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid site.”
The new BBC reporting did not mention its own investigation or the debunked video.
Both the US-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) refuted these reports, saying that they were unaware of any such deaths.
The IDF said it was “currently unaware of injuries caused by IDF fire within the Humanitarian Aid distribution side,” without specifically denying that it may have fired, for whatever reason, adding that an investigation was ongoing.
GHF said in a statement: “Aid was distributed without incident. Reports of injuries and fatalities are completely false and fabricated. Please do not be duped by them. Several major media outlets have been tricked into reporting these false reports. Thank you to the media outlets that have contacted us to confirm.”
The IDF added, “Drone footage captured earlier today (Sunday) reveals armed and masked individuals hurling rocks and firing at Gazan civilians attempting to collect looted humanitarian aid in southern Khan Yunis.”
The egregious reporting attracted the ire of the White House as press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the British news source of parroting Hamas talking points.
“Unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don’t take the word of Hamas with total truth.” Leavitt said at a media conference on Tuesday. “We like to look into it when they speak… unlike the BBC.”
She produced a series of images showing that the BBC reports had undergone drastic changes over a short period.
“And then, oh, wait, they had to correct and take down their entire story, saying we reviewed the footage and couldn’t find any evidence of anything,” Leavitt added.
A spokesperson for the BBC responded, claiming that the broadcaster did not remove the story after their review revealed the footage was not what it claimed to be. “We did not remove any story, and we stand by our journalism,” the spokesperson said.
“Our news stories and headlines about Sunday’s aid distribution centre incident were updated throughout the day with the latest fatality figures as they came in from various sources.”
The spokesperson did not detail what sources they used or whether any of their sources were associated with Hamas.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) reported on the BBC’s handling of the story. CAMERA noted that the BBC had credited a “local journalist” when, in fact, the story was written by two journalists, Rushdi Abualouf in Cairo and Anna Lamche in London, both of whom have written articles for the BBC that were later debunked. CAMERA goes on to show in detail that all of the sources used by the BBC were associated with Hamas and have been used to advance stories that later proved to be fabrications.
CAMERA came to a harsh conclusion.
“The BBC’s coverage of this latest story once again shows that far too many of its journalists adopt the default position of believing the worst about Israel even when unverified claims come from dubious and/or politically motivated sources – including “local journalists” – and serve Hamas’ propaganda agenda. Over 48 hours after it first began cross-platform promotion of a story that did not happen, the BBC continues to tell its audiences of “Sunday’s killing of Palestinians” and “killings near Gaza aid distribution site.”
This recent reporting by the BBC comes two weeks after they were forced to admit that their report that 14,000 babies in Gaza faced imminent death within a 48-hour window was “erroneous”. The report was based on a statement made by Tom Fletcher, the UN’s humanitarian chief, on BBC Radio 4’s Today program. Fletcher cited “strong teams on the ground” working in medical facilities and schools as sources for the claim. The claim spread extensively through UK and global media channels and was cited as factual by nine Members of Parliament during a House of Commons debate the previous day.
BBC News published a correction to Fletcher’s assertion, buried within an article discussing how Gaza aid was failing to reach the population. The BBC did not, however, retract the statement or note that it was incorrect. It noted that the claim was based on an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report that warned that 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition were expected to occur between April 2025 and March 2026 among children aged between six months and five years.
