The Israeli foreign ministry challenged the New York Times and other major mainstream media outlets to publish a photo of a starving Israeli hostage — after publishing fake images of starving Palestinian children.

As Breitbart News reported, Hamas filmed Evyatar David, 24, being forced to dig his own grave. The video was approved for release by his family — though Hamas’s clear purpose was to create alarm and to pressure the Israeli government to accept a ceasefire on unfavorable terms.

Last weekend, many major media outlets published images falsely purporting to be of starving Palestinian children. In reality, many suffered from other maladies. The New York Times in particular was forced to issue a correction to its front-page photo once the truth emerged.

Israel had pushed back vehemently on claims that Palestinian children were starving, saying that there is no starvation in Gaza and that whatever bottlenecks in food distribution existed were being created by Hamas in its effort to loot humanitarian aid, or by the United Nations’ incompetence.

The only people confirmed to be starving in Gaza are the 20 Israel hostages who are thought to be alive, among 50 who still remain there.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.