A new investigation by Britain’s Daily Telegraph has once again placed the BBC under intense scrutiny over its coverage of the war in Gaza, exposing that 53 Gazans presented by the British public broadcaster as “journalists” killed during hostilities were operatives with documented ties to Hamas, ‘Palestinian’ Islamic Jihad (‘PIJ’), or other terror factions.
Several of these “journalists” had been documented on social media wearing military combat fatigues, brandishing automatic weapons, or donning headbands identified with designated terror organizations. Others were formally memorialized posthumously in official obituary posters issued by Hamas or Islamic Jihad, in which they were explicitly glorified as “fighters,” “operatives,” or “martyrs.”
Despite this readily available evidence, BBC Arabic incorporated their names into casualty rolls under the professional classification of “journalists.” Ten of these individuals also appeared on the BBC’s main English-language news website or throughout the network’s wider global broadcasting coverage.
Among the stark cases highlighted in the investigation is Abdullah Darwish. While presented by the BBC merely as a cameraman for the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV, The Telegraph revealed that Darwish actively took part in the October 7 massacre as a fighter in Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and was photographed wearing the terror group’s green headband. He was subsequently eliminated in a precision airstrike in December 2023.
Another case documented in the probe is Yacoub al-Barsh, whom the BBC framed as a media professional and radio station director. In reality, he was identified as an operative in the al-Qassam Brigades, with his identity and martyrdom officially confirmed on Hamas’s “martyrs” directory. He was subsequently purged from the casualty rolls of the International Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
A further example cited is Rizq Abu Shakian, presented by the BBC as a reporter for ‘Palestine’ Now, who appears in online video footage clad in Hamas military uniform wielding an automatic assault rifle. Similarly, Ahmed Abu Sakhil, who was also included on the BBC roster, was documented armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and was officially eulogized as a fallen “martyr” by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also identified major discrepancies: 12 individuals originally featured on the BBC’s lists were later removed from the CPJ’s database after independent verification confirmed they were not journalists or media workers, or had actively participated in combat operations.
The new revelation compounds a long series of formal complaints and sharp critiques leveled against BBC Arabic since the war began. Last year, a leaked internal memo revealed that network staff had systematically acted to “minimize Israeli suffering” to portray Israel as the sole aggressor. Although the broadcaster previously pledged to implement editorial reforms after that leak, the latest findings reignite serious questions about the network’s commitment to basic journalistic integrity and impartiality.