a hit is only when that file is requested to be viewed (one way or another). to make it anything else, the person requesting the hit would have to visit/view the page it's on. no way to force that.

It really isn't clear what your problem is.
I am guessing that you have been looking at your web log and have seen the references to the images being called.
Web logs (as opposed to a hit counter) will show every individual file downloaded (images, stylesheets, scripts) as well as the html file that actually displays them.
My interpretation of your post is that you are simply confused over how to read your sites log file but if that is not the case you need to clarify your question.