BBC Omits Mention of School Bus Hit by Gazans

[Teddy Bear]

I cannot imagine if Israel had purposefully targeted, or even accidentally hit, a school bus in Gaza that this wouldn't be the main headline, and not the resulting action by Gazans. In this instance Gaza terrorists fired an anti-tank weapon purposefully at a school bus in Israel driving along the road near the border, seriously injuring a 16 year old boy and the bus driver who were the only ones in the bus. Just minutes before there had been 50 children who had disembarked just before the bus reached the spot where it was hit.

Headlines of other media sources clearly indicate this factor in their headline:

MSNBC
Missile from Gaza hits Israeli school bus; 2 hurt

Telegraph
Israel shells Gaza after anti-tank missile hits school bus

Mail Online UK
Israel shells Gaza, killing one, after Palestinian anti-tank missile hits school bus

But knowing how emotive this would appear to its readers, the BBC avoids all mention of the fact that it was a school bus that was hit, both in headline and content, and focusses on the Israel response without even making the headline clear that it was an Israeli bus that was hit, let alone school bus. It was also not only the bus that prompted the Israel response but the 40 mortars and grad rocket also fired into Israel from Gaza, but you wouldn't get that information until later in the article.

Gaza: Israeli forces strike after attack on bus
Israeli tanks, helicopters and planes have struck Gaza after an anti-tank missile fired from the Palestinian territory hit a bus in southern Israel.

A teenaged boy on the bus was critically injured and the driver was also wounded.

Four people were killed and some 35 injured in the Israeli strikes, Gaza hospital officials said.

Israel meanwhile said it had successfully used a new missile-defence system for the first time.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the military had activated its new Iron Dome system - apparently shooting down an incoming Palestinian rocket.

The military wing of the Islamist Hamas movement said it carried out the bus attack. It said this was a response to the killing of three Hamas members in Israeli strikes earlier this week.

Reports say 45 mortars were fired from Gaza into Israel.

'Iron Dome'
Following the bus attack, an Israeli plane bombed a compound in northern Gaza belonging to Hamas. Targets in Gaza City and Rafah were also hit.

Helicopters also machine-gunned a target in Gaza for the first time since Israel's offensive more than two years ago, the Reuters news agency reports.

All senior Hamas figures are believed to have gone into hiding in expectation of further Israeli strikes.

The bus attackers used an anti-tank missile, the Israeli army said - the first time such a weapon had been used against an Israeli civilian target.

The bus had been dropping off schoolchildren near the Nahal Oz kibbutz, and was carrying only one passenger when it was hit, Israeli medical sources said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take any action necessary to deter attacks from Gaza.

"We hope this situation will be contained but we will not shy away from taking all the necessary action, offensive and defensive, to protect our country and to protect our citizens," said Mr Netanyahu during a visit to Prague.

Earlier on Thursday, Israel carried out air strikes against smuggling in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Last month saw some of the worst violence since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in December 2008, says the BBC's Jon Donnison in Gaza.

In one week in March, at least 10 Palestinians - including several civilians and children - were killed by Israeli attacks.

In the same period, militants in Gaza fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel.

Hamas had pledged to try to restore a ceasefire that ended on 16 March when an Israeli air strike killed two of its militants in the Palestinian territory.

However, Israel said it had suffered "bouts of terror and rocket attacks".

Despite recent calls for calm, neither side seems to be able to stop firing, our correspondent says. Both say the other started it.

Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for all attacks coming out of Palestinian territory, even if it is other militant groups carrying them out.

It's a continual BBC theme that because Palestinians inflict far fewer casualties on Israel than they receive in response, that Israel is wrong for not being more proportionate. The fact that unlike Gazans, Israel does it's best to avoid civilian casualties in its retaliation is ignored. Here's the facts that the BBC reporter in Gaza,Jon Donnison, wants you to be aware of. He doesn't make clear that the 'cease-fire' Hamas wanted was after they had subjected Israel to a heavy barrage of mortars and rockets, and simply wanted to avoid Israel's retaliation.

