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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/even-gazas-ruins-uk-journalists-are-still-sanitising-genocide">middleeasteye.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">UK journalists go to Gaza, but still cover up Israel\u2019s genocide</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Hamza Yusuf</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">November 28, 2025</div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>For more than two years, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel" target="_blank">Israel</a> has carried out a remorseless campaign of <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/israel-genocide-gaza" target="_blank">erasure in Gaza</a>, reducing the territory to rubble. Many <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine" target="_blank">Palestinians</a> in the enclave have been turned into accidental journalists. </p>
<p>Amid Israel\u2019s ban on foreign journalists, the only sources of
information have been the citizens living through and live-streaming the
<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/explainers/meaning-definition-what-genocide-israel-gaza" target="_blank">genocide</a>. Even so, their courageous efforts were not widely appreciated.</p>
<p>\u201cThere are no journalists in Gaza,\u201d David Lammy, then the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/uk" target="_blank">British</a> foreign secretary, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-david-lammy-blasted-claiming-no-journalists-gaza" target="_blank">asserted</a> late last year. The same sentiment was <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/christiane-amanpour-says-there-are-no-journalists-gaza" target="_blank">expressed</a> by prominent CNN presenter Christiane Amanpour. </p>
<p>The implication was that Palestinians could not be trusted to narrate
their reality accurately or objectively, and that only mainstream
journalists could serve as credible truth-tellers to aid public
understanding.</p>
<p>Rooted in hubris, this theory has been put to the test and
comprehensively shattered, as journalists from Britain\u2019s main
broadcasters - including ITV, Sky News and the BBC - recently entered
Gaza, and characteristically obscured the reality. They upheld the
fiction that Gaza represents the site of complex warfare, not
meticulously orchestrated mass slaughter.</p><p>Or as some might say, business as usual. </p>
<p>Reporting from Gaza in early November, the BBC\u2019s Lucy Williamson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ONnNFdNtQ" target="_blank">noted</a>:
\u201cThis is just a taste of what two years of war has done to Gaza \u2026
Israel\u2019s army says it\u2019s still fighting Hamas here almost every day.\u201d The
desolate landscape in Gaza is framed as a byproduct of Israel\u2019s
violence, carefully directed exclusively at Hamas. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0rp4lrdv8ko" target="_blank">accompanying article</a>
persists with this characterisation of an intricate conflict. The
headline cites \u201ctotal devastation after two years of war\u201d, while the
text reproduces Israel\u2019s usual robotic renditions of Hamas tunnels and
terror infrastructure, effectively whitewashing the sustained
annihilation of Palestinian life since October 2023, while justifying
continued attacks. </p>
<p>An Israeli spokesperson is quoted directly as saying the level of
destruction was \u201cnot a goal\u201d, and adding: \u201cThe goal is to combat
terrorists.\u201d Above these quotes, the article features an image of the
pulverised and flattened neighbourhood of Shujaiya - highlighting the
stark contrast between the BBC\u2019s framing and the inescapable truth.</p>
<h3>Distorted picture</h3>
<p>Although Israel\u2019s brutality has not stopped, the BBC refers to the
ceasefire as leaving Gaza in a \u201ctense limbo\u201d. In reality, Israel has <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-killed-over-300-palestinians-nearly-500-violations-gaza-ceasefire" target="_blank">violated the ceasefire</a> around 500 times since October, killing more than 300 Palestinians and <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/over-1-500-buildings-destroyed-by-israel-in-gaza-since-ceasefire-satellite-images-show/3742011" target="_blank">levelling</a> hundreds of buildings. </p>
<p>The BBC\u2019s reporting from Gaza capped off 25 months of distorted
coverage, painting a wildly inaccurate picture based on predetermined
conclusions about Israeli retaliation and \u201cself-defence\u201d, while ignoring
the raw truth of systematic ethnic cleansing. Doing that from the
comfort of an office is bad enough, but committing to it while standing
amid the apocalypse in Gaza is grotesque. What is long ingrained is not
easily uprooted. </p>
<p>Days after the BBC\u2019s report came a <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/patchwork-of-dust-and-misery-at-the-yellow-line-dividing-gaza-where-all-that-remains-are-skeletons-of-buildings-13472870" target="_blank">Sky News piece</a>,
also from a Middle East correspondent embedded with the Israeli
military. It features similar descriptors about Gaza\u2019s \u201cdevastation\u201d and
\u201cwasteland\u201d, contextualised as the \u201cscars of war\u201d. An Israeli army
spokesperson is allowed to frame events: \u201cWe\u2019re not staying here as a
hobby. We\u2019re staying here to secure the people of Israel.\u201d</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mainstream media in the UK have consistently told the wrong story
about Gaza. They have concealed, watered down and aimed to prevent the
public from connecting the dots</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This positioning of Israel\u2019s actions as solely reactive is preserved
throughout Sky\u2019s reporting. When correspondent Adam Parsons <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pep7YBW2xS0" target="_blank">mentions</a>
hearing automatic gunfire during his visit to Gaza, resulting in the
deaths of Palestinians who were allegedly crossing the \u201cyellow line\u201d
that now divides the enclave, he quickly inserts the Israeli version of
events: \u201cIsrael says they were Hamas terrorists.\u201d </p>
<p>This bolsters the impression of Israeli soldiers engaging in violence
only to snuff out threats in a multifaceted war. \u201cSo long as Hamas
still has weapons, it is very hard to imagine Israel withdrawing from
this blighted land,\u201d Parsons says. </p>
<p>Israel\u2019s continued <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/occupation" target="_blank">occupation</a>
of Gaza is illegal under international law, yet mainstream media are
