Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister has launched a blistering attack on the BBC, condemning its recently pulled Gaza documentary as "pure Hamas propaganda".
Speaking to GB News, Sharren Haskel expressed outrage over the broadcaster's decision to air a programme featuring the son of a Hamas government minister as its narrator.
The senior Israeli diplomat insisted there was "not a chance" the BBC could have been unaware of the family connections when filming children for an extended period.
The controversy centres on the documentary "Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone", which aired on BBC Two before being removed from iPlayer amid growing scrutiny of its production.
She branded the documentary "pure Hamas propaganda"
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Speaking on GB News, Haskel said: "Well, this is absolutely outrageous. This is pure propaganda that is being promoted by the BBC, Hamas propaganda.
"I mean, they surely knew about it. There is not a chance that they would film children for an extended period of time without knowing who their parents are, more so the film crew and the photographers, the cameramen that they actually used.
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"If they would have just done a small research on social media, they would see their celebrations. The murder of Jews on October 7 and on other occasions where Jews were attacked, were targeted, were brutally murdered.
"And those are the people that the BBC is funding, paying a whole lot of money to actually spread a pure terrorist organization propaganda. This is just outrageous.
"I think that the most basic and fundamental rule is that the BBC needs to be impartial. And if the BBC is not impartial, then they should be investigated.
"The British public shouldn't fund and shouldn't pay for Hamas propaganda."
The programme featured 13-year-old Abdullah Al-Yazouri, whose father serves as Gaza's Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the Hamas-run government.
The BBC has now pulled the documentary from its streaming service while conducting "further due diligence" with the production company.
The BBC initially defended the programme, stating it was produced under full editorial control from London, as international journalists are not permitted into Gaza.
However, mounting pressure led to the broadcaster adding a clarifying text about Abdullah's family connections before ultimately removing the programme entirely from iPlayer.
The BBC have removed the documentary from iPlayer GETTY The hour-long documentary aimed to show a "vivid and unflinching view of life" in Gaza during the ongoing conflict.
"Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’ features important stories we think should be told — those of the experiences of children in Gaza," the BBC said in a statement.
"There have been continuing questions raised about the program and in light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company," it said.
"The program will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place."
