A BBC programme has raised questions about whether the Hamas massacre at Kfar Aza kibbutz had really taken place.

On Oct 7, around 70 terrorists burst into the kibbutz, a farming community of 750, and murdered scores of residents, including families and babies.

Trending, a programme on BBC Arabic, suggested there were different versions of the story and that even Jeremy Bowen, the corporation’s Middle East editor who went to the scene, was simply repeating what he had been told by Israeli forces.

The original BBC headline said: “Hamas rejects accusations that its gunmen carried out atrocities in the Israeli Kfar Aza village.”

The headline was later changed before the entire report was removed from the BBC website, and later from YouTube.

A BBC spokesman said: “This report was quickly removed from BBC output as it failed to meet our editorial standards.

“It should not have remained on YouTube, it has been taken down and we are looking into how it remained accessible.”

It comes after the corporation admitted last week that it was “urgently investigating” claims that its journalists had appeared to justify the killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas, a designated terrorist group.

Reporters at BBC News Arabic in the Middle East appeared to celebrate an attack that left approximately 1,300 dead, endorsing comments likening Hamas to freedom fighters, as well as describing the atrocity as a “morning of hope”.