The BBC has taken a documentary about children living in the Gaza Strip off of its online streaming service, iPlayer. Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was broadcast on BBC2 on Monday, and is now "currently unavailable" on the site, despite the fact that it was supposed to be available to watch on iPlayer for a year.
"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 programme and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company. The programme will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.".
Many controversies surrounded the documentary, which focuses on the lives of children living in the war-torn Gaza Strip after the October 7 attacks, which saw terrorist group Hamas carry out a series of attacks on Israel. One such controversy was about the show's main narrator, 13-year-old Abdulla Eliyazouri, whom some claim is the son of Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri - the deputy minister of agriculture for Hamas. Another claim suggests that one of the cameramen working on the documentary previously celebrated the October 7 attacks and shared videos showing off Hamas weapons.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has addressed these claims, vowing that she would talk about the documentary with the BBC's director general and chairman, "particularly around the way in which they sourced the people who were featured in the programme," according to BBC News.
While the BBC has now removed Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone from iPlayer, it previously responded to claims saying that it would make edits to the documentary adding in more detail ahead of it being shown again. In a statement, they wrote: "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. 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 BBC concluded: "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.". Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.
