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The Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
We published a photo of a malnourished child in Gaza. It made an impact globally – and created controversy
Between April and mid-July this year, more than 20,000 children in Gaza were admitted to hospital for treatment for acute malnutrition, 3,000 of whom were severely malnourished, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global initiative whose members include UN agencies such as the World Health Organization, World Food Programme and Unicef, as well as NGOs and research institutes. Over this period, and in the weeks since, the Guardian has published many images of hungry children, among them at least 20 shown in an emaciated condition. (It does so working to an editorial code that gives special protection to children, publishing on matters that may intrude into their welfare only when there is a strong public interest to do so.) But one photograph, which appeared on the homepage of the website on 23 July and on the front of the print edition the next day, prompted fierce controversy. The picture was powerful and pitiful: an 18-month-old boy, Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, cradled in his mother's arms; his bare back skeletal, his diaper a black plastic bag. This image, as well as others of the same child, were published widely by major news organisations. Freelance journalist and antisemitism campaigner David Collier accused the media that published the photos of doing so 'to push a lie about famine'. He said a May 2025 medical report he had seen stated the boy had cerebral palsy. This was not the face of famine, Collier wrote in his blogpost on 27 July, but a child who 'has needed specialist medical supplements since birth'. 'What we can see from [unpublished] pictures is that both Mohammed's mother and his older brother look healthy and are not suffering from any type of starvation that would be necessary to cause the thinness suffered by Mohammed,' he said. A reader who contacted me directly decried the image as 'a fake'. Another said: 'Definitely this poor child is suffering. But is it from starvation? It is from several medical conditions Muhammad was born with … You need to make sure your readers know the real 'WHY' behind this picture.' It seems unarguable that readers want to know the 'real why' in whatever they are seeing. But its availability is not always as straightforward. War is chaotic and individual circumstances invariably complex. In the wake of the accusations, Anadolu published an article that quoted Suzan Marouf, a doctor treating the boy at the Patient's Friends hospital in Gaza City, saying doctors there had diagnosed him the previous month with 'moderate malnutrition on top of congenital health problems, including brain complications and muscle atrophy' but that these issues were 'not significantly affecting his weight' until the hospital's nutritional supplements became depleted. Since then, he had developed severe malnutrition, she said. Separately, Anadolu distributed an image from Muhammad's bedside showing a picture of him before he lost weight. Muhammad's mother said he dropped from 9kg to 6kg in recent weeks. The Guardian was not aware until after it published the images (the first was in a picture gallery on 22 July) that the boy had other medical conditions. Should they have sought to ask? The relevant editors I have spoken to here each told me that seeing his wasted frame did not stand out as unusual; they had 'consistently seen similar pictures for months'. In a hunger crisis, they point out, experts attest to how children and those with existing medical conditions are among those most at risk. According to the WHO, of the 63 malnutrition‑related deaths recorded in July, 24 were children under five. That is 38%, when under-fives make up around 15% of the total population of Gaza. Children with developmental disorders can have special nutritional needs. One paediatrician, speaking to me for background, said diagnosis was frequently challenging in settings without access to early identification tools, which meant that with cerebral palsy, for example, definitive diagnosis is sometimes not made until the age of two. Editors say reference to Muhammad's existing health issues would have been included if known – and the picture captions have now been amended – but they consider that the images still stand, saying a sick child who is starving is 'not any less deserving of our attention than any other child', as previous reporting featuring malnourished infants with underlying feeding conditions has demonstrated. In other words, the face of malnourishment is most often the face of the already vulnerable. For my part, I agree that the missing information was relevant to a fuller reading of the picture. But the Guardian has not, as some claim, relied on this image alone to illustrate reporting of what the IPC days later termed (though Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejects the assessment) an 'unfolding' famine. And if we recognise that it is the most vulnerable who are most impacted by lack of food and health services, publication of this picture of real suffering did not, in my view, act to deceive. Elisabeth Ribbans is the Guardian's global readers'
SBS Australia
01-08-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
The story behind this viral image of a child in Gaza
