The BBC has defended its reporting of an incident in which Palestinians were killed near a Gaza aid centre, after the White House accused the broadcaster of taking “the word of Hamas”, AFP reports.

Responding to a question about the incident, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the BBC had to “correct and take down” its story about the incident.

“The administration is aware of those reports and we are currently looking into the veracity of them because, unfortunately, unlike some in the media, we don’t take the word of Hamas with total truth,” she said.

“We like to look into it when they speak, unlike the BBC, who had multiple headlines,” she said, citing stories that gave different death tolls.

“And then, oh, wait, they had to correct and take down their entire story, saying ‘We reviewed the footage and couldn’t find any evidence of anything’,” she added.

But the BBC said the White House claims were not accurate and that it had not removed its story.

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