A child’s hollow eyes stare back from your screen.
His name is Mohammad Al-Motawaq, and he is dying of starvation.
And those who see it will never be the same.
“Behold, we did not know this”
In a tent by the Mediterranean Sea, 30-year-old widow Hidaya Al-Motawaq cradles what remains of her 18-month-old son.¹
As NPR’s Anas Baba reported, Mohammad “is a year and a half old and nearly all bone. His eyes protrude, as does his swollen stomach. His spine is so sharp and so defined, it seems it might poke through his thin skin.”²
At 18 months old, Mohammad “weighs just under 10 pounds” – a child who should be taking first steps now weighs less than most newborns.³
His mother “no longer has breast milk to give him, because she herself is malnourished,” Baba reported.⁴
What she can offer is heartbreaking in its inadequacy – only water while her child wastes away.
The photograph is seared into your memory now. You have seen it. You know.
And that changes everything.
The ancient wisdom of Proverbs warns us: “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?” (Proverbs 24:11-12, ESV)
We can no longer say we didn’t know.
The moral weight of seeing
Mohammad is not alone in his suffering.
Gaza has about 1 million children – roughly half the population. Medical professionals warn that chronic malnutrition is permanently damaging an entire generation.
According to NPR’s reporting, “of more than 56,000 children screened, 9% were found acutely malnourished in the first two weeks of July alone” – a sharp increase from 2.4% in February.⁵
The situation in Gaza City is even more dire, with “16% of 15,000 children” now suffering from acute malnutrition.⁶
The United Nations reports that “about 100,000 women and children are severely malnourished in Gaza and need immediate medical care.”⁷
Gaza health authorities report that “more than 130 people have died from causes it described as ‘famine and malnutrition’ since the start of the war,” with “six people died from these causes in the previous 24 hours alone” as of the report’s publication.⁸
NPR also reports that “one in three people are no longer eating for days at a time.”⁹
These are not statistics. These are those “being taken away to death” – the very people Scripture commands us to rescue.
When sophisticated excuses replace moral action
British minister and theologian Matthew Henry warned that when confronted with those who are “being taken away to death,” we often devise sophisticated explanations to avoid our moral obligations.
Within days of Mohammad’s image spreading globally, critics began circulating claims that he suffers from a muscle disorder – as if this somehow eliminates the moral weight of his condition.
One pro-Israel advocacy group argued that because Mohammad may have an underlying medical condition, “the image has been presented in a misleading and incomplete way” and that “he is not simply a victim of starvation.”¹⁰
This is precisely the kind of moral evasion Henry identified centuries ago.
Even if Mohammad has a muscle disorder requiring specialized nutrition and physical therapy, this doesn’t absolve us of responsibility – it increases it.
A child with special medical needs who weighs under 10 pounds at 18 months is exactly the kind of vulnerable person Scripture commands us to rescue.
His mother told NPR she “went from hospital to hospital, looking for food or milk” but found nothing because “the one remaining pediatric ward treating malnutrition in Gaza closed down this month, citing a lack of food and medical supplies.”¹¹
Whether Mohammad’s condition stems from pure starvation, an underlying muscle disorder, or the deadly combination of both, the biblical principle remains unchanged: we have seen a child being taken away to death, and we cannot claim ignorance.
Henry’s commentary cuts through such evasions: God “knows and considers whether the excuse we make be true or no” – whether we genuinely couldn’t help, or whether we’re simply looking for reasons to avoid our moral duty.
When excuses crumble before God’s sight
Dr. Mohammed Mansour, senior nutrition manager with the International Rescue Committee, told NPR that after months of food restrictions, he sees severe nutritional deficiencies affecting children’s development.¹²
The lack of essential nutrients “impact the development of a child’s heart, liver and circulatory system,” he explained.¹³
But Mansour understands this crisis intimately – he’s watching it destroy his own children. “Every night I ask myself whether I will see my children the next morning,” he told NPR. “I feel helpless and unable to protect them. No eggs, meat, milk or fruit… we have not eaten them for six to seven months.”¹⁴
Dr. Ahmed Al-Farrah, head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital, warns that permanent damage is already occurring. “This war is targeting a generation, a generation of children who are below three years, because the central nervous system is nearly composed in [these] two, three years,” he told NPR.¹⁵
Even survivors will likely face lifelong consequences. Al-Farrah lists the neurological impairments from childhood starvation: “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, difficulty in school performance, difficulty in comprehension, difficulty in speaking.”¹⁶
We might tell ourselves this is too complex, too far away, too political to understand.
But Scripture cuts through our sophisticated excuses: “Does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?”
The deadly cost of looking away
Mohammad’s case illustrates a broader crisis that no amount of explanation can excuse away.
