This isn’t the face of famine. It’s the face of a medically vulnerable child whose suffering was hijacked and weaponised – first by Hamas, then by global media.

The Image that Lied

Unless you have been hiding under a rock all week, you would have seen the viral images of Mohammed, the child victim of the Gazan ‘famine’. The image used by most of these outlets was licensed to Anadolu, a Turkish state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara. The photos were taken by the Gaza-based photographer, Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini, and uploaded to his Instagram account on 22nd July – a day before the Express splashed it across their front page. But in fact another Gazan based account, Saeed Mohammed had shared similar images even earlier.

The global frenzy began on 23 July 2025, when the Daily Express ran the image of Mohammed on its front page. The article uses the image of Mohammed to promote the narrative of a mass famine in Gaza.

Within hours, almost every major outlet was using the image to tell the same story. Sky News, CNN, The Guardian, Daily Mail, New York Times, and The Times (UK)  – they all ran with it, reinforcing the message: Gaza is gripped by mass starvation, and this image is the proof:

Except this image proves none of it. Wider and unpublished pictures show Mohammed’s healthy brother Joud, who was born on 18 April 2022 and is 3 years old. Mohammed was born on 23 December 2023, just two months after October 7.

What we can see from the 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. This is visible in multiple images we have in our possession. The published images in all the various news broadcasts and publications have either been deliberately cropped to remove the image of the healthy brother, blurred him into obscurity, or the journalists have only chosen to use photos in which the brother is not visible at all.

The Truth about Mohammed

Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq /Mutawwaq (was born with serious genetic disorders. He has needed specialist medical supplements since birth. Like previous examples of the media using ‘starving children’ going back to summer 2024 – the image is of a child suffering underlying (and hidden) health issues.

A medical report issued in May 2025 by the Basma Association for Relief in Gaza states that Mohammed, has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy – a group of neurological disorders affecting movement, muscle tone, and posture. The report notes that Mohammed suffers from hypoxemia (low oxygen in the blood), possibly linked to a suspected genetic disorder inherited in an ‘autosomal recessive pattern.’

There is no argument here. I have seen a copy of this report (but obviously won’t produce in full here a child’s medical diagnosis). It was signed by Dr Saeed Mohammed Al Nassan on 20th May 2025:

This revelation raises serious issues of media integrity. The Daily Express picked up a viral image circulating online and published it without verification or context – a textbook example of clickbait journalism, where emotional impact is prioritised over everything else.

The BBC – as per usual went a step further. The BBC *spoke* to his mother, Huda Yassin Al-Matouq / Mutawwaq – and produced a 64 second interview that somehow failed to disclose that Mohammed was a child born with genetic problems and complex medical dependencies. Even in the BBC video, the mother alludes to this – referencing a prolonged struggle, including physiotherapy sessions that had helped him stand. The curvature of the spine another key clue tying the child to a CP diagnosis. But the BBC narrator never addresses this – leaving the audience to believe the heartbreaking physical condition we are seeing is the result of widespread famine.

This is not journalism. This is the UK’s state media deliberately pushing a deceptive narrative that only serves to benefit Hamas and create fake news.

How Mohammed’s Father Was Used to Paint a Narrative

The story being told through legacy media outlets such as the NYT is that Mohammed’s father was killed while going out to collect food. Again, to underline the Gaza hunger tragedy narrative.

This has been reported without any attempt at verification. From the death certificate I can see the father Zakaria Ayoub Al-Matouq / Mutawwaq (زكريا أيوب المطوق) was killed on 28 October 2024:

From online sources it turns out that Mohammed’s father, was killed in Jabalia, in what appears to be a targeted strike on ‘al Qassabeeb’ street.

We can also see that Hamas were attacking the IDF in precisely that spot at the time (posts from 26 & 27th October).

Between the 25th October and the 29th, Israel lost six soldiers in the area. In this Hamas footage, which shows wide angle views of part of the same ‘street’ on 26th October, it is not possible to see exactly where Mohammed’s father would have been looking for food:

Whether or not he was armed, Mohammed’s father died on a battlefield where Hamas was actively attacking Israeli forces. Whatever the truth about ‘looking for food’, Hamas bears responsibility for bringing the conflict to that street and the media ignored this context entirely.