At the scene

Jon Donnison
BBC News, Gaza City
Driving into Gaza City from the border, loud explosions could be heard. A huge plume of black smoke rose up to the north from an apparent Israeli air strike. Ambulances overtook us, speeding the injured to Shifa hospital.

This looks like another potentially dangerous escalation, and a reminder that the Gaza-Israel conflict has not gone away.

Militarily, Israel is far superior, a fact which is reflected in the casualty figures.

Both Hamas and Israel have recently said they wanted a return to calm. But both are under pressure from their constituents to act.

Israel, where casualties are rare, is under pressure from its border communities to punish militants in Gaza for any attacks. Hamas is under pressure from its militant wing and other armed groups in Gaza to respond forcefully. Both sides seem unable to see the other's perspective.

Typical BBC coverage on the subject.

[Teddy Bear]

I've just seen Honest Reporting has made the same observations about this BBC story as well as added a few more. I also notice that the original BBC headline didn't even mention a bus had been hit.

An anti-tank missile hit an Israeli bus outside Kibbutz Saad in the Shaar HaNegev area, critically injuring a teenage boy and the driver.

Residents are being instructed to remain in shelters as additional mortars were fired.

Let’s see how many papers cover this attack. I bet the MSM will give more emphasis to the Israeli response.

Post a comment on how this is covered in your area.

UPDATE 6:25 pm: It didn’t take long for BBC to revert to form:


The Beeb’s inverted background info is even worse. Israeli security measures are stated as fact, while “bouts of terror and rocket attacks” are attributed to something “Israel said.”

Last month saw some of the worst violence since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in December 2008.

In one week in March, at least 10 Palestinians – including several civilians and children – were killed by Israeli attacks.

In the same period, militants in Gaza fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel.

Hamas had pledged to try to restore a ceasefire that ended on 16 March when an Israeli air strike killed two of its militants in the Palestinian territory.

However, Israel said it had suffered “bouts of terror and rocket attacks”.

[Teddy Bear]

A few weeks ago I posted how the BBC were giving the impression that it was Israel breaking the 'cease-fire' when responding to rocket attacks fired from Gaza.

Yesterday Hamas admitted using an anti-tank weapon on an Israeli school bus severely injuring a 16 year old boy, as well as firing 50 mortars towards Israeli villages and a Grad rocket towards Ashkelon. This morning 15 more mortar rounds were fired into Israel. Hamas then calls for a cease-fire trying to avoid what they know will be Israeli retaliation.

Only an idiot wouldn't understand what Hamas was trying to do with their 'cease-fire', and only an unethical immoral media organisation with a clear pro-Palestinian agenda would try to convey any sincerity to it.

Which naturally is what the BBC do in this story following Israel's targeting of militants in Gaza today. Although one can see how ridiculous this ceasefire truly is, the BBC credit it in the headline, before anyone gets any further into the story to judge for themselves.

One new context for the BBC to make clearer than they usually do is this inclusion:

A 50-year-old civilian who had been sitting outside his home died when he was hit by tank fire on Thursday, an official in Gaza said.

The Israeli military issued a statement confirming that "uninvolved citizens may have been harmed" in one operation.

But it blamed Hamas for their deaths, adding that the group "chooses to operate from within civilian populations and uses uninvolved people as human shields."

Since normally they create the impression that Israel purposefully target Palestinian civilians this is really a step up for them.

Gaza: Israeli strikes kill nine as ceasefire threatened

Nine Palestinians, including three civilians, have been killed by Israeli air strikes, in Gaza doctors say.

The Israeli strikes come hours after Islamist group Hamas said it had brokered a deal for Gaza's militant groups to stop firing on Israel.

However, Israel pounded Gaza with fresh airstrikes on Friday and Palestinian militants fired mortars into Israel.

