Israel-Hamas War: Some escaped on foot, but many were killed or taken hostage – city left in shock

Published

2 years ago

October 9, 2023

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Surrounded by destruction, and in the midst of a few local people dazed and frankly in shock after the events of Saturday and Hamas’s attack, I prepared to leave the city of Sderot.

Gunmen had careered through its streets on the back of four-wheel drives shooting up cars, killing drivers, and then dismounting and hunting down residents to either kill or take hostage and move to Gaza.

As I approached our vehicle, I caught sight of a hospital gurney somewhat haphazardly abandoned next to two cars.

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I decided to take a look and saw the gurney and two stretchers on the floor were covered in blood.

The two cars were riddled with bullets, their interiors splattered with blood.

In one vehicle I saw two children’s car seats, one for a baby, and another that looked like it belonged to a toddler.

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Around the cars were dozens of rubber gloves that had clearly been peeled off and thrown away.

I turned a corner and encountered a rabbi wearing a bulletproof vest, along with two assistants, who were tending to the bodies of what looked like two people rolled up, separately, in plastic.

They haven’t had time to identify and remove the victims yet. This type of scene isn’t uncommon in southern Israel at the moment.

There are pockets of destruction along the borderline with Gaza where the Hamas fighters breached the Israeli defensive system and wreaked havoc in towns, villages, and kibbutzim.

The numbers of people killed or missing continues to rise.

Survivors like Ytzhak Shitrit, who witnessed the attack in Sderot and hid in his home all day praying the gunmen wouldn’t find him, are suffering.

He was friendly when I approached him, and he told me what happened – in reality he can’t believe he survived.

“I was shocked, shocked, I heard the shooting, and I couldn’t believe it,” he said gesturing wildly.

“6am on a Saturday, on a holiday, it was scary, very scary.”

He hid in his shelter. “We went inside immediately and then we heard the constant shooting, and it sounded like it was in our living room.”

Ytzhak lives opposite the main police station that was taken over by the Hamas gunmen who killed at least 20 police officers.

In the end the Israeli forces destroyed the police station to take back control.

In many ways it’s a symbol of a security system that simply failed.

Standing looking at the heap of mangled rubble, Major Doron Spielman came over and introduced himself to me.

“A couple hours ago there was shooting in this city, the place we are standing in now just yesterday women and children were gunned down and were dragged from here back to the Gaza Strip,” he explained to me.

“Even when we as the IDF, when one person is killed we take it as a personal loss and personal responsibility, here with hundreds of people being killed we will do the most thorough analysis we have ever done, we’ll make sure that never happens again, but that’s going to be for tomorrow, today we have to do everything to protect our civilians, restore peace to the people of Israel, and make sure Hamas never again do this carnage to the people of Israel.”

The road leading to Sderot is lined with family cars attacked by Hamas as they moved towards the city in this surprise attack.

The cars are abandoned where they were ambushed. Belongings are strewn across the road, and next to some cars pools of blood are dried in the hot sun, marking the tarmac.

A handful of vehicles are completely burnt out, inside police and army investigators were sifting through the remains, looking for clues to the identity of the owners and the victims.

Some people escaped on foot, but many were killed or taken hostage and driven the short distance to Gaza.

At a petrol station we came across SWAT teams, stationed here to try to retrieve hostages taken by Hamas and possibly still inside Israel – among them are negotiators.

But this is an ongoing war and you’re never far from it.

While we were filming the air reverberated to the sound of Israel’s Iron Dome air defence shield picking off rockets fired from Gaza.

And mingled within the noise was the sound of helicopter gunships firing into Gaza, attack drones in the skies, and jets carrying out regular sorties against Hamas targets in the Strip.

The defence forces are still securing the border but there is already a huge build-up of soldiers and hardware.

We watched as multiple armoured personnel carriers with Israeli flags attached, rumbled their way across the flat farmlands towards Gaza.

An Israeli incursion is coming, and it will be bloody.

The government is in no mood for mercy, and that will inevitably cost the lives of civilians.

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Belgium announces it will recognise Palestinian state

Published

4 hours ago

September 2, 2025

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Belgium announces it will recognise Palestinian state

The Belgian government has said it will officially recognise the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly this month.

The country’s foreign minister, Maxime Prevot, announced it will join the UK, France, Canada, and Australia in recognising a Palestinian state.

