[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
The nightly news offers up heartrending images of Gazans, mainly children, who are all skin and bones, and are universally described as victims of a “famine” deliberately caused by the heartless Israelis. It turns out that many of these emaciated Gazans were suffering not from starvation, but from congenital illnesses that give them that appearance of being victims of starvation, with sunken cheeks, ribs showing, scrawny legs. They look as if they are close to death. But the Israelis have studied these examples of “starvation” and revealed the congenital illnesses — not starvation — from which these Gazans have been suffering. These include several cases of cerebral palsy, a rare form of leukemia, and Fanconi’s syndrome, all of which present as emaciated bodies but, in fact, their illnesses have nothing to do with starvation. “Gazan child featured on Daily Mirror suffers from disease, not malnutrition, Israel reveals,” Jerusalem Post, August 24, 2025:
The Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) on Sunday evening published evidence documenting that a Gazan toddler featured on the front page of the UK’s Daily Mirror suffered from a genetic disease, as opposed to malnutrition, which the newspaper claimed.
The Daily Mirror’s front page alleged that three-year-old Karim Ali Fouad Abu Mu’amar’s malnourished appearance and frail physical condition stemmed from what the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared last week to be a famine in the Gaza Strip.
The page featured a photo of the child, along with a headline describing a call from Holocaust survivors to “end aid catastrophe” and “stop starving Gaza’s kids.”
According to COGAT, Mu’amar is suffering from a genetic illness called Fanconi syndrome, which could lead to muscle and urinary tract weakness. The rare kidney disorder is hereditary, with COGAT noting that the disease also affected other members of the child’s family.
A report from the European Hospital in Gaza recovered by COGAT shows Mu’amar’s diagnosis as a 10-month-old infant.
“The terrorist organization Hamas continues to spread false narratives as part of a deceptive propaganda campaign,” COGAT said, accusing foreign media outlets of “serving as their platform without any examination or verification.”…
Around the world, the pro-Hamas media have been falsely reporting as examples of deliberate starvation Gazans, almost all of them children, who in fact have been suffering from congenital illnesses that give them an emaciated appearance; the world’s media have paid no attention to Israeli claims about those congenital illnesses, and simply pass on, without investigating, Hamas’ claims about children “being starved to death in Gaza.”
Surely part of the story about “Gazan children” suffering from “deliberate starvation” is that so many of those children who are depicted as such victims in fact are not starving at all, but are instead victims of congenital diseases, including a rare form of leukemia, cerebral palsy, and Fanconi’s syndrome, that give them that heartrending emaciated appearance. The Israelis have repeatedly pointed this out, but having made up its mind about the surpassing villainy of the Jews, the world’s media is disinclined to listen. Still, the Israelis must continue to make their case. And we can continue to help make it for them.