Mick Hartley

I was shocked when @DailyExpressRB published this front page a few days ago.

But perhaps not for the reason most people would be upon seeing such a vulnerable child.

I was shocked because I was pretty sure this was yet another example of our media lying to us, which continued… https://t.co/cO3N63GDDZ pic.twitter.com/QcGwF1GJwU

— Josh Howie (@joshxhowie) July 27, 2025

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Full text:

I was shocked because I was pretty sure this was yet another example of our media lying to us, which continued as @guardian put him on their front page the following day and papers like @DailyMail did big features on the family.

And now that it’s been confirmed how they all failed in basic journalistic standards and were taken in by terrorist propaganda, they should be ashamed of themselves and held to account.

They ignored that this child, like all the others used to promote Hamas’ lies of starvation for the last two years, has an underlying medical condition. They ignored that it’s been proven time and time again how Hamas cynically and disgustingly exploits these children. They also ignored the healthy mother and brother. And they did this because they think there’s a larger audience for demonising Jews, than for the truth.

The truth is that there is hardship in Gaza. The truth is the doctors and UN and NGOs are liars in hoc to Hamas, and there is no actual evidence of one person having starved to death. The truth is if there is mass starvation then why do they continually need to lie and show staged photos and why are so many people obese. The truth is what hardship there is has been the result of the UN not delivering food that is already in Gaza. The truth is the war could be over this second if the hostages were returned and Hamas surrenders.

But closer to home, the truth is that our media continually fails to do their basic job. In fact they are doing the opposite. So yes @DailyExpressRB , shame on you indeed.

Here's David Collier's exposé:

Unless you have been hiding under a rock all week, you would have seen the viral images of Mohammed, the child victim of the Gazan ‘famine’. The image used by most of these outlets was licensed to Anadolu, a Turkish state-run news agency headquartered in Ankara. The photos were taken by the Gaza-based photographer, Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini, and uploaded to his Instagram account on 22nd July – a day before the Express splashed it across their front page. But in fact another Gazan based account, Saeed Mohammed had shared similar images even earlier.

The global frenzy began on 23 July 2025, when the Daily Express ran the image of Mohammed on its front page. The article uses the image of Mohammed to promote the narrative of a mass famine in Gaza.

Within hours, almost every major outlet was using the image to tell the same story. Sky News, CNN, The Guardian, Daily Mail, New York Times, and The Times (UK) – they all ran with it, reinforcing the message: Gaza is gripped by mass starvation, and this image is the proof:

Except this image proves none of it. Wider and unpublished pictures show Mohammed’s healthy brother Joud, who was born on 18 April 2022 and is 3 years old. Mohammed was born on 23 December 2023, just two months after October 7.

What we can see from the pictures is that both Mohammed’s mother and his older brother, look healthy and are not suffering from any type of starvation that would be necessary to cause the thinness suffered by Mohammed. This is visible in multiple images we have in our possession. The published images in all the various news broadcasts and publications have either been deliberately cropped to remove the image of the healthy brother, blurred him into obscurity, or the journalists have only chosen to use photos in which the brother is not visible at all.

Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq /Mutawwaq was born with serious genetic disorders. He has needed specialist medical supplements since birth. Like previous examples of the media using ‘starving children’ going back to summer 2024 – the image is of a child suffering underlying (and hidden) health issues.

A medical report issued in May 2025 by the Basma Association for Relief in Gaza states that Mohammed, has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy – a group of neurological disorders affecting movement, muscle tone, and posture. The report notes that Mohammed suffers from hypoxemia (low oxygen in the blood), possibly linked to a suspected genetic disorder inherited in an ‘autosomal recessive pattern.’

There is no argument here. I have seen a copy of this report (but obviously won’t produce in full here a child’s medical diagnosis). It was signed by Dr Saeed Mohammed Al Nassan on 20th May 2025.

This revelation raises serious issues of media integrity. The Daily Express picked up a viral image circulating online and published it without verification or context – a textbook example of clickbait journalism, where emotional impact is prioritised over everything else.

Astonishing. The obsession to demonise Israel has completely compromised the media. They're lying to us. 

And the BBC? Oh yes:

The BBC – as per usual went a step further. The BBC *spoke* to his mother, Huda Yassin Al-Matouq / Mutawwaq – and produced a 64 second interview that somehow failed to disclose that Mohammed was a child born with genetic problems and complex medical dependencies. Even in the BBC video, the mother alludes to this – referencing a prolonged struggle, including physiotherapy sessions that had helped him stand. The curvature of the spine another key clue tying the child to a CP diagnosis. But the BBC narrator never addresses this – leaving the audience to believe the heartbreaking physical condition we are seeing is the result of widespread famine.

This is not journalism. This is the UK’s state media deliberately pushing a deceptive narrative that only serves to benefit Hamas and create fake news.