LONDON: Gaza-based photojournalist Anas Zayed Fteiha has rejected accusations by the German tabloid Bild that some of his widely circulated images — depicting hunger and humanitarian suffering — were staged rather than taken at aid distribution sites.
Fteiha, who works with Turkiye’s Anadolu Agency, described the claims as “false” and “a desperate attempt to distort the truth.”
“The siege, starvation, bombing, and destruction that the people of Gaza live through do not need to be fabricated or acted out,” Fteiha said in a statement published on social media. “My photos reflect the bitter reality that more than two million people live through, most of whom are women and children.”
The controversy erupted after Bild published an article on Tuesday alleging that Fteiha’s photos were manipulated to amplify narratives of Israeli-inflicted suffering — particularly hunger — and citing content from his personal social media accounts to suggest political bias.
The German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung also questioned the authenticity of certain images from Gaza, though without naming Fteiha directly.
Bild claimed the emotionally charged imagery served as “Hamas propaganda,” a charge Fteiha rejected as “ridiculous” and a “criminalization of journalism itself.”
“It is easy to write your reports based on your ideologies, but it is difficult to obscure the truth conveyed by the lens of a photographer who lived the suffering among the people, heard the children’s cries, photographed the rubble, and carried the pain of mothers,” Fteiha said.
Fteiha also accused Bild of repeated breaches of journalistic ethics, citing previous criticism and formal complaints against the paper for publishing misinformation.
The episode has fueled a broader debate on the challenges of reporting from conflict zones such as Gaza, where foreign press access is restricted and local journalists are often the only source of visual documentation.
Following Bild’s allegations, several news agencies, including AFP and the German Press Agency, severed ties with Fteiha. However, Reuters declined to do so, stating that his images met the agency’s standards for “accuracy, independence, and impartiality.”
“These aren’t outright fakes, but they do tap into visual memory and change how people see things,” said photography scholar Gerhard Paul in an interview with Israeli media.
Christopher Resch, of Reporters Without Borders, said that while photographers sometimes “guide” subjects to tell a visual story, that does not invalidate the reality being portrayed.
“The picture should have had more context, but that doesn’t mean the suffering isn’t real,” he said, cautioning media outlets against labeling photojournalists as “propaganda agents,” which he warned could endanger their safety.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also weighed in, using his official X account to describe one of the accused images — used on the cover of Time magazine — as an example of “Pallywood” — a portmanteau of “Palestine” and “Hollywood” — to sway global opinion.
However, the credibility of Bild’s report has itself come under scrutiny. Israeli fact-checking group Fake Reporter posted a series of rebuttals on X, disputing several claims.
The group pointed out that the Time magazine cover image often linked to Fteiha was taken by a different photographer, and argued that claims the children in the photograph were not at an aid site were “inaccurate.”
“From our examination, one can see, in the same place, an abundance of documentation of food being distributed and prepared,” the group wrote.
