‘Innocent life matters': The photographs of children that captured the world's conscience

Sydney Morning Herald

11 hours ago

Warning: Graphic content
The photograph of an emaciated child broke Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's heart.
'For anyone with any sense of humanity, you have to be moved by that, and you have to acknowledge that every innocent life matters, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian,' Albanese said.
'A one-year-old boy is not a Hamas fighter, and the civilian casualties and death in Gaza is completely unacceptable,' he told ABC's Insiders on Sunday. 'That boy isn't challenging Israel's right to existence, and nor are the many who continue to suffer from the unavailability of food and water.'
The image of Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq being cradled by his mother Hedaya al-Muta'wi, captured on July 21 and distributed by the photographic network Getty, evoked previous pictures that shocked the world.
There is the photograph of Phan Thi Kim Phuc running from a napalm attack in 1972 during the Vietnam War, Steve McCurry's portrait of Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula in 1984, and a haunting image of a vulture stalking a Sudanese child amid widespread famine in 1993.
In each case, the ethics behind the photograph have become disputed. Was the image exploitative? Should the photographer have intervened? What toll did it take on the individual who became a symbol for wider suffering?
The Israeli embassy in Australia went further on Monday. Deputy head of mission, Amir Meron, told journalists that there was no starvation in Gaza and that 'false pictures' of the situation in the territory were spreading.
'This is a false campaign that is being [led] by Hamas, taking advantage of sick children in order to show a false claim and false presentation of hunger and starvation in the Gaza strip,' Meron said, without specifically referring to the image of al-Matouq.