Desperate for updates, she was glued to Israeli news channels while trying to contact loved ones back home.
A week on, reports of rises in antisemitism in parts of Europe and calls by a former Hamas leader for a “Day of Rage” mean Hope is petrified to go out.
“Around the world, Jews and Israelis not being safe – this is something that I have never, ever dreamed of in my entire life,” she tells me.
Her terror is so great that she asked us not to publish her photo or real name for fear of being targeted.
She says she’s heard reports of neighbours leaving knives outside Israelis’ homes.
Although we can’t verify those reports, Hope’s fear isn’t unfounded.
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3:05
Gaza evacuations begin
Experts say there’s a pattern of increasing attacks on Jews following escalating violence in the Middle East.
“The risk is particularly high in Germany because antisemites of all political stripes are well-organised in Germany,” explains Aycan Demirel, an antisemitism prevention advisor.
In the hours following Hamas’s attack, Germany, along with France and the UK, quickly increased security around Jewish sites amid fear local communities would be targeted.
Extra police are visible outside the country’s biggest synagogue.
One of the private security officers standing outside tells us some parents are afraid to bring their children to the linked school in case it’s targeted by antisemitic terrorists.
It’s a fear the head of the Jewish Community of Berlin, Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, has heard repeated by his congregation during the past week.
Image: Police officers guard the Rykestrasse Synagogue. Pic: Adam Berry
Image: Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal. Pic: Adam Berry
“People are concerned and worried. [On Friday], there was a call for violence [against Jews], more students didn’t show up than showed up,” he says. “I personally believe that we should not change our lifestyle or what we are doing because that’s exactly what the terrorists want.”
Rabbi Teichtal estimates around 250,000 Jews live in Germany, with 50,000 of them based in Berlin.
He says many are traumatised by the unspeakable violence being reported.
One member of the community told him their grandmother saw a woman being raped and murdered in Israel’s kibbutz of Kfar Aza after Hamas’s unexpected assault from the Gaza Strip.
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Across Europe, leaders are rushing to try to prevent any spillover violence from the Israel-Hamas war.
France, which has Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish populations, has banned all pro-Palestinian protests, using water cannon and tear gas to disperse those defying the order in Paris.
The government said more than 100 antisemitic acts and 2,000 reports had been recorded since Saturday.
In a televised address, President Macron urged the country to stay united, adding the “first duty” was to protect French Jews from attacks and discrimination.
In Amsterdam, three Jewish schools were closed on Friday due to security concerns.
In Spain and Portugal, members of the Jewish community were on high alert after two synagogues were vandalised with pro-Palestine graffiti.
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1:04
Inside family home that Hamas attacked
The German chancellor has vowed zero tolerance for antisemitism and banned all activities supporting Hamas’s attack, including using their symbols or burning the Israeli flag.
It follows a police report that hours after Hamas entered Israel, cakes and sweets were handed out at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin as some seemed to celebrate.
As a result, such rallies have been repeatedly cancelled in the city over public safety fears.
Small, spontaneous protests have sprung up on Sonnenallee, where many Palestinians live, only to be quickly shut down by police.
Image: Pic: Adam Berry
Image: Pro-Palestinian posters destroyed after an effective ban on demonstrations. Pic: Adam Berry
Remnants of posters advertising the events hang from the walls where they’ve been ripped down.
“You can’t carry the Palestinian flag, if you do the police will take it away,” says local resident Mohammed.
He says he doesn’t want to show his face as he “doesn’t want problems with the police”.
“Everyone is really annoyed they’re not allowed to demonstrate,” he adds.
The national flag still flies above some of the streets’ cafes or is painted on to trees.
One man shows me his Palestine Liberation Organisation tattoo, but everyone here is reluctant to give interviews.
“It’s all dark, everything is black,” one resident tells me, describing how demoralised many of his neighbours feel.
Image: Pic: Adam Berry
“Hamas and Palestine have two different flags, but everything is treated as if it’s all Hamas even though one is a country and one is a party.”
He tells me he’s worried for his family stuck in Gaza amid heavy shelling.
