Iran says its president was injured in Israeli airstrike last month
Fars news, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Cops, described the strike as bearing similarities to the Israeli operation that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut . The report said: 'The attack occurred before noon on Monday, June 16, while a meeting of the Supreme National Security Council was being held with the heads of the three branches of government and other senior officials in the lower floors of a building in western Tehran.'
'The attackers targeted the building's entrances and exits by firing six bombs or missiles to block escape routes and cut off air flow.' Other senior officials present at the meeting reportedly included parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and judiciary chief Mohseni Ejei.
Several people were injured, with Fars reporting that 'some officials, including the president, suffered minor injuries to their legs while leaving' and escaped using 'an emergency hatch that had been planned in advance'. It also noted that power was cut off on the affected floor after the explosions. The revelation is in line with claims made by Mr Pezeshkian in a recent interview, in which he accused Israel of trying to assassinate him.
Speaking to political commentator Tucker Carlson, the president said: 'They did try, yes… They acted accordingly, but they failed.' However, he did not mention being injured during the interview. Despite the president's calm tone, his remarks triggered a backlash among Iranian lawmakers. Twenty-four MPs signed an open letter accusing him of undermining national security.
The criticism was also aimed at his apparent willingness to re-engage with the United States, despite tensions over American airstrikes on nuclear sites and Iran's recent expulsion of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 'From a national security standpoint, such messaging risks inviting further aggression,' the MPs wrote.
A new emergency espionage law is also being debated, which would introduce harsher punishments for spying, including capital punishment. Fars did not disclose the precise location of the strike, though opposition outlet Iran International reported that an Israeli airstrike targeted an area near Shahrak-e-Gharb in western Tehran on the same day.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
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BBC adviser asked ‘is documentary clean of Hamas'? Bosses never bothered to reply
The BBC's Gaza documentary was declared to be 'all clean of Hamas', despite its narrator being the son of a Hamas minister, a report has found. Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was categorised as a 'high risk' project by the BBC, yet was broadcast without crucial questions being answered. A month before the broadcast, an editorial policy adviser at the BBC asked: 'Has due diligence been done on those featured to ensure, e.g. the lead boy doesn't have links in any way to [Hamas]? I'm sure it has…' The question was never answered, but the programme went ahead. Three members of Hoyo Films, the independent production company that made the documentary, knew the narrator's family background but did not tell the BBC about it, the report found. They paid Abdullah Alyazouri's family £795 for his contribution, and also gave him a gift card for a computer game and a second-hand mobile phone, to a total value of £1,817. The day after the documentary was broadcast, it emerged that Abdullah, the 13-year-old narrator, was the son of Ayman Alyazouri, a deputy minister for agriculture in the Hamas-led government. An internal review conducted by Peter Johnston, the BBC's director of editorial complaints, ruled that the documentary breached editorial guidelines on accuracy by failing to disclose 'critical information' about Abdullah's family history. But it cleared the BBC of breaching impartiality guidelines, despite Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, earlier saying that the row was a 'dagger to the heart' of the broadcaster's reputation for impartiality. Ofcom announced that it was launching an investigation into the BBC 'under our rule which states that factual programmes must not materially mislead the audience'. Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs, apologised for the 'mistake' but refused to say whether anyone would face the sack. She viewed the documentary at a special screening ahead of its television broadcast, but defended her role. She said: 'I didn't know then what I know now.' 'Unflinching' documentary Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone was billed as an 'unflinching' documentary narrated by Abdullah, a Palestinian boy living in the so-called 'safe zone'. It was broadcast on Feb 17. 