Violence flared on Thursday, when a Hamas missile hit at an Israeli school bus, seriously wounding a teenager.

Since then, Israel has launched more than 20 raids on the Gaza Strip, killing 13 Gazans - many of them civilians, at least four Hamas militants and one policeman. About 45 people have been wounded.

Meanwhile, at least 15 rockets have been fired into Israel since dawn, causing damage but no injuries, said a police spokesman. This follows more than 50 mortar rounds fired at Israel on Thursday, one of which hit a house.

Hamas's military wing said it carried out some of the strikes, saying Israel had broken the ceasefire declaration with its dawn raids. A small PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also said it fired at Israel on Friday.

Collapsing ceasefire
Last night, Hamas - which governs the Gaza Strip - met other militant factions and agreed to enforce a ceasefire if Israel also stopped firing.

However neither side seems to have stopped for long, says the BBC's Jon Donnison in Gaza City.


Israel has carried out air strikes on dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip
It is not clear whether the fresh violence signals an end to the truce, or whether the firing of rockets was carried out by a Palestinian splinter group that had not signed up to the ceasefire.

Israel says it is responding to the school bus attack on Thursday near the Nahal Oz kibbutz. A 16-year-old boy suffered a serious head wound and was taken to hospital for surgery.

Militants from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, hit the bus with an anti-tank shell. They said it was in response to the killing of Hamas leaders last week.

The bus attack was condemned by the US, EU and UN, which said it was particularly concerned by reports that the Gaza militants had used an advanced anti-tank weapon to target civilians.

On Friday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bus attack and expressed concern over civilian casualties in Israel's strikes. He called for "de-escalation and calm to prevent any further bloodshed".

Several of those killed in Gaza were civilians, including a Palestinian mother and her 21-year-old daughter, as well as a 55-year-old man in the southern city of Khan Younis, Palestinian medics say.

A 50-year-old civilian who had been sitting outside his home died when he was hit by tank fire on Thursday, an official in Gaza said.

The Israeli military issued a statement confirming that "uninvolved citizens may have been harmed" in one operation.

But it blamed Hamas for their deaths, adding that the group "chooses to operate from within civilian populations and uses uninvolved people as human shields."

Four others among the dead were identified as leaders of the Qassam Brigades and two of Friday's victims had been members of the group, Hamas said.

Last month saw some of the worst violence since Israel launched a major offensive in Gaza in December 2008.

In one week in March, at least 10 Palestinians - including several civilians and children - were killed by Israeli attacks.

In the same period, militants in Gaza fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel.

Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for all attacks coming out of Palestinian territory, even if it is other militant groups carrying them out.

[Teddy Bear]

Melanie Phillips elaborates further on the BBC anti-Israel agenda as presented in the original article on this story.

The BBC maintains its impeccable even-handedness between murderer and victim

With its customary moral inversion which automatically turns Israeli victimisation into Israeli aggression, the BBC reports today’s Gaza anti-tank missile attack on an Israeli school bus this way:

Israeli forces strike after attack on bus.

Israeli tanks, helicopters and planes have struck Gaza after an anti-tank missile fired from the Palestinian territory hit a bus in southern Israel.

A 16 year-old boy was critically injured in the attack, and the bus driver was also hurt. But for the BBC, the real news was the Israeli response. The fact that Gaza terrorists tried to kill Israeli schoolchildren clearly does not register with the BBC as an important enough development to merit leading its story. Indeed, the BBC clearly does not register the moral difference between Israeli victimisation and Hamas aggression at all. For in a sidebar ‘analysis’, Jon Donnison wrote:

Israel, where casualties are rare, is under pressure from its border communities to punish militants in Gaza for any attacks. Hamas is under pressure from its militant wing and other armed groups in Gaza to respond forcefully. Both sides seem unable to see the other’s perspective.

