Key takeaways:
- BBC fails to give further context to the circumstances of Gaza cancer patient Marah Salah Mahmoud Zohry (or Marah Abu Zuhri)’s death, and reports it as a result of malnutrition.
- Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) revealed Zohry’s medical report, determining that she had an aggressive form of leukemia.
- After being called out by COGAT and others, the BBC amended its article, saying they were “not initially aware” of Zohry’s leukemia.
The BBC corrected its article, originally titled “Malnourished Gazan Woman Flown to Italy Dies In Hospital”, about Gaza leukemia patient Marah Salah Mahmoud Zohry (or Marah Abu Zuhri), who died after being transferred to Italy for medical treatment. The correction was done in tandem with a statement by a BBC spokesperson on Monday, admitting that the outlet was “not initially aware” of Zohry’s aggressive leukemia condition.
We were not initially aware that Marah Abu Zuhri was being treated for leukaemia. In line with usual editorial practice, we added this to the story after the Israeli authorities put the information into the public domain, in what the hospital has described as ‘a very complex clinical picture’. We have amended the original headline and tweet and added an explanatory note.
In a statement, a BBC spokesperson acknowledged that the broadcaster was “not initially aware that Zohry was being treated for leukemia.”
Because it’s not like @BBCNews to assume that Israel is responsible for every Palestinian misfortune without bothering to verify, right? 🤔 https://t.co/Uj5gDo7wqE pic.twitter.com/YCj03xPa3p
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 19, 2025
The UK outlet initially reported that Zohry “was severely emaciated” and “suffered severe loss of weight and muscle” when she passed away in the hospital, in addition to regurgitating Italian news outlets’ reports that “she was suffering from severe malnutrition.” However, no further investigation was conducted to verify the information, such as requesting medical reports or obtaining a statement from COGAT, which would have helped facilitate Zohry’s transfer.
The correction came after being exposed by COGAT and subsequently criticized online for not getting a proper verification of her condition before her death.
Still no correction or update from @BBCNews.
If it had been an Israeli hospital or Israeli news agencies issuing statements, you can bet BBC Verify, the corporation’s pitiful fact-checking department, would have been all over it.
But in this case? They just wouldn’t bother. https://t.co/cmotmaw4UO pic.twitter.com/w9cWKrfoF6
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 17, 2025
It’s probable to assume that verification would have been easy to obtain for the BBC. Still, it would also appear that these facts would fracture the BBC and the rest of Western media’s favorite narrative that Israel is deliberately starving Gaza.
Related Reading: The Media’s Starving Gazan Images: Narrative & Reality
While a minimal correction of COGAT’s statement saying she was a cancer patient was made inside the article, it failed to mention that the Israeli body offered to get Zohry evacuated even earlier for treatment. Not to mention, the BBC still managed to get it wrong on X the second time around.
The BBC had the opportunity to issue a proper correction, but they chose to omit her cause of death again. Why?
BBC’s Reputation Already Shredded
It’s routine for the BBC to come under fire for its bias while covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This summer alone has witnessed several scandals.
- Earlier this month, a report that supposedly investigated two killings of little Gazan girls in November 2023, during the early days of the war, failed to provide context of the guerrilla urban warfare environment in which Hamas hides behind civilians, and uses them in combat with the IDF.
- In July, the broadcasting outlet took a documentary down from its streaming platform about the Israel-Hamas war, titled “Gaza: How to Survive A Warzone”, when the narrator was exposed as a Hamas minister’s son, without being transparent about who he was. It was also discovered that the interviewee’s language was sanitized by translating the Arabic word for “Jews” as “Israelis”, among others.
- In the same month, a Zoom call with the CEO of news, Deborah Turness, was leaked, in which Turness implored employees to make a distinction between the Hamas political wing and the military wing, even though both are declared a terror organization in the UK.
- In June, it aired an antisemitic and inciting performance by rap duo Bob Vylan, with chants of “death, death to the IDF.”
And the rest of the time? The BBC consistently takes Hamas’ word as fact, while casting doubt on Israel’s.
Read More: Untenable? A Top 10 of Anti-Israel Controversies Under the BBC Director General’s Leadership
Yet another flub from the BBC – but it’s obvious that when it sees an opportunity to further an anti-Israel agenda, it’s happy to throw journalistic integrity out the window.
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Image Credit: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images
*Image includes a patient from Gaza being transferred to an Italian hospital for treatment, but this is not confirmed to be Zohry.
