The photograph shows flares being dropped by Israel over the Gaza Strip and was shot from Sderot, Israel which is located in the north, while Rafah is in the south. Furthermore, the photograph was taken in November 2023. However, Israeli forces did begin an assault in Rafah in May 2024 and bombed parts of the region.
The protracted, often bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict exploded into a hot war on Oct. 7, 2023, when the militant Palestinian group Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel and Israel retaliated by bombarding the Gaza Strip. More than 20,000 people, the vast majority of them Palestinians, were reportedly killed during the first two months of the war alone. The violence is driven by mutual hostilities and territorial ambitions dating back more than a century. The internet has become an unofficial front in that war and is rife with misinformation, which Snopes is dedicated to countering with facts and context. You can help. Read the latest fact checks. Submit questionable claims. Become a Snopes Member to support our work. We welcome your participation and feedback.
In early May 2024, as Israel began an assault on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, a number of online accounts shared a photograph purportedly showing the start of the offensive. The photograph claimed to show bombs dropping over the region at night.
A number of pro-Israel and pro-Palestine accounts on X shared the image on May 6, 2024. One post stated, "PRAY FOR RAFAH, ALL EYES ON RAFAH!" and another said, "Rafah. The beginning of the end for Hamas."
(X user @RJLetsGo)
(X user @NiohBerg)
The image is an authentic photograph that shows Israel dropping flares over Gaza, but it was taken in November 2023 and was shot over the northern part of the Gaza Strip — not Rafah. As such, we rate this claim as "Miscaptioned."
Agence France-Presse photographer Aris Messinis took the photograph, which is available on Getty Images, in November 2023. The caption stated, "This picture taken from a position near Sderot along the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip on November 5, 2023, shows flares dropped by Israeli forces above the Palestinian enclave amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement."
(Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)
Sderot is an Israeli town located by the border along the northern part of the Gaza Strip, while Rafah is about 25 miles away in the south, along the border with Egypt.
Although the photograph does not show Rafah in May 2024, Israel did attack the southern Gazan city that month. Israeli forces seized control of the Rafah border crossing on May 7, 2024, as the U.N. warned of a collapse of the flow of aid. The seizure occurred as Israeli warplanes attacked the eastern part of Rafah, bombing residential homes and killing at least a dozen people.
Photographs on Getty Images from May 6, 2024, showed smoke billowing into the sky from Israeli attacks on Rafah. One caption read: "Smoke rises and billows above settlements after Israeli attack on Rafah, Gaza on May 06, 2024. Following the attacks carried out by the Israeli army, it was reported that there were dead and injured people, including women and children as Israel's air, land and sea attacks on Gaza Strip continue."
(Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty Images)
(AFP/Getty Images)
While the photograph being shared on X is from a different time and location, the above photographs show Rafah under attack from Israeli forces in May 2024.