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(A7) The BBC apologized for reporting a Hamas claim that Israeli forces were carrying out “summary executions” of civilians in the Gaza Strip, Deadline reported.
“In overnight output we ran a story about Hamas accusing the Israeli army of carrying out summary executions in the Gaza strip,” the BBC statement reads. “This was a Hamas statement, but although the accusations were attributed and our story contained a response from the Israeli military saying they were unaware of the incident and that Hamas was a terrorist organization that did not value truth, we had not made sufficient effort to seek corroborating evidence to justify reporting the Hamas claim. We apologize for this mistake.”
The original report was delivered on December 24, based on Hamas claims that 137 civilians had been executed by the IDF.
This is not the first time the BBC has apologized for false reporting against the IDF since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. On November 15, the news organization apologized for falsely claiming that IDF forces were targeting medical teams in battles in and around the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza where the Hamas terrorist organization has made a command and control center.
“As BBC News covered initial reports that Israeli forces had entered Gaza’s main hospital, we said that “medical teams and Arab speakers” were being targeted. This was incorrect and misquoted a Reuters report. We should have said IDF forces included medical teams and Arabic speakers for this operation. We apologize for this error, which fell below our usual editorial standards. The correct version of events was broadcast minutes later and we apologized for the mistake on air later in the morning,” the BBC’s statement read.
