BBC rejects incorrect White House claims on Gaza coverage

The BBC has rejected incorrect White House criticism of its Gaza coverage, describing a claim that it had taken down a story as “completely wrong”.

At Tuesday’s White House briefing President Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the BBC of taking “the word of Hamas” when reporting on the number of people killed in a shooting near an aid distribution site on Sunday.

She also claimed, wrongly, that the BBC had retracted a story.

“The claim the BBC took down a story after reviewing footage is completely wrong. We did not remove any story and we stand by our journalism,” the BBC said in a statement.

Karoline Leavitt criticised the BBC for changing the number of casualties in the story’s headline. The corporation said its coverage was updated with new figures throughout the day, which is “totally normal practice on any fast-moving news story”.

The numbers were “always clearly attributed, from the first figure of 15 from medics, through the 31 killed from the Hamas-run health ministry to the final Red Cross statement of ‘at least 21’ at their field hospital,” the statement said.

There are conflicting reports on what happened near an aid distribution centre in Rafah on Sunday.

Civilian witnesses, NGOs, and health officials said people were shot at while waiting for food at an aid distribution point. But the Israeli military said the reports were false, and denied that its troops fired at civilians near or within the site. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US and Israel-backed group which now runs the aid distribution, said the reports were “outright fabrications”.

Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza, making verifying what is happening in the territory difficult.

On Tuesday, there was a similar incident when local officials said Israeli forces fired at civilians as they attempted to collect aid, killing at least 27 people.

The IDF said its troops fired shots after identifying what it described as suspects who moved towards them “deviating from the designated access routes”.

The White House press secretary also accused the BBC of removing a story because it “couldn’t find any evidence of anything” – referring to a report by BBC Verify examining a viral video.

In its statement the BBC explained that this report on Monday, which examined the footage, found that “a viral video posted on social media was not linked to the aid distribution centre it claimed to show”. But the video did not run on BBC news channels, and did not inform its reporting.

“Conflating these two stories is simply misleading. It is vital to bring people the truth about what is happening in Gaza. International journalists are not currently allowed into Gaza and we would welcome the support of the White House in our call for immediate access,” the BBC’s statement added.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’ cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,470 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 4,201 since Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.