'My name is Abdullah. I'm 13 years old. I'm stuck here in Gaza. Have you ever wondered what you'd do if your world was destroyed?' he asks, leading viewers through the rubble. He explains that he attended 'the best school in Gaza, the British school' but now lives in a tent. Other children featured in the film include Renad, a young girl who presents a TikTok cookery show, and Zakaria, an 11-year-old who works as a fixer at one of Gaza's hospitals. The documentary includes scenes from inside the hospital, including a doctor in an operating theatre holding up a severed arm and shouting: 'Look what the Israelis are doing to the children of Gaza.' Jamie Roberts and Yousef Hammash, the film's two directors, remotely directed two Gazan cameramen, as Israel does not allow foreign journalists to operate inside Gaza. What the filmmakers knew Hoyo Films, the production company engaged by the BBC, spotted Abdullah on Channel 4 in April 2024 and approached him to become a contributor. Two months later, they submitted a 'taster' tape to the BBC in which he appeared prominently. By July, three members of the production company – the director, the co-director and one crew member in Gaza – had become aware that Abdullah's father was Ayman Alyazouri, according to the report. They met the father in August to gain permission to film Abdullah. But Hoyo did not at any stage share Abdullah's family background with the BBC. Interviewed for the report, they claimed to have reached a view that Abdullah's father was in 'a civilian or technocratic position', rather than a political or military one. This was supported by the fact that, when they met him, Mr Alyazouri was moving openly around Gaza and not taking security precautions. In addition, the Gazan civil government – other than the health ministry – had not been functioning since 2023, so they considered him to be 'no longer in employment'. The report noted: 'The production company was also under the impression, whether rightly or wrongly, that there was a clear distinction between officials and ministers working for the Gazan civil government and Hamas.' BBC failures The BBC identified early on in the production that the documentary carried 'reputational risk' and a 'due impartiality challenge', adding it to the internal managed risk programme list. One of the commissioning editors sought advice from BBC colleagues who identified the need for due diligence and background checks on the contributors and crew, including potential links or affiliations to Hamas. The editorial policy unit was consulted for advice, and provided notes. One adviser from the unit asked on Dec 19 last year: 'I presume we have checked out the bona fides of the people we use?' On Jan 8, a BBC commissioning editor sent a WhatsApp to Hoyo asking if there was a paper trail on the background checking of contributors. Hoyo replied: 'No – we did a social media check with those that are online and [a] check with local community members – all clean of Hamas.' On Jan 12, they asked: 'Has due diligence been done on those featured to ensure e.g. the lead boy doesn't have links in any way to [Hamas]? I'm sure it has…' And on Jan 15, a note from a member of the BBC commissioning team asked if anyone had checked Abdullah's family background. But at a zoom meeting on Jan 22 to address any outstanding issues, these last two questions were not answered. The report found that the production company carried most of the responsibility for the failure to inform the BBC but that it did not intentionally mislead the broadcaster. However, it added that putting Abdullah forward as the narrator – given his background – was wrong. But it also said the BBC 'bears some responsibility', first for being 'insufficiently proactive' in failing to scrutinise the role of the narrator at an early stage, and then for its 'lack of critical oversight of unanswered or partially answered questions'. The BBC should not have signed off on the film without having the answer to every question, the report concluded. Narrator's payment Abdullah's adult sister was paid a £795 'disturbance fee' for his participation in the programme, while Abdullah was given a second-hand mobile phone and a gift card for a computer game – together, this amounted to a total value of £1,817. The production company said the money was intended for Abdullah's mother, as his legal guardian, but was paid via the sister as the mother did not have a Bank of Palestine account. In his report, Mr Johnston concluded: 'I do not consider the amount or purpose of any of these payments to have been outside of the range of what might be reasonable.' The fallout Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, previously asked why nobody had been fired over the documentary, although her language on Monday was noticeably calmer. Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, said he was sorry for the 'significant failing' in relation to accuracy. Ofcom launched its own investigation into whether audiences were misled. The BBC promised 'accountability' but Ms Turness refused to be drawn on whether anyone would lose their job over the mistakes. She apologised for the error but sought to blame Hoyo Films, saying: 'The questions should have been answered by the independent production company at the many times of asking.' As for the future of the documentary, it may be re-edited into shorter films that could be made available on iPlayer.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Newscast What Went Wrong With The BBC Gaza Documentary?
