World

Two sisters killed in West Bank shooting were British nationals

Published

2 years ago

April 7, 2023

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Two women killed when their car was shot at and rammed in the West Bank were British nationals.

The women were sisters – one aged 15 and the other in her 20s, local media reported.

Their mother was also seriously injured in the attack near the Hamra settlement, about 30 miles north of Jerusalem.

Friday’s shooting happened after Israeli war planes hit Lebanon and Gaza – in response to rocket attacks Israel blamed on militant group Hamas.

Tensions are high in the region following police raids on Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem this week.

Sky News Middle East correspondent Ali Bunkall said it’s believed the victims of the attack moved to Israel around 2005.

The sisters’ mother was airlifted to hospital in a “very critical condition”, he added.

Pictures from the scene in the Jordan Valley show several cars badly damaged on the side of the road.

Their father was behind in another car when the attack happened, according to Oded Revivi, the mayor of a settlement near Bethlehem where they lived.

Bunkall said the targeting of cars with Israeli number plates in the West Bank had become “far more commonplace in the last few weeks”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence Minister Yoav Gallant visited the site of the shooting late on Friday.

“It’s just a matter of time, and not much time, until we settle the score,” Mr Netanyahu said.

Road blocks have been set up to try to find the attackers.

No group has claimed responsibility, but a Hamas spokesman hailed the attack as “retaliation for the crimes committed by Israel in the West Bank and the Al-Aqsa mosque”.

A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement: “We are saddened to hear about the deaths of two British-Israeli citizens and the serious injuries sustained by a third individual.

“The UK calls for all parties across the region to de-escalate tensions’

Tension on the streets as religious festivals coincide

Jerusalem has been calm today, but you can feel the tensions on the streets. Israeli security officials have bolstered numbers, especially in the Old City.

This weekend sees the convergence of Ramadan, Passover and Easter – the internal intelligence agencies had marked it as being a potential flashpoint.

The salvo of missiles from southern Lebanon into northern Israel yesterday afternoon came as a surprise. For a few hours, it had the potential to be a major escalation.

Not since 2006 has such an attack happened on Israel but the airstrikes overnight were carefully calibrated to avoid further violence.

Israeli forces hit the launch sites and in areas not controlled by Hezbollah.

Likewise, the simultaneous strikes in Gaza attacked known Hamas military posts but didn’t cause casualties.

Having said that, it wouldn’t take much to spark more violence. In previous years, violence has often escalated in the second half of Ramadan.

Jews, and other religions, are prevented from entering Al Aqsa between Friday and Sunday. When the compound opens up again, it might be a moment for more clashes.

The killing of two young British sisters in the West Bank is the latest tragedy in a new trend of Palestinian militant violence.

Cars with Israeli number plates have been increasingly targeted, sometimes fatally, as was the case in this incident.

Hamas, and Gaza, is a known quantity – you can read the signs and it often follows a pattern.

What is harder to predict are acts by unaffiliated Palestinians acting alone and how that might light the flame under this tinderbox.

The clashes at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa compound came at the start of the Jewish festival of Passover, which this year crosses over with Ramadan.

The site is extremely sacred to both Muslims and Jews and tensions over access and control often spill over into violence.

Israel’s Friday morning airstrikes hit different areas of Gaza, including tunnels and weapons-making sites of Hamas – the group that controls the blockaded coastal strip.

Hamas targets in southern Lebanon were also attacked, according to Israel’s military.

There were no reports of serious injuries following the Israeli strikes, but the Palestinian Health Ministry said a children’s hospital in Gaza had been damaged.

Israel said its retaliation followed 34 rockets fired from Lebanon on Thursday – one of the heaviest such attacks since its 2006 war with Hezbollah.

Authorities said 25 of the rockets fired at Israel were intercepted by air defences.

Most of those that made it into Israeli territory hit open areas, but a house was hit by shrapnel when one landed in the town of Sderot.

World

Trump applying ‘heavy pressure’ on Netanyahu to end war in Gaza

Published

5 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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Trump applying 'heavy pressure' on Netanyahu to end war in Gaza

US President Donald Trump is putting “heavy” pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza, two sources close to the ceasefire negotiations have told Sky News.

One US source said: “The US pressure on Israel has begun, and tonight it will be heavy.”

The source, who is not authorised to speak publicly, was referring to the White House dinner on Monday night between Trump and Netanyahu.

A second Middle Eastern diplomatic source agreed that the American pressure on Israel would be intense.

