President Isaac Herzog criticized the BBC on Sunday for equating Palestinian prisoners with Israeli hostages taken by Hamas, calling the comparison “outrageous and preposterous.”
Speaking on BBC’s Sunday Morning News, Herzog rejected interviewer Laura Kuenssberg’s claim that Palestinian prisoners face abuse and harsh conditions in Israeli jails, stressing that Israel abides by the rule of law and judicial oversight.
President Isaac Herzog in interview on the BBC Sunday Morning News
Herzog emphasized that some Palestinian inmates even preferred to stay in Israeli prisons rather than return to Gaza.
He urged the BBC to change its approach, calling the October 7 Hamas attack “an attack on the entire free world” and defending Israel’s efforts to prevent further terrorism.
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Laura Kuenssberg of the BBC's Sunday Morning News interviews President Isaac Herzog
(Photo: Screenshot)
"What we are doing when we are catching terrorists who carried out these atrocities, we are simply preventing them from taking on further attacks against humanity,” Herzog also said.
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The president also described the dire conditions faced by the hostages, referencing the release of Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy, who returned emaciated and injured on Saturday after 491 days in captivity.
"They were held in tunnels throughout the entire period," Herzog said. "They had no contact with the outside world. They hardly ate. They returned completely emaciated, and they suffered from a huge amount of bruises, pain and wounds, and of course, we haven't even talked about their mental state yet. The level of suffering they endured is shocking, and we remain extremely concerned about the fate of the 76 hostages still in Gaza.”
The BBC has faced ongoing criticism for its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. A recent Telegraph report accused the network of over 1,500 violations of its own editorial guidelines and a pattern of bias against Israel in its reporting.