Image of Palestinian teen amputee falsely shared as 'Hamas militant'

(Trigger Warning: This story contains distressing visuals and details. Reader discretion is advised.)

What is the claim?

Amid the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza, social media users are circulating an image of a wounded youth whose hands appear amputated with a claim that he is a "Hamas militant" named Mohammad Mahroof. 

Sharing the image on X (formerly Twitter), a user wrote in Hindi that the image shows Mahroof, who killed Israeli children, was caught and left alive by the Israeli army, who amputated his hands. An archived version of this and a similar post can be seen here and here.

The image has also been shared on Facebook with similar claims, and archived versions of such posts can be viewed here and here.

Screenshots of posts sharing the viral image. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, we found that the youth in the image is not associated with Hamas. He is a Palestinian whose hands were amputated after he was injured in an Israeli strike. 

What did we find?

We performed a reverse image search and found the photo on the stock photography website Alamy. According to the details available on Alamy, Omar Ashtawy captured the photo for APA images on August 31, 2024, and it shows a Palestinian teenager named Diaa Al-Adini, who lost both his arms after an Israeli army attack in Deir al Balah in the Gaza Strip. We found multiple similar photos of Diaa Al-Adini on Alamy. 

The now-viral photo is credited to Omar Ashtawy on Alamy and is dated August 31, 2004. (Source: Alamy/Screenshot) 

According to a Reuters report, 15-year-old Adini was one of the few Palestinians who managed to find a functioning hospital in war-torn Gaza after he was wounded following an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The report features three similar images of Adini with a caption stating that he had both his arms amputated after being wounded in an Israeli strike on August 13 and was transferred from Al-Aqsa Hospital due to an Israeli evacuation order. The strike reportedly hit when he was in a makeshift coffee house.

Moreover, we also found a video report by the Palestinian news agency Wafa (archived here) showing the wounded Adini walking past the same building in the viral image and speaking to the media. The video description corroborates the details of Alamy and the Reuters report. 

The verdict

The viral image does not show a "Hamas militant." The image actually shows a teenager named Diaa Al-Adini, who lost both his arms after he was wounded in an Israeli attack in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.