The father of a 13-year-old boy featured in a controversial BBC Gaza documentary that sparked outrage in the UK has denied claims that he and his son are "Hamas royalty" in an interview with Middle East Eye. The documentary, titled "Gaza: How to Survive in a War Zone," was pulled from the BBC's streaming platform iPlayer just four days after its broadcast on February 17, following strong protests from pro-Israel groups and British media.
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03-10, 2025Previously, pro-Israel activist David Collier claimed that Abdullah Al-Yazouri, the narrator in the documentary, was the son of a deputy minister in the Gaza government and was linked to Ibrahim Al-Yazouri, a Hamas co-founder who died in 2021. Collier's revelation triggered a national uproar, with him describing Abdullah as a "child of Hamas royalty," a claim that was later repeated by mainstream British newspapers.
This week, the British-educated official, speaking exclusively to Middle East Eye in Gaza, denied any connection to the Hamas founder. He stated that his full name is Ayman Hassan Abdullah Al-Yazouri, while the Hamas founder's full name was Ibrahim Fares Ahmed Al-Yazouri. He further added that his father's name was Hassan, who passed away in 1975. He insisted he is not "Hamas royalty," stating, "Our family is not as some people are claiming."
He also pointed out: "We have many people in our family who are affiliated with Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), including some who held leadership positions in these movements." Fatah is the party that governs the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank. Al-Yazouri has been widely labeled by British commentators and news outlets as a "Hamas chief," "Hamas official," and "terror chief."
Danny Cohen, former BBC director of television, told the Daily Mail in February: "The BBC appears to have given an hour of primetime to the son of a senior member of the Hamas terror group." Middle East Eye revealed on February 20 that Al-Yazouri is actually a technocrat with a scientific rather than political background, having worked for the UAE's Ministry of Education and studied at UK universities. He is a civil servant in the Gaza government, which is run by Hamas. Many Gazan Palestinians have family or other connections to Hamas, meaning anyone working in an official capacity must also work with Hamas.
Labour MP Rupa Huq said at a UK Culture, Media and Sport Committee meeting on Tuesday that the BBC's decision to pull the documentary may have been a case of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater." She noted "an apparent lack of transparency" but added: "This is a child whose father is in that position, and I know in some regimes, like the Ba'ath party in Iraq, from my constituents there, and from Bangladesh, where I have roots, to be a doctor, you have to join that party."
Abdullah, 14, told Middle East Eye this week that the matter has caused him severe "psychological distress" and made him worried about his safety. He said he felt very upset when he found out the film had been pulled, but added that the BBC had not contacted him to apologize. Middle East Eye found that Ayman Al-Yazouri taught chemistry at a high school in Dubai between 1995 and 2003. According to his CV, he also studied at UK universities, earning a master's degree in analytical chemistry from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge in 2004.
Al-Yazouri then pursued a PhD in environmental analytical chemistry at the University of Huddersfield, completing it in 2010. During this time, from 2003 to 2011, he was an expert at the UAE Ministry of Education, responsible for designing textbooks and editing science curricula. In 2011, he became an assistant deputy minister at the Ministry of Education in Gaza. According to his LinkedIn profile, he currently serves as the deputy minister of agriculture, starting in July 2021, overseeing and supporting "agricultural activities" in Gaza, "especially in the fields of crop cultivation, animal production and fisheries."
The BBC continued to face scrutiny this week, with its chairman telling MPs that the revelations about the documentary were "a blow to the BBC's reputation for claiming to be impartial and trusted." Sir Vincent Fean, who served as the British Consul-General in Jerusalem from 2010 to 2014, told Middle East Eye on Wednesday that the BBC and the filmmakers "had a duty of care to protect the dignity and well-being of an innocent 13-year-old boy."
"They have failed, and he is receiving hate mail, and his mental health is being affected," he said. "He has done nothing to deserve this treatment. They should be ashamed of themselves." Former BBC journalist Sangita Myska said Abdullah was right and that the BBC had a "duty of welfare to him" under the BBC's editorial guidelines. A BBC spokesperson said: "The BBC takes its duty of care extremely seriously, particularly when working with children, and has frameworks in place to support these obligations."
