BBC admits its reporting of Gaza ‘civilian’ deaths was inaccurate

The BBC received a complaint about a report on its News at Ten bulletin on Jan 14 covering a vigil in Tel Aviv – ABIR SULTAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The BBC has admitted that its reporting of “civilian” casualties in Gaza was inaccurate and included the deaths of Hamas fighters.

A report on BBC One’s News at Ten bulletin on Jan 14 covered a vigil in Tel Aviv marking 100 days since the Oct 7 attacks on Israel.

Reporter Wyre Davies said two minutes into the report: “And the number of civilians killed in Gaza has been huge – very nearly 24,000 dead, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, many of them women and children.”

The BBC’s editorial complaints unit upheld a complaint from a viewer, finding that the report “fell below the BBC’s standards of accuracy”.

When the viewer complained that the report gave an inaccurate impression, failing to make clear that the quoted figure included combatants as well as civilians, the BBC initially responded by saying that the passage consisted of two separate sentences – with a full stop after “huge” – and that each sentence conveyed “distinct thoughts”.

Complaint escalated

However, the viewer took his complaint to the BBC’s higher Editorial Complaints Unit (ECU), which disagreed with the initial response.

In its findings, the unit said: “In the ECU’s judgment, it was more probable that viewers would have heard the passage as a single sentence. But even if a full stop were the correct punctuation, the passage gave the unintended impression that the figure from the Hamas-run health ministry consisted only of civilian dead, whereas it also included combatants.”

The findings have been referred to the BBC board.

According to the most recent figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed and 76,000 have been wounded in Gaza during the current conflict. The terrorist group’s figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The BBC’s coverage of the conflict has prompted a number of complaints about alleged impartiality. In October, the BBC conceded that a reporter made a mistake by speculating that an explosion at a hospital in Gaza was likely to have been perpetrated by Israel. The Israeli military later said that the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants.

The corporation has rejected claims of bias, saying: “We are reporting on this topic like any other, staying true to our commitments to trusted, impartial journalism.”

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