A White House spokesman said companies must “revise and defeat” the story, but a BBC spokesman said they “did not delete the story.”
After the White House criticized reports of obvious incidents on the territory, the BBC defended coverage of the war in Gaza.
After updating the headlines of the article with new information, the company claimed that it had to “fix, defeat and defeat the story of death and injuries following an incident reported near Rafa’s Aid Distribution Center.
The BBC said it had not deleted the story, explaining that the headline on the incident was “updated all day with the latest deadly numbers from various sources.”
During a press conference Tuesday, Leavitt responded to questions about the incident, saying: “The administration is aware of these reports and unfortunately, unlike some of the media, it has not taken Hamas’ words completely true, so we are now considering the truth behind them.
“Unlike the BBC, which had multiple headlines, when they talk, we like to look into it, “Israel tanks kill 26″, Israeli tanks kill 21″, Israeli gunfight kills 31″, the Red Cross says, 21 people were killed in the aid incident.”
“And then, oh wait, they had to defeat their entire story, saying, ‘We reviewed the footage and couldn’t find any evidence.’ ”
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While she spoke, Leavitt held up a document that appears to display social media posts from X with different headlines.
The person who posted the headline posted a screenshot of the BBC Live blog and wrote “Acknowledge that it was all a lie.”
The headline of the blog post read, “The graphic video claims are wrongly linked to Gaza aid distribution sites.”
A BBC spokesperson said this came from the BBC Verification Online Report, not a company’s story about the murders in Rafa, but not linked to an Aid Distribution Centre, which claims that the virus videos posted on social media are shown.
Leavitt added: “You’ll be looking at the report from this podium or before you take action. I would recommend that journalists who are actually concerned about the truth do the same to reduce the amount of misinformation that’s happening around the world on this front.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “The claim that the BBC defeated the story after reviewing the footage is completely wrong. We don’t remove the story and support it in journalism.
“Our news articles and headlines on Sunday’s Aid Distribution Centre incident were updated all day, along with the latest deadly numbers from a variety of sources.
“These were always clearly attributed, from the first 15 figures from Medic to the 31 people killed by Hamaslan Health Ministry to the final Red Cross statement of at least 21 at field hospitals.
“This is a totally normal habit of fast moving news articles.
“Always separately, the BBC reviewed its online report on Monday and reported that the virus video posted on social media was not linked to the Aid Distribution Centre, which it claims to be shown.
“This video was not run on the BBC News channel and did not notify the report. Confusing these two stories is simply misleading.
“It’s important to bring the truth to people about what’s going on in Gaza. International journalists are now keeping them out of Gaza and we welcome the White House’s support for immediate access.”
The corporation is facing backlash over coverage of Israeli-Hamas conflict, and it appeared earlier this year when a documentary airing about Gaza featured her senior-looking son in Hamas.
“Gaza: How to Survive the Warzone” was removed from BBC iPlayer after it was revealed that the child’s narrator Abdullah is the son of Ayman Alyazoli, who worked as Hamas’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture.