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BBC News
an hour ago
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Gaza father's outrage after Israeli strike kills son 'searching for a sip'
Mahmoud Abdul Rahman Ahmed says his son, Abdullah, was "searching for a sip of water" when he took the family's jerrycans on Sunday morning and headed as usual to one of the water distribution points in the urban Nuseirat camp, in central Gaza."That area was inhabited by displaced people, others who were exhausted by the war, and those who have seen the worst due to the imposed siege and limitations, and the ongoing aggression," Mahmoud said in an interview with a local journalist working for the BBC."The children, Abdullah among them, stood in a queue with empty stomachs, empty jerrycans, and thirsty lips," he added."Minutes after the children and thirsty people of the camp gathered, the warplanes bombed those children and the water distribution point, without prior notice." Graphic video filmed by another local journalist and verified by the BBC showed the immediate aftermath of the Israeli strike on a street in the New Camp area of passes two men carrying young children before coming across a destroyed structure, beneath which dozens of yellow plastic jerrycans are scream as bystanders pull a man from the rubble, while others try to help another man covered in blood. Other adults and children are seen lying motionless hospital in Nuseirat said 10 people, including six children, were killed in the strike, and that 16 others were injured. Along with Abdullah, they named the children who died as Badr al-Din Qaraman, Siraj Khaled Ibrahim, Ibrahim Ashraf Abu Urayban, Karam Ashraf al-Ghussein and Lana Ashraf al-Ghussein. When asked about the strike, the Israeli military said it had targeted a Palestinian Islamic Jihad "terrorist" but that "as a result of a technical error with the munition, the munition fell dozens of meters from the target".The military said it was "aware of the claim regarding casualties in the area as a result" and "regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians", adding: "The incident is under review."However, Mahmoud claimed that Israel "intended to convey a message: it won't allow people to drink even the drinking water that they crave."He also lamented that dreams of Abdullah and the other children would never be realised."They were looking at reality with the hope of it changing, and of becoming like the other children of the world - practicing their normal role of playing, moving, traveling, eating, drinking, and living in safety," he said. The UN says water shortages in Gaza are worsening due to the lack of fuel and spare parts for desalination, pumping and sanitation facilities, as well as insecurity and inaccessibility due to Israeli military operations against Hamas and evacuation a result, many people are receiving less than the emergency standard of 15 litres per day, amounting to what the UN calls "a human-made drought crisis"."You see children queuing up, by the side of the road, with yellow jerrycans every single morning, waiting for the daily water truck to come and get their five litres [or] 10 litres, of water used for washing, cleaning, cooking, drinking, etc," Sam Rose, the acting Gaza director for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), told the BBC."Every death is a tragedy. This one is particularly emblematic, given the circumstances in which it took place. But it's one of many," he Thursday, 10 children and three women were killed as they waited for nutritional supplements outside a clinic in the nearby town of Deir Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas "terrorist" nearby and, as with Sunday's incident, that it regretted harming any civilians."We focus on these incidents, but of course these weren't the only children killed in Gaza [on Sunday]," Rose said. "Every single day, since the start of the war, on average of classroom full of children have been killed."The executive director of the UN children's agency (Unicef), Catherine Russell, meanwhile called both incidents "horrific" and demanded that Israeli authorities "urgently review the rules of engagement and ensure full compliance with international humanitarian law". Later this week, the UN Security Council will convene to discuss the situation of children in Gaza, following a request by the Israel's permanent representative Danny Danon said council members would be "better served to apply pressure on Hamas for prolonging this conflict"."The children in Gaza are victims of Hamas, not Israel. Hamas is using them as human shields and the UN is silent," he said it was Israel which should be pressured to end the war."We have no power and no strength. We are victims. We are civilians just like other people in the world, and we don't own any nuclear weapons or arms or anything," he added."This war needs to stop, and so does the ongoing massacre happening in the Gaza Strip."
