BBC launches investigation after journalists for its Arabic service back Hamas on social media: Report

 The BBC has launched an immediate investigation into a few of its journalists after they reportedly expressed support for Hamas and referred to the attacks against Israel as "a morning of hope."

There have been six reporters and a single freelancer — among them a senior broadcast journalist — who is currently under investigation for holding anti-Israel bias, according to the Daily Mail. The news organization, which is taxpayer funded, has already confirmed that one of its employees was no longer with the company. 

The report noted that there were some posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, that were liked by those involved, which included footage of people being kidnapped and loaded into a Jeep, which was captioned as a "proud moment," and a second post referring to Zionists as thieves and usurpers.

The seven reporters accused in the investigation, according to the Daily Mail, are as follows: "Mahmoud Sheleib, senior broadcast journalist; Aya Hossam, broadcast journalist; Sally Nabil, correspondent; Salma Khattab, based in Cairo; Sanaa Khouri, the Beirut-based religious affairs correspondent; Nada Abdelsamad, a Beirut-based programmes editor; and Egypt All Sports, a company run by Amr Fekry, a sports correspondent and pundit at BBC Arabic." 

The report suggested that all of the reporters have been taken off the air until a full investigation has been completed. The Telegraph noted that the freelancer associated with the BBC would no longer be employed by the corporation. 

A number of people over the past week have questioned whether Israeli non-combatants could really be considered civilians, despite Hamas carrying out horrific attacks against children, women, and the elderly.

Mahmoud Sheleib, a senior broadcast journalist with the BBC, posted to social media that young Israelis were virtually combatants in the dispute. Sheleib went on to post: “[I see] In front of me on Al Jazeera, their so-called civilians are standing armed alongside the police and shooting because they basically don’t have any civilians among the youth. This is what the ignorant often don’t know. I am in favour of fighting them with love, yes, this is the solution.”

The post included a laughing emoji at the end.

While the BBC refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organization, the group has been considered a terrorist organization by the UK government since November 2021.

In a previous piece, The Telegraph reported that Hamas had already planned to kill young children, according to secret documents that were released.