Jul 17, 2025
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BBC Verify pushes raw pro-Iranian propaganda by suggsting a strike on a school was a strike on a military airbase five miles away
by David Collier
BBC Verify is promoted as BBC’s flagship ‘fact checking’ news service. But as you will see below – BBC Verify is a cheap, amateurish, propaganda device- that is driven by unacceptable bias, and publishes blatant lies worthy of a Russian Soviet era misinformation service.
BBC Verify ‘verifies’ the Iranian missile strike
On Tuesday evening, 1 October 2024, Iran fired approximately 180 ballistic missiles at Israel. Many were intercepted, but several sites were hit. On Wednesday evening BBC Verify published a 1 minute 20 second video – titled ‘where Iran’s missiles struck in Israel’.
The BBC Verify team tells us they have been looking at ‘where Iran’s missiles have landed’ and the video is to counter ‘a lot of false imagery’ being circulated online. They say they managed to verify strikes in the vicinity of three key locations – all of them military sites:
This creates an immediate problem. Why only these three? For example, a verified strike by Ramat Gan shopping mall has not been included. The BBC had reported on this – and so were well aware of it – but for some reason, BBC Verify left the shopping mall strike out of their analysis.
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that BBC Verify were deliberately pushing a pro-Iranian propaganda line that the missiles were fired only at military targets.
But it gets a lot, lot worse.
Quis custodiet BBC Verify?
BBC Verify are not actually verifying anything. Instead the BBC's biased, amateur hacks are caught pushing raw Hamas propaganda - once again
by David Collier
It now looks likely that Israel successfully eliminated Mohammed Sinwar and other leaders of Hamas in a targeted strike last week. Which leaves the BBC flagship unit ‘BBC Verify’ looking increasingly like an anti-Israel disinformation machine.
The BBC Verify video on the ‘Gaza hospital strike’
On Tuesday afternoon (13 May 2025) Israel targeted key figures of the Hamas leadership who were hiding in a command centre beneath hospital grounds in Gaza. By Wednesday afternoon BBC Verify had turned the event into another opportunity to spread pro-Hamas propaganda.
The video the BBC Verify team published was all about how terrible Israel is – and carried footage showing how some civilians were almost certainly killed in the Israeli strike. But nothing at all in the video is really disputed at all – so just what did BBC Verify need to mobilise to check?
War is an awful thing – and having a clip of civilian casualties from the deadly strike as the Israeli ‘bunker-busting’ weaponry struck through at ground level near the entrance to the hospital was certainly worth covering in a news bulletin as *PART* of the wider story of Hamas turning hospital grounds into legitimate military targets. But it is not *THE STORY*. Because if Israel is right about Hamas leadership hiding underneath – and it looks as if Israel was right – then that changes EVERYTHING.
The obsessive, amateur activists of BBC Verify
We rarely get a more blatant misuse of BBC resources than this. There was only one issue about the Israeli strike that needed open source ‘verification’. And that is whether Mohammed Sinwar and / or other Hamas leaders were using hospital grounds as cover, or not.
If they were, then the only story in town was about Hamas being caught committing war crimes, removing the ‘do not touch’ exemptions from the hospital, and placing innocent civilians at risk.
And if that could not be verified at the time – and it couldn’t – then the only thing BBC Verify has shown by prematurely addressing the action, is that the unit is staffed by immature hacks who are more interesting in childish propaganda than acting in a professional manner. They had obviously seen (in an IDF post about the incident they claim is errant, along with the footage of the civilian damage) enough for them to string together a demonising post about Israel – which is what their entire piece is about.
But that is not what BBC Verify is supposed to be doing. BBC Verify is meant to be a fact-checking unit. And so it comes back to this – the ONLY fact that matters here is whether the Israelis are right or wrong about the Hamas command post. Did BBC Verify address this and answer that question? No, they did not.
Source
On the afternoon of February 29th a BBC Verify report titled “Israel Gaza: Checking Israel's claim to have killed 10,000 Hamas fighters” app
by Hadar Sela
The cited WHO claim that the Hamas health ministry’s “previous reporting has been credible” does not stand up to scrutiny.
As recently pointed out by Salo Aizenberg, during the 2008/9 three-week conflict, Hamas claimed that just 48 of around 1,300 casualties were combatants. Following an investigation, Israel provided the names of 709 Hamas operatives out of 1,166 casualties. Months later, Hamas admitted that between 600 -700 of its fighters had been killed. After the 2014 conflict, Hamas claimed that 70% of the 2,131 casualties were civilians. Later analysis showed that around 55% of the casualties were combatants.
