The BBC Ignores Information to Demonize Israel

When the IDF on September 29, 2024 struck a building in Ain el-Delb, a largely Christian village near Sidon, in southern Lebanon. The British-Israeli journalist David Collier reports on how the BBC reported the attack here: “BBC News: A deceptive, amateur, anti-Zionist train wreck,” David Collier, January 27, 2025:

While the BBC article does much to overstate the civilian aspect of the casualty list, it spends just as much time downplaying the Hezbollah presence. In fact, Nawal al-Maghafi works hard to promote the idea that the six acknowledged Hezbollah members were insignificant.

1. She notes that the labels she had seen Hezbollah attach to the members implied they were all of a lower level
2. Questions whether any of the six identified were the intended target
3. Includes a statement from the wife of one that suggests these were not fighters at all.

However, I soon found myself swimming in evidence that suggests either al-Maghafi did not search properly, or that she did, but simply wanted to ignore the findings. Given the ease with which I found this information, the abundance of it, and finally the import of those involved – I simply do not understand how this was missed by the BBC team. Either they are beyond incompetent, or they were not interested in actually looking for the truth.

The strike took place on the 29 September. In Hebrew the same day, reports came out that the strike had killed the Hezbollah leader for the Sidon area – Ahmed Awarki. This was carried on all the main Israeli channels. Given the BBC article explicitly claims that Israel’s responses to the attack were ‘particularly interrogated’, it is odd these were missed….

In other words, the BBC reporters simply ignored the information, available on Israeli news channels the same day as the attack, that one of the men killed in the building struck in Ain el-Derb by the IDF was Ahmed Awarki, the head of Hezbollah in the Sidon area. What was the reason for not reporting this? We know the answer: it went against the BBC narrative which was intent on minimizing any terrorist connection to the Ain el Delb building that was struck. This was done in two ways: first, by deliberately undercounting the number of those killed who had Hezbollah connections (including family members of Hezbollah members); second, by treating those who were identified as Hezbollah members as having a low-level rank in the terror organization.

Which means that immediately following the strike, news broke that the head of Hezbollah for the Sidon area was inside that building and suggested that he was the intended target. Because (another thing completely ignored by the BBC journalists), Hezbollah were often not announcing, nor honouring their fallen in real time (especially as the conflict turned against them), Awarki was not given a ceremonial burial until much later…

But Awarki, and others too, among those killed in the building in Ain el-Derb, were eventually given ceremonial burials that meant they had indeed been of high status in Hezbollah. In the months following the original attack, the BBC has never informed its audience about these ceremonial burials when they were finally held. Never apologize, never explain, and never admit that you had the original story wrong. That is what the BBC’s Middle East reporters take as their motto.

Collier wryly notes that “this person [Ahmad Awarki] is so unimportant, they were still carrying on with Hezbollah linked memorial services late in December – several months after his death.”

The BBC article suggests that they found no more than six people affiliated with Hezbollah. As mentioned, the journalists downplayed the importance of the Hezbollah fighters, although several other than Awarki also appear to have had ceremonial Hezbollah burials. The three pictured here – all in Hezbollah military uniform – are Muhammad Fatayerji, Ihab Ibrahim and Ali Qabisi.

But this led to another problem. At this ceremonial event in December, Hezbollah gave its burial respects to Ibrahim Ibrahim, who was the son of Ihab. In the BBC article he is presented as an innocent child – although it is unclear how old the photo is – or how old Ibrahim would have been on September 29. Yet, when the BBC journos were searching for images – they must have seen him with the uniform and Nasrallah pictures chained to him.

I do not know exactly how old he is – but I do know he is affiliated to Hezbollah. I also know Hezbollah held a ceremonial burial for him. Which means the BBC article is in error again – this time by presenting a Hezbollah linked person as an innocent child….

Hezbollah doesn’t give a ceremonial burial to an “innocent child”; it is reserved for those of high rank or, rarely, their family members. The latter seems to be the case here. Ihab’s father, Ibrahim Ibrahim, must have been of high rank for his son to have been given such a burial. The BBC missed that connection completely. Accuracy was not its object. Instead, the BBC reporters were intent on demonizing Israel for bombing a building supposedly full of innocents, with only a half-dozen low-ranking Hezbollah members among them.

It’s Mark Twain’s lament: a lie can go halfway round the world, while the truth is still putting on its shoes. The BBC misinforms its worldwide audience so consistently about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, sometimes by omission, and sometimes by distortion. And when its errors are brought to its attention, it seldom admits to its errors.