Posts claim image of emaciated boy doesn't represent mass starvation in Gaza. Here's context
In July 2025, news outlets circulated an image of a severely malnourished Palestinian child amid Israel's ongoing destructive assault and humanitarian aid blockade on the Gaza Strip in response to militant group Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the country.
The image depicted Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, reportedly about 18 months old, wearing a trash bag as a diaper and being held by his mother. Similar images of Muhammad — spelled "Muhammad," "Mohammad" and "Mohammed" by various outlets — also spread. Many news outlets framed the image as a symbol of mass starvation and impending famine in Gaza due to Israel's efforts to prevent food from entering the area.
But pro-Israeli media outlets and personalities almost immediately criticized the aforementioned framing, alleging that Muhammad had a medical condition that contributed to his emaciated state — and that therefore the image was being used in a misleading fashion.
Related claims spread on X, Facebook and Instagram. Israel's official Instagram account even shared the image, claiming that news outlets "spread a misleading story using a picture of a sick, disabled child to promote a narrative of mass starvation in Gaza — playing into the hands of Hamas' propaganda war."
Muhammad does have a muscle disorder, according to reputable reports — and Gazans with disabilities experience the effects of the conflict most acutely, according to a U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities statement. With the right nutrition and physical therapy, Muhammad was healthy, his mother reportedly told CNN, but Israel's humanitarian aid blockade — which the country eased in May, although severe restrictions remain — prevents not just food, but medical aid, from reaching Gaza's population.
Overwhelming evidence indicates that as of July 2025, Gaza's people were experiencing mass starvation caused by the blockade.
The first independent — but not yet peer-reviewed — survey of deaths in Gaza, released July 2025, found more than 80,000 fatalities since Oct. 7, 2023, suggesting the 60,000 Palestinian deaths reported by the Gaza Health Ministry represented an undercount. Most of those killed in the conflict are civilians, according to independent analyses and the United Nations.
Origin of claim
Pro-Israel news outlet Honest Reporting was the first to claim that the boy's condition stemmed from a "health disorder, not from a lack of food caused by Israel." Honest Reporting's July 27, 2025, story included images, purportedly also of Muhammad but with his supposed "healthy" brother in the background.
That same day, independent pro-Israel journalist David Collier alleged that the boy had cerebral palsy, hypoxemia — or low oxygen in the blood — and a suspected genetic disorder, which contributed to his condition. Collier, who also shared images with Muhammad's alleged brother, argued that the mainstream media neglected to share important details about the child's genetic medical disorders to perpetuate what he described as "the lie" of "Gaza gripped by mass famine and children dying from hunger" and to deliberately push a "deceptive narrative that only serves to benefit Hamas and create fake news."
Collier provided Snopes with images appearing to show a May 2025 medical report indicating that Muhammad has cerebral palsy — a type of movement disorder — a "suspected genetic disorder" and hypoxemia, or low levels of oxygen in the blood. Snopes has not independently verified the authenticity of the medical report.
"Nobody is arguing that the situation in Gaza is not awful," Collier said in an email. "Mohammed is evidence that severely vulnerable children can be at risk — not because of lack of food — but because of a lack of medical treatment and vitamin supplements. Media outlets had no right to use him as an example of widespread famine — that is just dishonest."
It is worth noting that for months, U.N. officials, aid groups and independent experts had warned that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were on the brink of famine, but the U.N. hadn't formally declared one for several reasons, including the very specific statistical conditions that must be met to meet the standard of famine — data that is largely not available from Gaza, according to the AP.
However, the world's leading body on hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification or IPC, said in a July 29, 2025, alert that the "worst-case scenario of famine" is occurring in Gaza. Hospitals in Gaza also reported that children without underlying health conditions were dying of starvation, according to a July 25 Times of Israel story.
Muhammad's condition
In a July CNN report, the news outlet interviewed Muhammad's mother, Hidaya Al-Motawaq. Here's what the report said about Muhammad's condition (emphasis ours):
REPORTER: As starvation tightens its grip on Gaza, the most vulnerable are the first to find themselves in its clutches. Amid months of Israeli restrictions, 3-year-old Muhammad weighs just 13 pounds. His cries speak to all that he is lacking. Muhammad suffers from a muscle disorder, but with physical therapy and the right nutrition, his mother Hidaya said he was healthy, active and could sit upright. Not anymore. His small body has shed 6 pounds in short order.
AL-MOTAWAQ (through an interpreter): If there's food, we eat. If there isn't, we have no power except to rely on God. Some days, we go one or two days without eating.
REPORTER: Gaza's hospitals are filled with babies like Muhammad, and worried mothers like Hidaya, who are doing all they can to prevent their babies from becoming the next statistic.
The New York Times, in a July 29 statement, said it added "new information" about Muhammad's preexisting medical conditions provided by his doctor to give "readers a better understanding of his situation." This reaction, too, resulted in backlash, with many online users stating, for example, that Anne Frank, known for keeping a diary documenting her life as a Jewish teenager during the Holocaust, died of typhus, but that the blame for the circumstances leading to her death ultimately should be placed on the Nazis.