In addition, BBC Verify makes no effort to inform readers that civilians killed as a result of the actions of terrorist organisations – such as the al Ahli hospital explosion or other incidents involving shortfall missiles – are included in Hamas’ tallies.
Nevertheless, BBC Verify’s report goes on to uncritically quote data provided by a terrorist organisation and – incredibly for a supposed ‘fact checking’ department – to promote assumptions based on that unconfirmed claim:
“The Gaza authorities’ last demographic breakdown from 29 February indicated more than 70% of those killed had been women and children.
So, with the figures suggesting less than 30% of those killed were men – some of whom are likely to be over fighting age – experts have raised questions about how Israel arrived at its claim of killing 10,000 fighters.” [emphasis added]
Get it? BBC Verify’s argument is that if 70% of the around 30,000 people reported killed – i.e. 21,000 – are women and children, then Israel’s “claim of killing 10,000 fighters” cannot be true.
Notably, BBC Verify has nothing to tell readers about the fact that Hamas and other terrorist organisations recruit minors – i.e. individuals who would be classed as children according to the Hamas statistics – beyond a quote from the Israeli embassy in London:
“The Israeli embassy in the UK told us they think the total number of Hamas fighters killed is “between 10,000 and 12,000”.
But they said it was hard to distinguish between civilians and combatants as many of them are not wearing military uniform and Hamas also has fighters who are aged 16 and 17.”
Later in the report, readers discover the identity of one of those experts.
“But some experts are concerned that the IDF might be counting some non-combatants as fighters merely because they are part of the Hamas-run territory’s administration.
Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London, said: “Israel takes a very broad approach to ‘Hamas membership’, which includes any affiliation with the organisation, including civil servants or administrators.””
As noted by David Collier, Krieg – who has also been quoted by BBC Verify in relation to a different story – previously worked “as a contractor of the Qatari Armed Forces”. Despite BBC editorial guidelines concerning “contributors’ affiliations”, BBC Verify obviously did not consider it necessary to inform readers of its quoted expert’s previous employment with a state that funds, hosts and supports Hamas.
On January 30th the BBC News website published a report by BBC Verify headlined “At least half of Gaza's buildings damaged or destroyed, new
by Hadar Sela
On January 30th the BBC News website published a report by BBC Verify headlined “At least half of Gaza’s buildings damaged or destroyed, new analysis shows”.
“More than half of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed since Israel launched its retaliation for the Hamas attacks of 7 October, new analysis seen by the BBC reveals.
Detailed before-and-after imagery also shows how the bombardment of southern and central Gaza has intensified since the start of December, with the city of Khan Younis bearing much of the brunt of Israel’s military action. […]
Across Gaza, residential areas have been left ruined, previously busy shopping streets reduced to rubble, universities destroyed and farmlands churned up, with tent cities springing up on the southern border to house many thousands of people left homeless. […]
Further analysis, by BBC Verify, reveals the scale of destruction of farmland, identifying multiple areas of extensive damage.”
The information concerning buildings comes from sources who have previously worked with other media outlets to produce similar reports.
“Now, satellite data analysis obtained by the BBC shows the true extent of the destruction. The analysis suggests between 144,000 and 175,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed. That’s between 50% and 61% of Gaza’s buildings.
The analysis, carried out by Corey Scher of City University of New York and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, compares images to reveal sudden changes in the height or structure of buildings which indicate damage.” [emphasis added]
An important clarification concerning that highlighted wording – which is not provided to readers of the BBC Verify report – was given to CAMERA by Jamon Van Den Hoek in late December:
“When we double-checked with the researchers, Van Den Hoek reiterated that they only count structures as “likely damaged or destroyed” because, he explained, “we don’t yet have means of distinguishing categories of damage severity.””
Notably, three days after BBC Verify’s report appeared, the United Nations Satellite Centre – UNOSAT – published its own “assessment of the damage and destruction inflicted on structures in the Gaza Strip” which concluded that 30% (rather than 50% to 61% as claimed by the BBC) of the structures in the territory have been damaged since the beginning of the war. The breakdown given in that report states that 22,131 buildings (9.6% of the total number of structures) have been destroyed, 14,066 (6.1% of the total number of structures) severely damaged and 32,950 (14.3% of the total number of structures) moderately damaged.
The BBC Verify report presents several ‘case studies’, beginning with Khan Younis:
“The southern city of Khan Younis has been particularly badly hit in recent weeks, with more than 38,000 (or more than 46%) of buildings now destroyed or damaged, according to the analysis. Over the past fortnight, more than 1,500 buildings have been destroyed or damaged there.
