On 23 March, Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers gunned down 15 emergency workers. As reported at the time, those killed included “eight Palestinian medics… along with six Civil Defence first responders and a UN staff member“. Israel’s military responded by claiming the vehicle had behaved suspiciously, and that it was driving at night without headlights or emergency signals. Now, uncovered mobile phone footage has debunked these claims, with the IDF admitting inaccuracies. The BBC, meanwhile, has published an article which tacitly accepts the IDF argument – namely that its soldiers simply “made mistakes”, and not that they deliberately massacred a van full of people:
BBC headline propaganda for Israel
According to the article itself, the IDF is blaming its own soldiers:
Israel has admitted its earlier account claiming the vehicles approached without lights was inaccurate, attributing the report to the troops involved.
Media Lens, meanwhile, suggested the following correction to the BBC‘s headline:
‘Israel lied about medic killings in Gaza’
There’s your headline, @BBCNews.https://t.co/g5vTfFOKTx pic.twitter.com/TCjjQfEZZm
— Media Lens (@medialens) April 6, 2025
Given what we know so far, it would be probably be too much to expect the BBC to run with a headline like ‘IDF lied’. To satisfy BBC impartiality rules, they’d have to know that IDF commanders knew the truth and chose to obscure it; they can’t simply assume the IDF is lying just because the IDF has a long history of lying (in some instances allegedly; in others provenly). As the Institute for Middle East Understanding has stated:
Israel’s military and government have a long and well-documented history of lying and falsifying evidence to cover up and deflect responsibility for war crimes they commit against Palestinians.
The link above gives several well-documented instances of the IDF “lying and falsifying evidence”. The Canary has also published many articles on the topic – as have outlets like Declassified UK, Novara, Byline Times, The Grayzone, and Jacobin.
So, if we agree that the BBC can’t outright accuse the IDF of lying, how could they have worded this headline?
Let’s take a look at the headline again:
Israel admits mistakes over medic killings in Gaza
As stated, the problem is that the headline presupposes the massacre was a mistake, so how could we fix that?
Fixing BBC Israel headlines
Quite simply, actually, by just changing the word ‘admits’ to ‘claims’:
Israel claims mistakes over medic killings in Gaza
When we use the word ‘admits’, it suggests we believe a person is guilty, and that they have now confirmed this. When we say ‘claims’, we’re stating that a person has stated they did something, but we’re doing so without the assumption that we agree with their assertion.
While an admission of guilt is generally an act of taking accountability, in this instance the IDF is taking accountability for a far lesser crime than that which it stands accused of. It didn’t admit to a massacre; it admitted to ‘mistakes’ – mistakes which wash its hands of responsibility for the massacre.
As the IDF has a documented history of making false statements, it’s not partial to treat it as an impartial source of information. Given that, we’d argue that the BBC could justifiably go harder than simply tweaking one word. Why not run a headline like the following:
Israel admits sharing falsehoods over medic killings
Or even:
Footage shows Israeli soldier claims weren’t true
Either option would be a bit soft for our liking, but they’d inarguably fall within the realms of BBC impartiality.
Figures like Owen Jones have provided commentary on how the BBC “covers up Israel’s crimes”:
This is how the BBC covers up Israel's crimes. pic.twitter.com/Vn7ntBMThW
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) April 3, 2025
The massacre and the aftermath
Reporting on the story on 1 April, Al Jazeera wrote:
Nine Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) medics in ambulances, as well as some Civil Defence workers, went to help people in Rafah, Gaza, and disappeared on March 23 after coming under attack from Israeli forces.
What followed was a week of Israeli obstruction until international teams were finally able to enter the area where the medics and rescue workers disappeared.
They found gruesome proof of direct attacks on the humanitarian workers. One medic remains missing.
It added:
The bodies of 14 murdered people were found in a shallow mass grave, according to the PRCS.
Eight were identified as PRCS medics, five were Civil Defense workers, and one was a UN agency employee.
And also that:
They were killed “one after another”, then buried in the sand along with their emergency vehicles, the UN said.
“The available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on 23 March, and that other emergency and aid crews were struck one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues,” a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Palestine said.
“Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave,” OCHA head Jonathan Whittall said from the scene.
“We’re digging them out in their uniforms, with their gloves on. They were here to save lives,” he said.
“These ambulances have been buried in the sand. There’s a UN vehicle here, …[an] Israeli forces bulldozer has buried them.”
New footage
On 5 April, new footage drew initial IDF claims into question, as the BBC reported:
Israel originally claimed troops opened fire because the convoy approached “suspiciously” in darkness without headlights or flashing lights. It said movement of the vehicles had not been previously co-ordinated or agreed with the army.
Mobile phone footage, filmed by one of the paramedics who was killed, showed the vehicles did have lights on as they answered a call to help wounded people.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) insists at least six of the medics were linked to Hamas – but has so far provided no evidence. It admits they were unarmed when the soldiers opened fire.
The mobile video, originally shared by the New York Times, shows the vehicles pulling up on the road when, without warning, shooting begins just before dawn.
The footage continues for more than five minutes, with the paramedic, named as Refat Radwan, heard saying his last prayers before the voices of Israeli soldiers are heard approaching the vehicles.
It’s okay when our side does it
Israel has been conducting a genocide for over a year, and it’s being investigated as such at the highest global level. If Israel wasn’t a key ally of the UK and the United States, it’s hard to imagine the BBC would be sparing its blushes like this.
At some point, they really need to ask themselves if it’s worth tarnishing what remains of their reputation for a rogue state which will go down in history as a purveyor of genocide and lies.
Featured image via BBC
