The BBC has been forced to apologise after reporting a Hamas claim without investigating the accuracy of the statement.
The corporation repeated Hamas claims that the Israeli army was responsible for carrying out "summary executions" in the Gaza strip.
An apology has been issued via its website for the Christmas Eve report, which is understood to have aired six times on the BBC World Service and Radio 4 before being pulled.
The story centred on a statement from the Hamas terror group and accused Israeli troops of illegally killing 137 Palestinian civilians and burying them in a pit in northern Gaza.
The corporation has come under fire
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The BBC has now apologised for the claim, saying it did not do enough to corroborate the claims from Hamas.
A spokesperson said: "In overnight output we ran a story about Hamas accusing the Israeli army of carrying out summary executions in the Gaza strip.
"This was a Hamas statement, but although the accusations were attributed and our story contained a response from the Israeli military saying they were unaware of the incident and that Hamas was a terrorist organisation that did not value truth, we had not made sufficient effort to seek corroborating evidence to justify reporting the Hamas claim.
"We apologise for this mistake."
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Israeli soldiers operate near the Israel-Gaza border
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It is not the first time that the BBC has been accused of an anti-Israel bias in its reporting.
The corporation has previously apologised after reporting that Israeli troops had targeted medical staff during a raid on a hospital in Gaza in November.
In October, it admitted one of its correspondents was wrong to speculate that that a rocket that fell outside al-Ahli hospital in Gaza had been fired by Israel.
One Jewish employee told The Times: "Unless this apology is public and broadcast in the same arena as the original mistake, the damage is done."
Another added: "They have taken the Hamas line — a terror organisation — at face value, far too much since October 7.
"And nothing has changed. And again it’s an apology about a very serious accusation against Israel hidden on a corrections page."
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to pursue the drive until Hamas is destroyed.
However, he has come under growing pressure from the US, his country's closest ally, and Arab leaders to scale back the assault, which has left thousands injured and caused a humanitarian crisis.
