An image of a reporter on TV with bandages on half of her face is being widely shared on social media with the claim that she was injured in a bombing by Israel as part of their recent escalation with Hamas.
The post is being widely shared on Facebook and X with the caption, “Journalist Hana Mahameed back on screen after being hit in face by an ISRAELI GRENADE in East #Jersualem.Was #Hamas hiding in her face? (sic)”
In the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that the conflict has taken a severe toll on journalists since Hamas launched its attack against Israel on October 7 and the subsequent war declared by Israel on the militant Palestinian group, launching strikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip.
“As of November 7, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 37 journalists and media workers were among an estimated 11,000 killed since the war began on October 7—with more than 9,900 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank, and 1,400 deaths in Israel,” the report added.
NewsMeter found that the image of bandaged Hana Mahameed is from 2015 when she was wounded during a clash between the Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem.
On performing a simple reverse image search, we came across a tweet on X carrying the same image with the caption “Real journalism: Hana Mahameed of Al-Mayadeen TV is still doing her job after an Israeli bomb” published on October 5, 2015.
Taking a cue from this, we performed a keyword search and found a media report on The Guardian from October 5, 2015, titled ‘Arab-Israeli TV journalist goes back on air after being hit by stun grenade’ with the visuals and images of the bombing which injured Hana Mahameed.
Acknowledging the bravery of Arab-Israeli TV journalist Hanna Mahameed, who went on air shortly after being hit in the face allegedly by a stun grenade during a clash between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in east Jerusalem.
The report said, “Mahameed, who works for Lebanese-based Al-Mayadeen TV, was allegedly hit by a projectile grenade fired by Israeli police on Sunday. Footage showed Mahameed screaming in pain and her flak jacket being ripped off before she was taken to hospital to be treated for burns to her face. She later appeared on air with much of her face covered in bandages.”
We also found the same report in the Independent and Daily Mail from the same year.