Snopes also reached out to several other news outlets that shared the image or Muhammad's story, including NPR and The Guardian, to ask whether they knew if Muhammad had existing health conditions and if so, why they chose not to include that information. We await responses.
Origin of image
Palestinian photojournalist Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini took the photograph of Muhammad, according to Getty Images.
In a July 24 BBC interview, Al-arini said he took the photo because he "wanted to show the rest of the world the extreme hunger that babies and children are suffering from in the Gaza Strip."
Al-arini took multiple images of Muhammad for Anadolu, a state-run news agency in Turkey — a fact that could raise questions about credibility. (Snopes has reached out to Anadolu for comment.) But Getty Images is full of evidence that Muhammad isn't the only child — or person — starving in Gaza.
While many of those images were taken for Anadolu, photos and videos of starving children in Gaza also come from Palestinian journalists working for Reuters, The Associated Press, French international news agency AFP, The Guardian, The New York Times and other reputable outlets.
Israel has not allowed outside journalists into Gaza since its war with Hamas began. On July 24, 2025, the AP, AFP, BBC News and Reuters said in a joint statement that they "are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families."
"We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza," the statement said. "It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there."
Rachel O'Donoghue, the reporter on HonestReporting's story, said the images of Muhammad's "healthy" brother came from a wider set of photos filed to Getty Images. Snopes could not find these photos on Getty Images, nor have we independently verified the relationship between Muhammad and the boy depicted next to him.
WHO: 'Man-made mass starvation' in Gaza
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed on July 27 that there is "no starvation in Gaza" while also blaming Hamas for intercepting humanitarian aid. (Both the U.S. government and Israeli military officials have reportedly found no evidence that Hamas routinely steals aid.)
But Israel's claims have been roundly refuted by overwhelming evidence of mass starvation in Gaza from aid workers, international organizations, peer-reviewed research — see Page 79 — independent experts and Palestinian journalists on the ground. The head of the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said on July 24 that the agency's latest findings show one in every five children in Gaza is malnourished.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on July 23 that Gaza is suffering human-made mass starvation caused by Israel's blockade.
More than 110 aid organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Amnesty International, signed an open letter on July 23 warning that "mass starvation spreads in Gaza."
"As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, Palestine, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families," the letter said. "With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organizations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes."
The World Health Organization reported that at least 57 children have died from the effects of malnutrition, but that number is likely an underestimate, the U.N. said. According to a WHO news release from May, Gaza's entire population of 2.1 million people is facing prolonged food shortages.
According to the U.N., more than 1,000 people have been killed and 7,000 injured while trying to access aid; Israeli forces routinely open fire on Palestinians seeking aid, according to witnesses and the Israeli military. Most deaths are linked to private aid hubs run by the U.S.-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the U.N. said.
IPC's July 29 famine alert said 1 in 3 people in Gaza goes without food for days at a time. "Latest data indicates that Famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City," IPC said.
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Briton tells of ‘heartbreaking' moment he put children into body bags in Gaza
A British paramedic has told of the 'heartbreaking' moment he put two dead children in body bags shortly after arriving in Gaza. Sam Sears, 44, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, said his three weeks with frontline charity UK-Med was a 'conveyor belt of carnage', treating a 'steady stream' of patients with blast, shrapnel, and gunshot wounds. Mr Sears said on arrival he was thrown straight into a mass casualty incident where two children, aged nine and 11, died from blast injuries. He said: 'I was tasked with moving the two deceased children out the way to make space for other casualties coming in. I put the children in body bags and zipped them up. 'In the UK I've had to deal with a number of deceased children, but the difference was I'm never involved with putting them in a body bag. It's normally a very calm, slow situation, allowing parents time to grieve. 'So it was particularly heartbreaking putting a child in a body bag, seeing their face for the last time, then moving them out the way so we could treat more people. 'Part of me felt guilty that there was no dignity for them because the emergency situation meant it was a case of 'they are dead, let's get them out the way to free the beds'. 'But there was simply no alternative because with such a high volume of casualties, we had to focus on people we might be able to save.' Mr Sears, a paramedic with East Midlands Ambulance Service, who has also carried out humanitarian work in other countries, said that Gaza is like the Ukraine conflict or the earthquake in Turkey 'times one thousand'. He told of seeing a boy, aged about eight, who was 'lifeless behind the eyes – just numb' after losing his whole family in an explosion. The paramedic said a 16-year-old boy was left paralysed and needing amputation after suffering blast and shrapnel wounds and that his 18-year-old brother wept when told he would now have to care for him alone. He also told of seeing more pregnant women and newborn babies suffering severe malnutrition because the mothers lacked the nutrients to breastfeed. Mr Sears, who returned to the UK on July 31, added: 'It might sound weird, but I am keen to return to Gaza. What keeps you going is that you really are making a difference and saving lives. 'That first night, another child came in with shrapnel embedded in their stomach and bleeding internally. I was personally convinced they would die, but we got him to surgery within 20 minutes. 'Next day when I saw them they were recovering well and the prognosis was really good. Gaza's the hardest thing I've ever done but moments like that that keep you going. We have saved that child's life.' Some £19 million of funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has enabled UK-Med to treat more than 500,000 patients at the two UK Government emergency field hospitals in Gaza. The conflict in Gaza began when Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians and operates under the Hamas government. Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to recognise a Palestinian state by September unless Israel meets a series of conditions towards ending the conflict in Gaza. The Prime Minister also urged Hamas to disarm, release its remaining Israeli hostages, and accept it will have no part in the future governance of Gaza. On Saturday, the UK announced another £8.5 million for UN aid to Gaza. The money, to be delivered through the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is part of a £101 million UK commitment to the Occupied Palestinian Territories this year.


