BBC's Jeremy Bowen doesn't feel ‘particularly bad’ on the misreporting of Gaza hospital bombing

BBC's Jeremy Bowen apparently doesn't feel ‘particularly bad’ on misreporting a bombing on a hospital in Gaza. Read along to find his full statement.

International Editor of BBC News since 2022, Jeremy Bowen, isn't remorseful at all for wrongly reporting a Gaza hospital bombing.

In a television interview, the 63-year-old admitted he was ‘wrong’ to have suggested Al-Ahli hospital ‘was flattened’ in an explosion on October 17, 2023.

In a television interview, the 63-year-old admitted he was ‘wrong’ to have suggested Al-Ahli hospital ‘was flattened’ in an explosion on October 17, 2023.

It was on BBC's programme ‘Behind the Stories’ where Jeremy made the comments.

One of the main points of contention over the reporting on the conflict between Israel and Hamas was stories about the explosion. Hours after the first reports of an explosion, Jeremy announced this on BBC One's News at Ten, “The missile hit the hospital not long after dark. You can hear the impact.

“The explosion destroyed Al-Ahli Hospital. It was already damaged from a smaller attack at the weekend. The building was flattened.”

While Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike for the blast, killing at least 500 people, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed the blast had been caused by a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and released images and communication intercepts to substantiate their claim.

The British government concluded the Israeli version of the events to be true. However, it later emerged that the hospital building was intact and the explosion had centred on the car park, with far fewer injuries than claimed.

The Anglican diocese that manages the hospital reported that 200 people had died after the blast. News of the incident disrupted US President Joe Biden’s visit to the Middle East, with the cancellation of a summit in Jordan where he had been due to meet Arab leaders.

Addressing the misreporting on Behind The Stories on the BBC News channel on Saturday, Jeremy Bowen said: “So it broke in, I suppose, mid-evening and to answer your question, no, I don’t regret one thing in my reporting because I think I was measured throughout. I didn’t race to judgment.”

When questioned further about his claim of the hospital being ‘flattened’ he said: “Oh yeah, well I got that wrong because I was looking at the pictures and what I could see was a square that appeared to be flaming on all sides and there was, sort of, a void in the middle. I think it was a picture taken from a drone.

“So, you know, we have to piece together what we see and I thought, ‘It looks like the whole building has gone’.

“That was my conclusion from looking at the pictures and I was wrong on that, but I don’t feel particularly bad about that. It was just the conclusion I drew.”

He added that sometimes the corporation had to “rely on things people say” as well as looking “at the multiplicity of videos” that are released before making a judgement on what to report.

Reacting to Jeremy's comments Hadar Sela, co-editor of Camera UK, told the Telegraph: “Anyone who was under the impression that the BBC had learned any lessons from its hasty assignment of blame to Israel for the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital on October 17th will understand from Jeremy Bowen’s statements that they were sadly wrong.

“Bowen’s arrogant declaration that he ‘doesn’t regret one thing’ about his misreporting the hospital building as ‘flattened’ and his claim that he ‘didn’t rush to judgment’ even though he amplified unverified claims from third parties is sad testimony to the standard of BBC journalism on display throughout this conflict.”