BBC Arabic pulls article portraying Hamas terrorist killed on October 7 as innocent civilian

“Despite the shock she experienced on the first day of the war,” the article read, Alareer “continues her journalistic work.”

BBC Arabic has been accused of uncritically accepting claims from anyone in a PRESS vest after it reported that Esraa Alareer's Hamas-fighter husband, who was killed inside Israel on October 7, was an innocent victim of Israeli aggression, killed by bombs in Gaza (BBC Arabic)[Missing Credit]

In fact, Alareer’s husband, Yasser Tawil, was a Hamas fighter killed during the terror group’s attack on the Jewish state on October 7.

Days after the Hamas-led attack, Alareer told another newspaper – the Hamas-affiliated Felesteen – that Tawil left their home in Gaza in the early hours of October 7, cut through the border fence and took part in the assault before being killed.

In an interview published by the Gaza newspaper on October 10 2023, she described how her husband left their home in Gaza wearing “‘military clothes,’” in a “‘rush’” to join the October 7 assault and never returned.

He “‘could not miss this moment [October 7]; his whole life he had wished and prepared himself in the ranks of the resistance to cross the barrier and engage in the epic battle there,’” she states.

“‘What confirms to me that he was engaging in frontier warfare at dawn on Saturday is that I called him at two in the morning ... and he was at his usual outpost.’”

Alareer marked the second anniversary of her husband's death, who she said was a "lion for the crossing [into Israel] and remains a terror to the Nazi occupier"[Missing Credit]

When he did not return after the attack, Alareer watched footage from the October 7 and felt “pride” as she saw “resistance fighters crossing into the occupied territories”, she said.

The Felesteen article goes on: “she was informed in the same way that the families of martyrs were informed of their sons' ascension [to heaven], that her husband had been martyred.

“‘They told me that when he cut through the separation fence, he said 'Allahu Akbar' (God is the greatest) and was very happy, as if it were a day of victory.’"

Alareer's reposts include one calling a slain Hamas fighter a "hero" (X)[Missing Credit]

The article also describes Tawil as a long-time Hamas loyalist and claims he was one of the men who threw “stones and Molotov cocktails at the occupation” in 2015 and later “played a prominent role” in the Hamas-led March of Return in 2018.

Meanwhile, Alareer’s social media posts, including in the days before her BBC interview, show her praising October 7 and her husband’s participation in “jihad”.

On the day of the massacre, she described images from “our occupied lands” [Israel] as “heartwarming”.

On October 8, 2023, she posted on X that her “beloved husband” had died “engaged in jihad”, adding: “Allah has granted what you wished for, in confrontation, undeterred, immersed [in the task], massacring Allah's enemies.”

She later hailed October 7 as a holiday, writing on X in April 2024: “Every year October 7 is a holiday to us,” before marking the first anniversary as “The best day which the Muslims' sun has risen upon for a hundred years”.

Last week, she reshared an image of an armed Hamas terrorist labelled a “hero” killed by “Zionist bombs”, and last month she posted an image of the remains of a gun in Gaza rubble with the caption: “Peace be upon the revolutionary who has passed away.”

Long before October 7 2023, Alareer’s posts appeared to glorify violence against Jews.

In November 2015, she quoted slain Hamas commander Imad Aql with an X post that stated, “We shall knock on heaven’s doors with the Jews’ skulls”. That same year she posted: “Count the Jews by number, kill them one by one, and do not leave a single one.”

And in 2014, she urged followers to “save the bullets to [for] the Jews” and asked God to “cut off their necks, the Jews”.

She brandished the remnants of a Hamas gun in another post (X)[Missing Credit]

The misrepresentation of a Hamas terrorist as an innocent man killed by Israeli bombs, and the platforming of a contributor with a record of extremist posts comes as scrutiny of BBC Arabic has intensified following the publication in the The Daily Telegraph of the leaked memo, written by former journalist Michael Prescott.

His 18-page report detailed systemic editorial failures and bias within the Arabic service, which, he said, has regularly portrayed events in Israel and Gaza in ways that diverge from the BBC’s English-language reporting, including not reporting on Israeli suffering and giving increased prominence to Hamas claims.

Only after the JC contacted the broadcaster did BBC Arabic remove the article about the Gaza journalists.

A spokesperson said: “This article does not meet the high standards BBC News Arabic audiences rightfully expect of the service and as such it has been removed while we amend it.”

A spokesperson for Camera, a Boston-based pro-Israel organisation which specialises in uncovering media bias against Israel and has been examining BBC Arabic output for years, said the article had “whitewashed Gazan combatants and terrorists as innocent bystanders”.

They continued: “Once again, it seems that a blue helmet and a matching vest labelled ‘Press’ are enough for BBC Arabic to present such adherents as ‘journalist[s] who deliver the Gaza reality’ – without even checking what they posted on social media just the day before.

“Basic due diligence would have revealed the extent of the propaganda produced by Alareer ... so thinly veiled as journalism”.