On July 23rd the BBC News website published a report by David Gritten which was originally headlined “More than 100 humanitarian groups warn of mass starvation in Gaza”, with readers told that:
“More than 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups are warning of mass starvation in Gaza and pressing for governments to take action.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam are among the signatories of a joint statement that says their colleagues and the people they serve are “wasting away”.
It calls for an immediate ceasefire, the opening of all border crossings, and the free flow of aid led by the UN.”
A Spanish language version of the same story appeared on the BBC World Service BBC News Mundo website on the same day and the report was also translated into Portuguese.
Both those versions of the report include the following photograph:
The BBC does not, however, inform its Spanish and Portuguese speaking audiences that the EPA credited photograph was taken nearly two months ago on May 31st 2025 by a photographer called Haitham Imad.
Neither does the BBC bother to clarify that – as reported by several media outlets in recent months – Osama al-Raqab suffers from the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis, which affects the digestive system.
AP: “Osama al-Raqab, 5, whose mother says his cystic fibrosis has worsened since the start of the war due to the lack of meat, fish and enzyme tablets to help him digest food, is being treated at the malnutrition clinic in Nasser hospital, Khan Younis, Gaza, on Thursday, May 1, 2025.” (May 3, 2025)
NBC: “Osama’s grandmother Um Ahmad Al-Raqab called on Israeli authorities to allow her grandson to be evacuated out of Gaza for treatment for cystic fibrosis. The boy had the ailment, which can make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight, when the war began and is now suffering with acute malnutrition.” (April 14, 2025)
Osama al-Raqab was one of seventeen children (see from 04:52 here) who were evacuated from the Gaza Strip on June 10th via Eilat – as reported by the BBC at the time – to receive medical treatment in Italy.
The good news is that Osama al-Raqab’s condition has since improved.
The bad news is that the BBC World Service promoted a nearly two-month-old photograph without informing its millions of Spanish and Portuguese speaking readers of its subject’s medical background, or of the rest of his story, in order to promote its chosen “widespread famine” narrative.
