BBC Verify is meant to be an elite ‘fact-checking’ unit for one of the largest broadcast news organizations in the world. Instead, it turns out BBC Verify is just another obsessive anti-Israel unit manned by amateur hacks – a bunch of student journalists who cannot leave their activist days behind them, clearly do not understand what ‘fact-checking’ or professional journalism actually mean, and do not have editors, news directors, and producers ensuring journalistic integrity.

The European Hospital Strike

In the afternoon of May 13, 2025, reports began surfacing (at 16:25 BST) of an Israeli strike *on* the European hospital in Al-Fukhkhari, east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian propagandists immediately went to ‘fantasy town’, with Mariam Barghouti even going as far as suggesting Israel was ‘carpet bombing’ the hospital. This episode turned into another of those catastrophic media events – during which global media rushed to jump into the rabbit hole Hamas had nicely dug for them.

In anticipation of the media turning this into a fake-news circus, Israel reacted swiftly, and almost as soon as news broke about the strike, Israel was using various channels to officially inform the world that the target was a key Hamas control centre. The additional information that began circulating from ‘insider sources’ was so accurate, that by 17:08 BST, just 45 minutes after the news was breaking, I had already posted that Mohammed Sinwar may have been eliminated.

This means that within an hour, some accurate information was already available to counter the fake news. Israel had targeted a Hamas hideout in tunnels that ran underneath the hospital grounds, and had possibly eliminated the Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar. Mainstream media just CHOSE to ignore (or downplay) all these claims, and run all the headlines pushing the Hamas propaganda instead.

BBC Verify and the European Hospital Strike

Which brings us to BBC Verify – the BBC’s ‘fact-checking’ unit. At the time I pointed out that there was only one issue about the Israeli strike that really needed open source ‘verification’, and that is whether Mohammed Sinwar and / or other Hamas leaders were using hospital grounds as cover, or not. Beyond this, BBC Verify had absolutely no reason to be involved.

Yet get involved they did. The BBC Verify team produced a video lasting 2 minutes and 26 seconds. They really did not have much to say, so spent the first 56 seconds just rolling shocking footage of the strike on civilians. Nowt to verify there at all and nothing was in dispute. The next 30 seconds were spent discussing the type of bomb the IDF had used (also not in dispute). Having spent half the time shocking the audience through running conflict porn, BBC Verify then spent the rest of the clip drawing doubt on Israel’s version of events.

If BBC Verify is a fact checking unit – then why on earth did they jump in before any facts could be verified? And even then – all they did is draw inferences trying to suggest Israel had made a mistake. But Israel had not made a mistake. Israel conducted a surgical strike which took out not just the current Hamas leader, but also other key Hamas terrorists.

The entire logic of the Verify team was wrong. Why did Israel need to have provided precise evidence within hours of the strike? Israel’s failure to publicly provide precise evidence within hours of the strike should not have been used by ‘fact-checkers’ to infer a mistake had happened. It is a textbook example of demonization of the Jewish state, assuming the worst and forcing Israel to disprove an assumption after the fact. In short, it is BBC Verify showing institutionalized antisemitism.

In addition, it does not matter what you think of the conflict. It is a visible fact that on most occasions in the conflict in which Israel stated it believed it had struck a key terrorist hideout – it did turn out that the terrorist leader truly was killed in the strike. There are dozens of examples since October 2023 and this vital context is not really in dispute.

BBC Verify did not mention this context at all. They rushed in believing Israel had made a mistake without waiting for evidence. Did they want to report the news or simply shock viewers? Shocking viewers based on footage that has vital context removed from the story and leads the audience into believing a false narrative: Isn’t that what BBC Verify was actually set up to counter?

But like everything else with the BBC – the organisation’s reputation has been trashed by hack amateurs with an anti-Israel fetish, obsessively seeking to push an anti-Israel narrative. BBC Verify became just another tool for them to do this with.

 Absolutely shocking (he said sarcastically).

Now I will lay out the evidence:

The Fake News of BBC Verify – Exhibit A

The first point of call is the footage that BBC Verify used – from one of the CCTV cameras at the hospital. In the screenshot I have marked two spots in the footage to use as geo-location indicators – the first a set of doors near what seems to be a hospital entrance, and the second a distinctive building, and some nearby signage, alongside the area of impact.

The Fake News of BBC Verify – Exhibit B

This next image is from the Euromed website (an extremely Israel-hostile NGO). The image permits us to see the same area from a wider angle. The two markers show us this is exactly the same spot as we saw in the BBC Verify footage. We can now see that the incident took place outside the emergency entrance of the European hospital, and the Israelis did not hit the hospital itself, but rather, delivered a precise blow to a courtyard area some meters away. Given the lack of visible damage to the hospital building at this point – it is clear this was a high-precision, professionally calculated, military strike.

The next image zooms in on the corner of the entrance of the emergency department. This is part of the building pointed out by arrow 1 in the BBC footage. We can now see the signage better, along with the specific elements of the building structure – such as the stairs and railing alongside.

The IDF Footage – Exhibit C

Now we can turn to footage the IDF has provided of the tunnel system found underneath the European hospital — the tunnel the Hamas leadership was hiding inside.

In this screenshot from the footage, which also shows the edge of the crater the IDF has since dug around the target site, we can see it is precisely the same area shown in the BBC Verify video. The doors to the right, with the stairs and railings are marked by the first arrow in the screenshot from the BBC Verify video.

Another screenshot from a different IDF video. This is taken from a slightly lower angle – but it is clear this is taken from the entrance to the crater outside the hospital’s emergency department – and the same spot as we saw in the BBC Verify video. 

What is important in this IDF footage, is that the IDF take us from this spot, into the tunnel system (see the footage) and show us that the room Mohammed Sinwar was hiding in was just a few meters away. This is proof that the tunnel system ran under and around hospitals – and it was used by Hamas.

All this evidence has been confirmed by international journalists visiting the scene.

And images from the NYT journalist show us this is exactly the same spot that BBC Verify used in their disinformation / demonisation video. The ‘hit’ in the BBC Verify video occurs in the courtyard to the left (in the image) of the hospital entrance – and here we can see the Israelis have accessed the tunnel from the exact same spot. Sinwar’s body was found just meters from this site.

This evidence proves conclusively that the strike covered by BBC Verify targeted a tunnel running by a hospital in which Hamas leaders were hiding away. The hospital was not the target, and Hamas were using an emergency department of the European hospital as a place to hide beneath. The BBC Verify team did not report on — or verify — the event. They spread fake news. 

CONCLUSION:

Israel conducted a precise strike on a legitimate military target: A hospital compound exploited by Hamas.

The hacks at BBC Verify rushed in  – they skewed the evidence – they distorted the truth – they downplayed the possibility that Hamas were hiding under hospital grounds – and they chose to push a narrative of Israel randomly attacking hospitals and killing civilians.

Which means there is only one question to ask: Will BBC Verify change their name to ‘BBC Jumps to Conclusions’, or will they simply apologise for spreading disinformation?

Or is it that too much to ask of them?

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