Media organisations including the BBC and Reuters have published articles that might mislead readers into thinking that current tensions between Gaza and Israel were started by the Jewish state, a pro-Israel group has argued.

On Wednesday morning, the BBC published an article with the headline: “Israel launches air strike on Gaza since truce”. Similar headlines were used by Reuters and the Guardian.

Each article relegated the fact that the airstrikes were in response to rocket attacks from Gaza to the third, fourth, or in Reuters’s case, the fifth paragraph.

The BBC later amended its article. A spokesperson said: “The original story led with Israel’s air strike on Gaza because this was a new development and the first time Israel had launched an airstrike of this kind since November. The article fully explained that the strike followed a Palestinian rocket attack on the previous day. As is usual, the story has since been updated with further developments and reaction.”

Bicom CEO Dermot Kehoe said: “The coverage from several media outlets on the recent rocket fire from Gaza has been disappointingly misleading.”