How Mohammed Al-Matouq's Medical Condition Broke the Internet
Major media outlets omitted a Gazan child's cerebral palsy when attributing his emaciation to war — generating over a billion impressions for political propaganda
An emaciated Gazan child's image triggered global outrage and millions of social media impressions after major news outlets framed it as proof of what contended was an Israeli policy of intentional starvation. However, investigative reporting has revealed the child, Mohammed Al-Matouq, suffers from cerebral palsy and genetic disorders requiring specialized nutrition since birth – critical medical context omitted from widespread media coverage by Sky News, The New York Times, BBC, and The Guardian, and countless others.
A social media analysis by Jewish Onliner shows the misleading narrative generated approximately 429.9 thousand posts and 2.08 million interactions with a potential reach of 1.15 billion users worldwide in just four days.
The Social Media Explosion
Analysis conducted by Jewish Onliner revealed the combined metrics regarding the viral spread of this story across X (formerly Twitter) from July 24-27, 2025:
Posts featuring "Mohammed Al-Matouq," "baby/babies," and "Gaza" generated:
• Posts: 429.9K
• Interactions: 2.08M
• Potential reach: 1.15B
These figures represent only text-based mentions, not counting images or videos sharing the same narrative, highlighting the extraordinary amplification of a story that omitted crucial medical context.
The Image That Misled the World
The photograph in question, taken on July 22, 2025, by a photographer from Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency, shows a severely thin child, Mohammed Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, being held by his mother. The Daily Express first featured it prominently on July 23, followed quickly by Sky News, CNN, The New York Times, BBC, Guardian, and numerous other major outlets.
The Daily Express described it as "a horrifying image encapsulating the 'maelstrom of human misery' gripping Gaza," adding that Mohammed "weighs the same as a three-month-old baby, as famine slowly snuffs out life." Similar framing appeared across global media, portraying the image as definitive evidence of widespread famine conditions allegedly caused by Israeli policies.
The Omitted Medical Reality
Investigative journalist David Collier discovered critical information absent from mainstream reporting: Mohammed suffers from cerebral palsy, hypoxemia, and was born with serious genetic disorders requiring specialized nutritional supplements since birth.
A medical report issued in Gaza in May 2025 by the Basma Association for Relief confirms these diagnoses. Yet this crucial context wasn't disclosed by a single major news outlet that featured the image.
"This isn't the face of famine," Collier reported. "It's the face of a medically vulnerable child whose tragic situation was hijacked and weaponised."
Media outlets systematically excluded images showing Mohammed's healthy family members. Wider photographs reveal Mohammed's 3-year-old brother Joud appears well-nourished, as does his mother – visual evidence contradicting the narrative that Mohammed's condition stemmed solely from widespread famine.
The BBC's coverage exemplifies the problematic reporting surrounding this case. In a 64-second interview with Mohammed's mother, she referenced his history of physiotherapy – a clear indication of pre-existing medical issues. Yet the BBC narrator never addressed this, instead allowing viewers to believe the child's condition resulted from widespread famine.
The Facts Emerge
CNN finally acknowledged in a broadcast aired on July 27 that the boy's mother explained Mohammed suffers from a muscle disorder requiring ongoing physical therapy and specialized nutrition. When he had access to these medical necessities, she stated he was "happy" and "could sit upright."
This revelation confirmed that Mohammed's condition stemmed primarily from his health disorders rather than from a lack of food caused by Israeli policies. As Collier put it, "Mohammed is not simply a victim of starvation. His condition stems from a health disorder."
The Aid Distribution Controversy
While media coverage focused on the image as evidence of Israeli-caused famine, reports from the World Food Programme (WFP) documented that Israel has been attempting to facilitate aid delivery into Gaza, stating there is "no limit on the number of trucks that can be manifested."
Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst reported that five separate routes were offered to the UN to distribute aid sitting inside Gaza. According to multiple sources, hundreds of aid trucks have been waiting at border crossings, with humanitarian organizations refusing to distribute the supplies under various pretexts.
The Human Cost of Misleading Narratives
Lost in the geopolitical framing is the reality of Mohammed's situation – he is a medically vulnerable child with cerebral palsy and genetic disorders who requires specialized care. This care was once available to him and could be again, regardless of the broader political situation.
By focusing exclusively on the famine narrative while omitting his medical condition, media coverage has arguably exploited his suffering rather than accurately reporting it. Meanwhile, the massive social media amplification has turned his image into a political symbol to demonize Israel rather than accurately representing his specific medical needs.
