The Teenage Narrator of BBC Documentary Revealed to Be Son of Senior Hamas Official
A teenage boy who served as the narrator for a BBC documentary about the Gaza Strip has been identified as the son of a senior Hamas official.
According to Yonhap News Agency on July 15, citing AP and other sources, the 13-year-old boy who narrated the BBC documentary "Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone," which aired in February, is reportedly the son of the Hamas Deputy Minister of Agriculture.
Following this revelation, the BBC suspended the streaming service of the documentary. Director General Tim Davie ordered an internal review of the documentary's production process. The review found that three members of the production company, Hoyo Films, were already aware of the narrator's family background. However, it was reported that no BBC staff members had prior knowledge of this information.
The BBC concluded that, although the external production company did not intentionally deceive the BBC, most of the responsibility for the incident lies with the external company. However, the BBC also pointed out that it did not conduct sufficient pre-screening during the initial editing process.
The review found that, prior to the broadcast, there was no sufficiently critical oversight regarding certain questionable or unclear aspects of the documentary.
Deborah Turness, CEO of BBC News, stated that the BBC should have known about the narrator's background before the broadcast. She apologized, saying, "We acknowledge that we made mistakes, we are identifying what went wrong, and we are taking action based on the findings."
Meanwhile, Hamas has elected Izz al-Din al-Haddad as its new leader in the Gaza Strip. He is known as the architect of the Israeli attack that triggered the Gaza war and is expected to maintain a hardline stance in ceasefire negotiations with Israel. Al-Haddad, who participated in planning the October 7, 2023 surprise attack on Israel, is believed to be in his mid-50s and from Gaza City. Within Hamas, he is also known as "Abu Suheib."
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