A British school teacher from Manchester trapped in Gaza has told Sky News how she feels “insignificant” after the Foreign Office told her they “can’t do anything more” to help her leave.
Zaynab Wandawi has been in Gaza for more than three weeks with 10 members of her husband’s family.
The group travelled to the region just days before the atrocity on 7 October which sparked the current violence.
But despite her attempts to leave via the Rafah Border into Egypt, the 29-year-old teacher said they can’t get through.
Messages shared with Sky News between Zaynab and a British Foreign Office official show her pleading for help.
On Saturday night, the official says: “Hi Zaynab, how are you doing for food and water? Do you have any injuries?”
She replied saying: “We don’t have much – we barely eat and drink as there’s nothing left. Water is a luxury that we are not privy to.”
Image: Messages exchanged between Zaynab and British Foreign Office official
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) official says they aren’t hearing anything about when it (Rafah border) will be open.
Zaynab replies: “The longer we are here – the higher the chance that we will not make it to the Rafah border. I honestly don’t think they know how much our lives are at risk.”
In response, the official sends a sad face, saying: “I really don’t understand why they are taking so long.”
Sky News understands intensive diplomacy between the UK, Israel and Egypt took place this weekend to work out a plan to open the Rafah border.
Image: Zaynab Wandawi says she is desperate to leave Gaza
Speaking to Sky News from Gaza on Monday, Zaynab said she was desperate to leave because the situation was “very scary and not safe”.
“It made me feel like they don’t even consider me a British national, it made me feel insignificant to be honest,” she said.
“I was really angry because each day that we’re still here there’s a higher chance we’ll never get out. It’s very scary, there are a lot of deaths. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail over the phone but it’s devastating.
“I’ve never witnessed anything like this in my life, it’s disgusting and not safe.”
The messages from the Foreign Office official to Zaynab also reiterated that the British government “don’t have any staff in Gaza who can help practically” and that the authorities are doing “whatever we can” to help.
But Zaynab told Sky News she and her husband’s family have accepted the worst outcome: “I’m here with my husband and his family, it’s lovely we’re all together, but at the same time I feel like if anything happens to me all my family are in the UK, so I won’t be able to say goodbye to them, I won’t be close to them if anything happens.”
In a statement to Sky News, the FCDO said: “As the prime minister and foreign secretary have said, the safety of British nationals remains our top priority.
“We are working closely with Egypt and Israel to ensure all British nationals who want to leave Gaza can exit via the Rafah crossing or other routes as quickly as possible.
“FCDO has been keeping in close contact with British Nationals in Gaza and will continue to update them on the latest status of the crossing.”
Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage might be polar opposites when it comes to politics – but they do have one thing in common.
The pair are both cutting through in a changing media landscape when attention is scarce and trust in mainstream politics is scarcer still.
For Farage, the Reform UK leader, momentum has been building since he won a seat at the general election last year and he continues to top the polls.
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2:47
Badenoch doesn’t want to talk about Farage
But in the six weeks since Polanski became leader of the Greens, membership has doubled, they’ve polled higher than ever before while three Labour councillors have defected. Has the insurgent firebrand finally met his match?
“I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I despise Nigel Farage’s politics and disagree with him on almost everything,” Polanski tells Sky News.
“But I think his storytelling has undoubtedly cut through and so yes there has been a huge part of us saying ‘If Farage can do that with a politics of hate and division, then it’s time for the Green Party to do that with a politics of hope and community’ and that’s absolutely what I intend to keep doing.”
Polanski was speaking after a news conference to announce the defections of the councillors in Swindon – a bellwether area that is currently led by a Labour council and has two Labour MPs, but was previously controlled by the Tories.
It is the sort of story the party would previously have announced in a press release, but the self-described “eco populist” is determined to do things differently to grab attention.
He has done media interviews daily over the past few weeks, launched his own podcast and turbocharged the Greens social media content – producing slick viral videos such as his visit to Handsworth (the Birmingham neighbourhood where Robert Jenrick claimed he saw no white people).
