Why this image of an emaciated Gazan boy sparked controversy

Australia Broadcast Center

4 days ago

The image of a skeletal one-year-old Gazan boy wearing a bin-bag nappy and cradled in his mother's arms shocked the world about the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The picture of Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq appeared prominently on the front page of The New York Times on the weekend with the headline 'Young, old and sick starve to death in Gaza'.
It was then widely republished by major media outlets, including the ABC, BBC, CNN, Sky News, and The Guardian, and the distressing image reverberated through Australia's political echelons too, drawing commentary from Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
But questions about the photo and the child's underlying medical condition have shone a light on the difficulty of gathering and telling stories inside the besieged Gaza Strip.
After the photo was published, an independent journalist said he had obtained hospital information that Muhammad had a serious genetic disorder that affected his health, and the use of the photo was misleading in representing the conditions in Gaza.
Separate media organisations also reported Muhammad had cerebral palsy, and some reporting suggested media that relied on his story wilfully omitted information about his underlying health conditions, to perpetuate a narrative around famine.
In an interview with the BBC, the boy's mother, Hedaya al-Muta, spoke of her son's medical history and their lack of access to medical and food aid.
A few days after the photo was published, The New York Times issued a clarification that the child in the photo had been diagnosed with a pre-existing health condition, saying "we have since learned new information from the hospital that treated him and his medical records."
Subsequently, ABC News spoke with the boy's mother, who confirmed her son has various health conditions but said he had rapidly lost weight and deteriorated due to a shortage of food.
The clarification does not change the fact that children in Gaza are malnourished and starving, as ABC reporters and countless others, including multitudes of human rights and aid groups, have documented during recent weeks.
It also reveals how Israel's blockade of food and medicine, as well as its destruction of essential health services, have compounded the situation inside Gaza.
Starvation and malnutrition are becoming more profound in Gaza. Images, like those of Muhammad, have become increasingly common in recent weeks.
Palestinian health authorities in Gaza have reported more than 140 deaths from starvation across Gaza, including more than 80 children.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it has recorded 74 malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, with 63 occurring in July alone. This included 24 children under the age of five, a child over five, and 37 adults.
"Most of these people were declared dead on arrival at health facilities or died shortly after, their bodies showing clear signs of severe wasting," the WHO said in a statement on Monday.
"The crisis remains entirely preventable. Deliberate blocking and delay of large-scale food, health, and humanitarian aid has cost many lives."
On Tuesday, the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) issued an alert that corroborated almost everything humanitarian agencies had been saying for months.
"The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip," it said.
From March until May, after the ceasefire collapsed, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza.
This past week, the WHO described the events inside the Palestinian enclave as "man-made starvation," which Israel has rejected.
For nearly two years, reports from the besieged territory have explained how medical care for the most vulnerable has nearly completely ceased.
The ABC has covered these cases in detail over that time.
Freelance journalists engaged by the ABC during the past two years have also conveyed their own struggles around securing access to food.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to deny that there is starvation in Gaza.
But even his closest ally, United States President Donald Trump, acknowledges "real starvation" is hitting Gaza.
The freelance photographer behind the viral image, Ahmeed al-Arini, gathered the image for Turkish media outlet Anadolu Agency. It was then distributed to media organisations via the reputable photo wire service, Getty Images.
Ahmeed al-Arini explained to the BBC how he came across the boy and his family.
"He was with his mother in a tent, which is absolutely bare, bar a little oven. It resembles a tomb, really. And I took this photo because I wanted to show the rest of the world extreme hunger that babies and children are suffering from in the Gaza Strip," he said.
"He'd received no baby milk, no formula, no vitamins either."
Anadolu Agency also published an interview with Muhammad's doctor, Suzan Mohammed Marouf, a nutrition specialist at The Patient's Friends Benevolent Society Hospital (PFBS) in Gaza.
Dr Marouf said the child was brought to the hospital a month ago and diagnosed with moderate malnutrition on top of congenital health problems and muscle atrophy.
"The medical issues he had weren't significantly affecting his weight," Dr Marouf told the news organisation.
"But once the siege and the closure of crossings depleted hospitals' medicine stocks and nutritional supplements, Mohammad's condition deteriorated to acute malnutrition," she added.
ABC has also contacted Anadolu Agency, which has said Muhammad's mother has confirmed he has previous health complications, and she has also provided past photos of her son before his deterioration, which she says was from a shortage of food and milk.
Since the war started, Israel has blocked the access of international journalists into Gaza and continues to deny repeated requests to let foreign media in.
It means major news organisations, including the ABC, are reliant on the help of local Palestinian journalists, who themselves are suffering under nearly two years of war.
Recently, they have told ABC of their own struggles for survival and the crippling shortage of food in Gaza.
Repeated calls to allow foreign press into the Strip have been made since October 7. Amid the escalating humanitarian situation, those appeals to the Israeli government have grown louder in the past fortnight.
In a statement, ABC news director Justin Stevens said: "The ABC calls on Israel to again allow international journalists to report independently from Gaza, to allow all journalists to move in and out of Gaza, and to ensure journalists in Gaza are safe."
At least 186 journalists and media workers, mostly Palestinian, who have been gathering evidence of the war inside Gaza have been killed since October 7, according to the Committee for Protecting Journalists.