NYT Says Photos of Children Killed by Israel in Gaza 'Too Horrific for Publication'

The editor of The New York Times opinion section issued a forceful statement Tuesday refuting claims that it published fabricated or altered CT scan images as part of a recent essay featuring appalling firsthand accounts from U.S.-based healthcare professionals who have worked in Gaza over the past year.

Baseless attacks on the essay, which quoted dozens of healthcare workers, were spread widely by pro-Israel social media accounts following its publication on October 9.

But Times opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury said Tuesday that "any implication that [the essay's] images are fabricated is simply false." The newspaper's editors, Kingsbury said, have in their possession "photographs to corroborate the CT scan images" but, "because of their graphic nature, we decided these photos—of children with gunshot wounds to the head or neck—were too horrific for publication."

"We made a similar decision for the additional 40-plus photographs and videos supplied by the doctors and nurses surveyed that depicted young children with similar gunshot wounds," Kingsbury added.

The essay, bylined by trauma surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, includes three photos of X-rays that Mimi Syed—an emergency medicine doctor based in Olympia, Washington—provided to the Times.

"I had multiple pediatric patients, mostly under the age of 12, who were shot in the head or the left side of the chest," Syed, who worked in Khan Younis from August 8 to September 5, told the newspaper. "Usually, these were single shots. The patients came in either dead or critical, and died shortly after arriving."

One observer described the essay as "some of the most horrific reporting you'll read on Gaza."

Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of the American Jewish group IfNotNow, wrote in response to Kingsbury's statement, "Shame on any person or organization attempting to paint the dozens of health workers who witnessed the effects of Israel's indiscriminate attacks in Gaza as liars."

"It's disgusting," Lieberman added. "Is there no bottom?"

Sidhwa, who organized a letter sent to U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this month, coordinated with the Times' opinion editors on a poll of 65 healthcare professionals who have worked in Gaza since Israel began its assault in the wake of the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.

More than 40 of the healthcare workers surveyed said they "saw multiple cases of preteen children who had been shot in the head or chest in Gaza."

"Our team cared for about four or five children, ages 5 to 8 years old, that were all shot with single shots to the head," said Irfan Galaria, a reconstructive surgeon based in Chantilly, Virginia. "They all presented to the emergency room at the same time. They all died."

Additionally, 63 of the healthcare workers said they "observed severe malnutrition in patients, Palestinian medical workers, and the general population" and 52 "observed nearly universal psychiatric distress in young children and saw some who were suicidal or said they wished they had died."

"Together, Israel and the United States are turning Gaza into a howling wilderness," Sidhwa wrote in last week's essay. "But it's never too late to change course: We could stop Israel's use of our weapons, ammunition, jet fuel, intelligence, and logistical support by withholding them, and we could stanch the flow of weapons to all sides by announcing an international arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian and Lebanese armed groups."

"The horror must end," Sidhwa added. "The United States must stop arming Israel. And afterward, we Americans need to take a long, hard look at ourselves."

Media outlets reported Tuesday that the Biden administration this past weekend finally threatened to cut off weapons to Israel unless the government takes certain actions in Gaza within the next 30 days.