Reduced to skin and bones in Gaza: Horrifying story behind photo of starving child with a plastic bag as a nappy

Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq is photographed, spine and ribs exposed, in his mother’s arms in the bare tent they now share in Gaza City. 

Aged 18 months, the stark reality of the war is all he has ever known. He is said to have dropped from nine kilograms to just six – half the weight of a healthy child his age – as the civilian population of Gaza wrestles with the threat of starvation.

These harrowing images, taken by journalist Ahmed al-Arini, featured in the pages of newspapers around the world this week, a poignant reminder of the human toll of the conflict as leaders debate the sense in continuing peace talks. 

Mr al-Arini told the BBC: ‘I took this photo because I wanted to show the rest of the world the extreme hunger that babies and children are suffering from in the Gaza Strip.

He said that Muhammad and his mother had been displaced by the conflict from their home in northern Gaza, and that he found them in a tent entirely bare ‘bar a little oven’.

‘It resembles a tomb.’

The infant Muhammad is dressed only in a nappy improvised from a bin bag – a result, the photographer says, of the lack of aid flowing into Gaza. His mother, sallow and gaunt, supports his head with her frail hand.

The child had received no baby milk, no formula and no vitamins, Mr al-Arini said.

After 21 months of protracted conflict in Gaza, Israel announced on Thursday that it was recalling its negotiating team from talks with Hamas, casting doubt on hopes for a lasting and imminent ceasefire.

But on the ground, civilians held in the crossfire cannot afford to wait, according to the United Nations and more than 100 international NGOs, who warned this week that Palestinians are beginning to die of hunger en masse.

Gaza’s population of some 2.1 million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, intensified by a blockade imposed between March and May, and the limit on resources now trickling in. Many hundreds have been killed awaiting food at humanitarian centres, according to the UN human rights office.

While raw statistics reflect the scale of devastation and loss brought on by the war, a small collection of photographs published this week have moved onlookers world over to intensify calls for peace.

Across the Gaza Strip, many children like Muhammad have been born into starvation. Even were the conflict to end tomorrow, there is still no clear path to rebuilding the vast majority of homes and public services destroyed in the war.

On Friday, Médecins Sans Frontières warned that a quarter of all young children in Gaza are now malnourished, and that rates of severe malnutrition in children under five triple in the last two weeks alone.

Gaza health authorities say more than 100 people have died from starvation, most of them in recent weeks. Human rights groups have said mass starvation is spreading even as tonnes of food and other supplies sit untouched just outside the enclave.

On Friday, UNICEF told Reuters that agencies would run out of the crucial specialised therapeutic food needed to save malnourished children by August if nothing changes. A spokesperson said they only had enough Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to treat 3,000 children.

Nutrient-dense, high-calorie RUTF supplies, such as high-energy biscuits and peanut paste enriched with milk powder, are critical for treating severe malnutrition.

UNICEF said that from April to mid-July, 20,504 children were admitted with acute malnutrition. Of those patients, 3,247 were suffering from severe acute malnutrition, nearly triple the number in the first three months of the year. 

Severe acute malnutrition can lead to death, and to long-term physical and mental developmental health problems in children who survive. 

The scale of suffering in Gaza has increasingly pressured onlookers to respond to the crisis. Britain’s Foreign Minister David Lammy said today that the deteriorating situation was ‘indefensible’ and repeated calls for a ceasefire.

‘The sight of children reaching for aid and losing their lives has caused consternation over much of the world. And that is why I repeat my call today for a ceasefire,’ he said, adding: ‘The deteriorating situation we’ve seen in Gaza over the last few weeks is indefensible.’

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that France intends to recognise a Palestinian state in September in the hopes of bringing peace to the region, drawing sharp rebuke from Israel and the United States.

There were whispers that Britain might be looking to follow suit. One minister told the Financial Times on Thursday: ‘That is where we are heading.’

A senior Labour official said, meanwhile that the ‘block on this is Keir [Starmer] himself as well as his senior advisors’ as ‘they want to stay close to the U.S.’

British science and technology minister Peter Kyle then told Sky News today: ‘We want Palestinian statehood, we desire it, and we want to make sure the circumstances can exist where that kind of long-term political solution can have the space to evolve.’

‘But right now, today, we’ve got to focus on what will ease the suffering, and it is extreme, unwarranted suffering in Gaza that has to be the priority for us today.’

On statehood, he added: ‘Keir Starmer wants this more than anyone else, but believes it is a crucial step towards delivering the peace and security into the future, and needs to be a negotiated peace within the region itself. It can’t be forced.” 

Still, sticking points remain around a Gaza ceasefire.

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Thursday he was bringing his team home from Doha in Qatar ‘after the latest response from Hamas, which clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza’.

He said that Hamas ‘does not appear to be co-ordinated or acting in good faith’ and that ‘we will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza’.

For its part, Hamas said it was surprised by the decision of Israel and the U.S. to back out of talks, insisting it wanted to continue negotiations.

One senior Israeli official insisted there was ‘no collapse’ in talks, the Times of Israel reported. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is yet to comment on why their negotiators were leaving Doha.

Israel has said it will not agree to a ceasefire until Hamas gives up power in Gaza and disarms. Hamas says it is willing to leave power but not give up its weapons.

Ceasefire talks are now expected to resume next week following Israel’s review of Hamas’ response, Egyptian state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said on Friday, citing an Egyptian source. 

As world leaders look for a way out of the conflict, civilians on the ground continue to endure the worst of its horrors.

According to the UN’s human rights office, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food aid over the last two months. Just over three quarters were said to have been killed near one of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s four distribution centers.

Israel has accused Hamas of instigating chaos near the aid sites. It says its troops have only fired warning shots, and that they do not deliberately shoot civilians.