Mark Levin slams viral Gaza photo as anti-Israel propaganda

There’s a ghastly photograph of an 18-month-old Palestinian boy named Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq that’s gone viral. In the image, he appears severely malnourished, his spine protruding from his back while he lies in his mother’s arms in Gaza.

It’s a gut punch of a photo that makes even the staunchest Israel supporter wince.

That’s why major media outlets — including the New York Times, the Daily Express, the Guardian, CNN, and the Daily Mail, among others — have circulated the image. It’s top-tier pathos to push the narrative that Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is the fault of genocidal Israel.

Except the photo is a lie.

“That child was dying, but he was dying from a disease that he had at birth,” says Mark Levin, condemning the framing of the photograph as “horrendous propaganda.”

While Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq’s condition is a tragedy — no child deserves such a fate — it adds insult to injury to use his predicament to further the lie that Israel is responsible for Gaza’s starvation.

“That photo made it around the world. Western media covered it. American media covered it. Prime ministers used it. Presidents used it. Everybody was using it to condemn Netanyahu and the Israelis as committing genocide and war crimes,” says Levin.

While it’s true that Gaza is indeed suffering from starvation, it’s Hamas who has blood on its hands, not Israel.

Levin plays a recent clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sharing the truth about Gaza’s crisis on NBC News' “Meet the Press.”

“Israel, since this war began, has supplied over 94,000 truckloads full of food. It's enough food to feed 2 million people for two years. [They’ve been] trying to get that into Gaza, but Hamas has stolen the food. … In 2024, the numbers are that Hamas profited over $500 million in stolen food aid that was supposed to go to these poor people who needed it,” he told Kristen Welker.

“The U.N. needs to work with Israel to make sure that the food is getting to the people that need it most. … That's Israel's intention. That's the U.S.' intention and the U.N. as well,” he added.

While Levin praises Johnson for speaking the truth about Hamas being the cause of Gaza’s starvation, he corrects the narrative that the U.N. seeks to help starving Gazans.

“The U.N.'s working with Hamas, just like UNRWA worked with Hamas. The U.N. wants all the food to go through the U.N. so the U.N. can then work with Hamas,” he says.

To hear more of his analysis and commentary, watch the video above.

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