Old images of bullet sticking out of a Iraqi man's head falsely linked to the recent Israel-Palestine conflicts - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 6, 2021
A collage of images is being shared on social media claiming it as the recent visuals of a Palestinian man who survived a bullet shot from the Israeli forces during the clashes at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. These photos show a person with an unpenetrated bullet on his head. This post claims that the person had survived because of the blessings of Allah. In the wake of recent violent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, this post is being shared on social media. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Recent photos of a Palestinian man who has survived a bullet shot from the Israeli forces at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Fact: The person with a bullet on his head is Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al-Rawi from Iraq. Sheikh Al-Rawi got hit by a bullet to his head during the 2014 clashes between clan revolutionaries and Iraqi government troops. These photos were shot while Sheikh Al-Rawi was getting treatment at the Fallujah General Hospital in Iraq. These photos have nothing to do with the recent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photos shared in the post, similar photos were found in an article published by ‘Al Arabiya’ news website in 2014. This article mentioned it as the visuals of an Iraqi man who survived a bullet shot to his head. According to the article, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al-Rawi, a resident of Fallujah city in Iraq, got hit by a bullet to his head during the shootout between clan revolutionaries and Iraqi government troops. This incident reportedly took place while Sheikh Al-Rawi was returning from his evening prayers in Fallujah, Iraq.
The photos shared in the post were captured while Sheikh Al-Rawi was getting treatment in the Fallujah General Hospital. Sheikh Al-Rawi had survived the bullet shot as it could not penetrate through his head. Several other news websites have also published articles about the person in these photos. They can be seen here, here, and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the photos shared in the post are real but they are not related to the recent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
To sum it up, 2014 images of a bullet sticking out of an Iraqi man’s head are falsely linked to the recent Israel-Palestine conflict.