Slandering Israel Comes Easy

"Hundreds of aid trucks have entered Gaza with Israel's approval, but the supplies are standing idle, undelivered."

"The reason? The UN refuses to distribute the aid. Hamas and the UN prevents the aid to reach the civilians in Gaza."

"The world deserves to know the truth."

"But BBC, CNN, Daily Express and The New York Times spread a misleading story using a picture of a sick, disabled child to promote a narrative of mass starvation in Gaza -- playing into the hands of Hamas's propaganda war."

"Without proper disclosure. Without medical context. Without journalistic ethics." 

Israeli Foreign Ministry  

Humanitarian aid packages waiting to be picked up on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing on July 24, 2025. “The UN refuses to distribute the aid,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry says. Photo by  by Amir Levy/Getty Images

 British investigative journalist David Collier wrote an explanation that one of the children used as a shaming condemnation against Israel purportedly failing to ensure that sufficient humanitarian aid reaches the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, a child with the surname al-Matouq "suffers from cerebral palsy, has hypoxemia, and was born with a serious genetic disorder", data extracted from a 2025 medical file.

 

A BBC documentary titled "Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone" was discovered by Mr. Collier to have been narrated by the son of a senior Hamas official. That revelation led to embarrassment on the part of the British public broadcaster and a retraction of the documentary. The photograph of the emaciated child saw sensational use by international media testifying to the devastation brought by Israel's war in Gaza and the resulting aid crisis there.

 

Last Thursday, the New York Times digital story was entitled "Gazans are dying of starvation", over the image of the skeletal child. "A horrifying image encapsulating the maelstrom of human misery gripping Gaza" was how the Daily Express captioned the heart-rending photograph of Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub Al-Matouq.  

 

Unlike his brother standing by his side, Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq suffers from cerebral palsy.

 

And then there is the image of five-year-old Osama al-Rakab, yet another child whose photograph saw use as an illustration of the threat of child malnourishment resulting from Israel's 'blockade' of humanitarian aid entering the Strip. Al Jazeera  featured the little boy's skeletal torso throughout a number of Italian media outlets to extract maximum disgust from news readers, holding Israel responsible for the pitiable condition of the child.

 

Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), divulged that al-Rakab "suffers from a serious genetic illness unrelated to the war", and with his mother and brother had been transported out of Gaza to an airport in Israel destined for treatment abroad. "This is what a modern blood libel looks like: A sick child. A hijacked photo. A lie that spreads faster than truth", wrote the Israeli Foreign Ministry on its X account.

 

A third infant, 11-month-old Sila Barbakh was featured on Israel's official X account, who "isn't starving", but rather "suffers from a pre-existing chronic gastrointestinal illness, unrelated to the war". In none of these pathetic photos of children suffering from dread diseases were they captioned 'for illustrative purposes only', unrelated to Hamas's wildly successful public relations' campaign aimed at the gullible West.  

 

His name is Osama al-Raqab. He has cystic fibrosis, a serious genetic illness. He’s been in Italy receiving treatment since June 12. Israel enabled his medical transfer from Gaza.

 

The Times of London found it useful when featuring tiny Barbakh's suffering from starvation to expand y explaining that the baby weighted a mere "seven-and-a-half pounds". According to data published by the Hamas-operated Gaza Health Ministry, 56 Palestinians had died in July of starvation. About half the total number reputed to have died of starvation since the war began on October 7, 2023 when Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas stormed into southern Israel to launch its campaign of rape, pillage, torture and mass slaughter. 

 

Humanitarian supplies handover was shifted away from the United Nations in May, with an U.S.-backed, Israeli-supported group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), taking the initiative. Civilians in Gaza had then to travel into areas controlled by Israeli military to receive the supplies. That solved the issues involved in Hamas armed operatives taking control of aid-delivery trucks to have the goods they carried stuffed into Hamas warehouses, and withheld from the civilian population. Some of that aid ended up at open-air marketplaces selling for exorbitant prices. Most of it was sidelined for the exclusive use of Hamas operatives.

 

Today, the IDF invited dozens of international journalists to the Kerem Shalom crossing inside Gaza, to see for themselves. Israeli Foreign Ministry

 

Reportedly, GHF distributed close to 90 million meals to civilians while facing significant opposition from Hamas, which had attacked and murdered a dozen Palestinian employees of GHF who had been working with the group to help distribute the aid. According to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Hamas offered bounties to any of their followers who kill American contractors or any Palestinians assisting their endeavours in providing aid.

