Netanyahu says the 3 ‘most celebrated photos’ accusing Israel of starving Gaza children are ‘all fake,’ threatens possible suit against NY Times

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blames Hamas and the international media for promoting false allegations of Israeli-imposed starvation in Gaza — describing a “global campaign of lies,” and saying that the facts he has set out in his press conference thus far can be “verified easily.”

While 2 million people in Gaza are now getting access to humanitarian aid, “the only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” he says.

He shows a still of the emaciated Israeli hostage Evyatar David, as seen in a recent Hamas propaganda video. “Look at his hand, at his arm. He is being deliberately starved by these Hamas monsters,” says Netanyahu, pointing also to the plump arm in the shot of one of the Hamas captors who, he says, is plainly “eating well.”

The distorted reality of Gaza “has been propelled around the Earth almost the way that the Jewish people were maligned in the Middle Ages.”

“Every massacre of the Jewish people was preceded by massive vilification,” he notes. “We were said to be spreading vermin to Christian society. We were said to be poisoning the wells. We were said to slaughter Christian children for their blood. And as these lies spread around the globe, they were followed by horrific massacres, pogroms, displacements, finally culminating in the worst massacre of them all: The Holocaust.

“Today, the Jewish state is being maligned in a similar way,” he charges.

Netanyahu accuses the international press of having “bought hook, line, and sinker” Hamas propaganda.

He points to viral images of three malnourished children as “fake” photos whose publishers ignored their preexisting health conditions.

First, he refers to 5-year-old Osama al-Rakab, who suffers from a serious “genetic disease that damages the lungs and digestive system that makes it hard to absorb nutrients and gain weight,” and who underwent treatment in Italy “because Israel got him out… Israel facilitated Osama’s travel to Italy where he got the medical aid” that he needed, says Netanyahu.

Second, he points to Abdul Qader al-Fayoumi, who reportedly died of starvation in Gaza, saying the teen suffered from “a genetic neurological disorder, spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative condition that causes muscle-wasting weakness and severe weight loss unrelated to nutrition. This was the real cause of his real appearance, not starvation,” says Netanyahu. He was treated in Israel in 2018, but his disease defies most treatments, the prime minister adds.

Finally, he turns to what he calls the “most celebrated” case — a New York Times front-page photograph showing Muhammad Zakaria Ayoub al-Mutawaq and his mother. He says Muhammad suffers from cerebral palsy, and notes that “his mother is well fed and his brother is healthy.”

“I’m looking right now into the possibility of a governmental suit against the New York Times because this is outrageous,” Netanyahu says. He notes that the New York Times issued a correction regarding the story, a correction that he says was small and that the paper “buried.”

“These are the three most celebrated photos, and they’re all fake,” he fumes. “We won’t allow it to go unchallenged, and this is the purpose of this press conference,” he says. “I hope you can open your eyes to the simple fact that Hamas lies.”

While the photos of al-Mutawaq failed to mention the serious illness he suffers from, senior Israeli doctors have said that his severely emaciated state is not the result of his preexisting condition alone, and that it is likely exacerbated due to an inability to access the proper nutritional supplements.