Hamas propaganda exploits seriously ill children, and Western media go along.
By Eitan Fischberger
July 30, 2025 2:23 pm ET
Mohammed al-Mutawaaq and his mother. Photo: omar al-qattaa/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The Gaza Strip
Over the weekend, I embedded with the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, where I saw the
enormous quantities of humanitarian aid the United Nations has been refusing to distribute. What struck me most were the thousands upon thousands of pounds of baby food, baking under the Middle Eastern sun—jar after jar of mashed carrots, pureed potatoes and fruit blends. This food could have gone to children like Mohammed al-Mutawaaq.
Those who don’t know his name will almost certainly recognize his face. Pictures of him, gaunt and fragile, staring vacantly into the camera, were plastered across the homepages of major media outlets last week, from the
New York Times and Politico to the BBC. Mohammed, more than anyone else, was made the face of a devastating allegation: that Israel is deliberately starving Palestinian children.
That wasn’t the truth about Mohammed, nor is it the truth about what’s happening in Gaza. Mohammed suffers from cerebral palsy, according to British investigative journalist David Collier, who uncovered a local charity’s May 2025
report mentioning the boy’s condition. CNN, for its part, briefly noted in an offhand comment during a broadcast that Mohammed suffers from a “muscle disorder,” before dropping the point from later reporting. Another notable omission from virtually all media coverage were the photos of Mohammed being held by his mother with his older brother standing nearby. Both mother and brother appear healthy and fed.
“Children in Gaza are malnourished and starving,” noted an unrepentant July 29 editor’s note in the New York Times. The paper admitted it had “since learned new information” and “updated our story to add context about [Mohammed’s] pre-existing health problems.” That context would have been more useful before publishing his image on the front page and fueling global outrage.
Mohammed’s isn’t the only recent case of babies afflicted with terrible illnesses being exploited to promote a false narrative that Israel is intentionally starving Gazan children. Cogat, the Israeli military unit that coordinates humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territories, tweeted Monday about a viral photo of a different child, Osama al-Raqab. Like Mohammed, Osama looked emaciated, and critics claimed that he too was starving due to Israel’s actions. These critics include Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director of the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, who tweeted that Israel was trying to “mislead public opinion by claiming that he was suffering from other illnesses, not hunger” and that “what is happening is not propaganda, but a real famine.”
Yet according to Cogat—and previously
confirmed by the boy’s mother to the Associated Press—Osama actually suffers from cystic fibrosis. On June 12, Israel
coordinated his evacuation to Italy, along with his mother and brother, so he could receive medical treatment. “Tragic images rightfully stir strong emotions,” the Cogat post said. “But when they’re misused to fuel hatred and lies, they do more harm than good.”
That harm was clear to me in Gaza, where I stood surrounded by nearly 600 trucks worth of food, water and diapers, all ready to be delivered.
The U.N. refused to do the job, saying it couldn’t operate safely with Israeli protection. Instead it asked that security be provided by the “Gaza Blue Police”—a euphemism for Hamas’s internal security forces. This is the same group the U.N. has repeatedly accused of stealing aid, including in October 2023, only weeks after the Hamas-led massacre.
Undistributed food in Gaza. Photo: Eitan Fischberger
In addition to rejecting IDF protection, the U.N. has declined to cooperate with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, despite its backing by the U.S. The result is that food meant for children like Mohammed is left to rot. Put simply, the U.N. would rather work with Hamas than the Israelis or the Americans.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has
coordinated and facilitated the entry into Gaza of more than 1.86 million tons of humanitarian assistance, more than 78% of which has been food. The population of Gaza is about 2.1 million. The only comparable effort in modern history is the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, during which the Allies delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies to 2.5 million West Berliners over 15 months. Even then, the aid was going to an allied population. “There is no historical precedent for a military providing the level of direct aid to an enemy population that Israel has provided to Gaza,”
writes John Spencer of the Modern War Institute at West Point.
But these facts rarely break through the noise. Instead, the world sees a photo of a suffering child, assumes what news editors want them to assume, and then shares it without asking questions. The context is stripped away. There is real suffering in Gaza. But when that suffering is exploited for propaganda, and when humanitarian systems are paralyzed by politics and ideology, it is the most vulnerable—like young Mohammed al-Mutawaaq—who pay the price.
Mr. Fischberger is an American-Israeli journalist.
Speaking on July 17, 2025, the U.S.’s top commander in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, discussed working with Germany on the Patriot transfer to Ukraine, NATO’s recommitment to collective security and the capabilities he needs most from industry.
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Appeared in the July 31, 2025, print edition as 'Gaza Starvation Photos Tell a Thousand Lies'.
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