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A total communication blackout struck Gaza on Friday night as the territory came under heavy Israeli bombardment.

Residents were cut off from the outside world, from each other and from contacting the emergency services.

Phone and internet access is gradually being restored, but the blackout put aid on hold and disrupted medical assistance.

A Sky News producer in Gaza sent this voice note on Sunday morning as connectivity slowly returned.

Image:
Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday. Pic: AP

We don’t know [why the network has come back]. Maybe someone hacked the satellite or maybe Israel – because of the international pressure – decided to allow the internet and calls to the Gaza people so they can check in on each other.

This morning at 3am we suddenly got messages on our phones. Many messages. We were able to read messages from our families and our friends in Gaza City.

There was no warning. We immediately started sending messages.

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We don’t know when it will cut again. We’ve had no contact from the Israeli side on why the connection came back.

The aftermath of Israel's continued assault
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The aftermath of Israel’s continued assault. Pic: AP

The producer’s family lives in Gaza City. She described it as a “terrifying and scary night” after two days of silence.

The moment I heard their voice I started crying because it was very difficult that I couldn’t check on them for the last couple of nights.

I couldn’t reach anyone to ask if they were fine, if they were hurt, it there was a chance that I would see them anymore or hear their voices again.

They are using a school near the Shifa Hospital as a shelter. The bombing is very heavy everywhere. Also using white phosphorous. People were out in the street, shouting and crying.

They feel scared because it’s like they are the targets for the Israeli bombing and shelling from the tanks.

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Israeli airstrike hits mosque and homes

People are very angry and sad. You can see it in their faces, they feel alone and there is no one with them. There is no survival of the war.

They are scared the war will continue. They are afraid that Israel will target them even here. They don’t feel any kind of safety.

But at the same time, they are suffering from daily life issues. You need to get water, you need food for your family. You need to use the bathroom. You need to go pick some stuff for your family.

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Life inside Gaza

Read more:
This Gaza journalist lost his wife, two children and grandchild
Israel expanding ground operations in Gaza
Mother ‘living in nightmare’ waiting to hear from daughter trapped in Gaza

Her brother is a paramedic working in Gaza City. She’s been trying to contact him since morning but has not heard from him yet.

He’s been working in the field all the time. When there is bombing or anything like that, he’s moving to check injured people.

They are targeting things like ambulance cars, civil defence and journalists. I’m worried that something will happen so we need to check on him all the time.

We talked early in in the morning about 5am. But since this time until now, I haven’t heard anything from him yet.

More than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, according to Hamas-run health authorities. The IDF says more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel.

Israeli Defence Forces say its ground operation is focused on striking Hamas infrastructure.

It accused Hamas of using medical facilities as cover, adding they “will continue making efforts to minimise harm to the civilian population and will continue to act in accordance with international law”.

Earlier this month, the IDF said accusations it was dropping white phosphorous on densely populated residential areas in Gaza were “unequivocally false”.

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Ransacked and looted: Sky reporter returns to family home left in ruins after war in Sudan

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Ransacked and looted: Sky reporter returns to family home left in ruins after war in Sudan

The biggest city in the Sahel has been ransacked and left in ruins.

War erupted in Sudan’s capital Khartoum in April 2023 and sent millions searching for safety.

The city was quickly captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after a power struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for total control.

At least 61,000 people were killed from the fighting and siege conditions in Khartoum state alone.

Thousands more were maimed and many remain missing.

The RSF fled Khartoum’s neighbourhoods in caravans carrying the city’s looted treasures as the army closed in and recaptured it after two years of occupation.

The empty streets they left behind are lined with charred, bullet-ridden buildings and robbed store fronts.

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The once shiny skyscrapers built along the confluence of the River Nile are now husks of blackened steel.

The neighbourhoods are skeletal. Generational homes are deserted and hollow.

Damage around Khartoum
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Damage from fighting around Khartoum

Damage around Khartoum

Trenches snake the streets where copper electric cables were ripped out of the ground and pulled out of lampposts now overridden with weeds.

The majority of the 13 million people displaced by this war fled Khartoum. Many left in a rush, assuming it would only take a few weeks for peace to be restored.

My parents were among those millions and in the midst of the abandoned, looted homes is the house where I grew up.

Yousra Elbagir's family home was left in ruins by RSF troops
Image:
Yousra Elbagir’s family home was left in ruins by RSF troops

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Yousra said it was likely a bomb had previously fallen nearby and shaken the house at its base

A shell of a home

I have to strain my eyes to see the turn to my house. All the usual markers are gone. There are no gatherings of young people drinking coffee with tea ladies in the leafy shade – just gaping billboard frames that once held up advertisements behind cars of courting couples parked by the Nile.

Our garden is both overgrown and dried to death.

The mango, lemon and jasmine trees carefully planted by my mother and brother have withered.

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Image:
Structural damage to the outside of the home

The Bougainvillea has reached over the pathway and blocked off the main entrance. We go through the small black side door.

Our family car is no longer in the garage, forcing us to walk around it.

It was stolen shortly after my parents evacuated.

The two chairs my mum and dad would sit at the centre of the front lawn are still there, but surrounded by thorny weeds and twisted, bleached vines.

Yousra Elbagir's family home in Khartoum before RSF's takeover of the city
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How the home looked before Sudan’s war

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Image:
And how it looks now

The neighbour’s once lush garden is barren too.

Their tall palm trees at the front of the house have been beheaded – rounding off into a greyish stump instead of lush fronds.

Read more:
How recaptured palace is a significant sign of return to order
Sudan’s paramilitary chief announces rival government

Everyone in Khartoum is coming back to a game of Russian roulette. Searching out their houses to confirm suspicions of whether it was blasted, burned or punctured with bullets.

