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Short answer
When Hamas controls the narrative coming out of Gaza, you’re not getting news — you’re watching scripted propaganda.
Bild’s August 2025 investigation proved it: photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha staged “famine” photos, cropping out the part where food was actually being handed out. The investigation even revealed how the scene was set up — the camera position was carefully chosen to hide the aid being distributed, making it look like people were desperately waiting with nothing. It wasn’t journalism; it was a production.
Fteiha’s own Instagram — filled with combat gear and “F*** Israel” posts — doesn’t exactly scream balanced, neutral journalism.
The so-called images of “starving children” often turn out to be kids suffering from congenital or genetic illnesses, while the emaciated adults turn out to be cancer patients — frequently photographed next to well-fed relatives. Lies, packaged as famine.
As historian Gerhard Paul told Bild: “Hamas controls 100% of image production” in southern Gaza. The rules are clear: no rockets, no stolen aid, no stocked warehouses. Break them, and you risk your life — so foreign reporters stick to the Hamas-approved script.The result? Perfectly staged optics for Western outrage. And yes — CNN, BBC, New York Magazine, and Stern all ran with it.
Long answer
In August 2025, Bild confirmed what many suspected: some Gaza “starvation” photos were staged. Their investigation exposed photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha, working for Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, who was caught creating perfect photo-ops for Hamas. While other photographers documented adults receiving food at the same scenes, Fteiha cropped those moments out and selectively focused only on “initial desperation.”
The staging was obvious — outtake videos and photos showed supposedly “starving” children smiling and laughing. Even more telling, Bild revealed that the entire setup was deliberately framed: the camera was positioned to hide the food distribution site, capturing only the waiting crowd and not the aid being handed out just meters away. It wasn’t a snapshot of reality — it was a manufactured scene, crafted for maximum emotional manipulation.
Fteiha’s personal bias in the Gaza war dictated what images reached the media. CNN, BBC, New York Magazine, Stern, and others ran with them — and Time even put one on its cover.
Hamas has long relied on local journalists to manufacture propaganda, staging photos and videos designed to fuel outrage abroad. Many of these so-called reporters openly support Hamas, post anti-Israel slogans, and share links to pro-Hamas propaganda. Their job isn’t to document reality but to curate images that advance Hamas’s narrative while hiding evidence of Hamas brutality or scenes of Gazans protesting and blaming Hamas itself. Western outlets then recycle this material uncritically, giving Hamas’s propaganda theater global reach.
Historian and photography expert Gerhard Paul, quoted by Bild, summed it up bluntly: in southern Gaza, “Hamas controls 100% of image production.”
Gaza’s press isn’t free — it’s dictated by Hamas. Since October 2023, coverage shifted from partial control to total narrative lockdown. The rules are clear: no footage of Hamas rockets, no aid theft, no full warehouses while civilians starve, no Hamas killing or torturing Gazans in the streets. In Gaza, Hamas runs the media. In the West Bank, Fatah does the same.
So what passes for reporting from Gaza? Anti-Israel propaganda, scripted by Hamas, packaged as “news,” and amplified by international media.