It's a shocking image of despair and anguish; at the centre is toddler Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a child in Gaza. The frail toddler has a starkly pronounced spine and shoulder blades, wears a plastic bag nappy, and is being held by his mother. He said civilian casualties and deaths in Gaza were "completely unacceptable" and "completely indefensible". But a British journalist and antisemitism researcher has said the image is "misleading", prompting the New York Times to issue a clarification about its publication after "new information" surfaced. Claims of 'misleading' image Independent investigative journalist David Collier has accused the mainstream media of publishing the image of Matouq without acknowledging the 18-month-old's pre-existing medical conditions. Getty Images, which hosts several photos of Matouq, described the child as "sick" and "also displaying signs of malnutrition" in its captions. Collier, who is a critic of Hamas — the political and military group that rules Gaza — and describes himself as a Zionist on his website , said that's not the whole story. He wrote on X that he has seen medical reports and spoken to Matouq's mother, Hedaya, to uncover that the child has required specialist care in the past. "Mohammed is medically vulnerable; he needs specialised formula and medication," he wrote. On his website, he says that in other pictures of the family, his mother and older brother "look healthy and are not suffering from any type of starvation that would be necessary to cause the thinness suffered by Mohammed". Collier took aim at "most legacy media", which he said "need to own up to using deceitful photos". "You exploited the image of a child with cerebral palsy to push a lie about famine," he wrote. "You did this because you are all running campaigns to demonise Israel. You did not care anything about the truth. You saw an image you could use — or abuse — and ran with it." Collier told The Australian it is the "basic role of a journalist to verify and check the facts" before writing a story. "I'm not waving an Israeli flag, saying everything is perfect, that's not what I'm doing. What I'm saying is that it's vital that the media maintains its standards, because if it can't, then what is the point?" he said. The New York Times said it learned about the "pre-existing health problems" after it had published the image. "We have since learned new information, including from the hospital that treated him [Matouq] and his medical records, and have updated our story to add context about his pre-existing health problems," a spokesperson said on Wednesday. Lucia Goldsmith, Oxfam Australia's head of humanitarian, told SBS News children with pre-existing conditions may already face difficulties in processing nutrients. "Many of these children may be experiencing immune deficiencies, so they are often most affected by lack of food," Goldsmith said. Marko Kerac, who helped draw up the World Health Organization's treatment guidelines for severe acute malnutrition, also said it was typical in the early stages of a hunger crisis that those most impacted suffered from pre-existing illnesses. "Children with underlying conditions are more vulnerable," Kerac, clinical associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the Reuters news agency. "They get affected earlier." Reporting from Gaza comes with challenges The photos originally come from the Turkish news agency Anadolu, whose photographers are some of the few on the ground in Gaza. It was then circulated via Getty Images. Gathering and verifying information and photographs from the region is complex, and Israel has prevented international media from entering Gaza to report from there, except in cases where media have been embedded with the Israel Defense Forces. CNN reporter Clarissa Ward is one of the few Western journalists who have been able to gain independent access, and only fleetingly. Like most news organisations around the world, SBS News does not have its own reporters on the ground in Gaza, and sources information, photography and footage from various news agencies such as Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Getty as well as directly from freelance operators. When SBS News sent an inquiry to Getty Images about the photograph, a statement from the Anadolu Agency was provided in response. It said the agency had reviewed the photograph of Matouq, which was taken by freelance journalist Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim al-Arini. The response included a statement attributed to the child's mother to clarify the situation. "At three months old, he suffered from muscle weakness [hypotonia]. Through physiotherapy, he fully recovered and continued normal development. Before we were displaced from Jabalia, he was healthy, smiling, and cheerful," the statement said. "However, after displacement, due to the food and medicine crisis —particularly the lack of milk — his condition began to deteriorate." The statement included notes from an interview with nutrition specialist Dr Suzan Mohammed Marouf, who Anadolu Agency said confirmed Matouq is suffering from severe malnutrition as well as a muscle-related illness. The agency also provided a series of photographs of Matouq throughout his life showing him previously at a higher weight than in the series of viral photos as well as images of other children in similar conditions. A family member holds up a phone displaying an earlier photo of Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, showing his physical health has declined rapidly. Source: Anadolu / via Getty Images "As Anadolu Agency, our mission is not to provide medical assessments but to document and report the situation on the ground objectively for the international public," the statement said. "Our photographs reflect the humanitarian crisis we witness in Gaza in its starkest form." SBS News has not been able to independently verify the details of pre-existing health conditions supplied by Anadolu or Collier. 