 

The United Nations has accused Israel of reportedly killing hundreds of Gazans seeking aid in what is  essentially an active war zone. Many more have died resulting from stampedes in the chaos of crowds of Palestinians vying among one another to receive aid. A week ago Israel announced its intention to once again commit to airdrops of humanitarian aid, alongside Arab nations, including Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. Airdrops had been suspended in view of properties being destroyed and civilians being hit by the airdrops.

 

People carrying aid parcels from the privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) walk along the Salah al-Din road near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip (Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images)

 

The New York Times claimed that the "Israeli military never found proof that the Palestinian militant group had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations, the biggest supplier of emergency assistance to Gaza for most of the war". In response, the Israel Defense Forces released a video showing Hamas militants with rifles "looting an aid truck", while civilians gathered about.  These same images were shared by Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian-American academic, senior fellow with the Atlantic Council. Showing Hamas operatives stealing aid during an earlier ceasefire.

 

"Right here before your eyes! But according to NGOs & media, there's still 'no evidence' of theft", charged Alkhatib who has been a vocal critic of Hamas and the Netanyahu government, both. Alkhatib shared a video in another post, showing Hamas police officers who stripped, arrested and beat Palestinians who had gone out to the GHF aid distribution site, and paid the consequences, with the aid they had gathered taken from them, for their pains. 

 

 A truck loaded with food on the Israeli side of the border crossing heads back into Gaza. However, the food is sitting for days or weeks before it can be distributed. The U.N. and aid groups say they face a host of problems that include a shortage of trucks and fuel due to the war, as well as criminal gangs that are looting the supplies.    Maya Levin for NPR

Hamas Victimizing Palestinian Civilians Again

"At least five fatalities, multiple injuries and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage." 

"We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms. These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons and friends who were risking their lives every day to  help others."

"Our hearts are broken and our thoughts and prayers are with every victim, every family and every person still unaccounted for."

"We call on the international community to immediately condemn Hamas for this unprovoked attack and continued threat against our people simply trying to feed the Palestinian people."

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation statement 

 

"[Our forces have] full authority and mandate to strike decisively against any entity or individual collaborating with the enemy’s plans or with any rogue, criminal, or traitorous elements that violate the law and the traditions of our people."

"All agents, thieves, and armed criminal gangs are considered legitimate targets for the resistance and its security apparatus."

Hamas media 

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says at least five of its workers were killed and some are feared to be taken hostage following an attack by Hamas terrorists on Wednesday night. Photo by EYAD BABA /AFP via Getty Images

A bus carrying some two dozen members of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation team in the Gaza Strip was attacked by Hamas. Local Palestinians working alongside with the U.S. GHF team were travelling to one of the U.S.-backed aid group's distribution centres located west of Khan Younis, when the strike took place on Wednesday morning, according to the foundation. 

 

Independent of the United Nations, the group has been establishing aid depots at various points in the Gaza Strip in a determined effort to deliver food aid to Palestinian civilians, in a marked purpose to ensure that Hamas has no opportunity as it did formerly, to divert much of the humanitarian aid from the civilian population to their warehouses for their own use, and for sale on the black market at astronomical prices. 

 

The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, expressed his frustration and that of the Israeli administration at the continued threats and violence levelled by Hamas toward the humanitarian group and toward Palestinian civilians who travel to the depots to take advantage of the aid, infuriating Hamas, which sees its authority flouted and its source of additional income and supplies being thwarted.  

"This attack did not happen in a vacuum. For days, Hamas has openly threatened our team, our aid workers, and the civilians who receive aid from us."

"These threats were met with silence [from the international community]."

"The GHF is committed to helping the wounded and the families of the deceased and injured. We are working through many channels to transfer the injured from the hospital in Khan Younis to facilities with more robust capabilities."

"Parties holding the remains of the deceased [are called on] to immediately release them to their families. [We will continue] delivering food aid to the people of Gaza after this tragedy."

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation  

David May, research manager, and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wryly observed: "The perverse incentives of the international community will punish the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for having its staff murdered, and reward Hamas for doing the murdering". His colleague at the organization, CEO Mark Dubowitz had this to add: "Hamas killing Palestinians working to deliver aid to Palestinians. Will this get reported? Don't hold  your breath."  

"The Hamas terrorist regime has zero care for Israelis and, as we continue to see, has  zero care for the people of Gaza."

"It's why they launch terrorist attacks from urban settings and civilian infrastructure."

"We are monitoring closely concerning reports of Hamas once again doing whatever it can to thwart humanitarian distribution efforts." 

Danny Danon, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations  

People transport relief supplies on a cart from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. Photo by EYAD BABA /AFP via Getty Images