On July 27, 2025, David Collier posted about media complicity in the promotion of a libel against Israel that involved a photo of a tragically sick, emaciated Palestinian baby named Mohammed. The photo was originally taken by the Gaza-based photographer Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini and uploaded to his Instagram account on July 22 – framed, falsely, as how Gaza was gripped by ‘mass starvation’ due to alleged Israeli restrictions on aid.
Are the “last reporters in Gaza” starving to death?
That’s what AFP declared in a dramatic press release on July 21 claiming its employees would die without immediate intervention.
But while the media echoed the story around the world, AFP’s own photographers were still out working.
A CNN feature on an alleged “famine” in Gaza offers a case study in what happens when journalists let their storylines lead the facts instead of the other way around. The article’s central premise—that famine has taken hold in Gaza and that Israel is solely to blame—collapses upon examination of CNN’s own reporting.
British Jews and officials blame reckless news reporting demonizing Israel for fueling attacks targeting Diaspora Jews. The Boston Globe's publication and defense of a baseless column comparing Israel to Nazis must be understood against that deadly backdrop.
BBC coverage of the IPC Gaza famine report leaned heavily on UN and NGO claims while failing to provide critical context. Five separate reports repeated unverified Hamas figures, ignored Israeli statements, and failed to address issues such as aid theft, black-market profiteering, or UN distribution failures.
NPR's Aug. 22 "Morning Edition" broadcast, "Famine confirmed in northern Gaza, says U.N.-backed panel," is a confirmed mess of chaotic misreporting about the widely panned IPC documents.
The BBC uncritically amplified an IPC report declaring famine in Gaza City, despite its reliance on an unpublished phone survey, outdated figures, and questionable NGO sources. Israeli rebuttals highlighting these flaws were sidelined, while the BBC promoted voices with a long record of accusing Israel of “engineered starvation.”
Under the guise of "contextualized truth," The Los Angeles Times falsely casts children suffering from serious medical conditions as famine victims. By depriving themselves of the essential ingredients which nourish healthy journalism — seek truth and report it, minimize harm and act independently — LA Times writers have devolved into ghoulish shadows of functioning journalists.
AFP captions accompanying a dozen portraits of Mariam Dawwas report without challenge the mother's claim that the 9-year-old "had no known illness." Independent journalist David Collier outperforms the "leading global news agency," revealing the malnourished girl suffers from intestinal malabsorption.
If the data shows that getting food into Gaza isn’t the problem, then what is? While its policies on aid delivery are open to fair criticism, attempts to portray Israel as solely at fault for hunger in Gaza conflict with reality and do little to actually remedy the situation.
