Fact Check: Did Qatar Threaten to Stop Gas Supply over Israel’s attacks on Gaza?

Fact Check: Did Qatar Threaten to Stop Gas Supply over Israel’s attacks on Gaza?

Claim: The social media have been abuzz in the past few days  with the claim that the Kingdom of Qatar is threatening to stop the supply of gas to the world if Israel doesn’t stop its bombing of Gaza.

Full Text:  The trending claim is not only on social media, but has also been published by some international news agencies one of which is MEHR News Agency, a semi news agency of the Iranian government, headquartered in Tehran, owned by the Iranian government’s Islamic Development Organization (IIDO). 

The published claim of Qatar threatening to stop the supply of gas to other parts of the world was captioned as follows: “Qatar Warns to Cut Gas Export if Attacks on Gaza Continue”. 

Social media, especially twitter (X) have also blown this claim beyond proportion, with a   particular twitter handle, Faarees, that has  129k followers also posting the claim. 

“The Kingdom of Qatar threatens to stop the supply of gas to the world if the terrorist state of Israel doesn’t stop bombing Gaza. 

“This is the Islamic brotherhood we so need today. #FreePalastine”. ❤????????. 

The post attracted 44k shares, 1,66k likes, 15 quotes and 170 comments.

Aside X, other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have also hyped this claim.

The Israel-Palestine debacle: 

The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing inter communal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between various Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the early 21st century. 

The roots of the Arab–Israeli conflict have been attributed to the support by Arab League member countries for the Palestinians, a fellow League member, in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. 

This in turn has been attributed to the simultaneous rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism towards the end of the 19th century, though the two national movements had not clashed until the 1920s.

The war again resurged on October 7, led by Hamas, the de facto government of Palestine in Gaza, when militants invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip.

The attack was met with an Israeli counteroffensive, and Israel formally declared war on Hamas a day later.

The attack began in the early morning with a rocket barrage of at least 3,000 rockets against Israel and vehicle-transported incursions into its territory. Palestinian militants breached the Gaza–Israel barrier, attacking military bases and massacring civilians in neighboring Israeli communities.

At least 1,300 Israelis were reportedly killed including 260 people who were massacred at a music festival. Unarmed civilian hostages and captured Israeli soldiers were also taken to the Gaza Strip, including women and children. The attack unfolded amid conflict between Hamas and Israel that has been ongoing since 2006.

Hamas avoided major engagements with Israel in 2022 and even most of 2023, and instead, appeared to be covertly preparing for their major offensive, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

Verification: 

In  verifying the authenticity of the claim, PRNIGERIA Fact-Check dug deep to examine the role the Kingdom of Qatar in the conflicts between Israel and Palestine by searching  key words.

Our search showed that Qatar which has already mediated between the belligerents several times in the past — such as during the 2014  Israel-Gaza War — is back at the negotiating table, too, even though it has  frozen its relationship with Israel in 2009 and is widely known as a major financier of Hamas — which the EU, US, Germany and many other countries have labeled a terrorist organization. 

Corroborating this is the story on the Aljazeera website, published on October 7, 2023 that the fresh violence broke out between the two warring countries. 

The story confirms  that Qatar official has said the Gulf state is acting as a mediator to reduce tensions in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Similar reports indicate that Qatar is in talks with Hamas, Israel to swap hostages for prisoners lending the credence to the effort to broker truce between the warring countries parties.

During our further search, we discovered that Qatar sealed a deal to supply France’s Total Energies with natural gas for 27 years.

Further findings reveal that the claim that the State of Qatar is  threatening to punish the other countries of the world with the penalty of cutting off the supply of gas to them has no logical basis with the  country’s government officials comment a year ago,  where they said Qatar is “almost impossible” to quickly replace Russian supplies to Europe, as reported by Reuters on February 22,2022 

Doha Times has also debunked the claim, noting  that Experts has  debunked the claim. “Gaza: Experts debunk fake news on Qatar gas supply threats”. 

Verdict: findings reveal that Qatar is not issuing threats in the face of the Palestine – Isreali debacle but is rather on the negotiating table to resolve the ongoing conflict. 

PRNigeria therefore concludes that claims that the state of  Qatar was  threatening to withhold gas supplies to the world due to the Israel-Hamas conflict is False. 

PRNigeria