By Archis Chowdhury
A video of Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, speaking in Arabic is viral with the claim that it shows him threatening to cut of Qatar's gas supply to the world if Israel does not stop its ongoing bombardment on Gaza.
BOOM found this claim to be false; the video is over six years old, and does not show Al Thani speaking of Qatar's gas supply at all. Instead, he is head saying, "The Palestinian cause is a cause of people who faced expulsion from their land and displaced from their country."
Furthermore, there are no official statements from Qatar threatening to cut off gas supply to the world. According to Reuters, Qatar has sent mediators to negotiate a prisoner swap between Palestinian prisoners in Israel and the hostages held by Hamas.
Islamist militant group Hamas launched one of the biggest military offensives against Israel on October 7, 2023, garnering retributive attack from Israeli forces, with ongoing bombardments on the Gaza strip. So far, the conflict has claimed more than 1300 lives in Israel, and more than 1,799 Palestinians in Gaza, which primarily includes civilians.
Also Read:Old Photo Of Infant Killed In Airstrike Linked To Ongoing Israel-Hamas War
The seven-second long clip is being shared on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook with the caption, "Qatar is threatening to create a global gas shortage in support of Palestine. "If the bombing of Gaza doesn't stop, we will stop gas supply of the world."
View such posts on Facebook here, here and here.
View such posts on X here, here and here.
The same claim is also viral in Arabic, without the viral video, which can be seen here, here and here.
Fact Check
BOOM looked for news reports from reliable sources on Qatar's response to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, but were unable to find any such credible threat from Qatar's Emir on the stopping of gas supply to the world.
According to a report by Reuters, mediators from Qatar have made efforts to de-escalate the situation through negotiations on a prisoner swap between Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and the hostages held by Hamas.
Furthermore,according to recent news reports, Qatar signed a deal with French company TotalEnergies on October 11, 2023, to supply 3.5 million tonnes of gas a year for the next 27 years.
Also Read:Old Photo Of Infant Killed In Airstrike Linked To Ongoing Israel-Hamas War
BOOM reached out to London-based freelance journalist Abdulla Al-Khal, who confirmed to us that the viral video of Al Thani speaking in Arabic has no mention of gas or fuel in any manner.
"He doesn’t talk about gas at all. He says The Palestinian cause is a cause of people who faced expulsion from their land and displaced from their country", he told BOOM.
