As long as there have been wars, official images of heroism stood in contrast to depictions of suffering. In many cases, the latter had a tremendous impact in shaping public opinion. Who can forget Eddie Adams’ 1968 photo of a South Vietnamese police captain executing a Vietcong agent in broad daylight on a street in Saigon? Likewise, Nick Ut’s 1972 photo of a Vietnamese girl fleeing from a napalm bombing in which the South Vietnamese air force accidentally bombed a village. Both photographers received the Pulitzer Prize for these images, which contributed to the rising public opposition to the American role in that war.
In this century, photos of Iraqi prisoners shackled at their ankles while wearing black bags on their heads at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad resulted in the same effect on public opinion. With the war in Gaza, the prevalence of smartphones and social media brought out an endless torrent of images from this coastal strip. In contrast to wars of the past, anyone wearing a press vest receives the trusted status of a journalist. Photos showing lifeless bodies underneath rubble were splashed on cover pages and shared across social media, without inquiry regarding their source.
Hassan Eslaiah is one such example. His photos were distributed by Getty Images, Reuters, and Associated Press, wire services trusted by countless news organizations worldwide. But he was later identified as a Hamas operative, who proudly shared a photo of himself being kissed by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in 2000. When Eslaiah was killed in May by an Israeli airstrike, many news outlets and human rights organizations dutifully added his name to the list of journalists killed by Israel.
Yousef Masoud is another example, having taken a photo of Hamas terrorists on October 7, standing triumphantly atop an Israeli tank. It earned him the George Polk Award for photojournalism, alongside Samar Abu Elouf on behalf of The New York Times. There was no explanation provided by the newspaper or the awards committee on the photographers’ connection to the breaching of the Gaza border. If they knew about it in advance, did they have a responsibility to report it?
“Though Yousef was not working for The Times on the day of the attack, he has since done important work for us,” the newspaper wrote in its defense in November 2023. “There is no evidence for Honest Reporting’s insinuations. Our review of his work shows that he was doing what photojournalists always do during major news events, documenting the tragedy as it unfolded.”
Last week’s viral photo was taken by Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-Arini of the Turkish Anadolu Agency, which was then splashed on the front page of The New York Times and republished by numerous news channels, magazines, and newspapers. It depicts an emaciated Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq held by his mother, Hedaya al-Muta. After its publication, independent reporter David Collier investigated its subject and learned that Muhammad was born with a genetic disorder and diagnosed with cerebral palsy. In another photo, his brother Joud is seen standing behind Muhammad, appearing much healthier.
“This isn’t the face of famine,” Collier wrote on his website. “It’s the face of a medically vulnerable child whose suffering was hijacked and weaponized—first by Hamas, then by global media.”
While the nature of the online media landscape exacerbates the dissemination of “fake news,” it also allows for independent journalists to fact-check the biggest names in news reporting.
“This revelation raises serious issues of media integrity. The Daily Express picked up a viral image circulating online and published it without verification or context—a textbook example of clickbait journalism, where emotional impact is prioritized over everything else,” Collier wrote. “And here’s the bitter truth: I shouldn’t have to do this. (his emphasis in bold) It shouldn’t fall on me to call out the world’s biggest media outlets for their failure to act like journalists. Why are almost all of them functioning as Hamas’ useful idiots, amplifying propaganda with no effort to verify the facts? Is it really too much to expect them to do their jobs?”
In the same week that Al-Arini’s photo resulted in the recognition of Palestinian sovereignty by France, Britain, Canada, and many Democratic elected officials in this country, a video of an individual in actual starvation, Evyatar David, 24, was shared by Hamas.
It depicts the Israeli hostage in a tunnel digging his own grave and writing a message on a wall. Like the Palestinian boy in the viral photo, David’s ribs and shoulder blades jut out, as he barely stands for the camera.
“We are forced to witness our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza—a living skeleton, buried alive,” his family wrote in a statement.
This photo was published on the front page of The New York Post, but no other major American newspaper. To earn as much sympathy as possible for its cause, Hamas juxtaposed David with images of Palestinian children, resulting in global condemnation of genocide by Israel. This video resulted in the opposite effect by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet, who now speak of reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip.
In truth, there are millions of food packages awaiting delivery to Gaza, some of which have been distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which coordinates with Israel and the United States. But most countries would rather see food delivered without Israeli input, with trucks that are picked apart by gunmen after entering Gaza, civilian flotillas organized by celebrities, and airdrops without any awareness of conditions on the ground. These countries say that as the “occupying power,” Israel has the responsibility to provide for the needs of the Palestinians, but they refuse to work with Israel to deliver the goods.
Some of the parachuted food ended up in the sea, the hands of terrorists, and in a few tragic incidents, crushing the people that stood to benefit. These self-congratulatory methods are not helping the people of Gaza; they further complicate a difficult situation in which aid workers were killed and, fearing for their lives, soldiers fired live bullets at crowds rushing to receive food.
Perhaps it is better for Israel to allow for these poorly planned efforts to take place, in which other countries drop packages by parachute, with another pier constructed on the shore. Let the French, Irish, and other Westerners feel good about themselves. But as long as there are Israeli captives kept in darkness, away from actual and self-identifying journalists, watchdogs, and aid workers, there can be no parallel between Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq and Evyatar David. The former has become a cause célèbre. He is accessible to the world and can be evacuated to any country willing to treat his medical condition, while the latter is isolated, with only short videos and photos periodically released to testify that he is alive. Until the front pages of the world focus on the failures of food distribution, vetting photographers, and the intransigence of Hamas to release the captives, Israel retains the moral high ground.