Photo shows 7-year-old child in Gaza, not dead teenager
"This 17-year-old Palestinian youth called Atif Ebu Hatir starved to death in the Gaza famine jointly manufactured by the United States and Israel," reads part of a simplified Chinese RedNote post shared August 7, 2025.
It includes a picture showing the back of a severely emaciated person.
Show
Hide
Content warning
Show
Image
Screenshot of the false RedNote post taken August 8, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
Hide
Turkey's Anadolu Agency and TRT Global reported on the teenager's death while AFP distributed multiple pictures of his body in a Gaza City hospital (archived here and here).
The World Health Organization has said 99 people are known to have died from malnutrition in Gaza so far this year, with the figure likely an underestimate (archived link).
International outrage over the humanitarian situation has ratcheted up pressure on Israel, with UN agencies warning of famine in the Palestinian territory.
Since returning to the White House in January, US President Donald Trump has offered Israel ironclad support, even while pushing for better humanitarian support (archived link).
Similar posts on Douyin also shared the picture but a reverse search on Google traced it to an Anadolu report on August 5, 2025 (archived link).
AFP also distributed the photo, which is credited to Gaza-based Anadolu photographer Ali Jadallah (archived link).
"Seven-year-old May Abu Arar, whose life is in danger due to severe malnutrition, is receiving treatment at the Patient Friends Association Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza on August 03, 2025," its caption says.
"Israel's closed border crossings and the tight blockade it imposes severely restrict the flow of food and medicine into Gaza."
Show
Hide
Content warning
Show
Image
Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and photo from AFP's archives
Hide
Photographer Ali Jadallah posted another picture of the child from a slightly different angle on his Instagram page ( ).
AFP has debunked more misinformation about the Gaza war here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AFP
3 hours ago
- AFP
Doctors say tetanus still merits vaccination, despite posts downplaying risks
"Tetanus is probably one of the most ridiculous vaccines ever," says the text in an image shared July 30, 2025 on Instagram. "Your chances of getting Tetanus are about the same as walking outta here and getting hit by a meteor." The claim, which also spread on Facebook and X, goes on to allege that applying peroxide to a wound will effectively eliminate the risk of infection and that tetanus "comes from the bowels of animals." "As long as you don't have a sheep or a cow in your house, I don't think you're in any danger," adds the text, which attributes the statement to neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, who has previously promoted misleading health claims. Image Screenshot of an Instagram post taken August 14, 2025 The posts come as experts say vaccine misinformation is rampant online and may be contributing to falling vaccination rates across the United States and Canada (archived here and here). In a June 2025 video announcing the elimination of funding for a global vaccine body, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. criticized "whole cell" DTP shots protecting against tetanus, diptheria and pertussis. AFP regularly debunks false vaccine claims and recently fact-checked posts that misled about the Vaxelis 6-in-1 shot, which protects against multiple diseases including tetanus. The claim that the risk of a tetanus infection is almost nonexistent, rendering the vaccines unnecessary, is similarly misleading. Deep wounds Tetanus is an acute infectious disease caused by spores of Clostridium tetani bacteria, according to the World Health Organization (archived here). The bacteria is anaerobic, meaning that after being dormant, it can thrive in environments devoid of oxygen (archived here). This characteristic makes deep wounds the perfect place for the spores to germinate. Barry Pakes, a public health specialist at the University of Toronto, said it is true that cleaning a shallow cut with peroxide or another antiseptic could kill off superficial tetanus-causing bacteria (archived here). "But that's not where the problem is," he said August 7. "The problem is when it gets almost injected into your tissue." He said the "classic" tetanus risk scenario of stepping on a rusty nail is so well known because these types of injuries push spores deep into the flesh, where topical solutions cannot reach them. Once deprived of oxygen, the bacteria begin releasing a toxin that causes tetanus symptoms such as headaches, fevers and seizures (archived here). "Then you become very, very ill and you can potentially die of it," Pakes said. "Like almost everything else, we don't see it often because of vaccination." As with most vaccines, tetanus shots train cells in the body to fortify an immunity response to a specific infection, preventing severe outcomes (archived here). Pakes said tetanus immunization works well in tandem with other vaccines, which is why there are combination shots such as the Vaxelis 6-in-1. Exposure risks Earl Rubin, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Montreal Children's Hospital (archived here), agreed that vaccination remains necessary and said boosters are recommended roughly every ten years (archived here and here). They can also be administered when a patient comes in with a deep wound and potential exposure to tetanus-causing bacteria (archived here). Rubin also dismissed the claim that exposure to farm animals is the only way people can contract tetanus. "It's a bacteria that's found in the environment, so you don't have to be anywhere near an animal," he said. While the bacteria is found in animal feces, it is also dormant in soil, dust and objects like rusty nails, Rubin explained. AFP has fact-checked more health misinformation here.
