What BBC didn’t tell viewers about Gaza doctors who accused Israel of war crimes
MPs demand bias inquiry as MoS reveals that medical staff at centre of harrowing report are long-time supporters of Hamas -- as these vile anti-Semitic social media posts show
ALL day long on March 12, the BBC led its radio and TV bulletins with a shocking report from Gaza in which hospital medics described being tortured and abused by Israeli forces.
Even for a conflict overladen with grim testimony and emotive images, this was highly charged material, the kind that could inflame communities in Britain. What was being alleged, after all, blatantly contravened the fundamental principle that hospitals – in this case the Nasser hospital in the city of Khan Yunis – should be protected in wartime.
International condemnation was swift, with Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron among those demanding an explanation from Israel.
The BBC has faced accusations of anti-Israel-bias and of fuelling anti-Semitism, so it was anxious to demonstrate that it went to considerable lengths to corroborate evidence. No doubt it was reassured that the claims came from doctors. Surely reliable witnesses?
But a Mail on Sunday investigation has uncovered some disturbing truths about six of the eight medics interviewed – evidence that should, at the very least, have given BBC news executives pause
‘The BBC is being led by its nose by Hamas’
‘Jerusalem and Gaza are in the camp of resistance. May Allah guide [Hamas] missiles’
FACEBOOK POST, MAY 2021
‘O Lord, turn every Palestinian missile into a Zionist casualty’
FACEBOOK POST DURING 2014 ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT
‘The Jew defiled Jerusalem... we will avenge the heroic martyrs a million-fold’
LYRICS OF PRO-HAMAS VIDEO SHARED ON SOCIAL MEDIA, 2021
for thought as they rolled out their scoop with dramatic fanfare.
Astonishingly, all six have repeatedly spouted anti-Semitic slurs on social media, with posts ranging from the provocative and inflammatory to the downright obscene.
Last night, our findings prompted demands for an independent inquiry into the BBC report. A peer said the corporation was being ‘led by its nose by Hamas’.
In one post, Dr Amira Al-Assouli (misspelled on the BBC caption, right), whose account of being targeted by Israeli gunfire was at the forefront of the BBC’s coverage, plainly supports a Hamas rocket attack on Israel. ‘O Lord, turn every Palestinian missile into a Zionist casualty, and turn every casualty into a thousand families that leave our homeland,’ she wrote. In another she said: ‘Lord protect our mujahideen [jihadi fighters] and support them with your angels and kill the Jews.’
On the day of the October 7 attacks, the doctor posted a photo of a dead man, Fayez Saeed Al-Assouli, later accused on social media of taking part in the incursion. Dr Al-Assouli, a volunteer at Nasser hospital, describes him as ‘the first martyr of our family’.
Another doctor, Hatem Raba, wrote on Facebook: ‘May Allah guide the missiles of Palestine’s mujahideen.' Elsewhere he praised a terrorist who blew up a bus killing 38 Israeli civilians – 13 of them children – in 1978 as a ‘legend’ and a ‘martyr’.
The hospital’s general manager Atef Al-Hout (also misspelled on the BBC caption) – who told the BBC that Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers detained medics and forced them to kneel with their hands behind their heads for hours – shared his colleagues’ admiration of Hamas. ‘Jerusalem and Gaza are in the camp of resistance. May Allah guide your missiles,’ he wrote in 2021 after a Hamas rocket blitz on Israel.
Last night, Jewish Tory MP Andrew Percy told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The BBC seemingly doesn’t seem to care that it keeps casually giving airtime to people who openly support the murder and assault of innocent civilians through terrorism. The BBC seems unable to appreciate that Hamas and their terrorist network have infiltrated every aspect of life in Gaza, even teachers and medical professionals, some of whom helped facilitate the October 7 attacks and hostage-taking.
‘There must be a full independent inquiry undertaken of the BBC’s failure to uphold impartiality on this issue. Their coverage is fuelling the hate on our streets and it is fuelling anti-Semitism. They must be held to account.’
Like other major news organisations, the BBC relies largely on Arabic journalists on the ground in Gaza. Testimony and footage used in the Nasser hospital report was scrutinised by the newly launched fact-check unit BBC Verify. But last week the MoS revealed that two journalists who worked on the report, Soha Ibrahim and MarieJose Al Azzi, had ‘liked’ posts celebrating attacks on Israel.
Days later, BBC director-general Tim Davie was questioned by the Commons culture select committee about our story and the perception of bias in BBC coverage. He called some of the tweets ‘unacceptable’ and promised to take action. Last year the corpora
tion launched an investigation into claims its journalists appeared to celebrate the October 7 terror attacks on social media.
Dr Al-Assouli’s Facebook account includes up to 20 posts celebrating Israelis being killed in terror attacks or making anti-Semitic remarks. Yet she emerges from the BBC report in heroic fashion, having ‘risked her life’ to dart out of the hospital, amid echoing gunfire, to reach an injured man, her daring mission captured in a viral online video. She told the BBC that the injured man was stretchered into hospital under the ‘direct gunfire of the occupation forces’.
