Channel 4 News featured the son of a Hamas official in its Gaza coverage, the same teenager who narrated a controversial BBC documentary on the conflict, it has emerged.
The news programme used footage of Abdullah al-Yazouri without initially disclosing he was the son of Ayman al-yazouri, the deputy agriculture minister in Gaza’s Hamas-run government.
Channel 4 News reported on one occasion that Abdullah was selling chocolate on the streets of Rafah to “help support his family”, according to The Telegraph.
Abdullah narrated the BBC’s documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone which was pulled from the iPlayer after details of his family background emerged, with the corporation’s board last week apologising for “significant and damaging” mistakes.
In a statement on Monday, Channel 4 News said no payments were made to Abdullah or his family and the boy did not feature in Channel 4 News’s award-winning coverage, including the International Emmy, RTS, Bafta, British Journalism Awards, or Broadcast Awards.
The programme said it took the matter “very seriously” and had “thoroughly reviewed how Abdullah al-Yazouri came to appear in three short news segments”.
It added: “As international media access is restricted, Abdullah was sourced through an established journalist who has also worked for other major global media outlets.”
Channel 4 News said that in November 2023, the identity of the man named as Abdullah’s uncle “was miscommunicated to Channel 4 News as his father by a local fixer on the ground”.
The statement said: “Channel 4 News’s experienced foreign reporting team became aware his father held a technocratic role within the Hamas government in summer 2024 and they took a decision not to feature him again.
“Once Channel 4 News’s senior leadership team recently became aware, action was taken to provide additional context to the archived online copy of the reports in which Abdullah features.
“Where context could not be added, namely to social media, the content was removed in line with standard editorial procedures. This action was taken on 20 February.”
Channel 4 News said the boy’s appearances represented “a handful of minutes across hundreds of hours of Channel 4 News output covering the Israel-Hamas war” and “appeared alongside other voices, including Israeli voices, as part of wider packaging and reporting for Channel 4 News and in line with our principles of due impartiality”.
On Monday, the regulator Ofcom warned it has “ongoing concerns” about the “nature and gravity” of the BBC documentary on Gaza.
In a letter to the BBC, Ofcom chair Michael Grade also warned the regulator could “intervene” to handle a complaint if it is not satisfied with the corporation’s internal investigation.
