"The BBC has failed to accurately tell this story – through omission and lack of critical engagement with Israel’s claims – and it has therefore failed to help the public engage with and understand the human rights abuses unfolding in Gaza… Thousands of Palestinians have been killed since October 7. When will the number be high enough for our editorial stance to change?", quoted the channel as saying it had received a letter from eight British journalists working for the BBC who wished to remain anonymous.
The journalists told the BBC the words "massacre" and "atrocity" could only be used in stories about the actions of the Palestinian Hamas movement, which they said made it appear as if the group was the only source of violence in the region.
The journalists also believe that Hamas' attack on Israel while "appalling and devastating … does not justify the indiscriminate killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians" and the BBC "cannot be seen to support – or fail to interrogate – the logic that it does".
The letter emphasizes that the British company often covers the hardship and loss of Israeli families and almost never Palestinian families. At the same time, the journalists recognize that a few private examples of covering Palestinian stories have occurred.
"In comparison, humanising coverage of Palestinian civilians has been lacking. It is a poor excuse to say that the BBC could not better cover stories in Gaza because of difficulties gaining access to the [Gaza] Strip … This is achieved, for example, by telling and following individual stories across weeks. Little attempt has also been made to fully utilise the abundance of social media content from brave journalists in Gaza and the West Bank."
The authors of the letter also point out that it is only because of the increased civilian casualties in Palestine that the BBC has begun to systematically focus more on the stories of civilians without simoly making "some strong isolated examples".