'Full-scale famine' Photos of Matouq and dozens of other emaciated children have made headlines in recent weeks, with Israeli officials denying starvation in Gaza. "We don't recognise any famine or any starvation in the Gaza Strip," Israel's deputy chief of mission in its Canberra embassy, Amir Meron, told a group of reporters, including SBS News, on Monday. Israeli officials have instead blamed either the United Nations' inefficiency or Hamas for aid not reaching people in areas it has claimed to control for much of the war. However, humanitarian groups like UNICEF have described the region as "on the brink of a full-scale famine". UNICEF, citing data from the Palestinian health ministry, said last week the number of children in Gaza who have died from malnutrition jumped from 52 to 80 — a 54 per cent increase in less than three months. In a statement made on Wednesday, they said: "Acute malnutrition and reports of starvation-related deaths — the third core famine indicator — are increasingly common but collecting robust data under current circumstances in Gaza remains very difficult as health systems, already decimated by nearly two years of conflict, are collapsing." Other news agencies, such as Reuters, have published reports from Gaza on malnutrition cases presented at clinics and images of emaciated children. In a separate interview published on the BBC published late last week, his mother said Matouq used to weigh 9kg but now weighs 6kg. She said: "He used to eat and drink normally but because of lack of food and the situation we're in, he became malnourished." In the video interview, she mentions her son has hypotonia. Associate professor Nina Sivertsen, a nursing and family health lecturer at Flinders University, told SBS News children in Gaza are at the most severe risk of the effects of starvation. "They're more likely to die, especially from common infections like diarrhoea and pneumonia, because starvation already weakens their really fragile immune system," Sivertsen said.
The Australian
30-07-2025
- Health
- The Australian
ABC refuses to update Gaza child photo story as other media backtrack
The ABC's Media Watch program has defended its analysis of the widely circulated image of an emaciated Palestinian boy, despite other news outlets in Australia and overseas admitting that their use of the shocking photo lacked 'context'. Last week, numerous mastheads including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Daily Express, Le Monde, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, as well as the ABC, published an image of 18-month-old Gazan boy Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, who suffers from severe malnutrition. On Monday night's Media Watch episode, presenter Linton Besser said the image of Muhammad had 'stopped the world'. 'There can be little cavilling however that children in Gaza are facing hunger – the disabled and vulnerable among them hardest hit,' Besser said. 'Powerful evidence emerging in the past week courtesy of Palestinian journalists. 'But it was the images of one child which stopped the world. 'These photographs of 18-month-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq whose emaciated body is being denied the baby formula it needs.' But several hours earlier, London-based independent journalist David Collier published a report on his own website in which he cited evidence that in May this year Muhammad had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and other conditions. Despite being aware of Collier's report before Media Watch went to air, the program made no reference to it – instead observing that Muhammad's skeletal frame was 'powerful evidence' that children in Gaza are facing hunger. Collier told The Australian on Wednesday there was evidence that 'some people in some areas are going hungry' in Gaza. 'But it is the basic role of a journalist to verify and check the facts before he writes a story, so the question is, is the image an honest image or a dishonest one?' he said. Collier told The Australian he 'felt sick' when he first saw the photo of Muhammad but quickly grew suspicious about the way it was used to illustrate hunger problems in Gaza. He said Muhammad's mother appeared healthy, as did the boy's older brother who was seen in other photos. Collier subsequently obtained photos of Muhammad's medical history, which stated the boy had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and hypoxaemia (low oxygen in the blood), possibly linked to a suspected genetic disorder inherited in an 'autosomal recessive pattern'. Collier alleged Muhammad's suffering had been 'hijacked and weaponised', and took aim at global media outlets, 'almost all' of which he accused of 'functioning as Hamas's useful idiots, amplifying propaganda with no effort to verify the facts'. In the wake of Collier's revelations, The New York Times admitted an error in publishing the image of Muhammad which ran on the newspaper's front page next to the headline: 'Young, old and sick starve to death in Gaza'. In a post on X, The New York Times said it had added an editors' note to its story after learning 'after publication … that (Muhammad) also had pre-existing health problems'. 