The “poster child for Gaza starvation” story just imploded — and it’s as ugly as you’d expect.
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. pic.twitter.com/KGxP3b3Q2B
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) July 29, 2025
For weeks, the legacy media — from CNN to The Guardian to The New York Times — plastered images of a frail, skeletal 20-month-old boy across headlines, using him as a living indictment of Israel. He became the face of the narrative that Israel is intentionally starving Gaza. But then the truth trickled out: the boy, Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, has severe pre-existing health conditions. Conditions that explain his appearance far more than the “Israel is starving Gaza” narrative that these outlets eagerly pushed.
Investigative reporter David Collier dug deeper and found something even worse: the boy’s three-year-old brother, Joud, is perfectly healthy. He appears in wider, unpublished shots — shots the media conveniently cropped, blurred, or avoided entirely. Collier summed it up: “This image proves none of it… The published images have either been deliberately cropped… or journalists chose photos in which the brother is not visible at all.”
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. https://t.co/NUsrbix5d3
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) July 29, 2025
Caught red-handed, The New York Times finally added an editor’s note:
“After publication, The Times learned that he also had pre-existing health problems.”
That’s it. One short note tacked on after the original story had already gone viral and done its damage.
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. pic.twitter.com/KGxP3b3Q2B
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) July 29, 2025
Social media wasn’t buying the mea culpa. Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar quoted the old line: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” Others were more direct: “Way too late,” physicist Shaun Maguire snapped. “The story was a blood libel against Jews everywhere.”
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. pic.twitter.com/KGxP3b3Q2B
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) July 29, 2025
Attorney Andrew Laufer ripped them for burying the correction: “Post this on your main account with the 55 million followers where the original libelous article appeared.” Marina Medvin went further, comparing it to the Times burying Holocaust coverage on its back pages.
The editor’s note doesn’t erase the fact that the Times and other outlets ran with a blood libel — and only quietly corrected it when they got caught.
