BBC strikes deal with Israeli families to allow filming in homes without consent after October 7

The BBC has reached an agreement with an Israeli family who survived the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, after a team of journalists entered their badly damaged home without permission.

In the days after the deadly attack, a BBC News crew, including international editor Jeremy Bowen, entered an Israeli family’s home on the Gaza border and filmed inside the house.

They took personal photos of the children at home at a time when many of their friends and relatives still didn’t know whether they survived, Jewish News reported.

A BBC spokesperson said that while they generally do not comment on specific legal matters, they were pleased that an agreement had been reached in this case.

Tzeela Horenstein said that when Hamas attacked the village of Netiv HaAsara in the early hours of October 7, gunmen threw a grenade at her husband, Simon.

She told Jewish News that the couple and their two young children survived because the attackers tried to blow down the door of their home with explosives, which became twisted and jammed, Who first reported this story?.

She said: “Not only did terrorists break into our home and try to murder us, but a BBC camera crew broke in again without permission or consent, this time using cameras as weapons.

“This is another invasion of our lives. Everything we feel is still under our control has been taken away.”

The company paid a financial settlement of £28,000 to the family, the Jewish News reported.

The war in Gaza was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed approximately 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage.

Since then, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 71,260 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.