BBC boss to face major probe from Tory MPs next week over refusal to brand Hamas ‘terrorists’

The private meeting was originally agreed last month to address what Tory MPs see as bias by the corporation against the Conservative Government.

However, senior 1922 sources have told GB News Mr Davie will be expected to answer questions about the BBC's reporting of the Israel/Hamas conflict and why the corporation has refused to describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

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The BBC's reporting of a rocket attack on a Gaza hospital - which initially blamed Israel despite later evidence that it was not responsible - will also be raised by the MPs.

It comes as the Board of Deputies of British Jews met with the boss of the BBC to express its “outrage” over the broadcaster’s use of language to describe Hamas and its “damaging” coverage of the immediate aftermath of the bombing of a hospital in Gaza City.

The corporation said it is “committed to continued dialogue” following Friday’s meeting, at which the Board of Deputies said the BBC was “left in no doubt as to the strength of feeling in the Jewish community”.

BBC director general Tim Davie met Board of Deputies president Marie van der Zyl and its chief executive Michael Wegier.

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The Board of Deputies, which describes itself as the voice of the Jewish community in Britain, said the BBC had confirmed it is no longer the corporation’s practice to call Hamas militants, but instead is describing the group as a proscribed terrorist organisation by the UK Government and others, or simply as Hamas.

Following the meeting, Ms van der Zyl said: “We emphasised our outrage at the refusal of the BBC to describe Hamas’s barbaric actions as terrorism and the damaging, false report of the rocket which killed innocent civilians.

“We will both continue dialogue as well as pursuing legal avenues.”

Mr Davie said: “I would like to thank Marie van der Zyl and Michael Wegier for the meeting today. The BBC is committed to continuing dialogue through this period.”

The meeting followed an admission on Thursday by a senior member of staff at BBC News that the corporation made a “mistake” while covering a hospital bombing.

Hamas has blamed an Israeli air strike for the attack on Tuesday, while the Israeli military said al Ahli hospital was instead hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants.

At the Media Society’s reporting the Israel-Hamas conflict event on Thursday, deputy chief executive of BBC News Jonathan Munro said the broadcaster’s “language wasn’t quite right” during live reporting.

He said the correspondent covering the strike had been “wrong to speculate about the cause of the explosion of the hospital”.

Mr Munro added: “At no stage did he actually say it was caused by the Israelis… but nonetheless, when the impression is left that we’ve speculated, (it) is important to correct that which we’ve done.”