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From Al-Shifa to the Tunnels: The BBC’s Two-Year Cover-Up of Hamas’ War Tactics
The BBC logo is seen at the entrance at Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in central London. Photo by Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
For the past two years, Israel has been fighting a terrorist organization that has employed guerrilla methods of warfare. From turning hospitals into command centers, to exploiting UNRWA facilities, and building a tunnel network spanning 350-450 miles long, Hamas has turned the rules of war on its head.
None of this should come as a surprise to news outlets. After all, it is their job to accurately report on all sides of a war, especially given that the evidence of Hamas’ tactics has been publicly available.
Except for the past two years, the media has largely ignored or downplayed the very nature of Hamas’ warfare.
The BBC has notoriously turned a blind eye to Hamas’ strategy since the beginning of the war.
In November 2023, the BBC’s International Editor, Jeremy Bowen, desperately tried to rationalize the stockpile of weapons being held in Al-Shifa Hospital. This followed the IDF’s release of video evidence of Hamas maneuvering hostages through the hospital, as well as exposing tunnels directly below the facility.
For two years, the media seemed to forget the plethora of evidence that was becoming available in real time as the IDF expanded operations and discovered more misuses of civilian infrastructure.
Now, the BBC is attempting to turn back the clock in “Hamas ruled Gaza with an iron rod – will it really give up control?”
Questioning whether Hamas will relinquish military and political control over the Gaza Strip, the BBC is suddenly acknowledging that Hamas has employed tactics of war that directly violate international law.
Where was this admission for the past two years? Why, only after a ceasefire is accepted, does the BBC feel comfortable publishing the truth about the war Israel has been fighting against Hamas?
In their piece, Paul Adams and Rushdi Abualouf interview Moumen al-Natour, a Gaza-based lawyer who Hamas has imprisoned on more than one occasion. This past summer, he was interrogated by Hamas in Al-Shifa Hospital.
Hospitals are Hamas’ top venue of choice for conducting military operations.
Yet when Mohammed Sinwar, one of Hamas’ top leaders, was eliminated by the IDF as he was hiding in a tunnel beneath the same hospital, the BBC buried the story, merely referring to the event as an “Israeli air strike on [a] hospital.”
The BBC is not the only outlet guilty of burying the truth behind Al-Shifa.
Footage from October 11, 2023, shows numerous Hamas terrorists at Al-Shifa Hospital, watching over the media and the arrival of new patients. Mysteriously, none of the Hamas operatives appeared in a single photo published by Associated Press, Reuters, or The New York Times that day, despite the presence of their photojournalists on the ground.
In the aftermath of HonestReporting’s exposure of the footage displaying Hamas members at Al-Shifa, the AP attempted to backpedal and acknowledged that Hamas is present in medical facilities. Yet, it still stopped short of admitting the extensive tunnel network beneath Gaza’s hospitals that enables this abusive terrorist activity in the first place.
The BBC’s Adams and Rushdi refer to the tunnel network as “a project shrouded in secrecy.” But there was nothing secret about the underground system. Throughout the war, Hamas has published videos of its operatives in tunnels as well as propaganda videos of hostages being held in inhumane conditions.
Perhaps this is just the BBC once again attempting to justify its own reporting on the war.
BBC Verify refused to believe IDF evidence of tunnels, repeating time and again that the footage of a tunnel next to a hospital was unverifiable.
The BBC also downplayed Hamas’ stronghold of Gaza City, only now to admit Hamas’ operational centers have been “concealed under Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.”
However, to report on Hamas’ abuse of civilian infrastructure accurately would require the BBC to acknowledge what Hamas is — a terrorist organization responsible for the horrific murders, rapes and kidnappings on October 7, 2023, as well as countless other terrorist attacks throughout the years.
And that would require the BBC to abandon the false equivalence it has maintained between Israel and Hamas.
Instead of acknowledging the root cause of the war and how Hamas’ use of civilian infrastructure and tunnels further entrenched the territory into war, the BBC, prior to the ceasefire, covered up the terrorist group’s responsibility and instead framed Israel’s defensive actions as disproportionate.
