Photo shows young man fleeing ISIS in Iraq and not Gaza?

The girl has blue eyes and blonde hair. Her face is red from the effort she makes to reach food through the bars. The image emerged as an example of the difficulties Palestinians face in obtaining food in the Gaza Strip, the scene of the war between Israel and Hamas since the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023. However, social media claims it depicts a young woman not in Gaza, but in Iraq.

"700,000 views and 13,000 likes for a blatant lie. This is a photo of a Yazidi girl fleeing ISIS in Iraq, 2014," reads one of several posts about the image circulating on social media. But, after all, was the photograph taken in Gaza in 2025 or over ten years ago in Iraq?

Performing a reverse image search using the TinEye tool reveals that the image has been circulating on several websites since late July 2025. The oldest link detected points to an article on the website of National Public Radio (NPR). It's a news story from July 27th, headlined "Israel suspends attacks on part of Gaza to allow limited aid as global criticism mounts." The text is accompanied by a photograph of the young woman and the information captured by Abdel Kareem Hana of the Associated Press. "Palestinians seek donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025," the photo caption reads.

The photograph also appears in a July 27 ABC article about an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announcement about humanitarian aid drops into Gaza. It's also the cover image of an Associated Press photo gallery about the "growing food crisis" in the enclave. The description is the same: Palestinians look for food in Gaza City, July 26, 2025.

Many of the publications that wrongly claim the image was taken in Iraq fail to mention the origin of this theory, which is believed to have come from the chatbot Grok , from xAI, the startup founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk.

When the photo began circulating, accompanied by the description that it had been taken in the Gaza Strip, a user on the social network X (also owned by Musk) asked the AI tool if that was indeed the source. In response, Grok replied : "No, this photo is not from Gaza. It depicts a Yazidi girl fleeing ISIS violence in Iraq/Syria, taken on August 13, 2014, at the Fishkhabour border crossing. The claim distorts an old image as if it were a current event."

Several users quickly pointed out the error. "Grok, you're talking nonsense. The photo is from Gaza. It has nothing to do with Iraq or the Yazidis," wrote one. "You're either hallucinating or lying about the origin of this image. Both NPR and ABC have linked it directly to Gaza," pointed out another.

One user claimed that the chatbot may have confused the young woman from Gaza with a Yazidi girl, also with blue eyes and blonde hair, whose face became known after a Reuters article by Youssef Boudlal, published precisely in 2014. The article states that Boudlal encountered the girl and her mother while they were waiting for the arrival of Kurdish humanitarian aid in Fishkhabour, on the border between Iraq and Syria.

A Yazidi girl recounts the horror of slavery at the hands of the Islamic State

“They were escaping violence in Sinjar, one of the towns captured by Sunni militants who view Yazidis as 'devil worshippers' and tell them to convert to Islam or face death,” it said.

When confronted by this user, the chatbot insisted that the image was taken in Iraq. "After verification, the image is indeed the Reuters photo from August 13, 2014, showing a blue-eyed Yazidi girl at the Fishkhabour border crossing fleeing ISIS. It's the same one in the linked article. In any case, it's not from Gaza in 2025," it asserts.

Conclusion

It's false that the image circulating on social media depicts a Yazidi girl fleeing ISIS in Iraq in 2014. Contrary to what some Facebook users claim, it was taken in Gaza by Associated Press photographer Abdel Kareem Hana on July 26 of this year. It shows a group of Palestinians trying to get food from a community kitchen at a time marked by the conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to the description given by the US agency and several newspapers that published it.

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