Video of bomb strike on crowd is from Sudan conflict, not Israel-Hamas war
If your time is short
- A video shared online that shows a bomb dropped onto a crowd from above is from a current conflict in Sudan, not the Israel-Hamas war.
A chilling video shared on social media shows a bomb falling from overhead and landing amid people huddled near large white tanks. The bomb explodes into a fireball; black smoke rises and people scatter.
The video is real, but it’s being falsely presented as an example of Israel attacking Palestinian civilians in the country’s war with Hamas. The video is from Sudan and shows a conflict there.
“Israel attacks a bunch of Palestinian kids who were trying to get some water to drink with a bomb,” read a caption on an Oct. 22 TikTok video. The caption continued, “Killing innocent civilians is not self-defense.”
We found other users sharing the same video and making a similar claim on TikTok, X and Facebook.
TikTok identified this video as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content. (Read more about PolitiFact’s partnership with TikTok.)
(Screenshot from TikTok)
The social media posts continue a trend of people sharing videos they falsely claim are from the Israel-Hamas war since the conflict began Oct. 7.
Using a reverse-image search, we traced the video to an Oct. 12 Facebook post from news outlet Al Jazeera Sudan. A headline and caption with the post, translated into English by Google Translate, reads, “A Sudanese army march bombed a fuel tanker belonging to the Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum.”
We found the same video on the X account of Sudan News, also on Oct. 12. That post, translated using Google, described the video as “An army march targeting a group of Rapid Support militia mercenaries, who gathered to refuel their motorcycles.”
The video was also posted on Rumble, a conservative-leaning U.S. news site, by an account called Real Combat Footage, which described it as a “Sudanese drone strike.”
The Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group, have been fighting for power since April, according to news reports. The two sides are said to be resuming U.S. and Saudi Arabia-led peace talks, Reuters reported Oct. 26.
The TikTok video shows three large white tanks near where the bomb is dropped. We found images of white tanks in a similar formation on another website article about explosions at a fuel depot in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in April.
We searched Google Maps for “fuel depot” and “Khartoum” and found a jet fuel depot near Khartoum International Airport with four white tanks aligned similarly to the ones in the TikTok video.
It’s unclear when the video was shot; we asked Al Jazeera for more information about it and didn’t immediately hear back. But the video does not show Israel bombing Palestinian children trying to get water.
We rate the claim False.
Our Sources
TikTok video, Oct. 22, 2023 (archived)
Al Jazeera Sudan, Facebook post, Oct. 12, 2023
Sudan News, X post, Oct. 12, 2023
Google Maps, Khartoum International Airport, Jet Fuel Depot, accessed Nov. 6, 2023
The Washington Post, Who are the Rapid Support Forces clashing with Sudan’s military?, April 15, 2023
Reuters, What is happening in Sudan? Fighting in Khartoum explained, July 13, 2023
Reuters, Sudan army, paramilitary RSF to return to negotiations, Oct. 25, 2023
Channelstv.com, Sudan Capital Hit By Blasts As Deadly Conflict Enters Fourth Day