By refusing to confront Hamas’ exploitation of civilians and infrastructure, the BBC has misled audiences and eroded trust in journalism itself. If international media cannot bring themselves to acknowledge the nature of the enemy Israel has faced for years, they not only distort public understanding, but they also enable the very terror networks they claim to expose. Accountability and honesty are not optional in wartime reporting; they are the foundation of journalistic integrity.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’
Rep Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, on Sunday likened the Trump administration’s immigration rhetoric to Nazi depictions of Jews.
“It reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany,” Omar said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, commenting on a social media post by Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, in which he suggested that “migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.” Miller, who is Jewish, is the architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
Omar called Miller’s comments “white supremist rhetoric” and also drew parallels between his characterization of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. to how Jews were demonized and treated when they fled Nazi-era Germany. “As we know, there have been many immigrants who have tried to come to the United States who have turned back, you know, one of them being Jewish immigrants,” she said.
Now serving as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Miller is central to the White House’s plans for mass deportations and expanded barriers to asylum. During Trump’s first term, Miller led the implementation of the so-called Muslim travel ban in 2017, which barred entry to the U.S. for individuals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, and pushed to further reduce a longtime refugee program.
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “When I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany.” pic.twitter.com/GAjIMqFq26
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 7, 2025
Miller’s comments echoed similar rhetoric by Trump after an Afghan refugee was accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House last month, killing one.
Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting last week that Somali immigrants are “garbage” and that he wanted them to be sent “back to where they came from.” The president also singled out Omar, a Somali native who represents Minnesota’s large Somali-American community. “She should be thrown the hell out of our country,” Trump said.
In the Sunday interview, Omar called Trump’s remarks “completely disgusting” and accused him of having “an unhealthy obsession” with her and the Somali community. “This kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president,” she said.
The post Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Nigeria Seeks French Help to Combat Insecurity, Macron Says
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Pool
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has sought more help from France to fight widespread violence in the north of the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, weeks after the United States threatened to intervene to protect Nigeria’s Christians.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has witnessed an upsurge in attacks in volatile northern areas in the past month, including mass kidnappings from schools and a church.
US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of possible military action in Nigeria, accusing it of mistreating Christians. The government says the allegations misrepresent a complex security situation in which armed groups target both faith groups.
Macron said he had a phone call with Tinubu on Sunday, where he conveyed France’s support to Nigeria as it grapples with several security challenges, “particularly the terrorist threat in the North.”
“At his request, we will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations. We call on all our partners to step up their engagement,” Macron said in a post on X.
Macron did not say what help would be offered by France, which has withdrawn its troops from West and Central Africa and plans to focus on training, intelligence sharing and responding to requests from countries for assistance.
Nigeria is grappling with a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast, armed kidnapping gangs in the northwest and deadly clashes between largely Muslim cattle herders and mostly Christian farmers in the central parts of the country, stretching its security forces.
Washington said last month that it was considering actions such as sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to compel Nigeria to better protect its Christian communities.
The Nigerian government has said it welcomes help to fight insecurity as long as its sovereignty is respected. France has previously supported efforts to curtail the actions of armed groups, the US has shared intelligence and sold arms, including fighter jets, and Britain has trained Nigerian troops.
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Netanyahu Says He Will Not Quit Politics if He Receives a Pardon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in the state memorial ceremony for the fallen of the Iron Swords War on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem on Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: Alex Kolomoisky/POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not retire from politics if he receives a pardon from the country’s president in his years-long corruption trial.
Asked by a reporter if planned on retiring from political life if he receives a pardon, Netanyahu replied: “no”.
Netanyahu last month asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon, with lawyers for the prime minister arguing that frequent court appearances were hindering Netanyahu’s ability to govern and that a pardon would be good for the country.
Pardons in Israel have typically been granted only after legal proceedings have concluded and the accused has been convicted. There is no precedent for issuing a pardon mid-trial.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in response to the charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and his lawyers have said that the prime minister still believes the legal proceedings, if concluded, would result in a complete acquittal.
US President Donald Trump wrote to Herzog, before Netanyahu made his request, urging the Israeli president to consider granting the prime minister a pardon.
Some Israeli opposition politicians have argued that any pardon should be conditional on Netanyahu retiring from politics and admitting guilt. Others have said the prime minister must first call national elections, which are due by October 2026.