Overview

• The Times issued an editor’s note revealing that 18-month-old Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq has pre-existing muscle and brain development disorders, but critics say it was posted on a low-traffic PR account and later removed from the main story.
• Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former PM Naftali Bennett have denounced the photo as a “blood libel,” denying that it reflects blockade-driven starvation.
• Gaza’s health ministry reports 151 recent malnutrition-related deaths, 89 of them children, and Medical Aid for Palestinians warns that 44% of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers now suffer severe starvation.
• The World Health Organization warns that key therapeutic supplies are nearly exhausted and Gaza’s few remaining malnutrition wards are overwhelmed, with over 5,000 children treated as outpatients in early July.
• Medical experts stress that while the toddler’s disorder heightens his vulnerability, his extreme emaciation mirrors a broader collapse of food access and healthcare under Israel’s blockade.