BBC bias row deepens after Gaza documentary makers accused of ‘knowing about Hamas link for months’

The makers of the controversial BBC Gaza documentary “knew of Hamas link for months”, a source has claimed.

The programme, “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone”, aired on BBC Two and featured children’s experiences in the heavily-bombarded territory.

However, the BBC removed the documentary from iPlayer, after it emerged that the 13-year-old narrator, Abdullah Al-Yazouri, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has served as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.

The documentary was under further scrutiny when it was found that a cameraman involved in the filming of the documentary had praised the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

The BBC was also accused of mistranslating references to “Jews” and “jihad” in the film.

Last week, the chairman of the BBC Shamir Shah admitted that the failures around the Gaza documentary have been a “dagger to the heart” of impartiality.

Speaking to MPs, Shah said: “That is why I and the board are determined to answer … who knew what.”

The corporation reportedly asked the head of independent production company Hoyo Films three times if the child narrator had links to Hamas.

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It has allegedly emerged that the directors of the £400,000 documentary knew about the boy’s links to the terror group months before the film was made public.

The BBC said: “They [Hoyo] have acknowledged that they knew that the boy’s father was a deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas Government. It was then the BBC’s own failing that we did not uncover that fact and the documentary was aired.”

Internal BBC documents, seen by The Times, revealed more insight on the research and angle of the film.

The initial contract was signed in April 2024, with the child narrator at the centre of the filmmaker’s pitch to the BBC.

It stated that Abdullah would be the first “key contributor,” aiming to showcase how “normal” life is in Gaza.

The document noted that children in the film would be “followed by cameramen” and that “permission will be sought from the parents/guardians every time we film with them”.

The contract, which was signed by a BBC executive, is expected to form part of the corporation’s internal inquiry into the film.

A source has said that although the BBC followed up with Hoyo to ask about any potential Hamas connections, it “didn’t really nail down some of these answers”.

The source added: “There are points between total deception and ‘I don’t really need to tell people this’. Human beings often go for massive conspiracy theory, but there is a logical construct to say ‘they’re not a militant, they’re a deputy minister’, but my view is, whatever human motivation you ascribe to it, the idea of not telling us is probably not that smart.”

Before appearing in the documentary, Abdullah had appeared three times in Channel 4 news items between November 2023 and April 2024.

Once Channel 4 found out about his family ties, they decided not to feature him again. This was reportedly around the same time Hoyo began filming with the child.

A source claimed that a Hamas link had reached a member of Hoyo who had previously worked on the Channel 4 news reports, in which Abdullah appeared telling the camera “I didn’t choose this fate … Israel chose this fate for me” and showed him with his “father”, a man who was actually his uncle.

The reports, produced by ITN, remain available online with a clarification saying the child “appeared alongside other voices, including Israeli voices, as part of wider packaging … in line with our principles of due impartiality”.

Hoyo told the BBC that they had paid Abdullah’s mother, £791 for his narration services, via his sister’s bank account.

Labour MP James Frith asked BBC director-general Tim Davie whether “counterterrorism police should now be investigating whether BBC funds have reached Hamas”.

In an interview with Middle East Eye earlier this week, Abdullah claimed the money was used “for personal spending”.

The chairman of Ofcom, Lord Grade of Yarmouth, said they could step in if the internal inquiry was not satisfactory. It is expected to report within “weeks”.

Hoyo Films told The Times: “We are co-operating fully with providing the evidence for the inquiry, and cannot provide comment at this stage.”