Cameraman on BBC's Gaza doc 'celebrated the October 7 massacre'

A BBC cameraman for its new controversial documentary is said to have 'glorified' the October 7 massacre. 

Tweets praising the terror attack and the killing of Israelis were allegedly posted by the crew member Hatem Rawagh, The Telegraph revealed.

He tweeted about the 1973 Yom Kippur war - when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel - and said in the post: 'Whoever missed Oct 6 in Egypt...Oct 7 is happening in Palestine.'

Just a day later, another of his X posts appeared to celebrate the killing of an Israeli soldier which had a video of a gunman which he captioned: 'You are going back to this video a million times.'

The horrific video was originally posted by the military wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, and filmed from the point of view of a gunman who killed the Israeli soldier in Erez, near the Gaza border. 

While another of Mr Rawagh's posts shared celebrations at the Omari mosque in Gaza in April 2023 after a car attack in Tel Aviv which saw an Italian tourist dead and seven others injured.

'A festive atmosphere in Gaza's Omari Mosque at the moment the news about the operation in Tel Aviv arrived,' he wrote. 

The shocking tweets were uncovered by The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera).

A spokesman for Camera said: 'These posts appear to be glorifying the horrific terrorist acts committed on October 7, 2023.

'Anyone who wrote them has no place working for the BBC. Here is yet more evidence of the editorial failings in the documentary for which the BBC must answer.' 

The major broadcasting outlet is under intense scrutiny as it is yet to reveal if any taxpayers' money was paid to Hamas during the making of the film.

Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, has demanded an inquiry into 'potential collusion' with the terrorist group that has been alleged.

The BBC was approached for comment. 

The row over the BBC's Gaza documentary deepened on Monday after it emerged the corporation spent £400,000 on the controversial film.

The huge sum was paid to London-based Hoyo Films which was behind the documentary called Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.

The BBC was forced to issue an apology and pull the programme from its iPlayer service after it emerged the son of a Hamas minister featured prominently.

Abdullah al-Yazouri, the documentary's 14-year-old narrator and central figure, was the son of Ayman Alyazouri, the deputy minister of agriculture in the Hamas-run government.

The connection was not made clear to viewers when it first aired on BBC 2 last Monday and it later emerged another child in the film was the daughter of a former captain in the Hamas-run police force, while a third child was pictured posing with Hamas fighters - prompting allegations the BBC is providing a propaganda platform for the terror group.

Danny Cohen, former director of BBC television, said the corporation now needs to 'account for every penny spent on this documentary'.

It comes after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch demanded to know if licence-fee cash was given to Hamas terrorists during the making of the film while Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has pledged to raise the issue with the BBC.

Mr Cohen said on Monday: '£400,000 is a lot of licence-fee payers' money... They should be transparently told where their money went and whether any of it reached the hands of Hamas.

'The BBC must also launch a wider investigation into systemic bias against Israel after repeated editorial failures since the October 7 massacre.'

The BBC has faced allegations of alleged anti-Israel bias while covering the war in Gaza.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: 'Ever since the October 7 attack, the BBC has comprehensively failed the licence fee payer.

Despite endless warnings about inaccurate and biased reporting, they have learnt nothing.

'We need a full investigation to get to the bottom of this. Did the producers collude with Hamas officials in Gaza in the making of this documentary? Did the BBC, and therefore the licence fee payer, inadvertently fund a terrorist organisation?'

Mrs Badenoch has called for an inquiry into any 'potential collusion with Hamas' and 'the possibility of payment' to terrorists.

Downing Street said there were no circumstances in which it would be acceptable for the BBC to have paid money to Hamas.

The PM's official spokesman said on Monday: 'I think the BBC have released a statement saying they are looking into this and the culture secretary has said she will be raising this with the BBC leadership. It is obviously right that they address this.'

Asked whether there were any circumstances in which it might be acceptable to pay Hamas, the PM's spokesman said: 'No. That is obviously one for the BBC and one that I believe they have said they are looking into.'

The BBC initially tried to defend the programme, pointing the finger at Hoyo Films for not telling it about the Hamas link.

However, the contract between the BBC and Hoyo suggests the corporation had direct and regular involvement, with one section reading: 'We will address editorial compliance issues as they arise by having regular updates and phone calls with the commissioning editor.'

The BBC removed the programme from iPlayer only after 45 prominent Jewish figures from the TV, film and media sectors demanded it. In a statement on its clarifications and corrections page, the BBC said it was taken down in light of 'continuing questions raised about the programme' and while it conducted further due diligence with the production company.

Hoyo Films made the film after working with the BBC on the documentary Ukraine: Enemy In The Woods.

In an initial statement the BBC 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.

'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.'

It said the film remained 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'.

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians has criticised concerns raised about the documentary, and urged the BBC to 'stand firm against these attempts to prevent first-hand accounts of life in Gaza from reaching audiences'.

In a statement it said: 'For some, almost any Palestinian perspective appears to be deemed unacceptable. In this case, objections have been raised because Abdullah's father holds a government role in Gaza's Hamas-run administration. However, this does not negate the child's lived experience or invalidate his testimony'.

The BBC declined to comment further last night. Hoyo could not be reached for comment.