A Personal Note

Digging for the truth behind images like this is not easy. We’re dealing with a live war zone – real people, real pain, and tragic situations like Mohammed’s. These kinds of personal tragedies happen in every war, in every era.

What is unique – and toxic – is how images of the tragic consequences of urban warfare are being weaponised to build false global narratives. In this case, the lie is of a Gaza gripped by mass famine and children dying from hunger.

And here’s the bitter truth: I shouldn’t have to do this. It shouldn’t fall on me to call out the world’s biggest media outlets for their failure to act like journalists. Why are almost all of them functioning as Hamas’ useful idiots, amplifying propaganda with no effort to verify the facts? Is it really too much to expect them to do their jobs?

There’s another layer of cynicism here. From everything I’ve learned, Mohammed’s mother is simply trying to find help for her child. She’s not hiding the truth. She tells the full story to anyone who asks. Yet every journalist who has spoken to her has made the same cynical decision: ignore the medical reality, strip the context, and turn her child into a propaganda weapon. No one is trying to help. No one is interested in telling the truth. All they seem to ask is: “How can this image hurt Israel?” — and they build their coverage around that.

Hamas, the UN and the Aid Deception

Which brings us to the famine narrative.

Time and again, the most widely circulated images of ‘starving children’ in Gaza have turned out to involve children with serious underlying medical conditions. The images are heartbreaking, yes – but we must stay grounded. This is a war zone, and Hamas is actively using the civilian population as pawns in a global propaganda campaign.

Let’s be clear: Hamas cannot afford to lose control over aid distribution – not if it intends to remain the ruling power in post-war Gaza. Channeling or controlling aid has always been one of the terrorist group’s most reliable sources of income. That’s why it has been essential for Hamas to discredit the US-Israeli GHF aid program and portray it as a failure. This has included an almost daily pantomime of unverified claims that hundreds have been killed in Israeli attacks while queuing for aid. Yet in the most documented conflict zone in history, credible video evidence remains conspicuously absent = despite claims of daily occurrences

Worse still, UN agencies and international NGOs operating in Gaza are riddled with staff affiliated with terrorist groups. Whenever Hamas comes under pressure, these agencies issue carefully timed statements and take actions that conveniently align with Hamas’s strategic goals. Which are then amplified by the army of anti-Israel activists embedded in legacy media. We saw this during the ‘All Eyes on Rafah‘ campaign in early 2024 when the IDF closed in on key leadership and hostages located there. The famine narrative is just the latest act in the play.

There is plenty of publicly available  information showing that significant quantities of food are entering Gaza. But with local media firmly under the control of Hamas, none of this gets reported.

Instead of helping facilitate aid delivery, UN agencies have imposed impossible conditions, stalling convoys and leaving hundreds of trucks abandoned – their contents rotting just a short distance from those in need. At times, the UN has even insisted that Hamas be allowed to protect aid workers, effectively demanding that the terror group retain access to and control over humanitarian supplies. Only recently, under mounting international scrutiny, has the UN begun to slightly shift course.

Let’s call this what it is: The UN, UNRWA and other NGOs are not prioritising the safety of Palestinian civilians or indeed getting aid to a population they maintain are in desperate and immediate need of food. Instead it seems, they are prioritising a political agenda that aligns with – and thus ensures – the survival of Hamas. They’re not neutral. They’re enablers

Media Failing and a Moral Collapse

The UN aid agencies won’t deliver aid – the journalists won’t do their jobs.

In a propaganda war this calculated and brutal, it was vital that our media act as a check on the lies. Not just for Israel’s sake, but for the Palestinian civilians caught in the middle.

When legacy media outlets become mouthpieces for radical Islamist groups — out of ideology, ignorance, or cowardice — it isn’t just a journalistic collapse – it’s a moral disgrace.

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