Hamas' propaganda playbook: Omitting the truth to push starvation narrative
Viral images of a starving Gaza boy don’t tell the whole story.
Eighteen-month-old Mohammed Zakariya al-Matouq of Gaza reportedly suffers from cerebral palsy and genetic disorders — but that didn't stop the American media or Gaza’s leadership from using a photo of the boy as proof of widespread starvation and for anti-Israel propaganda.
His image has been used on the front pages of newspapers around the world and in broadcasts like the BBC, CNN, and Sky.
In the Guardian’s story on the photo, it was captioned that Muhammad was “facing life-threatening malnutrition.” The U.K.’s Daily Express called it “a horrifying image encapsulating the ‘maelstrom of human misery’ gripping Gaza.”
Mohammed’s photo was also distributed by Anadolu Agency, the Turkish state news service, as the amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza has been challenged and questioned. Critics are arguing that Hamas omitted the child’s medical history, as confirmed by his mother and Dr. Suzan Mohammed Marouf in order to amplify a starvation narrative.
In the photo, Mohammed is held by his mother, who BlazeTV host Pat Gray can’t help but notice “seems pretty OK.”
“I’m not saying she's gigantic, I’m just saying she’s not starving. So if you’re eating all his food, you might want to share there, mom, because you look pretty healthy,” Gray says.
“So it turns out, he’s got several other problems genetically that he was born with ... and they are the problems that cause him to look like that, right? Not the fact that Israel is keeping food from these Palestinians,” he adds.
“I don’t remember a time in the past,” he says, “and they’ve been through this kind of stuff many, many times with the Palestinians. I don’t remember them ever cutting off a food supply.”
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