Image: Zack Polanski announces the defection of Labour councillors
Polanski insists that it is not increased exposure in and of itself that is attracting people to his party but his messaging – he wants to “make hope normal again”.
“I’m not going to be in a wetsuit or be parachuting from a helicopter”, he says in a swipe at Lib Dem leader Ed Davey.
“I think you only need to do stunts if you don’t have something really clear to say and then you need to grab attention.
“I think when you look at the challenges facing this country right now if you talk about taxing wealth and not work, if you talk about the mass inequality in our society and you talk about your solidarity with people living in poverty, with working-class communities, I think these are the things that people both want to hear, but also they want to know our solutions. The good news is I’ve got loads of solutions and the party has loads of solutions. “
Some of those solutions have come under criticism – Reform UK have attacked his policy to legalise drugs and abolish private landlords.
Image: Discontent is fuelling the rise of challenger parties. Pic: PA
Polanski is confident he can win the fight. He says it helps that he talks “quite quickly because it means that I’m able to be bold but also have nuance”. And he is a London Assembly member not an MP, so he has time to be the party’s cheerleader rather than being bogged down with case work.
As for what’s next, the 42-year-old has alluded to conversations with Labour MPs about defections. He has not revealed who they are but today gave an idea of who he would welcome – naming Starmer critic Richard Burgon.
Like Burgon, Polanski believes Starmer “will be gone by May” and that the local elections for Labour “will be disastrous”.
He wants to replace Labour “right across England and Wales” when voters go to the polls, something Reform UK has also vowed to do.
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2:26
Is Zack Polanski squeezing the Labour vote?
Could the Greens be kingmakers?
Luke Tryl, director of More in Common, says this reflects a “new axis of competition” as frontline British politics shifts from a battle of left vs right to a battle of process vs anti-establishment.
Farage has been the beneficiary of this battle so far but Tryl says Polanski is “coming up in focus groups” in a way his predecessors didn’t. “He is cutting through”, the pollster says.
However, one big challenge Polanski faces is whether his rise will cause the left vote to fragment and make it easier for Farage to win – something he has said he wants to avoid at all costs.
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And yet, asked if he would form a coalition with Labour to keep Farage out of power in the event of a hung parliament, he suggested he would only do so if Sir Keir Starmer is no longer prime minister.
“I have issues with Keir Starmer as prime minister,” he says. “I think he had the trust of the public, but I would say that’s been broken over and over again. If we had a different Labour prime minister that would be a different conversation about where their values are.”
He adds: “I do think stopping Nigel Farage has to be a huge mission for any progressive in this country, but the biggest way we can stop Nigel Farage is by people joining the Green Party right now; creating a real alternative to this Labour government, where we say we don’t have to compromise on our values.
“If people wanted to vote for Nigel Farage, they’d vote for Nigel Farage. What does Keir Starmer think he’s doing by offering politics that are similar but watered down? That’s not going to appeal to anyone, and I think that’s why they’re sinking in the polls.”
A former paratrooper accused of murdering two civilians in the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland 53 years ago has been found not guilty.
Soldier F – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – was accused of killing James Wray and William McKinney during disorder after a civil rights parade on 30 January 1972 in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
The veteran was also found not guilty of five attempted murders at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday.
He had denied all seven charges.
Thirteen people were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment on the day in question.
Soldier F did not give evidence, but the court heard about previous statements from two paratroopers – known as G and H – who were in Glenfada Park North along with F.
The prosecution said their testimony was direct evidence that the defendant had opened fire in the area.
Image: Bloody Sunday Trust undated handout photos of (top row, left to right) Patrick Doherty, Bernard McGuigan, John “Jackie” Duddy and Gerald Donaghey, (bottom row, left to right) Gerard McKinney, Jim Wray, William McKinney and John
However, the defence argued that they were unreliable witnesses as their statements were inconsistent with each other and with other witnesses who gave evidence.
The trial was held in Belfast in front of a judge, not a jury.
Delivering his judgment, Judge Patrick Lynch said the evidence presented against the veteran fell well short of what was needed for conviction.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.