The BBC recently broadcast a documentary called Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone, which supposedly told the personal story of a 14-year-old boy, Abdullah al-Yazouri. The film, which purported to present the reality in Gaza through the innocent eyes of a child, was eventually revealed to be a severe and sophisticated media manipulation by Hamas.
This is the most prominent recent example of Hamas’s cynical exploitation of children in propaganda. What the BBC did not reveal to its viewers was the crucial fact that the teenager is none other than the son of Ayman al-Yazouri, a senior Hamas official in Gaza.
Throughout the entire film, in a calculated and sophisticated ploy, this family connection was concealed, with the boy’s uncle being presented as his father - a transparent attempt to deceive viewers and hide the relationship to the senior ranks of the terrorist organization.
The film, which was full of staged scenes, essentially became a platform for Hamas propaganda. Thus, the BBC allowed Hamas to use a child as an empathy-evoking front for conveying the political messages of a terrorist organization while cynically exploiting the special protections that media outlets grant to minors.
Children have sadly long become a weapon of war in terrorist propaganda. In an era where a single image can go viral within minutes and shape global public opinion, the exploitation of children by Hamas has become a strategic tool. Through my work at The Press Service of Israel (TPS-IL) over the past decade, I have identified a systematic pattern in which children - dead or alive - have become pawns in the hands of terrorists without restraint.
This didn’t begin recently
For many years, TPS-IL has been writing about this and issuing warnings. For example, in 2019, after an investigation spanning over three months, we exposed through exclusive documentation from our photographers Hamas’s use of children in protests against Israel along the security fence in the South.
In the footage, we showed Hamas leaders sitting at a distance, sending children forward with combat equipment. Hamas even built a playground adjacent to the fence to attract children there and then transported them to these violent demonstrations in organized buses.
At the beginning of the war, we documented weapons training equipment in schools throughout the Gaza Strip, including within UNRWA schools, proving that Hamas uses children and trains them for terrorist purposes. For years, we have also been documenting Hamas summer camps where they train children with live ammunition and educate them for terrorism.
The footage recently revealed by a TPS-IL agency photographer adds another disturbing layer to Hamas’s well-oiled propaganda machine. The photographer documented two separate instances of child exploitation: in one, children were staged for well-choreographed demonstrations, carrying signs and being instructed exactly where to stand to create the perfect image for foreign media.
In the second incident, it was documented how children were specifically brought to sit on the ruins of buildings, aimed at creating dramatic images that would feature in international newspaper headlines.
Are we finally at a tipping point? The severity of the case above led the leader of the Conservative Party in Britain, Kemi Badenoch, to demand an investigation into whether money was transferred to Hamas during the production of the film. Could it be that the BBC not only served as a media platform for Hamas terrorists but may have also funded its activities?!
The harsh public criticism forced the BBC to remove the film from its iPlayer service and announce “further due diligence” with the production company. But the damage was already done - millions of viewers worldwide were exposed to mendacious propaganda centered around a child who was exploited by both a terrorist organization and a once-respected British broadcasting network.
Hamas’s evil does not only stretch to abusing their own children as propaganda tools but also Israeli children during this war. One of the most well-known and truly shocking cases was that of the Bibas family's young children. They were kidnapped from their kibbutz home on October 7, along with their brave mother, Shiri.
Hamas not only kidnapped these innocent children but also abused and murdered them in the most brutal manner imaginable. As if that wasn’t enough, the organization chose to display their bodies on a hostage stage in Gaza, crossing every possible red line of humanity – horrifically using their bodies as propaganda tools.
Media exploitation is but the tip of the iceberg. Hamas's education is the core issue, one that would fester for generations to come. The organization instills hatred in children from a young age and operates summer camps where minors train in shooting and learn to “fight the Zionists.”
Hamas uses children – dead and alive – as part of its propaganda mechanism, without any moral restraints. Children are not seen by Hamas as individuals to be protected but as tools in the cognitive struggle. This is manifested both in the recruitment of minors for terrorist activities, in their exploitation for public relations purposes, and in the horrific use of their bodies as a means of spreading fear and hatred.
As a seasoned media professional, literally on the front lines of the information war, I call upon my peers to open their eyes. Check your sources carefully. Understand that behind every “spontaneous” image of a child in ruins may lurk a well-oiled propaganda apparatus.
As human beings, we cannot afford to ignore this shocking phenomenon. Our silence is tacit consent. As long as we continue to give a platform to propaganda that exploits children, we will be complicit in the ongoing crime against humanity of exploiting innocent minors.
The writer is CEO of The Press Service of Israel (TPS-IL) and a lecturer on media in conflict zones.