BBC paid tens of thousands of dollars in damages after filming house of family attacked by Hamas without permission
12 November 2025, UK: BBC Headquarters in central London. BBC Director General Tim Davie resigned on Sunday over an edit to Donald Trump's 2021 speech. PHOTO: Tayfun Salci / Zuma Press / Profimedia
The BBC has paid approximately $37,700 to a family in Israel who survived the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, after a film crew entered their destroyed home without permission, reports dpa, cited by Agerpres.
According to Jewish News, a BBC team entered the Horenstein family home in the small village of Netiv HaAsara in the days after the attack. The team even shot personal photos of the family's children, while many friends and relatives did not know if they were alive.
Tzeela Horenstein said that Hamas terrorists attacked the village of Netiv HaAsara early in the morning and threw a grenade at her husband, Simon. The family survived only because the door of the house got stuck when the attackers tried to break it with explosives.
“Not only did the terrorists attack our home and try to kill us, but the BBC team came in again, this time with a camera as a weapon, without permission or consent,” said Tzeela.
“It was another intrusion into our lives. We felt like everything that was still under our control was taken away from us,” the woman added.
BBC News apologized in writing and paid compensation after the family initiated legal proceedings in Israel. A BBC spokesman said “we are pleased that a settlement has been reached in this case”.
In 2025, the BBC had already been sanctioned by Ofcom (the UK's Office of Communications, the UK's telecommunications and media regulator) for breaching the broadcasting code in the documentary 'Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone', after the station failed to disclose the narrator's links to Hamas.
In the October 7, 2023 attack, Hamas-led militants kidnapped 251 people and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians.
