‘Hamas’s word’: White House slams BBC over Gaza coverage

Karoline Leavitt accuses the BBC of taking Hamas’s word as ‘the total truth’ as a video emerges of a Gazan accusing militants of killing Palestinians trying to collect aid | WATCH

The White House has launched an attack on the BBC’s coverage of Gaza, after the broadcaster published a series of claims about the Israeli military shooting Palestinian citizens attempting to access aid.

In the administration’s strongest criticism yet of the BBC, Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump’s press secretary, accused reporters of taking Hamas’s word as “total truth”.

Whitehouse calling out the fake news BBC to their faces.pic.twitter.com/YECZUZRLkh

— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) June 3, 2025

Her criticism comes as the US-based non-profit organisation Centre for Peace Communications released a video of a Gazan accusing the militant organisation of killing Palestinians at aid sites run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The man in the CPC video stresses: “No one has an interest in (carrying out) these attacks except Hamas.

“Hamas would rather we die of hunger than let the American aid distribution system succeed.”

Amid conflicting reports over the deaths of Gazans as they attempt to collect aid, on Wednesday the GHF, which has replaced the UN to control aid distribution in the strip, closed its distribution sites for a day.

The closure happened after the Hamas-run Gazan health ministry claimed Israeli forces had fired on civilians heading toward a site, killing at least 27, amid days of chaos in which Gazans have been injured and killed at and near the sites.

The Israeli military denied shooting at those civilians but said some people had left the designated routes, ignored warning shots and approached its troops.

In the CPC video which the organisation said was filmed near an aid site, a man with his face pixelated says Hamas has used the distribution of aid for years to “exploit and control” the local population and is desperate to see the GHF fail.

“This is what drives Hamas,” he says. “Hamas caused the killings and panic at the aid sites.”

He adds: “From the beginning of the implementation of this new distribution mechanism Hamas has been trying to prevent people from going to receive the aid, whether by accusations of treason, intimidation, or spreading misinformation that Israelis will arrest you or kill you, or that you are a traitor.”

He points out that in Gaza only Hamas and the Israeli army have the means to kill civilians.

“But the army is concentrated in certain areas and doesn’t risk moving among civilians in this way,” he says.

Ms Leavitt said the White House was trying to get to the bottom of the reports of Gazans’ deaths. However, she added: “Unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don’t take the word of Hamas as total truth.

“We like to look into it when they speak … unlike the BBC.”

She displayed a print-out of stories published on the BBC website a day earlier, and described how the headlines changed from claiming an Israeli tank had killed 26 people, to 21 people, to gunfire killing 31.

“And then, oh, wait, they had to correct and take down their entire story, saying we reviewed the footage and couldn’t find any evidence of anything,” she said.

“So we’re going to look into reports before we confirm them from this podium or before we take action. And I suggest that journalists who actually care about truth do the same to reduce the amount of misinformation that’s going around the globe.”

BBC Attempt 1: "Israeli tanks kill 26."

BBC Attempt 2: "Israeli tanks kill 31."

BBC Attempt 3: "Israeli gunfire kills 31."

BBC Attempt 4: "Red Cross says 21 people killed in aid incident."

BBC Attempt 5: "We reviewed the footage and couldn't find any evidence of anything." pic.twitter.com/Wx3dngwIXo

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) June 2, 2025

The BBC denied it removed the story after reviewing footage. In a statement responding to Ms Leavitt’s claim, the broadcaster said: “We did not remove any story, and we stand by our journalism.

“Our news stories and headlines about Sunday’s aid distribution center incident were updated throughout the day with the latest fatality figures as they came in from various sources.

“These 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 its field hospital. This is totally standard practice on any fast-moving news story,” it said.

The BBC added that, separately, its Verify branch reported on Monday that a viral video posted on social media was not linked to the aid distribution center as it claimed to be.

“This video did not run on BBC news channels and had not informed our reporting,” it continued. “Conflating these two stories is simply misleading.”

Israel Defence Forces’ Spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin accused Hamas of making “exaggerated” claims about the incidents.

“This week, it was claimed that the IDF fired on civilians at the aid distribution site. This is a totally false report, it echoes Hamas propaganda,” he said.

Asked about reports that troops had shot at dozens of Gazans in Rafah, he reiterated the military’s response that troops had fired warning shots, but said troops “didn’t hit that many people as far as we understand [and] we will continue to investigate.”