BBC Apologizes Over Gaza Warzone Doc & Hamas Leader Links

The BBC has apologized and added a clarification to its Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone documentary that featured the son of Hamas royalty, after nearly 50 entertainment figures sent a letter to the corporation to urge an investigation.

The BBC “had not been informed of this information” by the independent producers behind the doc, the corporation added, following backlash from dozens of senior entertainment figures including former BBC controller Danny Cohen, J.K. Rowling’s agent Neil Blair, agent Anita Land and ex-Got Talent commissioner Claudia Rosencrantz.

The letter was sent to Director General Tim Davie, content chief Charlotte Moore and BBC News boss Deborah Turness earlier today, urging an investigation after the documentary about children in Gaza that failed to declare that the lead contributor was the son of Hamas royalty.

In a statement in the past few minutes, the BBC said that since the transmission of the doc three days ago it had “become aware of the family connections of the film’s narrator, a child called Abdullah.” “We’ve promised our audiences the highest standards of transparency, so it is only right that as a result of this new information, we add some more detail to the film before its retransmission,” the statement added. “We apologise for the omission of that detail from the original film.”

For future repeats and on iPlayer, the film will now clarify: “The narrator of this film is 13 year old Abdullah. His father has worked as a deputy agriculture minister for the Hamas-run government in Gaza. The production team had full editorial control of filming with Abdullah.” The statement has been added to the BBC’s Corrections and Clarifications page and the BBC said it will also respond to the letter directly.

The BBC went on to say that it followed the usual compliance procedures in making the film and “had not been informed of this information by the independent producers when we complied and then broadcast the finished film.” Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone was produced by Hoyo Films, the independent producer run by the doc’s director Jamie Roberts, and it was commissioned through the BBC’s current affairs team, which sits under Turness.

Alarms raised

Alarms were first raised yesterday by investigative journalist David Collier on X about one of the show’s narrators, the teenager named Abdullah Al-Yazouri, who is the son of Dr. Ayman Al-Yazouri, a senior official in Hamas, which governs Gaza. The documentary, which comes from Emmy-winning filmmakers Roberts and Yousef Hammash, told the stories of four young people living in Gaza. It aired earlier this week and remains on iPlayer, with a repeat scheduled for tonight. Clips have aired on BBC children’s news show Newsround.

The letter, which can be read in full below, asked the bosses a string of questions including whether the BBC knew that the narrator and principal contributor of the documentary was the son of a senior leader of Hamas, a group proscribed as a terrorist organization by the UK government. If it did, the letter asks why this fact was not disclosed to audiences. If the BBC was unaware of the child’s family, the letter asks why it failed to carry out proper checks.

BBC journalists are said to be alarmed at how the documentary was allowed to be broadcast in its current form. “It’s a terrible, terrible mess,” said one insider. “It’s really weird that they got themselves into this position and didn’t see the problems coming.”

Those credited on the film include Joanna Carr, BBC head of current affairs, and her team Gian Quaglieni and Sarah Waldron. One source said Moore’s content team also had input and was enthusiastic about the film, which has garnered positive reviews in UK newspapers.

The BBC’s initial statement issued yesterday about the narrator’s links to Hamas appears to try and put distance between Abdullah Al-Yazouri and his father, stating: “The film told the children’s own stories, showing viewers their direct experiences of living through a war, and the children’s parents did not have any editorial input.” But the letter flags the BBC’s international safeguarding policy rules and regulator Ofcom’s broadcasting rules, asking questions including: “What role did Abdullah Al-Yazouri’s parents play in the supervision of the filming of the child and the BBC’s duty of care obligations in filming with under-18s?”

“Given that the terrorist group Hamas remain in de facto control of Gaza, it is reasonable to presume that the documentary could only be made with their permission or authorisation,” it adds. “Was this the case? If so, why was this not disclosed to audiences?”

The letter urges the BBC to “immediately postpone any broadcast repeats of the programme, remove it from iPlayer and take down any social media clips of the programme until an independent investigation is carried out and its findings published with full transparency for licence-fee payers.”

The BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has been a thorny issue since October 7, with the corporation’s output criticized heavily on both sides. The Jewish community believes that the BBC has made repeated mistakes that point to systemic issues in its reporting on Israel.

Cohen told Deadline: “If they didn’t do the diligence checking [on Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone]— and in doing so, they allowed Hamas propaganda to go out — it’s horrendous. If they did know, and they didn’t think that this should be disclosed to the audience, that’s even more horrendous. To me, it’s misleading audiences in a very extreme way. It’s very serious as an incident, but it also at the same time forms part of a pattern of systemic problems that the BBC doesn’t want to admit or acknowledge.”

Another signatory added: “I am scratching my head in absolute disbelief. Given everything that has been said and done though for the past year — and the degree of division that this story has caused, and indeed the opprobrium that the BBC is now having to deal with from the Jewish community — that they have allowed this to go from bad to worse.”

Other signatories include Fulwell 73’s Leo Pearlman, 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room producer Neil Grant, and British actress Tracy-Ann Oberman.