BBC edited footage to minimize Hamas’s mistreatment of hostages

The BBC Arabic branch described the terrorists as “guarding the female hostages” who “thanked them” before their release.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been criticized by the Telegraph for severely downplaying the mistreatment of hostages by Hamas captors and for “jaw-dropping” propaganda.

The BBC‘s Arabic branch originally broadcast a video of the “shadow unit” of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades in which they described the terrorists as “guarding the female hostages” who “thanked them” before their release.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) issued a lengthy report about the incident and called out the BBC‘s Arabic Branch for claiming that the Al-Qassam Brigades’ “mission is to secure the hostages and hide them from view in Gaza.”

Following the reprimand by CAMERA, the BBC removed the section asserting that the terror group treated the hostages well.

Former BBC television director Danny Cohen told the Telegraph, “This is a jaw-dropping piece of propaganda – a puff piece on war criminals who have executed, starved, beaten and sexually assaulted the hostages that Hamas kidnapped on October 7.”

He explained,”The shadow unit are not ‘guards’ tasked with keeping hostages safe; they are monstrous terrorists who have committed unspeakable crimes.”

Cohen also described the BBC as spreading “antisemitic poison funded by taxpayers.”

Last month, the BBC aired a documentary about Gaza featuring a narrator with family ties to Hamas.

The Telegraph reported that in its documentary on the Israel-Hamas war, the British broadcaster misinterpreted the words of Gazan civilians, softening their expressed support for violence and animosity toward Jews.

The film, which featured interviews with Gazan civilians discussing the war, erased all references to jihad—a term often used by Arabs to describe a holy war aimed at destroying the Jewish state—and replaced the word “Jews” with “Israelis” or “Israeli forces.”

The BBC apologized for the film, acknowledging “serious flaws” in its production.

The broadcast vowed “it has no plans to broadcast the program again in its current form or return it to iPlayer.”