BBC ‘urgently investigating’ pro-Hamas support’ by Arabic journalists

The BBC has confirmed it is investigating claims journalists working for its Arabic service appeared to back Hamas over attacks on Israel with one describing them as “a morning of hope”.

Six reporters and a freelancer – including a senior broadcast journalist – are accused of anti-Israel bias.

It is understood the journalists have been taken off air pending investigation.

The claims centre on messages posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, including the liking of a video of bodies and kidnapped people loaded onto a Jeep captioned as a “proud moment” and another saying Zionists “will live as a thief and a usurper”.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) investigation focused on seven reporters – Mahmoud Sheleib, senior broadcast journalist; Aya Hossam, broadcast journalist; Sally Nabil, correspondent; Salma Khattab, based in Cairo; Sanaa Khouri, the Beirut-based religious affairs correspondent; Nada Abdelsamad, a Beirut-based programmes editor; and Egypt All Sports, a company run by Amr Fekry, a sports correspondent and pundit at BBC Arabic.

The BBC said Hossam is a freelancer and would no longer work for the corporation.

A BBC spokesman said: “We are urgently investigating this matter. We take allegations of breaches of our editorial and social media guidelines with the utmost seriousness, and if and when we find breaches we will act, including taking disciplinary action.”

In a report of the Camera allegations The Telegraph said a message which appeared to describe Hamas as “freedom fighters” was liked by Khattab, whileAbdelsamad retweeted a video of Israelis cowering “inside a tin container in fear of the Palestinian resistance warriors”.

A spokesman for Camera alleged “the BBC has repeatedly whitewashed the practice of targeting Jewish civilians in Israel even before the current escalation”.