Overview

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is exploring a defamation suit against The New York Times for its July front-page photo of an emaciated Gazan child.
• He described the paper’s July 29 correction as ‘the size of a postage stamp’ hidden in back pages and inadequate to explain the image.
• The New York Times acknowledged that the boy, Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, had pre-existing health problems affecting his appearance.
• The Times’ communications desk publicly rejected Netanyahu’s threat, defending its journalists and underscoring the documented severity of Gaza’s hunger crisis.
• The dispute underscores mounting tensions between political leaders and independent media and follows Netanyahu’s announcement of plans to reassert Israeli control over the Gaza Strip.