'We have since learned new information, including from the hospital that treated him and his medical records, and have updated our story to add context about his pre-existing health problems,' it said in its statement. 'This additional detail gives readers a greater understanding of his situation.' On Wednesday, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age also updated their online news reports featuring the picture of Muhammad to accurately 'reflect the new information which has come to light'. 'After initial publication of the article, it was later reported that Muhammad's doctor had confirmed he had pre-existing health problems, as well as severe malnutrition,' the update in Nine's online mastheads reads. But the ABC has made no concession that its news reports featuring the photo of Muhammad, and Media Watch's analysis of the image, lacked context. Instead, the online transcript of Monday night's Media Watch episode was amended on Wednesday night to only include reference to the clarification issued by The New York Times. The ABC made no mention of the fact that at the time Media Watch went to air at 9.15pm (AEST) on Monday, Besser and the show's producers were already aware of the claims made by Collier about Muhammad's medical history, but chose not to mention them. In response to questions from The Australian, Media Watch executive producer Mario Christodoulou said the program sought to verify the medical condition of Muhammad by showing the photograph of the toddler to a Sydney-based academic and asking her to provide a 'professional opinion'. 'Not being in a position to verify Collier's reporting, we contacted an authority on the subject of cerebral palsy, University of Sydney Professor Iona Novak, to garner as best an independent and professional opinion as possible in the time frame,' Christodoulou said. 'That opinion assured us that the 'photographs appear to show a child with physical signs consistent with malnutrition' as well as a potential 'neurological condition'. 'In light of this, we were very careful to make plain that it was 'the disabled and vulnerable … hardest hit', as we introduced the photograph of al-Matouq.' The Growth Agenda Experts explain why American Eagle's controversial ad campaign featuring the White Lotus star was no accident — and who it is really aimed at. Wealth The Australian is launching Wealth, a dedicated section to help more Australians make smarter money choices.
New York Post
29-07-2025
- New York Post
The terrible Hamas lie that ‘the Jews did this' spreads around the world
In an episode of the drama 'House M.D.,' the patient at the center of the medical mystery is a brilliant physicist who has intentionally made himself dumber. He takes a careful mix of the drug dextromethorphan and alcohol every day, which lowers his IQ — but only while under the influence of the cocktail. He does this because he finds it less stressful and less lonely to live in ignorant bliss. The Gaza discourse is filled with such people. Over the weekend the journalist David Collier revealed that the Palestinian child who'd been used by nearly every major news organization as the living representation of the mass starvation of Gazan children was in fact suffering from cerebral palsy and hypoxemia, plus apparently a genetic disorder. The ubiquitous image of the boy's skeletal frame in his mother's arms is indeed heartbreaking. Terribly sad as well is the fact that the boy is now fatherless. But it does not appear to be the case that, as has been reported, the boy's father was killed by the IDF while looking for food. Videos and contemporaneous reports strongly suggest the father was killed while looking for Israeli soldiers to engage in battle. Many scenes of urban warfare are deeply tragic, and Gaza is no different. Where Gaza is different is in the desire by global information institutions to lie about what specifically is creating those scenes, and for otherwise intelligent people to embrace those lies, because it's less stressful and less lonely to live in an online world where the Israelis are always monsters and the truth is treated as a distraction. 3 The New York Times front page from July 25, 2025, showing starving children in Gaza. A baby starving to death whose father was shot by Israelis while searching for food for his suffering child: It's the kind of story that so completely flatters a certain worldview that the holders of that worldview ought to treat it with respectful skepticism. Again, the child's suffering is real and tragic. But it was not deemed useful, and so it was falsified in service to The Cause. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! One can forgive the desperation of a parent; one cannot forgive a journalist or a 'humanitarian' NGO official who finds it easier to join the mob than to be honest. Lying about famine in Gaza is a tactic that Hamas and its useful idiots have used repeatedly, because the truth is disadvantageous to Hamas' war and propaganda machines. And the truth is that there are real concerns about possible near-term hunger and malnutrition in Gaza because Hamas steals aid, hoards food and medicine away from civilians, and punishes dissent. 3 The front page of Le Monde newspaper shows starving children in Gaza. Hamas behind the pain The truth, then, is that Hamas has engineered real suffering in Gaza, and the lie — that Israel is intentionally starving children — enables Hamas to engineer more suffering by creating global pressure on Israel to let Hamas control the aid again. That way Hamas can keep the cycle going. And so it matters who is at fault. Since being fooled by Hamas propaganda at this point requires a degree of self-lobotomizing, converts to the cult of Hamas can get quite defensive about it online. Those of us who have praised Collier or amplified his investigation get criticized for our callous insistence on the truth. 