For the second time in a week, CBC has devoted editorial content to the issue of the damage of buildings in the Gaza Strip, focusing specifically on two American researchers who are using satellite images to map the impact of Israeli bombing in the coastal territory.

On December 30, CBC News produced a lengthy article falsely comparing Israel’s campaign in Gaza to the Allied blitz of Dresden in World War Two, which saw tens of thousands of civilians killed in a three-day period.

In a segment aired January 6 on Day 6, a CBC radio program which has been the subject of three dedicated HonestReporting Canada alerts in less than two months entitled: “Meet the researcher using satellites and radar to estimate the destruction in Gaza,” host Brent Bambury interviewed Jamon Van Den Hoek, an associate professor of geography at Oregon State University, who used satellite imagery to track damage in Gaza.

While such a topic is not necessarily problematic in itself, the interview failed to provide much relevant information and context to listeners.

Van Den Hoek’s research claims that roughly one-third of all buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed over the last three months of heavy combat, with two-thirds of those buildings situated in northern Gaza, though his work does not specify how much is damaged versus destroyed.

Bambury began his questioning of Van Den Hoek by saying that “we’re told that it’s (the damage in Gaza) is unprecedented.” However, it is notable that neither the death toll, nor the number of buildings damaged, is unprecedented in modern warfare.

Van Den Hoek told Bambury that while he was not able to make comparisons to other global conflicts, he said that the scale of the impact of war in Gaza is different than in the 2014 or 2021 wars between Israel and Hamas.

This is hardly surprising. Hamas’ October 7 massacre in Israel wasn’t just the largest attack on Israel; it was the largest mass killing of Jews since the Holocaust, and the subsequent war with Hamas, where Israel has committed to destroying the Islamic terrorist group, would presumably be more intense than previous short-term wars.

More importantly, nowhere during the conversation did Bambury provide relevant context to listeners about the nature of armed combat in Gaza.

Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group which has controlled the territory since violently seizing it in 2007, has converted huge swathes of the enclave into its base for carrying out violent attacks against Israel. Its tunnel system stretches an estimated 500 kilometres, an incredible figure given that Gaza is only 360 square kilometres in total area.

Incredibly, this central context surrounding Hamas’ use of Gaza went entirely unsaid during the course of the interview. While such military discussion may be outside the scope of Van Den Hoek’s research, failing to provide this critical information severely weakened any value of the segment and instead transformed it into little more than a voyeuristic escapade for listeners to gawk at human suffering while providing no real educational benefit.

This did not deter Bambury, who asked Van Den Hoek to comment, asking him “What are the implications of an elevated pace of bombing for a civilian population on the ground,” and inquiring whether Israel was, as its critics allege, bombing Gaza indiscriminately.

Van Den Hoek responded that while Israel’s intent is unknown, “What we can say is how does it not become indiscriminate when it’s so widespread? If it’s not struck today, it’ll be struck tomorrow.”

Such a statement contradicts Van Den Hoek’s own research, which shows that – far from being indiscriminate – Israel’s bombing over the last three months has shown remarkable patterns, largely concentrated in the northern Gaza Strip, in sharp contrast to what one would expect if Israel’s bombing campaign against Hamas been indiscriminate.

Moreover, the extent of Hamas’ estimated 800 tunnels which snake their way underneath Gaza closely resembles the pattern of damage to buildings caused by Israel’s bombing, once again strongly indicating that Israel’s efforts are anything but indiscriminate.

By failing to provide listeners with virtually any relevant context about the war between Hamas and Israel, Bambury’s interview with Van Den Hoek not only does not create a full picture, the image that it does offer is incredibly misleading.

HonestReporting Canada has filed a complaint with CBC News directly and we encourage you to send your concerns to host Brent Bambury at: Brent.Bambury@cbc.ca and to CBC Editor-In-Chief, Brodie Fenlon at: Brodie.Fenlon@cbc.ca.