BBC apologises over inclusion of Hamas official’s son in Gaza documentary

The BBC has been forced to issue an apology after it was revealed that the 13-year-old narrator of a recent documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, is the son of a senior official in the Hamas-run Gaza government.

The film, which aired on BBC2, follows the lives of four young people trying to survive the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

Activist David Collier raised concerns about the film’s narrator, Abdullah Al-Yazouri, claiming that he is the son of Ayman Al-Yazouri, the deputy agriculture minister of the Hamas-run government in Gaza.

Abdullah's grandfather, Ibrahim Al-Yazouri, is reportedly a founding member of Hamas. The allegations were based on publicly available data, including social media profiles. However, the BBC has not independently verified these claims.

In response to the allegations, the BBC issued a statement apologising for the omission of this information in the original broadcast.

A BBC spokesperson said, “Since the transmission of our documentary on Gaza, the BBC has 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. We apologise for the omission of that detail from the original film.

“The new text reads: ‘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.’

“We followed all of our usual compliance procedures in the making of this film, but we had not been informed of this information by the independent producers when we complied and then broadcast the finished film.

“The film remains a powerful child’s eye view of the devastating consequences of the war in Gaza which we believe is an invaluable testament to their experiences, and we must meet our commitment to transparency.”

Abdullah Al-Yazouri has previously appeared in a Channel 4 report from November 2023, in which he discussed the impact of Israeli bombing in Gaza.

In an email to the BBC, Abdullah expressed that he wanted to participate in the documentary to share the experiences of those living in Gaza. He stated, “I wanted to explain the suffering that people here in Gaza witness with the language that the world understands, English.”

The documentary, which aired on Monday was directed by London-based producers Yousef Hammash and Jamie Roberts, who remotely guided two cameramen on the ground over a span of nine months.