Im not sure I understand what you are getting at here.
Is it your contention that children are not starving in Gaza?
Rabbi James Kennard, Facebook post Jan 2024:
On a Spring day in March 1144, the body of a twelve-year old boy named William was found in the forest near the English town of Norwich. Although no-one was convicted of the murder, William’s uncle, a priest, had no doubt as to who was to blame; it was the town’s Jews who had killed the boy as part of a bizarre religious ritual. The Jews were protected from the mob by the local sheriff, but the entire local community was wiped out fifty years later. William became a saint and developed his own cult, and Norwich achieved notoriety as the home of the first blood libel of the mediaeval world.
More followed. “Saint Harold of Gloucester”; “Saint Robert of Bury”; “Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln” and many others punctuated the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Each blood libel brought pogroms, executions and expulsion in its wake. After the Jews were exiled from England, the madness spread to Europe and thence to Asia and the Arab lands.
This tragic story tells us that a lie, repeated a sufficient number of times and echoed by enough sources, can be accepted as valid. Even though Jewish law mandates the avoidance of even a trace of blood – to such an extent that every egg must be checked for any specks before it is eaten – the notion that Jews killed children in order to drink their blood took hold of populations across the world.
This was not just a result of the primitive superstition and religious fervour of the Middle Ages; as late as 1840 the Jews of Damascus were accused of ritual murder– allegations that were re-visited in a book by the Syrian Defence Minister in 1986. In the twentieth century, blood libels occurred in Iran, Ukraine and even in New York. In 2002 a government-backed Saudi newspaper ran a series of articles confirming the "veracity" of instances of ritual murder by Jews.
Ideological convictions played a significant part in spreading and perpetuating the myths. The Christian Church, whose philosophical foundation partially rested on the belief that Jews were Christ-killers, had an interest in extrapolating this belief to make Jews baby-killers as well. Political motives were also involved. Those who owed money to Jewish moneylenders were keen to find an excuse to justify the Jews’ banishment and the confiscation of their property. Thus both clergy and politicians conspired to create a “narrative” in which “the Jews are guilty” became a natural and even automatic assumption on the discovery of any crime.
And myth generates myth. Once it is “established” that William of Norwich was a victim of the Jews, it seemed logical to assume the same of Harold and Robert. The story of little Hugh was spread by poem and ballad and even earned a mention in The Canterbury Tales. Word of mouth, the social media of the day, served to provide instant judgements against which accurate investigation provided no match.
Today we pride ourselves on our sophistication and intellectual rigour. We assume that no mass delusion could take place in the modern age. We are wrong.
Now, as then, critical masses of intelligent people believe in distorted narratives and unashamed lies spread, not be minstrels or chronicling monks, but by twitter and instagram, where millions share stories and instant judgements without any scrutiny or accountability.
Now, as then, Jews are the “other”, “untrustworthy”, “in league with a foreign power” and “the cause of their own misfortune”. Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, is “demonic” and the “root of literally all the evil in the world”. Some of our attackers are careful to distinguish between Jews and Zionists, yet they regard all Jews as guilty of this “sin” until proven innocent.
Now, as then, Jews are accused of murder, yet this time it is on the scale of “genocide” - a charge which conveniently absolves the world for committing or allowing the Holocaust.
Now as then the generators and transmitters of these lies regard themselves as intelligent, rational and unprejudiced. They “do not have an antisemitic bone” in their bodies. They care only for the protection of little children (or at least those whose tragic deaths can be blamed on Jews).
This vast surge of modern-day antisemitism is found in the anti-Israel demonstrations on the streets, and especially in the sewers of social media. Some of the manifestations of the world’s oldest hatred have not yet reached the mainstream, nor the majority of the political class. But if we listen carefully to the media, we can hear these evil and barbaric notions about Jews inching closer and closer to the status of fact.
We can hear our government leaders downplay antisemitism by never even uttering the word without adding "and Islamophobia".
We can hear how the atrocities of October 7 are minimised, contextualised and denied.
We can hear how claims by the Hamas murderers are accepted without question, while statements from Israel are "unverified".
And we can hear how Israel is held to an infinitely higher standard than any other nation on earth.
Lies that are repeated often enough inevitably sow doubt and raise questions. Can so many people on twitter be wrong? Can so many journalists and commentators be biased, misreporting or distorting facts to fit their own prejudices?
The lesson of history is that they can. The evidence before us is that they are. The terrible fear is that this is just the beginning.