Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sharren Haskel harshly critized the BBC for airing a Hamas propaganda film the same week as the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her young sons Ariel and Kfir were returned to Israel.
In her message, Haskel stressed that the Hamas propaganda film - later pulled by BBC - was paid for by the UK taxpayer. The film allegedly aimed to portray the perspective of three children in Gaza during the war. However, its narrator, Abdullah Al-Yazouri, aged 14, turned out to be the son of Ayman Al-Yazouri, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture.
"We were told this week that the BBC paid £400,000 of UK taxpayers’ money to the production company behind the film," Haskel said, adding that the sum is equivalent to nearly two million NIS.
"Did any of this enormous sum of money find its way into the coffers of a monstrous terrorist organization, Hamas, whose savages murder babies and mothers in cold blood?" she asked.
"It's not enough for the BBC to take down this film. If there has been payments to Hamas terrorists, then those responsible at the BBC must go."