However, the article still discusses how emaciated Marah Zuhri was when she was admitted and echoes the UN's warning of ‘widespread malnutrition in Gaza’
August 18, 2025 14:11
The BBC has issued a correction after reporting that a Gazan cancer patient receiving medical treatment in Italy “died of malnutrition” on Friday.
Marah Abu Zuhri, 20, was medically evacuated from the Strip to a hospital in Pisa, but died shortly after she was admitted due to a cardiac arrest.
On Saturday, BBC News reported her case under the headline “Gazan woman flown to Italy dies of malnutrition”.
"A Gazan woman who was evacuated to Italy for treatment while severely emaciated has died in hospital," the piece read, adding: “The University Hospital of Pisa said that she suffered a cardiac arrest and died on Friday, less than 48 hours after arriving.
"The hospital said she had suffered severe loss of weight and muscle, while Italian news agencies reported she was suffering from severe malnutrition."
However, the claim was met with a swift response from Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the Defence Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat).
According to Zuhri’s medical records, written by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health and obtained by Cogat, her blood tests revealed that she had "acute promyelocytic leukaemia" (APL).
APL is a rare and aggressive form of blood cancer caused by the accumulation of immature white blood cells in the bone marrow, leading to a deficiency in healthy blood cells.
According to Cancer Research UK, symptoms include bleeding (due to poor clotting), tiredness, vulnerability to infections and weight loss.
The BBC subsequently updated its headline to read "Malnourished Gazan woman flown to Italy dies in hospital" and added a sentence about Israel’s claim that Zuhri was suffering from APL.
It also issued a “clarification” this morning, saying: “This article's headline originally said that Marah Abu Zuhri died of malnutrition, with the introduction stating that she suffered a cardiac arrest and died on Friday.
"The headline has been amended to remove the reference to malnutrition being the cause of death in what the hospital described as a ‘very complex clinical picture’.”
However, the current version of the article still discusses how emaciated she was and echoes the UN's warning of "widespread malnutrition in Gaza".
A Cogat spokesperson said: “The facts which the report did not mention: 20-year-old Marah Zuhri suffered from leukemia.
"Italian authorities contacted Israel requesting Marah’s evacuation due to her illness, and Israel approved it. Her evacuation could have taken place earlier, as Israel had proposed several possible dates for the transfer.
“Israel facilitates the medical transfer of patients, with a focus on children, and encourages countries around the world to make such requests, while Hamas keeps cynically exploiting them for its twisted agenda.”
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