BBC Relies on Hamas-Linked Doctor for its Reports on Gaza Casualties

The BBC has a disturbing habit of relying on Hamas sympathizers for reports on civilian casualties in Gaza. David Collier takes note here of yet another BBC story about a supposed “massacre” in Gaza whose sole source is a Hamas-linked doctor: “BBC News promote yet another Hamas ‘doctor,’” David Collier, November 11, 2024:

Yesterday, the BBC ran another story about a ‘massacre’ in Gaza. We have now seen it countless times – Hamas propaganda make an empty claim – and the BBC rush to promote it.

The latest headline covered both Gaza and Lebanon.

‘Israeli strikes on north Lebanon and Gaza kill dozens, officials and rescuers say’.

The only named Gazan based source for the claims in the BBC article was a Dr Fadel Naim, director of the Al-Ahly hopsital:

The report from the good doctor is grim. Of the 17 bodies his facility received ‘nine’ were women – thus strongly implying this was a random attack that killed women – not terrorists.

But is there any reason the BBC should not have reproduced the claim of Fadel Naim? Did the BBC do the slightest bit of due diligence on this witness, before sharing his lies to the world?

The answer is no. They could not have checked at all.

The timeline of the doctor

Unusually for Gazan based witnesses these days, Fadel Naim does not hide his social media behind confusing variations of his name. Search for a ‘Fadel Naim’ in Gaza on Facebook and you quickly find his account.

When you search his account to see what he was posting on October 7 2023 – it quickly becomes apparent this is not the type of person any of us would recognise as a doctor. His timeline is full of open support for the October 7 atrocities:

It is not just about October 7. On 27 January 2023, Hamas terrorists slaughtered seven Jews outside a synagogue in Jerusalem. Fadel Naim took the opportunity to celebrate the attack:

If the BBC journalists had even bothered to look – they would have seen that this man openly supports terrorism and should not be trusted. In the end, it is left to people like me to do their job for them….

Had the BBC bothered to do he most minimal investigation of Fadel Naim — just a single click on his Facebook account would have been enough — his support for Hamas would have been evident. But why should the BBC bother? Its reporters on Israel and the Palestinians, including John Simpson, Jeremy Bowen, Orla Guerin, Barbara Plett, and Yolande Knell, have for years been feeding their listeners anti-Israel stories. Why would they not rely on a Hamas-linked doctor for his claim about a “massacre” of civilians in Gaza?

Of course, Fadel Naim is deeply connected — and at the highest level — to Hamas. The late leader of Hamas’ political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, was even an honored guest — seated at the top table — at the wedding of Naim’s daughter. Had the BBC bothered to click on Naim’s Facebook entries, it would have seen the photograph, and could have drawn the obvious conclusion that Naim, if not actually a member of Hamas, has close relations with Hamas.

On October 7, 2023, Fadel Naim celebrated the Hamas massacre that initiated the conflict by posting an image of paragliders over a map of Israel, accompanied by a religious call to arms. The following day, he urged Gazan civilians to ignore the IDF’s evacuation warnings for areas soon to be targeted by airstrikes — essentially, Naim was encouraging higher civilian casualties to serve Hamas’ propaganda efforts. He has also repeatedly expressed his admiration for Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, through numerous posts on his Facebook page, which resembles a shrine to Hamas and is steeped in antisemitic rhetoric. In a post in 2014, he called on Allah to “fill the Jews with fire.” And it was Dr. Fadel Naim who, as the director of Al-Ahli Hospital in October 2023, made his false charge that the Israelis had deliberately fired a rocket at the Ahli Hospital, “killing 500 civilians.” This claim was reported as fact around the world. In the end, it turned out that the rocket in question was not fired by Israel, but by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The rocket had misfired and fallen inside Gaza, not on the hospital, but rather, on a parking lot outside the hospital. And there were not 500, but 50 people killed. Yet despite Fadel Naim’s attempt to deceive the world, he has continued to be relied upon by the Associated Press and the BBC, among other media outlets, for his reports on death tolls in Gaza. This is the person from whom readers globally are receiving information and insight into the Israel-Hamas conflict. Fadel Naim’s online presence is a testament to his unwavering support for the terrorist organization that initiated the Gaza War.

The BBC is the most influential media outlet in the world, and the AP is arguably the most influential news agency in the world, with its news copy read by millions globally. If only those readers and viewers knew who the BBC and AP get their information from about the war in Gaza: Fadel Naim, a man who has glorified violence, advocated for the death of Jews, encouraged Palestinian civilians to remain in harm’s way, and knowingly spread false information. Would it make a difference in how they saw the conflict? I allow myself to believe that it would.