all too eager to repackage it as a military strategy rooted in
necessity.</p>
<p>To its credit, unlike the BBC, the Sky News package included the
perspective of a Palestinian civilian in Gaza. While the Israeli
military did not allow embedded journalists to speak directly with
Palestinians, the interview was arranged through a colleague in the
territory. \u201cI\u2019m giving up,\u201d <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/patchwork-of-dust-and-misery-at-the-yellow-line-dividing-gaza-where-all-that-remains-are-skeletons-of-buildings-13472870" target="_blank">said Iman Hasoneh</a>, a mother from Shujaiya. \u201cOne day they will just announce that we have all been killed.\u201d</p>
<p>What should have been a perspective supplementing the story of a
population subjected to two years of unparalleled horror, is presented
merely as an allegation countering a plethora of Israeli claims. Such
framing reinforces the illusion of a complicated war defined by two
irreconcilable narratives and unfortunate casualties, far removed from
the conditions on the ground, where indiscriminate bombardment has
killed tens of thousands of people. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/21/israeli-data-shows-83-percent-of-gaza-war-dead-are-civilians-report" target="_blank">More than 80 percent</a> of Gaza\u2019s war dead were reportedly civilians.</p>
<h3>Deceptive framing</h3>
<p>It\u2019s worth reflecting upon what Gaza has endured during Israel\u2019s merciless carpet bombing over the past two years. A recent UN<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/25/rebuilding-human-made-abyss-gaza-un?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other" target="_blank"> report</a> noted that Israel has created a \u201chuman-made abyss\u201d in Gaza, and \u201csignificantly undermined every pillar of survival\u201d. </p>
<p>The executive director of Unicef noted in July that <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-executive-director-catherine-russells-remarks-humanitarian-situation-children?itid=lk_inline_enhanced-template" target="_blank">an average of 28 children</a>
were killed daily in Gaza - the equivalent of \u201ca whole classroom of
children killed, every day for nearly two years\u201d. The International
Committee of the Red Cross <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a9c1267a-2aaf-4e87-9ecf-3104be792394" target="_blank">diagnosed it</a> as \u201cworse than hell on earth\u201d. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/19/israels-crime-extermination-acts-genocide-gaza" target="_blank">Human Rights Watch</a>, <a href="https://amnesty.ca/gazagenocide/" target="_blank">Amnesty International</a> and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds" target="_blank">UN experts</a> have all concluded that Israel is committing genocide. </p>
<p>Israel\u2019s killing on an industrial scale is nothing like the portrait
composed by UK broadcasters. It would be almost impossible to arrive at
that conclusion from watching and reading their coverage, which portrays
Israeli violence as inevitable retaliation with regrettable collateral
damage. </p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/why-gaza-genocide-ranks-among-gravest-horrors-human-history" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/palestine-gaza-react-strikes-hospital-july-2025-afp.jpg.webp?itok=06RbVe1f" width="400" height="250" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img">
</a></p><p>Why Gaza's genocide ranks among the gravest horrors of human history</p>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/why-gaza-genocide-ranks-among-gravest-horrors-human-history" target="_blank">Read More »</a>
</p></div>
<p>The problem is not limited to their diluted, deceptive framing of the
Gaza slaughter. It\u2019s also what is omitted: no mention that Israel is on
trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice, nor that the
International Criminal Court has issued <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges" target="_blank">arrest warrants</a> for crimes against humanity against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.</p>
<p>The countless nuggets of information that could be used to rebut
Israeli narratives, or to bring into sharp focus what the camera lens is
showing, are peculiarly left out. </p>
<p>It could be argued that when journalists are embedded with the
Israeli military, their coverage is naturally suppressed - but both the
BBC and Sky News emphasized repeatedly that they maintained editorial
control. The reporting can thus be reasonably interpreted as a
deliberate construction of an alternative reality. </p>
<p>An ITV News journalist also entered Gaza recently, and produced arguably the most forthright <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2025-11-19/itv-news-shown-devastated-ruins-of-most-fought-over-part-of-gaza" target="_blank">coverage</a>.
John Irvine states plainly and unambiguously: "I was in both Mosul and
Raqqa as the Islamic State was being demolished, but the level of the
obliteration here puts both those pummeled places in the shade." He
also clearly and accurately refers to the territory Israel is
controlling within the yellow line as \u201coccupied\u201d.</p>
<p>But the report still contains military jargon, using terms like
"fought over" and "warfare" to consolidate the perception of two warring
sides. And in the segment with the Israeli military spokesperson, when
asked if the destruction was "a military necessity", the answer given is
yes, unchallenged. </p>
<p>What makes this particularly striking is that <a href="https://www.itv.com/watch/breaking-ranks-inside-israels-war/10a7329a0001B/10a7329a0001" target="_blank">ITV\u2019s own documentary</a>
recently exposed both genocidal intent among Israeli soldiers and the
licenses to vengefully and freely kill civilians in Gaza, material that
could have been put directly to the spokesperson. Instead, like Sky News
and the BBC, the untold brutality was left framed as the remnants of a
convoluted military campaign, not sinister state policy.</p>
<p>Mainstream media in the UK have consistently told the wrong story
about Gaza. They have concealed, watered down and aimed to prevent the
public from connecting the dots. But what we\u2019re seeing today from inside
Gaza may be the most serious offence yet, allowing the perpetrators of
the genocide to narrate the story - despite these reporters seeing the
reality with their own eyes. </p>
<p>What the UK media class lacks in journalistic integrity, it
compensates for in generosity - supplying the very evidence that will
indict it when the reckoning comes.</p>
<p><i>The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.</i></p>
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