BBC international editor vanishes thousands of Hamas rocket attacks on Israel
The announcement of a ceasefire after nearly 14 months of war between Israel and Hizballah was naturally one of the main topics in BBC reporting on the morning of November 27th. Among the many items purporting to inform audiences about that story was one featuring the BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme.
During his conversation with presenter Justin Webb (from 2:25:46 here), Bowen opined that the ceasefire in Lebanon is not necessarily a precursor to a ceasefire in Gaza because “the situation in Gaza is way more complicated”. The conversation then continued as follows: [emphasis in italics in the original, emphasis in bold added]
Webb: “Why? What is it? Given that Hamas are now on their own when it comes to attacking Israel and given that they’re on their own when it comes to being attacked by Israel – and as you say, with forces now concentrated against them – is not the pressure on them to get a ceasefire much larger today than it was yesterday?”
Bowen: “Well no, not really ‘cos they’ve been in that situation for ages and they haven’t actually been able to attack Israel in any really tangible form actually since the immediate aftermath of the 7th of October. All the fighting has been inside Gaza itself and they have been on their own fighting there. It’s not…you know…they’re no longer an organisation – after massive military strikes over more than a year from Israel – that can put together a lot of men and mount an attack.”
That portrayal of Hamas being “on their own” obviously ignores the existence of additional terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Even more bizarrely, Bowen’s account airbrushes the fact that since Hamas launched the October 7 2023 invasion of Israel, it has carried out thousands of rocket and mortar attacks against Israeli civilians.
On December 31st 2023 the ITIC reported that around 10,600 rocket and mortar attacks had been launched since October 7th 2023, around 3,000 of which took place in the first hours after the invasion and massacre.
Between January and the end of October 2024, some 1,830 rocket attacks were launched from the Gaza Strip:
January 2024 – 357
February 2024 – 165
March 2024 – 104
April 2024 – 113
May 2024 – 452
June 2024 – 205
July 2024 – 216
August 2024 – 116
September 2024 – 26
October 2024 – 76
While the BBC has produced little stand-alone coverage of the rocket and mortar attacks launched from the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the outcomes of some of those attacks have been decidedly “tangible” for the families of those killed, for the people injured and in locations such as Netivot and Sderot.
As we see, however, the BBC’s international editor is able to conveniently make 12,430 rockets launched by Hamas and other terrorist organisations in thirteen months completely vanish from the picture in order to promote a narrative of disinformation according to which Hamas “haven’t actually been able to attack Israel in any really tangible form”.
Hadar Sela was born in the north of England and has lived in Israel for over three decades. She has a special interest in the influence of the media on the British public’s perceptions of the Middle East and the Islamist networks operating in the UK and has written pre-emptive reports on several anti-Israel campaigns, including the flotillas and the Global March to Jerusalem in March 2012. Hadar’s work has been published in the Jerusalem Post, The Algemeiner, The Commentator, MERIA Journal and at Harry’s Place, among others.