Netanyahu arrived in Washington DC in the early hours of Monday morning and held meetings on Monday with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser.

The Israeli prime minister plans to be in Washington until Thursday with meetings on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Trump has made clear his desire to bring the Gaza conflict to an end.

However, he has never articulated how a lasting peace, which would satisfy both the Israelis and Palestinians, could be achieved.

His varying comments about ownership of Gaza, moving Palestinians out of the territory and permanent resettlement, have presented a confusing policy.

Situation for Palestinians worse than ever

Over the coming days, we will see the extent to which Trump demands that Netanyahu accepts the current Gaza ceasefire deal, even if it falls short of Israel’s war aims – the elimination of Hamas.

The strategic objective to permanently remove Hamas seems always to have been impossible. Hamas as an entity was the extreme consequence of the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinians’ challenge has not gone away, and the situation for Palestinians now is worse than it has ever been in Gaza and also the West Bank. It is not clear how Trump plans to square that circle.

Trump’s oft-repeated desire to “stop the killing” is sincere. Those close to him often emphasise this. He is also looking to cement his legacy as a peacemaker. He genuinely craves the Nobel Peace Prize.

In this context, the complexities of conflicts – in Ukraine or Gaza – are often of secondary importance to the president.

If Netanyahu can be persuaded to end the war, what would he need?

The hostages back – for sure. That would require agreement from Hamas. They would only agree to this if they have guarantees on Gaza’s future and their own future. More circles to square.

Was White House dinner a key moment?

The Monday night dinner could have been a key moment for the Middle East. Two powerful men in the Blue Room of the White House, deciding the direction of the region.

Will it be seen as the moment the region was remoulded? But to whose benefit?

Trump is a dealmaker with an eye on the prize. But Netanyahu is a political master; they don’t call him “the magician” for nothing.

Trump makes decisions instinctively. He can shift position quickly and often listens to the last person in the room. Right now – that person is Netanyahu.

Gaza is one part of a jigsaw of challenges, which could become opportunities.

Diplomatic normalisation between Israel and the Arab world is a prize for Trump and could genuinely secure him the Nobel Peace Prize.

But without the Gaza piece, the jigsaw is incomplete.

World

IDF presence in Gaza ‘only issue’ still to be resolved in push for Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Sky News understands

Published

5 hours ago

July 9, 2025

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IDF presence in Gaza 'only issue' still to be resolved in push for Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Sky News understands

Only one issue remains unresolved in the push to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, according to Sky sources.

Intense negotiations are taking place in Qatar in parallel with key talks in Washington between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Two sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations have told Sky News that disagreement between Israel and Hamas remains on the status and presence of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza.

The two sides have bridged significant differences on several other issues, including the process of delivering humanitarian aid and Hamas’s demand that the US guarantees to ensure Israel doesn’t unilaterally resume the war when the ceasefire expires in 60 days.

On the issue of humanitarian aid, Sky News understands that a third party that neither Hamas nor Israel has control over will be used in areas from which the IDF withdraws.

This means that the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – jointly run by an American organisation and Israel – will not be able to operate anywhere where the IDF is not deployed. It will limit GHF expansion plans.

It is believed the United Nations or other recognised humanitarian organisations will adopt a greater role.

On the issue of a US guarantee to prevent Israel restarting the war, Sky News understands that a message was passed to Hamas by Dr Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian American who has emerged as a key back channel in the negotiations.

The message appears to have been enough to convince Hamas that President Trump will prevent Israel from restarting the conflict.

However, there is no sense from any of the developments over the course of the past day about what the future of Gaza looks like longer-term.

Final challenge is huge

The last remaining disagreement is, predictably, the trickiest to bridge.

Israel’s central war aim, beyond the return of the hostages, is the total elimination of Hamas as a military and political organisation. The withdrawal of the IDF, partial or total, could allow Hamas to regroup.

One way to overcome this would be to provide wider guarantees of clear deliverable pathways to a viable future for Palestinians.

But there is no sense from the negotiations of any longer-term commitments on this issue.

Two key blocks have been resolved over the past 24 hours but the final challenge is huge.

The conflict in Gaza erupted when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Some 20 hostages are believed to remain alive in Gaza.

Israel has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

World

‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says

Published

14 hours ago

July 8, 2025

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'Widespread sexual violence' took place during Hamas's 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says

A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.

Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence

The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.

The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.

According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.

Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.

One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.

At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.

The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.

Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.

The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.

This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.

Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.