Doubtless had Jon Donnison been reporting from, say, Poland in 1939 or Hungary in 1956 or Tiananmen Square in 1989, he would not have seen fit to observe

both sides seem unable to see the other’s perspective.

But for the BBC, there is a moral equivalence between Hamas attacks and Israeli attacks, as if this is a literal ‘cycle of violence’ with no beginning. But of course that is not so. This current escalation of violence began with a rocket attack from Gaza at Beersheva in the wake of the Egyptian uprising. Beersheva is no one of Israel’s ‘border communities’ – it is an Israeli town in the Negev desert. Two Iranian Grad missiles were also fired from Gaza today at Ashkelon – and were shot down – which is also not a ‘border community'. For some idea of what residents of southern Israel who are under attack are going through, watch this video.

Honest Reporting points out that the BBC’s ‘background’ analysis is even worse:

Israeli security measures are stated as fact, while ‘bouts of terror and rocket attacks’ are attributed to something ‘Israel said.’

Last month saw some of the worst violence since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in December 2008. In one week in March, at least 10 Palestinians – including several civilians and children – were killed by Israeli attacks.

In the same period, militants in Gaza fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel. Hamas had pledged to try to restore a ceasefire that ended on 16 March when an Israeli air strike killed two of its militants in the Palestinian territory. However, Israel said it had suffered “bouts of terror and rocket attacks”.

Just imagine what the response of Britain or America would be if they were bombarded by more than 80 rocket attacks in one week. They would regard themselves as in a state of war, and they would respond, as any country would, with all the force at their disposal to end such attacks on their people -- probably using their air power to pulverise everything on the ground. Yet the British media barely reports these rocket barrages against Israel, only reacting when Israel responds – because Britain does not regard barrages of rockets and attacks on major Israeli towns as an escalation. To the British, escalation only happens when Israel responds in self-defence.

As a result of this warped animus, the BBC and other western media also persistently fail to grasp the true significance of events like today’s attacks from Gaza. As Barry Rubin reports, the attack on the bus represents a particularly sickening escalation:

Usually, attacks from the Gaza Strip – either carried out or sanctioned by the Hamas regime there – are by homemade rockets, mortars, or attempted cross-border ground attacks. Deaths and damage are usually random.

In this case, though, the attack was carried out with an advanced anti-tank rocket. In other words, a terrorist deliberately aimed at the bus and fired, hoping to kill the maximum number of children.

But there’s more. Hamas can fire an advanced anti-tank rocket because the Egyptian revolution has ended a regime that acted in its own interest to block most arms shipments to Hamas. The Egypt-Gaza border is now open. Terrorists and superior weapons are flooding into Gaza.

Another demonstration of this fact was the second major incident in which Hamas fired an Iranian-made Grad missile, far superior to the usual homemade rockets, at Israel. In this case, it was shot down by an Israeli anti-missile, part of the new defense system deployed only a few days earlier. A total of 50 rockets and mortars were fired on that one day, equalling the number shot from the Gaza Strip at Israel during the entire month of March. There were also several attempts at cross-border ground attacks, more in one day than at any time in the past.

You won’t read that kind of informative analysis on the BBC.

Of course, the grim irony of the attack on the school bus is that it closely follows the retraction by Richard Goldstone of the core allegation in his infamous report that Israel deliberately targeted civilians in Gaza and had thus possibly committed crimes against humanity. It didn’t, and it doesn’t. It goes to great lengths to avoid hitting Gaza’s civilians -- whom Hamas deliberately places in harm’s way. But today we have seen that Hamas deliberately tries to murder not just Israeli civilians but as many Israeli schoolchildren as possible. Where are the demands for Hamas to be tried for crimes against humanity?

Now the Palestinian Authority is already whining about Israel’s raids on Gaza, casting Israel as the aggressor – but with no acknowledgement that this was self-defence after the murderous attack on the school bus. Grotesque? Monstrous? For sure. And the BBC is its echo-chamber.