Palestinian official in BBC documentary row denies he and son are 'Hamas royalty'
The father of the 13-year-old Palestinian boy at the heart of the row in Britain over a BBC documentary on Gaza has denied claims that he and his son are "Hamas royalty" in an interview with Middle East Eye.
Just four days after the documentary Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone aired on 17 February, the BBC pulled it from its streaming platform, iPlayer, following an intense campaign by pro-Israel groups and rival British media outlets.
The comments came after pro-Israel activist David Collier alleged that Abdullah al-Yazuri, the boy who narrated the film, was the son of a deputy minister in Gaza's government and was related to a co-founder of Hamas, Ibrahim al-Yazuri, who died in 2021.
Collier, whose revelations sparked a national scandal, described Abdullah as the "child of Hamas royalty", a claim later repeated by mainstream British newspapers.
But speaking exclusively to Middle East Eye from Gaza this week, the official, who is British-educated, denied that he was related to the Hamas founder.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
He said that his full name is Ayman Hasan Abdullah al-Yazuri, whereas the Hamas founder's full name was Ibrahim Fares Ahmed al-Yazuri.
He added that his father was named Hasan and died in 1975.
'Our family is not as some claim'
- Abdullah al-Yazuri, deputy minister of agriculture, Gaza
"Our family is not as some claim," he told MEE, insisting he was not "Hamas royalty".
"There are many individuals within our family who are affiliated with Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), including some in leadership positions within these movements."
Fatah is the party which governs the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.
A British-educated technocrat
Yazuri has been widely labelled a “Hamas chief”, “Hamas official” and “terror chief” by commentators and news organisations in Britain.
Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC Television, told the Daily Mail in February that "the BBC appears to have given an hour of prime-time coverage to the son of a senior member of the Hamas terrorist group".
MEE revealed on 20 February that Yazuri is in fact a technocrat with a scientific rather than political background who has previously worked for the UAE’s education ministry and studied at British universities.
He is a civil servant in Gaza's government - which is administered by Hamas.
Many Palestinians in Gaza have family or other connections to Hamas, which runs the government. This means that anyone working in an official capacity must also work with Hamas.
Labour MP Rupa Huq suggested during a session of the UK Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday that the BBC's pulling of the documentary could be "throwing the baby out with the bathwater".
She noted that "obviously transparency was lacking", but added: "This was a kid whose dad had that job title, and I know in some of these regimes, with the Ba'ath Party in Iraq, from having constituents there, and I know from Bangladesh, having roots there, to be a doctor you had to be in that party."
Designing UAE textbooks
The revelations come after 14-year-old Abdullah told MEE this week that the affair has caused him serious “mental pressure” and made him fear for his safety.
He said that when when he found out that the film had been taken down, he was devastated but added that the BBC had not reached out to him to apologise.
MEE found that Ayman al-Yazuri taught chemistry in a high school in Dubai between 1995 and 2003.
According to his CV, he also studied at British universities, gaining a masters degree in analytical chemistry from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge in 2004.
Yazuri then did a PhD in environmental analytical chemistry at the University of Huddersfield, which he completed in 2010.
During that time, between 2003 and 2011, he was a specialist in the United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Education, designing textbooks and editing the science curriculum.
In 2011 he became an assistant deputy minister in Gaza's Ministry of Education.
His current role as deputy minister of agriculture, which he began in July 2021, involves supervising and supporting "agricultural activities" in Gaza, "especially in the field of crops cultivation, livestock and fishing", according to his LinkedIn profile.
The BBC has continued to face scrunity this week, with its chair telling MPs that revelations about the documentary were “a dagger to the heart of the BBC’s claim to be impartial and to be trustworthy”.
Abdullah says he’s been targeted & the BBC hasn’t reached out. As a former @BBCNews journalist I can tell you that child safeguarding is a key part of our training. To see none of it applied here is shocking & speaks to the dehumanisation of Palestinian children over months. https://t.co/Sokm13Q1v4
— Karishma (@KarishmaPatel99) March 6, 2025
Sir Vincent Fean, who was British consul-general to Jerusalem between 2010 and 2014, told MEE on Wednesday that the BBC and producers “have a duty to protect the dignity and wellbeing of an innocent 13-year-old boy.
“They have failed, he is receiving hate-mail, and his mental health is suffering,” he said.
“He has done nothing to deserve this. Shame on them.”
Former BBC journalist Sangita Myska said that Abdullah was right that the BBC is "responsible for his welfare", according to its editorial guidelines.
A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC takes its duty of care responsibilities very seriously, particularly when working with children, and has frameworks in place to support these obligations.”
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
