Israel has released proof that it was not responsible for a hospital bombing that the mainstream media reported had killed 100s of people. The incident occurred on October 17, and media outlets such as the BBC quickly narrated that Israeli troops were behind it and that hundreds were dead.
The Israeli Defense Force said it played no part in the bombing, and when the smoke cleared, evidence showed that the damage was far less than had been described. There was only a small crater on the ground outside the hospital that was too minor to have come from an Israeli bomb, observers said. A European official on the ground later added that the death toll was between 10 and 50 and not the 500 to 1000 that some media outfits initially declared.
Israeli intelligence services have published a recording of two Hamas fighters discussing the incident and acknowledging that Israel was not responsible. A rocket aimed at the Jewish state and fired by the Islamist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad malfunctioned and landed on the hospital, causing relatively minor damage.
Among the media outlets that accused Israel was Britain’s BBC, and the ensuing scandal put the publicly-funded media organization under the spotlight in the UK. The Israeli government accused the BBC of “blood libel,” while other British journalists expressed outrage at its anti-Israel bias. Writer Steven Glover said the outlet accepted the word of Hamas spokesmen without question but posted “warnings” on Israel’s claims, telling the public they could not be verified.
When former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke to BBC host Victoria Derbyshire, he said, “I understand that the BBC has taken a side, the Gazan side.” He went on to say that the globally famous British broadcaster had lost all moral clarity. He warned that if Israel does not defeat Hamas, “you’re next.” Bennett told Derbyshire the BBC should be ashamed of its behavior, but a technical fault ended the conversation.