Belgium will also introduce “firm sanctions” against the Israeli government, he said, including a ban on imports from West Bank settlements and possible judicial prosecutions.

The Israeli foreign ministry and its Belgian embassy have not yet commented on the announcement.

However, its foreign ministry previously said the UK’s plan to recognise Palestine “constitutes a reward for Hamas”.

Sir Keir Starmer announced in July that the UK would recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel meets certain conditions, those being:

• Israel takes substantive steps to end the “appalling situation in Gaza“

• Israel agrees to a ceasefire

• Israel commits to a long-term sustainable peace – reviving the prospect of a two-state solution

• Israel must allow the UN to restart the supply of aid

• There must be no annexations in the West Bank

In response, the Israeli foreign ministry said: “The shift in the British government’s position at this time, following the French move and internal political pressures, constitutes a reward for Hamas and harms efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of hostages.”

The UN General Assembly session in New York will begin on 9 September. Ireland, Spain, and Norway all officially recognised a Palestinian state last year.

Out of the 193 United Nations member states, 147 already recognise Palestine as a state as of March 2025.

Earlier this month, Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans to build a new settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which he said would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.

It comes after US secretary of state Marco Rubio revoked the visas of 81 delegates from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) – blocking them from attending the general assembly.

Under a 1947 UN agreement, the US is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York.

But Washington has said it can deny visas for security, extremism and foreign policy reasons.

The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza is now more than 63,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

It added that nine more people, including three children, died of malnutrition and starvation over Monday, raising deaths from such causes to at least 348, including 127 children.

The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage.

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Afghanistan earthquake: A catastrophe compounded by Trump’s aid cuts

Published

4 hours ago

September 2, 2025

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Afghanistan earthquake: A catastrophe compounded by Trump's aid cuts

Earthquakes represent a constant danger in Afghanistan – a country which sits across three geological fault lines.

This most recent rupture near the city of Jalalabad – leaving more than 800 people dead – represents the third major quake in the past four years.

But the people of this impoverished nation are vulnerable in a number of ways.

The impact of foreign aid cuts

Since the Taliban took control in 2021, the international community has withdrawn much of the financial support which formed the bulk of government spending in Afghanistan.

Even humanitarian aid, which generally bypasses government institutions, has shrunk substantially – from $3.8bn (£2.8bn) in 2022 to $767m (£566.6m) this year.

The US government, through its international development arm USAID, provided 45% of all assistance granted to Afghanistan last year – but the Trump administration has slashed those sums.

The UK, along with France, Germany, Sweden, and others have also made deep cuts to humanitarian aid.

As a consequence, hundreds of hospitals and local health clinics in the country have been shut this year and related medical posts have been lost.

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This crisis comes as the country tries to absorb millions of people who fled when the Taliban took power. More than two million have come back this year, with Pakistan and Iran taking measures to force their return.

On arrival, they discover a country where more than half the population requires urgent humanitarian assistance, according to the UN – with millions suffering from acute food insecurity.

Large parts of northern Afghanistan have been stricken with the long-term drought.

A catastrophe compounded in a nation that ranks as one of the poorest – and most desperate – on Earth.

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More than 1,000 feared dead in Sudan landslide, rebel group says

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4 hours ago

September 2, 2025

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More than 1,000 feared dead in Sudan landslide, rebel group says

More than 1,000 people are feared dead after a landslide in a village in western Sudan, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM) has said.

The rebel group said only one survivor was found, and that the village in the Marrah Mountains area, in the Darfur region, was destroyed.

SLM leader Abdelwahid Mohamed Nour said in a statement that the landslide struck on Sunday, 31 August, after days of heavy rainfall.

He appealed to the United Nations and international aid agencies for help in recovering the bodies.

The SLM controls the area located in the Darfur region in western Sudan.

Fleeing the civil war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), residents had sought shelter in the Marrah Mountains area, where food and medication are insufficient.

In January, the US determined that the RSF and its militias were committing genocide in Sudan.

The RSF rejected the claim and said: “America previously punished the great African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, which was wrong.”

The RSF has been fighting Sudan’s army for territorial control of the country since war erupted in the capital, Khartoum, in April 2023.

The ensuing devastation has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis ever recorded – with over 11 million people forced out of their homes, tens of thousands dead, and 30 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

Minni Minnawi, leader of a faction of the group, said in March last year that 1,500 troops would support the Sudanese army in the civil war against the RSF, according to the Sudan Tribune.