The New York Times admitted Tuesday that an emaciated Palestinian child it featured on the the front page suffered from “pre-existing health problems” that it had presented, inaccurately, as the result of starvation.
There is an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza — the result of poor food distribution, not low supply, as Hamas and armed gangs loot aid convoys. Hamas also refuses to release Israeli hostages and end the war.
As Breitbart News reported, the child, photographed by Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini of the Turkish Anadolu agency, had a muscular disorder. Few outlets that ran the photo disclosed that fact to readers.
GAZA CITY, GAZA – JULY 21: Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a 1.5-year-old child in Gaza City, Gaza, faces life-threatening malnutrition as the humanitarian situation worsens due to ongoing Israeli attacks and blockade, on July 21, 2025. Having dropped from 9 to 6 kilograms, he struggles to survive in a tent in Gaza City, where milk, food, and other basic necessities are lacking. (Photo by Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Some observers noted other photographs in which the boy’s relatives, including his brother, looked well-fed.
The watchdog group Honest Reporting noted:
HonestReporting was the first to highlight inconsistencies in the image set. In one of the photos, another child, reportedly Muhammad’s older brother, can be seen standing in the background. He appears well-nourished and perfectly healthy. That alone raised serious questions.
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In a CNN report published on Saturday, the boy’s mother explained that Muhammad suffers from a muscle disorder. It’s a medical condition that requires ongoing physical therapy and specialized nutrition.
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Every outlet that promoted this false narrative must update their coverage to reflect the full truth: Muhammad has a medical condition. He is not simply a victim of starvation, and the image has been presented in a misleading and incomplete way.
The Times acknowledged the truth in a note by its public relations department, posted to X on Tuesday:
We have appended an Editors’ Note to a story about Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a child in Gaza who was diagnosed with severe malnutrition. After publication, The Times learned that he also had pre-existing health problems. Read more below.
The photo on the front page of the Times was just one of many photos of emaciated Palestinian children that circulated over the weekend and which were used to bolster a narrative about Israeli starvation of Gazans.
Many of these photographs actually showed Palestinian children with other medical conditions. One showed a Palestinian child with cystic fibrosis — whom Israel had actually helped to obtain medical treatment in Italy.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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