Many homes were looted and bruised by nearby combat but some are still standing. Others have been completely destroyed.

Yousra Elbagir's family home in Khartoum before RSF's takeover of the city
Image:
How the home looked before the war

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Image:
And how it looks now

The outside of our house looks smooth from the street but has a crack in the base of the front wall visible from up close.

It is likely a bomb fell nearby and shook the house at its base – a reminder of the airstrikes and shelling that my parents and their neighbours fled.

Inside, the damage is choking.

Most of the furniture has been taken except a few lone couches.

The carpets and curtains have been stripped. The electrical panels and wiring pulled out. The appliances, dishes, glasses and spices snatched from the kitchens.

Yousra Elbagir shows her mother pictures found in the home
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Yousra shows her mother pictures found in the home

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The walls are bare apart from the few items they decided to spare. Ceilings have been punctured and cushions torn open in their hunt for hidden gold.

The walls are marked with the names of RSF troops that came in and out of this house like it was their own.

The home that has been the centre of our life in Sudan is a shell.

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Image:
Sudan’s war has left the country fractured

Glimmers of hope

The picture of sheer wreckage settles and signs of familiarity come into focus.

A family photo album that is 20 years old.

The rocking chair my mother cradled me and my sister in. My university certificate.

Yousra Elbagir finds her university degree certificate in the wreckage
Image:
Yousra finds her university certificate in the wreckage

Celebratory snaps of my siblings’ weddings. Books my brother has had since the early nineties.

The painting above my bed that I have pined over during the two years – custom-made and gifted to me for my 24th birthday and signed by my family on the back.

There are signs of dirt and damage on all these items our looters discarded but it is enough.

Yousra's parents pictured at home before they fled Khartoum
Image:
Yousra’s parents pictured at home before they fled Khartoum

Evidence of material destruction but a reminder of what we can hope will endure.

The spirit of the people that gathered to laugh, cry and break bread in these rooms.

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A portrait of Yousra Elbagir's grandmother which was damaged by RSF troops
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A portrait of Yousra’s grandmother damaged by RSF troops

The hospitality and warmth of a Sudanese home with an open door.

The community and sense of togetherness that can never truly be robbed.

What remains in our hearts and our city is a sign of what will get us through.

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Unpredictable and disruptive or canny and persistent – what exactly is Donald Trump’s foreign policy?

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Unpredictable and disruptive or canny and persistent - what exactly is Donald Trump's foreign policy?

So, after 100 days of Donald Trump the big question for me remains – does the US president have a coherent foreign policy or is he just winging it?

Let’s take his attitude to the war in Ukraine – here “inconsistent” is perhaps the best description.

Back in February, he and vice president JD Vance humiliated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by shouting at him in the Oval Office.

A few days later, I spoke to Mr Zelenskyy in person when he confided to me that maybe he would have to step down if NATO could guarantee Ukraine membership – a man who perhaps sensed he could never win against a hostile Mr Trump.

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Sky News meets Zelenskyy: The key moments

Yet, fast-forward to last weekend in Rome, and an iconic picture of the two men in close conversation at the Pope’s funeral.

This time round, it is Russian President Vladimir Putin on the receiving end of the presidential anger, blaming him for the fact that “too many people are dying!”

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and President Donald Trump, talk as they attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025.(Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Image:
Trump and Zelenskyy talk in the Vatican. Pic: AP

To Trump’s supporters, this is the smart negotiator, constantly repositioning himself as new information comes in, prior to pulling off a spectacular deal.

To his many detractors, it indicates a dangerous incoherence that is replicated in other key areas, including tariffs as well as his relationship with his allies in Europe and his foes in Beijing.

Trump 100: Read more
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Trump’s awkward reckoning 100 days in

How an immigration crackdown has changed lives

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Flexible or fallible; in control or all at sea? In the fast and furious world of Donald Trump, it’s almost impossible to call.

The only constants are his unwavering self-belief, or as the man himself says: “I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.”

We shall see.

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Gaza aid worker detained after Israeli attack has been released

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Gaza aid worker detained after Israeli attack has been released

A paramedic in Gaza who was detained for more than five weeks following an Israeli attack that killed 15 aid workers has been released, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said.

Asaad al Nsasrah was one of 17 aid workers who were attacked in Tel al Sultan in southern Gaza by Israeli forces on 23 March.

Asaad was one of two first responders who survived – the other 15 were killed.

He was initially thought to be missing, as his body was not among the dead. It was not until 13 April, three weeks after the attack, that Israel confirmed Asaad was alive and in Israeli detention.

The PRCS announced Asaad’s release on X and shared a video of him reuniting with colleagues.

Sky News has seen images showing Asaad, among other released Palestinians, in a grey tracksuit at al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, where he is undergoing medical examination, according to the PRCS.

Sky News investigated how the attack on the aid workers unfolded – unearthing new evidence earlier this month contradicting Israel’s official account of what happened.

The Israeli military later released the findings of its own investigation into the incident, saying it had dismissed a deputy commander for providing an “inaccurate report”.

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How two hours of terror unfolded

The PRCS claimed the Israeli military’s investigation was “full of lies”.

Asaad’s voice can be heard in a video, initially published by the New York Times, that shows the moments leading up to the attack on the aid workers.

The video was discovered on Rifaat Radwaan’s phone, which was found on his body by rescue workers five days after the attack.

Among those killed were one UN worker, eight paramedics from the PRCS and six first responders from Civil Defence – the official fire and rescue service of Gaza’s Hamas-led government.


The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

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