This article seeks to explore the influence of the nation-state context on the coverage of the 2023 Palestinian-Israeli conflict by BBC and Al Jazeera English. BBC was chosen as a representation of mainstream Western global media, whereas Al Jazeera English represents a counter-flow category of global news media. Through a qualitative discourse analysis focusing on the initial phase of the conflict, differences in portrayal between BBC World News and Al Jazeera English were identified. The analysis a clear divergence in the transitivity as well as naming and referential strategies between the BBC and AJE.