3 The Daily Express front page from July 23, 2025, showing starving children in Gaza. Why, I have been asked, should we quibble over the cause of this poor child's suffering? Does it really matter if the Jews are being falsely accused if it raises awareness to the plight of sick Gazans? That is like asking why we take pains to ensure we convict the real perpetrator of any crime. Why are juries so preoccupied with the concepts of guilt and innocence? It's a preposterous question. Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Riles up the loonies And anyway we know precisely why it matters, and so does the questioner. It matters because pro-Palestinian advocates read stories like this and then take it upon themselves to avenge the injustice. It matters because this kind of libel has inspired murderous lunatics to burn an 82-year-old woman alive and to gun down people at the Capital Jewish Museum in broad daylight and it has inspired pogroms in Russia and Amsterdam and assassination attempts on a Jewish governor and his wife and children during the holiday of Passover and an almost incomprehensible number of similarly motivated violence and attempted violence pretty much everywhere there are Jews in the past year. Antisemitism on rise Go ahead: Close your eyes, spin the globe, and wherever your finger is pointing when it stops will be a place with a likely unprecedented explosion of antisemitic activity. But of course that's the reason the photo of the Palestinian child was published and shared everywhere in the first place. And it's the reason the next one will be shared, and the one after that, and the one after that. Pointing to a suffering child and saying 'the Jews did this' when in fact the Jews did no such thing is an intentional act. At the end of the 'House' episode, the dextro fiend doesn't get clean. He finds it easier to live life as a coward. Considering the number of people who are insisting that the truth of a story doesn't matter, he's right about that being the less lonely way to live. Reprinted with permission from Commentary.
The Sun
28-07-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Harrowing viral pic of starving Gaza boy ‘was HIJACKED' by Hamas to create ‘fake news', campaigners say
A PHOTO seemingly showing a starving boy in Gaza was "hijacked" by Hamas to create "fake news", it was claimed last night. The picture of Muhammad al-Matouq in his mum's arms went viral last week - amid claims Israel was blocking aid deliveries to the Strip. 6 6 6 But campaigners say he was already suffering genetic disorders and his mum and brother looked healthy in the picture. Pro-Israel investigative journalist David Collier said: "This is not the face of famine. It is the face of a medically vulnerable child whose tragic situation was hijacked and weaponised." He accused news outlets who used the image of benefiting Hamas and creating "fake news". On Monday, the Gaza health ministry said at least 14 people had died in the past 24 hours of starvation and malnutrition, bringing the war's death toll from hunger to 147, including 89 children. Israel announced a 'tactical pause ' in fighting in three areas of Gaza yesterday amid worsening of the ongoing humanitarian crisis. The Israeli Defence Force said it would halt operations in Muwasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City from 10am to 8pm. It said it will set up corridors to help aid agencies deliver food and supplies. Within hours, Jordanian and Emirati planes had air-dropped 25 tonnes of aid. The World Food Programme (WFP) said 60 trucks of aid had been dispatched - but this amount fell short of Gaza's needs. WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, Samer AbdelJaber said: "Sixty is definitely not enough. So our target at the moment, every day is to get 100 trucks into Gaza." Israel announces 'tactical pause' in fighting in parts of Gaza as IDF sets up 'designated humanitarian corridors' The Programme explained how almost 470,000 people in Gaza are enduring famine-like conditions, with 90,000 women and children in need of specialist nutrition treatments. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said only a ceasefire would alleviate the needs of those 'desperately suffering'. And Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, said the latest aid drops would not solve food shortages in Gaza. Last week, more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the Palestinian enclave. The military also said Saturday that it had connected a power line to a desalination plant, expected to supply daily water needs for about 900,000 Gazan people. Israel's foreign ministry said the military would "apply a 'humanitarian pause' in civilian centres and in humanitarian corridors" on Sunday morning. The announcement came after indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and Hamas were broken off with no deal in sight. The UN said that humanitarian pauses in Gaza would allow "the scale up of humanitarian assistance". The Israeli military stressed that despite the humanitarian steps, "combat operations have not ceased" in the Gaza Strip. Israel has previously blamed Hamas for the suffering of Gaza's population. Israel is keeping up its heavy bombardment in the face of global ceasefire pleas and huge protests in Tel Aviv. 6 6 6
