BBC said to have used Hamas minister’s son to narrate documentary on ‘ordinary’ Gazans

19 February 2025, 8:06 am

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Illustrative: Protesters holding placards and Israeli flags join a gathering outside the headquarters of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in London on October 16, 2023, to appeal to the corporation to call Hamas 'terrorists.' (Daniel Leal/AFP)

The BBC has been accused of airing a documentary ostensibly about the plight of “ordinary” Palestinians in Gaza without disclosing that the film focuses on the teen son of a senior Hamas minister, The Telegraph reports.

“Gaza: How To Survive a War Zone” is narrated by a 14-year-old boy named Abdullah Al-Yazouri, but the newspaper reports that the teen’s father is Ayman Alyazouri, deputy minister of agriculture in the Strip’s Hamas-run government.

The newspaper says the boy’s connection to Hamas is not revealed in the documentary and it is unclear if the production team knew.

The Telegraph reports that while the BBC has said it had full editorial control, it do not provide comment to the newspaper.

The UK public broadcaster has been criticized for its refusal to describe Hamas as terrorists, even though the group’s military wing is proscribed by the United Kingdom as such, and even after the widespread documentation of its systematic targeting of civilians on October 7, 2023.

The former director of the BBC, Danny Cohen, has accused the network of “egregious” anti-Israel bias.