According to the U.N. Human Rights Office, “more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food,” with most deaths occurring “near aid sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”¹⁷
NPR reported last Sunday alone, “Israeli forces killed at least 94 Palestinians across Gaza who were seeking food aid.”¹⁸
World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain confirmed “the desperate crowds who rushed their trucks were fired on by the Israeli military.”¹⁹
The sole remaining pediatric malnutrition treatment facility “closed down this month, citing a lack of food and medical supplies,” according to NPR.²⁰
Twenty-year-old Salwa Shamali described to NPR the daily reality of survival as families spend every waking moment searching for food and water.
As she explained her family’s routine: “I care more about food and water. I do not care about the news. Half of our family are young children, and we think of them more.”²¹
Her family’s desperate schedule begins at dawn – 6 a.m. searching for fresh water, 2 p.m. charity lines for her brothers, 6 p.m. market trips that usually yield nothing.
Her days are consumed by the ancient human struggle to keep children alive.
And we scroll past on our phones.
What does obedience look like?
Scripture doesn’t give us the luxury of claiming this isn’t our responsibility.
“If we see the lives or livelihoods of any in danger of being taken away unjustly, we ought to bestir ourselves all we can to save them,” Matthew Henry writes in his commentary.
Even when “the persons be not such as we are under any particular obligation to, we must help them, out of a general zeal for justice.”
The biblical principle is clear: seeing creates obligation.
Dr. Tawfiq Abu Jarad, displaced to a tent in Gaza City, told NPR: “Every day costs us blood. We need [help] now . . . In two weeks, we will die out of hunger.”²²
Kate Phillips-Barrasso of Mercy Corps warned NPR that the crisis may be irreversible: “Things have gotten so far afield towards famine . . . that we may not even be able to turn this situation around if there were more aid going into Gaza, because it’s causing so much damage.”²³
The judgment we cannot escape
Mohammad Al-Motawaq’s hollow eyes ask a question that transcends politics, party lines, and foreign policy debates.
His skeletal frame confronts us with the same moral choice faced by every generation: Will we rescue those being taken away to death, or will we look away?
Philippe Lazzarini of the U.N. Palestinian relief agency posted on social media what he heard from colleagues: “People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses.”²⁴
We have seen them now.
We know their names, their ages, their suffering.
We can no longer say “Behold, we did not know this.”
Scripture warns that God “will render to every man according to his works” (Romans 2:6) – not only for evil acts committed, but for good works omitted.
The question hanging over every American who has seen Mohammad’s photograph is simple: What will you do?
Will you contact your representatives? Will you donate to relief organizations? Will you speak out in your church, your community, your social media?
Or will you scroll past and hope God accepts your excuses?
Matthew Henry’s commentary offers a sobering reminder: “It is not so easy with such excuses to evade the judgment of God.”
The child in the photograph cannot wait for our politics to align or our convenience to allow for action.
Mohammad Al-Motawaq is among those “being taken away to death” today.
And God is watching what we do about it.
The BBC found the mother and son in this photograph.
— Carl Nasman (@CarlNasman) July 25, 2025
Hedaya al-Muta'wi told our freelancers in Gaza that her 18-month-old son Muhammad is suffering from malnutrition. She said her son has dropped from 9 kilos to 6. He suffers from fatigue and can no longer stand or sit up.… pic.twitter.com/tl6ai68anF
¹ Anas Baba, “His name is Mohammad Al-Motawaq. He is 18 months old. And he is starving in Gaza,” NPR, July 27, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ NPR Staff, “4 things to know about Gaza right now amid warnings of ‘mass starvation’ risk,” NPR, July 25, 2025.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Anas Baba, “His name is Mohammad Al-Motawaq. He is 18 months old. And he is starving in Gaza,” NPR, July 27, 2025.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Rachel O’Donoghue, “Another Photo. Another Lie,” HonestReporting, July 26, 2025.
¹¹ Anas Baba, “His name is Mohammad Al-Motawaq. He is 18 months old. And he is starving in Gaza,” NPR, July 27, 2025.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ Ibid.
¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ Ibid.
¹⁷ NPR Staff, “Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 aid-seekers in Gaza since May, the U.N. says,” NPR, July 23, 2025.
¹⁸ NPR Staff, “Israel pauses attacks in some of Gaza to allow limited aid, as global criticism grows,” NPR, July 27, 2025.
¹⁹ Ibid.
²⁰ Anas Baba, “His name is Mohammad Al-Motawaq. He is 18 months old. And he is starving in Gaza,” NPR, July 27, 2025.
²¹ Ibid.
²² Ibid.
²³ Ibid.
²⁴ NPR Staff, “4 things to know about Gaza right now amid warnings of ‘mass starvation’ risk,” NPR, July 25, 2025.
²⁴ NPR Staff, “4 things to know about Gaza right now amid warnings of ‘mass starvation’ risk,” NPR, July 25, 2025.
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