British broadcaster BBC said on Saturday it has reached a settlement with an Israeli family that survived the Oct. 7 Hamas attack after its news crew filmed inside their destroyed home in southern Israel without their consent.
The Hornstein family’s house was heavily damaged during the deadly terror assault. The footage was shot just days after the attack by a BBC news team that included International Editor Jeremy Bowen, the broadcaster said.
In a statement, the BBC said that while they "did not generally comment on specific legal issues," they were "pleased to have reached an agreement in the case."
Tzeela and Simon Hornstein and their two young children survived when the door of their home — which terrorists tried to blow open — bent and jammed, preventing it from being forced in.
In an interview with Jewish News, Tzeela Hornstein said that beyond the horror of the initial attack, the family felt further violated when the BBC crew entered their home to film. “[T]he BBC crew entered again, this time with a camera as a weapon, without permission or consent,” she said. She added that the incident left the family feeling that “everything that was still under our control had been taken from us.”
Under the settlement, the BBC has agreed to pay the family £28,000 (about $35,000).
The agreement comes amid a series of controversies involving the network. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC seeking $10 billion in damages, alleging that edited footage of a speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021, created a false impression that he encouraged supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol.
Additionally, in February 2025, the BBC aired a documentary about the lives of children and teens in Gaza. Days later, the broadcaster apologized for not disclosing that the film included the son of a senior Hamas official, a fact it said had not been made known to producers or viewers.