Fact Check: Old video of a drone strike at Sudan linked to the attacks on Gaza

A video that allegedly shows an airstrike in Gaza is going viral on social media. The video claims that Israel bombed the children of Gaza and Palestine when they had gathered near a water tank. The claim that is going viral with the video states:

भूख और प्यास से तड़प रहे पेलेस्टाइन, गाज़ा के बच्चे जब पानी पीने के लिए पानी की टंकी के पास पहुंचे तो, जालिम कातिल इजरायल आतंकवादी यो ने ऊपर से बम गिरा दिया और कइयों की जान चली गई कई जल गए!

क्या लाचारी है जो दुनिया यह सब देख रही है और देखकर आंख बंद कर लेती है??

(Translation: When the children of Palestine and Gaza, suffering from hunger and thirst, reached near the water tank to drink water, Israel dropped a bomb from above and many lost their lives, many were burnt! What is the helplessness that the world sees all this and then closes its eyes??)

The video is also going viral on X (formerly, Twitter) and has been shared here, here, and here with similar claims.

Digiteye India received a request to fact check this viral video on WhatsApp.

FACT CHECK

The Digiteye India team broke the video into multiple keyframes. We used these keyframes and ran a Reverse Image Search on Google.

One of the results led us to a Turkish news website, Haber 7. It contained a video report with the same video and that was posted on October 13, 2023. The headline of the report read, “Drone attack in Sudan caused a disaster!” The video also had a description in Turkish. On translating, it read, “The people in the region were engulfed in flames after the fuel ignited in the Sudanese Army’s armed drone attack on RSF forces! Those moments were captured on camera like this.”

We used this clue and conducted a keyword search on Google to find out more about the origin of this viral video. One of the results led us to this video that was posted by Al Jazeera on their Facebook page. In their report, they added a description in Arabic which read, “A Sudanese army march bombed a fuel tanker belonging to the Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum #Video #Al Jazeera_Sudan.” The video was posted on October 12, 2023.

On checking X further, we found this tweet by Sudan News which had posted the same video on October 12, 2023. They tweeted, “An army march targeting a group of Rapid Support militia mercenaries, who gathered to refuel their motorcycles.”

مسيرة للجيش تستهدف مجموعة من مرتزقة مليشيا الدعم السريع، تجمعوا بغرض تزويد دراجاتهم النارية بالوقود.#السودان pic.twitter.com/KXOHm4GT0t

— Sudan News (@Sudan_tweet) October 12, 2023

The viral video is, hence, from Khartoum (Sudan) and not Gaza.

CLAIM: A viral video shows an air strike by Israel on the children of Gaza and Palestine as they gather in front of a water tank.

CONCLUSION: The video is not from Gaza or Palestine. It is from Sudan where the Sudanese Army had bombed a fuel tanker that belonged to the paramilitary force, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum, Sudan. The video dates back to early October. Sudan is witnessing clashes between the army and the RSF.

RATING: Misrepresentation —