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We watched the latest feed of pictures and interviews sent to us in southern Israel by our Sky News colleagues in Gaza.

We are only a few miles apart but we could be on different continents.

The Sky News team and other journalists who live in Gaza are our eyes and ears to what is happening there.

Their work is dangerous, and vital to all of us who want to know what is happening.

Follow live: Israeli soldier rescued from captivity in Gaza

Like them we know what it’s like to work in dangerous places; unlike them, we aren’t doing our job with our mothers, fathers, partners, children, nephews and nieces, brothers and sisters living alongside us.

But they do it every day to bear witness.

What their latest feed shows is Gaza being split in two.

Only two roads connect the north and the south of the Gaza Strip; one is a main road, the other is a smaller coastal road.

Both are impossible to drive down with any safety anymore.

In a series of interviews, the Sky team spoke to some of the last people to make it south from Gaza City.

Their stories are uniformly terrifying and almost all the same – attacked as they drove, cars in front of them destroyed, and bodies strewn across the road.

The city of Khan Younis is on its knees
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The city of Khan Younis is on its knees

A family with a baby seen in Khan Younis
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A family with a baby seen in Khan Younis

Khan Younis

‘Everywhere is being bombed’

With a mattress strapped to the top of his car, and his children by his side, Abdul Nasr Lajkar told Sky News he doesn’t know where to go.

“It doesn’t matter if you are in Gaza or Khan Younis or anywhere else. There is no safe place. There is no place that is immune from bombing,” he said.

“Gaza is being bombed, Nuseirat is being bombed, Khan Younis is being bombed. Everywhere is being bombed. That is why we are sitting on the street.”

Abdul Nasr Lajkar told Sky News there is "no place immune from bombing"
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Abdul Nasr Lajkar told Sky News there is ‘no place immune from bombing’

The father, driving with his children and a mattress strapped to his car, said he has nowhere to go
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The father said he has nowhere to go

He then recounted the story of his dangerous and almost tragic trip to the city of Khan Younis.

“We saw a lot of destruction, they hit a car in front of us and we saw legs and hands on top of the car, and it was the car immediately in front of us,” he said.

“They all became like when you slaughter an animal, how you cut them up into pieces – that’s what happened to the occupants of the car.

“We got out of our car, and we could not comprehend what we were seeing.”

The windscreen of his car was damaged in the blast.

Read more:
‘Time is running out’ say families of hostages

IDF releases footage of airstrikes in Gaza Strip
Inside Gaza hospital where hundreds are sheltering

‘Nobody was alive’

Another evacuee, 30-year-old Hassan Abu Abdien, had a very similar experience on his drive south.

“We were moving and we passed that area and they hit the car in front, we were 40 to 50 metres away from them, and I pulled the handbrake and turned around but the shrapnel hit my windscreen,” he told Sky News.

“There were no ambulances or emergency services to help those casualties there, all of them got killed – kids, youngsters, they all got martyred – nobody was alive.”

Hassan Abu Abdien told how  shrapnel hit his windscreen as he tried to flee
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Hassan Abu Abdien told how shrapnel hit his windscreen as he tried to flee

Map of buildings in the Gaza Strip, with major cities highlighted. SOURCE: Open Street Map
Image:
Map of buildings in the Gaza Strip, with major cities highlighted. SOURCE: Open Street Map

A Gazan journalist, Yusuf Al Saifi, actually filmed his and his colleague’s terrifying experience on the main road south.

He told Sky News he has been travelling north daily to cover the Israeli advance on Gaza, and then returning south, but on his latest trip, he realised everything had changed on the route – an Israeli tank is in control and he says it is showing no mercy.

He filmed the moment a family car drove on the road towards the tank, not realising it was there.

“The car that was moving forward didn’t realise there was a tank there, he kept moving forward quickly and realised there was a tank in front of him,” he said.

He continued: “They fired on him, the driver tried turning back.

“He had a family with him, I saw the family in the car… they struck him with a shell, and they died.

“We saw it with our own eyes.”

Sky News has reached out to the IDF for comment on this incident, but we are yet to receive a reply.

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Moment tank fires at car in central Gaza

‘Israel went to plan B’

As the Israeli campaign continues, it is starting to become clear the military wants to cut Gaza in half so it can concentrate its operations on Hamas strongholds in the north; an attempt to dismantle its network of tunnels and ultimately the organisation itself.

Palestinian political leaders like Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told me this was always the plan.

Mustafa Barghouti, President of the Palestinian National Initiative
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Mustafa Barghouti, President of the Palestinian National Initiative

He believes it is not just a military decision but a deep-rooted strategy to literally redraw the map of the Middle East.

“I think Israel went to plan B, which is to ethnically cleanse Gaza City and the north of Gaza completely, and cut it off,” he told me.

“That is exactly what they are doing and what they will be trying to do through their ground operation.”

This is a proper invasion and bombing campaign that appears to be growing by the day.

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Gaza: Baby caught up in hospital mayhem

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The Israeli military is determined to succeed, and Hamas and its militias are determined to fight.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there will be no ceasefire and there will be no let up.

Which means for the civilians trapped in Gaza, there really is nowhere to run or to hide.

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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
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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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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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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
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How the home looked before the war

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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
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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
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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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World

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)
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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.

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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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