“There are innocent people dying on both sides, but I tell people here not to talk to anyone. Anyone who opens their mouth is asking for trouble. They even shut down demonstrations that are for peace,” he says.
Minutes after we finish speaking, we see a large group of police on the street.
Between them are two German left-wing activists.
One is wearing a red and white Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, the other a necklace in the colours of the flag.
They tell us they were stopped on suspicion of handing out pro-Palestinian flyers, which they deny.
Image: A leftist activist named Glenn waits to be released by police officers. Pic: Adam Berry
The man wearing the necklace says his name in Glenn and that he’s a member of Young Struggle, a socialist youth organisation.
He believes the blanket banning of all pro-Palestinian protests is “pure repression” and an attack on free speech.
While they may not agree with each other, his point raises another challenge for democratic governments in Europe.
“If we do not make a clear distinction between pro-Palestinian groups and groups supporting the antisemitic terroristic organisation Hamas, if we do not act against antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism, then this can lead to more hatred and the likelihood of further radicalisation will increase.
“In the long run this will lead to an even greater threat of radicalisation and violence,” explains Rüdiger Jose Hamm, co-managing director of the national committee on religiously motivated extremism.
Back in Berlin, the police finish their inquiries and move on, but there’s an uneasy feeling on the street; the sense the escalating conflict in the Middle East is already stoking fear and tension in communities in Europe.
An aid worker in Gaza has told Sky News the food situation in the enclave is “absolutely desperate” and “the worst it’s ever been”.
Her comments to chief presenter Mark Austincome amid fresh outcry over aid restrictions, with the UK joining 24 other countries to urge an immediate end to the war.
It also comes as at least 12 more Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded when tanks shelled a tent encampment in western Gaza City, according to health authorities.
Medics, speaking early on Tuesday, said two shells were fired at tents housing displaced people from tanks positioned north of the Shati camp.
Israel hasn’t yet commented on the reports.
Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save The Children, spoke to Sky News from Deir al Balah, a city where tens of thousands of people have sought refuge during repeated waves of mass displacement.
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She said: “One of my colleagues said to me yesterday, ‘We are all walking together towards death’. And this is the situation now for people in Gaza.
“There is no food for their children, it’s absolutely desperate here.”
Image: Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen. Pic: Reuters
“The markets are empty,” she said. “People may even have cash in their pockets yet they cannot buy bread [or] vegetables.
“My team have said to me, ‘There’s nothing in my house to feed my children, my children are crying all day, every day.”
Israel launched a ground assault on southern and eastern Deir al Balah for the first time on Monday after having issued an evacuation order.
Local medics said at least three people were killed when houses and mosques were hit by tank shelling.
Sources told Reuters news agency that Israel believes some of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas in October 2023 could be in the area.
Image: Smoke rises during strikes amid the Israeli operation in Deir al Balah. Pic: Reuters
Ms Cummings’s remarks came as the UK and 24 other nations issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire.
The statement criticised aid distribution in Gaza, which is being managed by a US and Israel-backed organisation, Gaza Health Foundation (GHF).
“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the joint statement said.
The 25 countries also called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of hostages captured by Hamas during the 7 October 2023 attacks.
Lammy promises £40m for Gaza
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has promised £40m for humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
He told MPs: “We are leading diplomatic efforts to show that there must be a viable pathway to a Palestinian state involving the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, in the security and governance of the area.
“Hamas can have no role in the governance of Gaza, nor use it as a launchpad for terrorism.”
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2:53
Lammy: ‘There must be a viable pathway to a Palestinian state’
Addressing the foreign secretaries’ joint written statement, charity worker Liz Allcock – who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in Gaza – told Sky News: “While we welcome this, there have been statements in the past 21 months and nothing has changed.
“In fact, things have only got worse. And every time we think it can’t get worse, it does.”
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“Without a reversal of the siege, the lack of supplies, the constant bombardment, the forced displacement, the killing, the militarisation of aid, we are going to collapse as a humanitarian response,” she said.
“And this would do a grave injustice to the 2.2 million people we’re trying to serve.
“An immediate and permanent ceasefire, and avenues for accountability in line with international law, is the minimum people here deserve.”
