The New York Budgets

Tag: United Nations

  • The images of starvation in Gaza are deeply misleading

    The images of starvation in Gaza are deeply misleading

    rt34t34t34t5345t

    The New York Times’ July 25 front page showing a picture captioned: “Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, about 18 months, with his mother, Hedaya al-Mutawaq, who said he was born healthy but recently diagnozed with severe malnutrition. A doctor said the number children dying of malnutrition in Gaza had risen sharply.” On July 30, the paper acknowledged that Mohammed “had pre-existing health problems affecting his brain and his muscle development.”

    It’s one of the most emotionally searing images circulated in recent months: a malnourished child behind a fence, desperate eyes piercing through the camera lens, with a woman stretching out a bowl for food. It’s been published by international media, invoked by politicians, and shared by millions online. It has come to symbolize, for many, the reported famine in Gaza.

    But there’s just one problem. The photo’s origin and context are hotly disputed — and increasingly, experts say, deliberately manipulated.

    Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his 3.4 million followers on X:

    “There is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza.”

    His remarks unleashed a digital firestorm. Former President Donald Trump broke ranks with his usual ally and responded:

    “There is real starvation in Gaza. You can’t fake that.”

    youtube placeholder image

    This rare division between two strong allies laid bare the intensifying war not just over territory, but over information — a propaganda war playing out across social media, newsrooms, and governments.

    Hamas’s Propaganda Machinery and Media Blindness

    Many analysts and security experts argue that Hamas is adept at exploiting global sympathy through carefully staged imagery. Images of skeletal children, overwhelmed hospitals, and food queues are frequently disseminated, often with little journalistic scrutiny.

    Take, for instance, the viral image of a girl at a community kitchen. On X (formerly Twitter), thousands of users — aided by Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok — claimed the photo was from 2014, portraying a Yazidi girl fleeing ISIS in Iraq.

    Claims on social media said this photo was taken in 2014 in Iraq or Syria. In fact it was taken in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, on Saturday, July 26, 2025, showing Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen. © AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana

    Grok responded:

    “Yes, the photo is from August 2014… on Mount Sinjar in Iraq.”

    Citing Reuters, it labeled the image a case of repurposed content.

    rtr42bt8
    A girl from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province on August 13, 2014. © Youssef Boudlal—REUTERS

    But BBC Verify journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh debunked that claim. He identified the photo’s true source:

    “The image is from Gaza, taken on July 26, 2025, by AP photographer Abdel Kareem Hana.”

    Reverse image tools like TinEye confirmed the original publication date and location. Grok was simply wrong.

    As Sardarizadeh noted:

    “AI chatbots, including Grok, are not fact-checking tools and should not be used for that purpose, particularly in relation to breaking and developing events.”

    Still, damage was done. The manipulated claim was spread, repeated, and believed by many — a clear example of how quickly misinformation can overshadow the truth.

    The Case of Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq

    nn

    The New York Times’ July 25 front page showing a picture captioned: “Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, about 18 months, with his mother, Hedaya al-Mutawaq, who said he was born healthy but recently diagnozed with severe malnutrition. A doctor said the number children dying of malnutrition in Gaza had risen sharply.” On July 30, the paper acknowledged that Mohammed “had pre-existing health problems affecting his brain and his muscle development.”

    Another image that shocked global audiences was that of 18-month-old Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq. Published by The New York Times in a piece titled “Gazans Are Dying of Starvation”, the toddler was described as emaciated, with his father reportedly killed while searching for food.

    “As an adult, I can bear the hunger, but my kids can’t,” his mother was quoted.

    But investigative journalist David Collier quickly raised flags. He cited medical records showing Mohammed suffered from severe genetic disorders since birth and had required special supplements even before the war began.

    In response, The New York Times issued an editor’s note:

    “We have since learned new information… and have updated our story to add context about his pre-existing health problems.”

    They noted that while Mohammed’s condition had worsened due to the lack of medical care, his malnutrition was compounded, not caused, by the current war.

    To critics, the update wasn’t enough.

    “So you guys lied, got called out, and issued a complete non-apology,” one user posted on X.

    On Wednesday, a UN-backed food security task force warned that famine “is currently playing out” in Gaza. Their analysis said Gaza City had crossed famine thresholds for food consumption and acute malnutrition.

    The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reports 154 deaths from hunger since October 2023 — including 89 children. However, critics question the credibility of the ministry’s figures, noting its alignment with Hamas and history of inflated or unverifiable statistics.

    Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the situation “a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.” Human rights organizations, including Israel-based B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, claim Israel is committing genocide through starvation, mass displacement, and bombings.

    Yet at the same time, The New York Times also recently reported Israeli military officials denying Hamas’s alleged theft of UN aid — suggesting the crisis may be more due to distribution chaos, logistical breakdowns, and internal Hamas mismanagement than direct Israeli policy.

    A Media Reckoning Is Overdue

    The Western media’s responsibility in this tragedy cannot be ignored. In the rush to file emotionally evocative stories, due diligence has often been sacrificed. As the New York Budgets Editorial Standards outline: verifying visual content, especially in wartime, is not optional — it is essential.

    “Every journalist must ask: Who took this photo? Where? When? Under what conditions?”

    Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated it will exploit suffering for propaganda. That doesn’t mean suffering isn’t real — but it does mean every claim must be thoroughly scrutinized. Too often, however, global outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian, and Stuff have published without confirmation, only issuing updates days later.

    Starvation in Gaza may well be occurring. Humanitarian groups have sounded the alarm. But in a media landscape rife with misinformation, every image, every anecdote must be questioned — not to deny suffering, but to preserve the truth.

    Because when lies masquerade as evidence, the real victims — whether Palestinian civilians or the truth itself — are the ones who suffer the most.

  • Ukrainian officials are saying that Russian missiles hit Sumy, and sadly, at least 32 people died.

    Ukrainian officials are saying that Russian missiles hit Sumy, and sadly, at least 32 people died.

    Russian ballistic missiles killed at least 32 people, including two children, on Sunday in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, officials said — the latest in a string of attacks on urban centers that have caused heavy civilian casualties despite the Trump’s administration push for a cease-fire.

    Two missiles hit the city center about 10:15 a.m., according to the regional prosecutor’s office. Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said the ballistic missiles struck when the streets were crowded with civilians out enjoying Palm Sunday, a Christian celebration popular in Ukraine. At least 83 people were injured, Mr. Klymenko added.

    “People were harmed right in the middle of the street — in cars, on public transport, in their homes,” Mr. Klymenko said on social media.

    President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine posted a video on social media that he said showed the aftermath of the attack in Sumy, only 18 miles from the Russian border. The video showed cars smashed and burned, as well as bloodied bodies laying motionless on the streets. Firefighters and civilians tended to the wounded as screams echoed in the background.

    “A strong reaction from the world is needed. From the United States, from Europe, from everyone in the world who wants this war and the killings to end,” Mr. Zelensky said in a message posted on Telegram. “Russia seeks exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out the war.”

    The strikes came just over a week after a Russian missile hit near a playground in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, killing 19 people, including nine children. In that attack and in the one on Sunday, according to Ukrainian officials, Russia used ballistic missiles, which travel at high speeds, making them very difficult to shoot down.

    The two strikes were some of the deadliest in Ukraine this year and come amid an overall increase in civilian deaths since cease-fire talks began in March. The United Nations said last week that 164 civilians were killed in Ukraine last month, a 50 percent increase from February and 70 percent more than the same period a year earlier.

    There was no immediate comment from Russia’s military about Sunday’s strikes on Sumy, which was home to about 250,000 people before the war and has become a refuge for Ukrainian civilians fleeing villages and towns along the Russian border to escape bombardment and potential assaults.

    The city and surrounding region have regularly come under Russian attack over the past year, particularly since Ukraine used the area as a base for a cross-border offensive into Russia’s neighboring Kursk region. Moscow’s forces pushed most Ukrainian troops out of Kursk this year, but Kyiv has warned that Russia is preparing to push into the Sumy region and open a new front in the war.

    Ukrainian officials say the recent attacks that have killed large numbers of civilians show that Russia is not actually interested in a cease-fire, despite the efforts by the Trump administration to broker one.

    Both Russia and Ukraine have pledged to halt attacks on energy infrastructure, only to accuse each other of violations. Kyiv and Moscow have also agreed to a cease-fire on the Black Sea, but a deal has yet to come into effect. Russia has also rejected a full, unconditional 30-day cease-fire that Ukraine had accepted at the urging of the United States.

    Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said on Saturday that since cease-fire talks began last month in Saudi Arabia, Russia “only escalated its attacks on Ukrainian civilian objects and increased missile terror, including strikes on energy facilities.”

    “This is Russia’s response to all peace proposals,” Mr. Sybiha told the state news agency Ukrinform. “They delay, manipulate, and play with their partners to continue aggression.”