A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday, Oct. 17, killing hundreds of people as the Israel-Hamas war rages on.
A viral video shared on social media days before the blast claims to show Qatar’s ruler, known as the emir, threatening to cut off the world’s gas supply if the bombing of Gaza does not stop.
“Qatar is threatening to create a global gas shortage in support of Palestine. ‘If the bombing of Gaza doesn’t stop, we will stop the gas supply of the world,’” one of the posts reads.
THE QUESTION
Does this video show Qatar’s emir threatening to cut off the world’s gas supply amid the Israel-Hamas war?
THE SOURCES
- Google’s reverse image search tool
- YouTube video posted by Aljazeera Mubasher in May 2017
- Full speech from Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the 2017 Doha Forum
- Google Translate via Trint
- Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, LLC
- QatarEnergy
THE ANSWER
No, this video does not show Qatar’s emir threatening to cut off the world’s gas supply amid the Israel-Hamas war.
WHAT WE FOUND
The video clip shared online predates the current Israel-Hamas war and does not show Qatar’s emir threatening to cut off the world’s gas supply over the bombing of Gaza.
Using Google’s reverse image search tool, VERIFY traced the video clip back to Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s 2017 speech at the 17th Doha Forum held in Qatar’s capital city.
Aljazeera Mubasher, a news outlet based in Qatar, posted a 43-second clip of the speech to YouTube on May 14, 2017. The forum was focused on development, stability and refugee issues, according to the video’s caption.
The 7-second video clip of the emir circulating on social media begins about 27 seconds into the Aljazeera video. In that clip, the emir speaks about Palestinians being uprooted and displaced from their homeland, according to a translation via Google Translate.
VERIFY also found a video of Al Thani’s full 2017 speech on the Doha Forum YouTube channel. We translated that speech with the help of a transcription service called Trint.
Al Thani’s speech focuses on refugees and never mentions the world’s gas supply.
Houston-based oil expert Andy Lipow also said “there is no evidence in the market” to support the online claim about Qatar. He pointed to two gas deals made between Qatar and European buyers in the last week.
Qatar signed a 27-year deal with Shell to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Netherlands, state-owned oil and gas company QatarEnergy said in a tweet on Oct. 17. Qatar also signed a 27-year LNG supply agreement with TotalEnergies in France.
The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter, text alerts and our YouTube channel. You can also follow us on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Learn More »