Image of Gazan child with genetic illness being used to falsely smear Israel, COGAT charges
Defense Ministry body says 5-year-old Osama al-Rakab was evacuated in June and is undergoing treatment in Italy; 120 aid trucks entered Gaza Sunday, another 180 to enter Monday
A widely circulated image of an emaciated Palestinian child has been used to falsely accuse Israel of starving children in Gaza, charged the Defense Ministry body overseeing civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories on Monday, as Israel continued to combat accusations of having deliberately starved the population of the Gaza Strip.
According to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the subject of the viral photo, 5-year-old Osama al-Rakab, suffers from a serious genetic illness that is unrelated to the ongoing war, and is currently undergoing treatment abroad.
On June 12, Israeli authorities coordinated his exit from Gaza via the Ramon airport, along with his mother and brother, and he is receiving medical treatment in Italy, COGAT said.
“Tragic images rightfully stir strong emotions, but when they’re misused to fuel hatred and lies, they do more harm than good,” read a statement on COGAT’s English-language X account. “Don’t let compassion be exploited for propaganda. Check the facts before parroting blame.”
The statement did not address broader reports of widespread food scarcity and malnutrition in Gaza, and instead focused on correcting what it said was a specific misuse of a personal tragedy for misinformation.In a similar instance, freelance investigative journalist David Collier presented what he said was evidence to debunk another viral image intended to depict famine in the Gaza Strip.
The image, which was widely shared by international media outlets in recent days, shows Hidaya Yassin al-Mutawaq holding the skeletal body of her son, Mohammed al-Mutawaq.
According to Collier, the outrage sparked by this image was unprovoked, as Mohammed has serious genetic disorders and has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Furthermore, he asserted, the widely shared image is cropped in a way that removes Mohammed’s younger, healthier-looking brother from the frame.
By withholding pertinent information about the young child’s complex medical needs, Collier claimed, media outlets were “deliberately pushing a deceptive narrative that only serves to benefit Hamas and create fake news.”
However, as Collier himself acknowledged that Mohammed “has needed specialist medical supplements since birth,” it is highly likely that he is, indeed, suffering unnecessarily due to the limited aid flow into Gaza, as medical equipment is in short supply and the Strip’s health system has all but collapsed.
The reports of an increasingly dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip — including reportedly growing levels of severe, acute malnutrition, and children dying by starvation — led Jerusalem on Sunday to declare that it would enforce a “tactical” pause in military operations in densely populated areas of Gaza, along with several other changes, to allow for the safe distribution of humanitarian aid.
At the same time, it has denied that it is using hunger as a weapon of war, and instead accuses the United Nations and other aid agencies of failing to pick up and distribute supplies delivered to Gaza’s border crossing points.
COGAT, therefore, appeared to credit increased UN cooperation, rather than Israel’s newly eased restrictions, as the reason for more than 120 truckloads of aid having been distributed by the UN and aid agencies across Gaza on Sunday.
“Over 120 trucks were collected and distributed yesterday by the UN and international organizations,” it said on X. “An additional 180 trucks entered Gaza and are now awaiting collection and distribution, along with hundreds of others still queued for UN pickup.”
“More consistent collection and distribution by UN agencies and international organizations equals more aid reaching those who need it most in Gaza,” COGAT added.
Although the number of trucks entering the Strip is still far short of the roughly 500 aid trucks that would enter each day before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, which launched the ongoing war, Gazans have nevertheless welcomed them and the lifesaving supplies that they carry.
“For the first time, I received about five kilos of flour, which I shared with my neighbor,” said 37-year-old Jamil Safadi, who shelters with his wife, six children and a sick father in a tent near the Al-Quds hospital in Tel al-Hawa, Gaza City.
Safadi, who has been up before dawn each day for two weeks searching for food, said Monday was his first success. Other Gazans were less fortunate; some complained aid trucks had been stolen or that guards had fired at them near US- and Israel-backed aid centers.
“I saw injured and dead people. People have no choice but to try daily to get flour. What entered from Egypt was very limited,” said 33-year-old Amir al-Rash, still without food and living in a tent.
His account appeared to be backed up by the Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat, central Gaza, which said in a statement that one person was killed and nine others were wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for aid.
It was unclear which organization was handing out aid at the site of the reported shooting, although reports of mass-casualty events near sites operated by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have become a near-daily occurrence.
The GHF’s operations have been under intense scrutiny since its opening in late May, and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says that more than 1,000 people have been killed near its aid sites in that time.
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