France 24
14 hours ago
- France 24
International aid groups say new Israeli rules stop them delivering supplies to Gaza
New Israeli legislation regulating foreign aid groups has been increasingly used to deny their requests to bring supplies into Gaza, according to a joint letter signed by more than 100 groups published Thursday. "Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods, citing that these organisations are 'not authorised to deliver aid'," the joint statement reads. According to the letter, whose signatories include Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), at least 60 requests to bring aid into Gaza were rejected in July alone. In March, Israel's government approved a new set of rules for foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with Palestinians. Gaza: families struggle to procure food as the humanitarian disaster worsens 01:22 The law updates the framework for how aid groups must register to maintain their status within Israel, along with provisions that outline how their applications can be denied or registration revoked. Registration can be rejected if Israeli authorities deem that a group denies the "democratic character" of Israel or "promotes delegitimisation campaigns" against the country. "Unfortunately, many aid organisations serve as a cover for hostile and sometimes violent activity," Israel's Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli alleged to AFP. "Organisations that have no connection to hostile or violent activity and no ties to the boycott movement will be granted permission to operate," added Chikli, whose ministry directed an effort to produce the new guideline. Aid groups say, however, that the new rules are leaving Gazans without help. "Our mandate is to save lives, but due to the registration restrictions civilians are being left without the food, medicine and protection they urgently need," said Jolien Veldwijk, director of the charity CARE in the Palestinian territories. Eight more people, including three children, have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said Wednesday. The number of people who have died from hunger in the besieged enclave since the war began now stands at 235, including 106 children. Veldwijk said that CARE has not been able to deliver any aid to Gaza since Israel imposed a full blockade on the Palestinian territory in March, despite partially easing it in May. 05:13 Although Israel has alleged that much of the aid arriving in the territory is being siphoned off by Hamas, which runs Gaza, the UN has repeatedly rejected these claims. An internal US government analysis seen by Reuters found no evidence of systematic theft by the Palestinian militant group of US-funded humanitarian supplies, and Israeli military officials have told the New York Times that they had no evidence to substantiate these allegations. Since May, the government has relied on the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to manage food distribution centres. Israeli troops have shot dead hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs since they first opened, including at least 25 people on Wednesday.
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Palestinian mother 'destroyed' after image used to deny Gaza starvation
From Canada, where she lives with her six other children, Najjar pursued a months-long effort to get those she had left out of Gaza. She finally embraced her daughters and seven grandchildren when they arrived at Toronto's airport last month. But when clips of the emotional reunion were posted on social media, pro-Israeli accounts mocked her physical appearance saying it disproved claims of starvation in Gaza. "As a mother it just destroyed me," Najjar, 50, told AFP. Najjar did not claim that she went hungry while in Gaza. But as recently as this past weekend a post viewed more than 300,000 times across multiple platforms ridiculed her, erroneously implying she had just left Gaza. "Did you see what that woman looked like?" the poster said, pointing out Najjar does not look undernourished. United Nations agencies have warned that famine was unfolding in Gaza, with Israel severely restricting the entry of aid. Images of sick and emaciated Palestinian children have drawn international outrage. The allegation has been denied by Israel. "There is no starvation in Gaza," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month. The ridicule Najjar faced is part of a broader trend. Israeli anchors on the country's right-wing Channel 14 -- sometimes described as the Hebrew Fox News -- have laughed at "obese" mothers, alleging they steal their children's food. For Najjar, the fact that her family's reunion got caught up in a misinformation campaign was devastating. "After all the suffering, and losing everything, and nearly dying, some people still had the heart to mock them," she said, referring to her family. "My daughters lived there and their children went to sleep bombs outside their tents," Najjar said. Pro-Israeli commentators online also focused on her grandchildren's apparently healthy appearance. Najjar told AFP they received medical treatment, including renourishment, at a hospital in Jordan before flying to Canada. Deflecting attention Mert Can Bayar, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, said the posts targeting Najjar are "just one little piece" of a misleading online narrative. Toronto's Mayor Olivia Chow removed a video she had posted on Instagram in which she welcomed arriving Palestinians because of abusive comments directed at the family. Comments on Chow's video also cited the family's physical appearance to broadly dismiss claims of starvation in Gaza. X's chatbot Grok also misidentified a 2025 AFP photo of an emaciated child in Gaza, incorrectly saying it was taken in Yemen seven years ago, fuelling further claims that reports of starvation in Gaza have been fabricated. Valerie Wirtschafter, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think-tank, said the claims were reminiscent of falsehoods that emerged weeks into the war alleging Palestinians had posed as so-called crisis actors and staged their injuries. Wirtschafter said the hoax narrative "deflects from the real humanitarian harms that are happening right now." 'Denial' Israel's offensive has killed at least 61,430 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, figures the United Nations deems reliable. Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Forty-nine of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. When Najjar left Gaza last year, her daughters -- all in their 20s -- did not have Canadian citizenship. With the family separated, she lived with crippling fear at the prospect of receiving word that they had been killed. While her daughters now have citizenship and are in Canada with their children, her sons-in-law remain in Gaza, where the UN's Integrated Food Security Phase Classification says "widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths." "I just want the world to know the crisis is real," Najjar told AFP. "Denial is deadly."
