BBC Verify is known to give a free pass to terrorist organizations, reaching its conclusion first before it lays out the facts.
In its most recent “investigation,” it analyzed “Hundreds of IDF investigations into killings without public outcome.” Using AI, the BBC reportedly identified 254 “incidents of harm” that the IDF had said it was looking into but for which no public outcome had been reported.
While 254 incidents may sound substantial in isolation, these incidents span three years of war on multiple fronts. More than that, the very fact that incidents are under investigation is hardly evidence of a failure to investigate and reach a conclusion, especially when complex investigations take time during periods of war.
Yet even incidents that have been investigated by the IDF are presented as insufficient to BBC Verify. In different incidents involving the World Central Kitchen (WCK) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the BBC highlighted only the very last line of the IDF’s statement that it “did not find a basis for or reasonable suspicion to begin a criminal investigation.” It therefore ignored that these incidents, among others, were examined thoroughly by the IDF’s General Staff Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism, which determines whether there is a basis or reasonable suspicion for criminal proceedings. In the WCK case, the investigation identified serious failures and led to disciplinary action, while ultimately finding that the threshold for a criminal investigation had not been met.
These cases, and others that are under ongoing investigation, reveal the challenges of urban warfare against a terrorist entity that embeds itself in civilian populations. The IDF also has an obligation to protect its soldiers and avoid exposing sensitive operational and personal information. Given the nature of these investigations, the details of ongoing cases cannot necessarily be made public without potentially compromising operational security or the soldiers involved.
The BBC itself has no problem refusing to make internal investigations, like the Balen Report, public. But when it comes to Israel, neither thorough investigations nor conclusions are ever enough.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