Washington Post
5 hours ago
- Washington Post
Doctors detail the daily deluge of Gazans shot while seeking food
As Gazans face widespread starvation, doctors in the enclave say they have been treating victims of mass shootings almost daily after crowds of Palestinians seeking food are fired on. Witnesses say Israeli troops have frequently shot at people who pass near military positions while approaching aid sites or who throng relief convoys.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Spotting One of These Sneaky Stomach Cancer Symptoms Could Save Your Life, Doctors Say
If you naturally associate stomach cancer with brutally painful stomachaches, you're not the only one. And yet, stomachaches are not typically a sign of this rare form of cancer at any point in its progression. Instead, the most common feature of the early stages of stomach cancer is that there are no symptoms at all, said Umut Sarpel, M.D., the chief of the division of surgical oncology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "We all get stomachaches from time to time, and that can make people worry about stomach cancer," Dr. Sarpel said. "But it's not one of the most common cancers, and in most cases, stomachaches or pain are not going to be the result of cancer." Meet the expert: Umut Sarpel, M.D., the chief of the division of surgical oncology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. So what are the signs of stomach cancer? When it causes any, they are typically one of these six digestive problems. There is blood in your vomit or stool. While both colitis and Crohn's disease can cause bloody stool, it can also be a sign of cancer. Regardless, blood in either your poop or your vomit demands a visit to a GI doctor, Dr. Sarpel said. If the bleeding is related to cancer, the blood in your stool is likely to look maroon or tarry black. "It looks that way because it's been acted on by your digestive enzymes," she explained. If the blood is in your vomit, it's more likely to look bright red, and it may have a coarse "coffee grounds" texture because it has been partially digested, Dr. Sarpel added. You feel full after just a few bites. You were definitely hungry when you sat down to eat. But after a few bites, your appetite vanishes and the food isn't appealing. Dr. Sarpel called this "early satiety," and says it's another symptom that could—emphasis on could—indicate stomach cancer. "Especially if feeling full really quickly is different than what you're used to, that's something you shouldn't ignore," she said. You have constant, gnawing stomach pain. Yes, in some cases stomach pain is a sign of stomach cancer. But in most cases, your run-of-the-mill pain or stomach cramps are going to be the result of some other gut or abdominal ailment, not cancer, Dr. Sarpel said. If it is a result of cancer, the pain will be a consistent gnawing in the middle of your stomach, she added. "It's not something you feel for one day, and then it goes away for two weeks and comes back again." You lost weight without trying. Many health conditions—including type 1 diabetes, Addison's disease, and Crohn's disease—can lead to unexplained weight loss. Add stomach cancer to that list, Dr. Sarpel said. "If you're losing weight and not dieting, that's something to pay attention to," she explained. Be aware that the weight loss may be gradual. While you may not notice a sudden drop, you might step on a scale and find you've lost 10 pounds during the last 6 months. It is totally natural for your weight to fluctuate, but if the weight loss is noticeable and you haven't been doing anything that accounts for it, talk with your doctor. You have frequent, unexplained heartburn. Heartburn, indigestion, and other common symptoms of an unhappy gut can also be early warning signs of stomach cancer, according to the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. Again, Dr. Sarpel said these sorts of symptoms are much more likely to be something other than cancer. But it's still a good idea to let your doctor know what's going on, especially if they are constant and don't seem to be caused by consumption of specific foods and drinks. You experience regular bloating, diarrhea, and constipation. It makes sense that a cancer growing in your stomach could make you feel bloated, or mess with your bowel movements. While each of these symptoms is never going to scream "stomach cancer!" to a doctor, experiencing them with some of the other issues on this list—especially if you have other stomach cancer risk factors, like being over 60, being overweight or obese, having a history of smoking, or having had stomach surgery in the past—could lead to cancer-related follow-up testing if your doctor can't pinpoint another explanation. You Might Also Like Can Apple Cider Vinegar Lead to Weight Loss? Bobbi Brown Shares Her Top Face-Transforming Makeup Tips for Women Over 50 Solve the daily Crossword