BBC settles with 7 October survivors for filming home ‘without permission’ | BBC
The BBC said it reached an agreement with a Jewish family who survived Hamas’ October 7 attacks in southern Israel after a news crew filmed footage inside their destroyed home.
The news team, including veteran reporter Jeremy Bowen, entered the Horenstein family home in the days after the attacks in 2023.
A BBC spokesman said on Friday: “While we do not generally comment on specific legal matters, we are pleased to have reached a settlement in this case.”
Tzeela and Simon Horenstein and their two young children survived the attack when Hamas militants tried to open the door and were twisted and stuck.
Many of the family’s friends and relatives did not know whether they were alive or dead as the news crew filmed in their ruined home.
Tzeela Horenstein told the Jewish News that in addition to the militants breaking into their home and trying to kill them, “the BBC team broke in again, this time with a camera as a weapon, without permission or consent.”
He added that this second “intrusion” left the family feeling like “everything we still had control over had been taken away from us.”
The BBC reportedly agreed to pay the family £28,000, according to Jewish News.
US president Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC, seeking $10 billion in damages over the way it edited his 2021 speech before a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
BBC director general Tim Davie announced his resignation in November over regulation.
In October, Britain’s media regulator Ofcom also ruled against the BBC over a documentary that included the account of a boy who was later revealed to be the son of a Hamas official. The publisher did not disclose this connection.
Ofcom said the omission constituted a “significant source of deception” and further raised accusations of editorial bias.
Hamas’ deadly attacks on southern Israel on October 7 led to a devastating war in Gaza.
A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been in effect since October 10.