This is the same Dr Al-Assouli who in 2014 warned Zionists that ‘you’ll die as cowards at the hands of our children’, adding: ‘And we
promise you, for every martyr [killed], a thousand mujahideen will be born, and our land will spit out your bodies and you will wander the Earth as you had before…’ The BBC also reported claims that the IDF detained and beat Palestinian medics during the operation at the Nasser hospital on February 15.
Ahmed Abu Sabha, a doctor at the site, described being held for a week in detention, where, he said, muzzled dogs were set upon him and his hand was broken by an Israeli soldier.
But in May 2021, Dr Sabha’s Facebook account shared what appeared to be a pro-Hamas music video with the lyrics: ‘The Jew defiled Jerusalem, ruled with tyranny, and oppressed… O mighty Gaza, the shelling is despicable, we will avenge the heroic martyrs a million-fold.’
Meanwhile Dr Khaled Serr, who told the BBC how IDF troops shot civilians during the raid on the hospital, previously praised Hamas strikes on Israel that killed seven civilians. In a 2021 post on X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: ‘Just as you dazzled me with your missile capabilities, we ask God to grant you victory, steadfastness and creativity on the battlefield.’
Dr Mohammed Harara, who told the BBC how people who tried to rescue injured people in the hospital complex were being directly targeted, wrote in a 2015 Facebook post: ‘Allah, save our Al-Aqsa from the filth of the usurping Jews.’
None of the six medics responded to requests from The Mail on Sunday to comment.
The horrifying social media accounts were unearthed by anti-Semitism researcher David Collier and investigated by the Arabic department of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), a media monitoring group.
A CAMERA spokesman said: ‘With BBC reporters and BBC Verify fact-checkers alike either missing or deeming as irrelevant their eyewitnesses’ support for murdering Israel’s Jewish civilians, the journalistic failure here is multi-layered.
‘If the BBC cannot deliver the kind of quality journalism the British public deserves in exchange for its licence-fee payments, this is a matter for their representatives to inquire and ultimately fix.
‘Until they do, perhaps it is time for the UK Government to stop treating BBC Arabic reporters as a trustworthy news source.’
The IDF raid on the hospital followed intelligence indicating that it was shielding Hamas operatives. They also said Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 had been held there – and some of the hostages themselves have publicly said they were kept at Nasser. Hamas has denied that its fighters operate inside medical facilities.
But the IDF said it had detained 200 terrorists and ‘suspects in terrorist activities’ and found ‘large quantities of weapons’ and boxes of sealed medicines intended for Israeli hostages during its raid on the hospital in Khan Yunis.
It insisted its operation at the hospital was run in a ‘precise and focused manner, creating minimal damage to the hospital’s ongoing activity, and without harming the patients or the medical staff’.
The BBC said it supplied details of the allegations to the IDF but said it did not respond directly to questions about these accounts, or deny claims of mistreatment. But the IDF denied that medical staff were harmed during its operation, adding that ‘any abuse of detainees is contrary to IDF orders and is strictly prohibited’.
Last night, politicians called for an investigation into the BBC’s reporting. Theresa Villiers, Tory MP for Chipping Barnet, said: ‘It is shocking our national broadcaster is seemingly basing its reports on the accounts of people who have praised terrorist violence against innocent Israeli citizens.’
She added: ‘The BBC purports to hold itself to high standards for the quality and impartiality of its reporting. It has fallen far short of these standards in this instance, and there needs to be a thorough investigation. Greater care needs to be taken when reporting on such divisive and emotive issues as the Gaza war.’
Lord Pickles, special envoy for Post-Holocaust issues, said: ‘There seems to be a complete failure of due diligence.
‘Over the decades we have relied on the BBC to be fair and impartial. But the last few weeks have shown us the BBC’s greatness is in its past and it’s falling way short of the standards we have grown to expect. We now need to know how the once great BBC is being led by its nose by Hamas.’
Sir Michael Ellis, the former Attorney General and a Tory MP, who has accused the BBC’s ‘biased’ coverage of the war of contributing to record levels of intimidation and attacks on British Jews, said: ‘The licence-fee payers can be grateful to The Mail on Sunday for exposing yet further evidence of an appalling state of bias at the BBC. The journalistic standards at the BBC have clearly fallen to a shocking new low and this is more evidence of an endemic anti-Israel bias at the corporation. How can
Dr Hatem Raba ‘May Allah guide the missiles of Palestine’s mujahideen’ (jihadi fighters) FACEBOOK POST, MAY 2021
‘There is a complete failure of due diligence’
‘This is more evidence of anti-Israel bias’
BBC Verify justify its continued existence under that name, in light of what has been uncovered by The Mail on Sunday?’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘We stand by our journalism. Those who have read our story will know the BBC has been transparent in telling audiences where and how information is corroborated and attributed, and where this has not been possible.
‘We have provided multiple firsthand accounts, named independent sources, shared visual evidence and included rights of reply throughout, working to the highest standards of journalism.’