Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, acclaimed filmmaker Mike Leigh and Channel 4 international editor Lindsey Hilsum, one of more than 600 prominent figures, signed an open letter urging the BBC to play the delayed documentary “Gaza: Under Blast”.

The letter, to BBC Director Tim Davie, expressed “a deep concern about the censorship of the Palestinian voice” and called for the immediate release of the documentary, which follows medical staff in Gaza. The signatories included 130 anonymous participants, more than a dozen of them identified as BBC staff.

The award-winning team produced Gaza: Medical Staff on an award-winning team including Emmy and Peabody winners Ben de Pear, Karim Shah and Ramita Navai. The documentary was originally scheduled to be held in January, and despite reportedly undergoing "rigorous editorial review" and multiple fact-checks, the documentary was "delayed indefinitely."

"This is not editorial prudence. It is political repression," the letter said. "The BBC has not provided a timeline, no transparency. This decision reinforces the systemic devaluation of Palestinians' lives in our media."

The production company Underground Movie quoted them in the letter saying they were “deeply needed a confirmed release date so they could tell the stories of surviving doctors and medical staff.”

Other notable signatories include actors Miriam Margolyes, Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson, comedians Frankie Boyle and Alexei Sayle, as well as numerous journalists, filmmakers and media professionals.

The letter ended with a direct request: "We demanded the release date of 'Gaza: Gaza: Medical Staff Under the Fire' - Now," "The story of no news agency that cannot quietly decide to work behind closed doors is worth telling."

type Contacted the BBC.

The controversy has been controversial in a review of the BBC's Gaza Coverage. In February, the broadcaster faced a rebound in another Gaza documentary, Gaza: How to Survive in the War Zone, which is in the Revelation, with its teenage narrator the son of Hamas officials who pulled from its streaming platform. The BBC then acknowledged the “serious flaws” in the production process and initiated a review, noting that “nothing is more important than the trust and transparency of our journalism.”