The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.
More than 59,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
Donald Trump is clearly seething over the term ‘TACO’ (Trump always chickens out) – a phrase that has characterised financial market trading over the past few months.
It suggests that for all the president’s bluster and threats during his on-off trade war to date, he rarely follows through.
When asked by a reporter about TACO in late May, as his “liberation day” escalation remained on pause, he declared it a “nasty” question and said he wanted negotiations.
Mr Trump wants a deal but to effectively bully America’s trading partners into agreeing better terms.
It’s a playbook that has defined his time in the White House and, as things stand, more than 20 nations and territories, including Japan and South Korea, face heightened tariffs of up to 40% on their exports to the US from 1 August.
Financial markets don’t really believe it. Stock markets, for example, are still hovering near or at record levels in both the US and in Europe. The FTSE 100 closed above 9,000 points for the first time on Monday evening. TACO is ingrained in those values.
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But are markets in for a shock, especially when it comes to the fight with America’s single largest trading partner, the European Union? It was created, Mr Trump has previously claimed, to “screw” the United States.
It’s fair to say there was great optimism in the EU earlier this month that a deal, similar to that agreed between the US and UK, was looming to avert the worst of a threatened 30% baseline tariff from 1 August.
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2:02
Explained: The US-UK trade deal
But the mood music in Brussels changed at the back end of last week and now EU diplomats are even briefing that a broader range of retaliation measures is being considered beyond additional tariffs on US goods.
The seriousness of this fight should not be underestimated.
EU figures show trade in goods and services between the bloc and the US account for almost a third of all global trade, at a value in 2024 alone of €1.68trn (£1.45trn).
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1:45
Trump ‘reigniting global trade war’
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic has warned that a 30% tariff would “practically prohibit” the bloc’s transatlantic trade, according to remarks via diplomats reported by the Reuters news agency.
We’re told that, even if time runs out, a truce could theoretically be agreed soon after 1 August.
Much will depend on the EU’s response.
Does it go down the route taken by the UK and not retaliate, pending the conclusion of talks?
There is growing pressure on Brussels to call Mr Trump’s bluff.
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1:40
Trump tariff threats all ‘bluster’
The EU has a package of tariffs on €21bn of US goods ready to go from 6 August. An additional package is yet to be finalised.
France is demanding US services are hit too, with even Germany now saying such an escalation should be considered.
The so-called “anti-coercion” instrument, as it’s known, would also potentially allow the bloc to limit US companies’ access to financial service markets in the EU.
So what happens after 1 August could be even more explosive.
But there is every reason to believe that a tit-for-tat escalation is unlikely, at least for long.
The very reason Donald Trump rowed back on his “liberation day” tariffs in April, allowing 90 days for talks, was likely the dire financial market reaction that followed news of the widespread duties.
You have a president demanding interest rate cuts (at a time when inflation is on the rise due to the impact of tariffs) in a bid to boost flagging economic growth.
Mr Trump says his trade war is all about boosting US manufacturing jobs but, at the end of the day, no powerbase of voters is going to accept a threat to the value of their investments for long.
No big US company will stand by and see its sales suffer.
At least 19 people have died after a Bangladesh air force plane crashed into a college campus, the military said.
The aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College in Uttara, in the northern area of the capital Dhaka, where students were taking tests or attending regular classes.
The pilot was one of the people killed, and, according to the military, 164 were injured in the incident.
The Bangladeshmilitary’s public relations department added that the aircraft was an F-7 BGI, and had taken off at 1.06pm local time before crashing shortly after.
Video shows fire and smoke rising from the crash site, with hundreds looking on.
Image: Pics: Reuters
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Bengali-language daily newspaper Prothom Alo said that most of the injured were students with burn injuries.
Image: Pics: Reuters
Citing the duty officer at the fire service control room, Prothom Alo also reported that the plane had crashed on the roof of the college canteen.
Rafiqa Taha, a 16-year-old student at the school who was not present at the time of the crash, told the Associated Press that the school has around 2,000 students.
“I was terrified watching videos on TV,” she added. “My God! It’s my school.”