Al-Farra Tower – a 16-storey residential block in the centre of the city, the tallest building in the area – was flattened on 9 January as can be seen in before-and-after images of the city’s skyline. Much of the neighbourhood in which it sits has been levelled by Israeli attacks since late December.
“Israeli forces targeted residential complexes, especially in the downtown Khan Younis area,” said Rawan Qaddah, a 20-year-old resident, who has been displaced and has lost contact with her family.
She named schools among the many buildings which had been damaged. Some were now being used to house displaced people temporarily.”
Readers are not informed why Rawan Qaddah was selected as a contributor, what qualifies her to provide the information uncritically promoted by the BBC or whether BBC Verify has in fact verified her claim concerning the alleged ‘targeting’ of “residential complexes”.
Moreover, BBC Verify’s report makes no mention of the fact that Israeli forces have been operating in Khan Younis since early December – or why. No mention is made of Hamas command and control centres in that city – which is home to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – or of the extensive tunnel network in which some of the Israeli hostages were held, the weapons production sites and rocket launching sites discovered there.
The only attempt to provide box-ticking context after a description and photos of a “damaged restaurant in Khan Younis” reads as follows:
“The IDF has repeatedly justified its actions by noting that Hamas deliberately embeds itself in civilian areas and explained destruction of buildings in the light of targeting fighters.”
Linking to another BBC report on a similar topic, the article goes on to tell readers that:
“Many of Gaza’s historic sites have suffered extensive damage, including the al-Omari Mosque originally built in the 7th Century.”
The context of Hamas’ use of mosques and other supposedly civilian facilities for military purposes and the fact that terrorists were operating in the vicinity of the al-Omari mosque at the time is not provided to readers.
The report then moves on to a section headed “Destruction to Gaza’s farmlands”.
“Further analysis, carried out by BBC Verify, shows large areas of previously cultivated land across Gaza have been extensively damaged.”
A case study is presented:
“BBC Arabic spoke to one farmer, Saeed, who fled south from Beit Lahia, in the north of Gaza, in mid-November.
The 33-year-old grew guava, figs, lemons, oranges, mint, and basil and earned about $6,000 (£5,535) from these crops every year – the only source of income for him, his father and his sister. He had tended to the farm, inherited from his grandparents, for 15 years.
But days after fleeing, he says he was told by a relative that the farm had been destroyed by the IDF, along with five surrounding homes which belonged to his relatives.”
While the exact location of Saeed’s farm is not given, readers would of course have been better placed to put the second-hand claims promoted by BBC Arabic via BBC Verify into context had they been told that Beit Lahia is also the location of a hospital used for terror purposes as well as rocket launching sites and that it is very close to the route of a 4km long, 50 meter deep tunnel discovered by the IDF.
Once again BBC Verify does box-ticking with a minimal response from the IDF:
“The IDF told us it had found Hamas tunnel entrances and rocket launch sites in various agricultural areas, adding that “operational needs require that these places be destroyed or attacked”.
“Environmental damage may be caused as a result of fighting and exchanges of fire.””
There is no doubt that in four months of war, considerable damage has been caused to structures and farmland in the Gaza Strip. One major reason for that is Hamas’ cynical exploitation of civilian homes and civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, universities, schools and mosques for military purposes including missile fire, along with its massive underground tunnel network which compromises the integrity of structures and land above it. Another significant part of the story – completely absent from BBC Verify’s report – is the fact that around 12% of the thousands of missiles launched by Palestinian terrorists have landed in the Gaza Strip.
BBC Verify, however, chose not to provide BBC audiences with that essential background, instead making do with a couple of short, generalised quotes from the IDF in order to tick the impartiality box and preferring to present audiences with a supposedly factual article that is blatantly one-sided and severely lacking in essential context.
Raporti: Irani ka goditur 20 baza amerikane në Lindjen e Mesme, dëmet duken më të thella
Një analizë e publikuar nga BBC Verify po vë në pikëpyetje versionin zyrtar për shkallën e dëmeve që Irani u ka shkaktuar objekteve ushtarake amerikane në Lindjen e Mesme. Sipas këtij verifikimi, të mbështetur në imazhe satelitore dhe video të konfirmuara, të paktën 20 instalime ushtarake amerikane janë goditur që nga nisja e luftës. Çfarë pretendon analiza Sipas analizës së BBC Verify, sulmet…