It was a rare window into confrontations most have viewed from afar. We were invited on board the Philippine Coastguard Vessel BRP Bagacay.

They were on a resupply mission to Scarborough Shoal – a submerged reef which China claims as its own but is within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone.

They were meant to be dropping off food and fuel to fishermen who rely on the lives beneath these waters. But they knew, as did we, that this journey was about far more.

It felt as if they wanted to show the world they were willing to stand up to Beijing if Chinese ships tried to block their path.

Our trip comes off the back of a trilateral summit with Japan and America, where no doubt there were discussions on how to handle China’s expanding interests and increasing manoeuvres in the South China Sea.

We got on the ship on Monday afternoon. By dawn the following day, the tension was already apparent.

Two ships were already trailing behind our vessel – more than three hours away from Scarborough Shoal.

There has long been a game of brinkmanship in this waterway – where about one-third of the world’s shipping passes through. But this felt more choreographed and intense than it has for some time.

Soon, the captain told us 12 ships were encircling our vessel.

They swerved in front of the Philippine crew, who exchanged warnings over the radio.

On the deck, the crew rushed towards buoys every time the Chinese edged closer – trying to protect themselves in case there was a collision. We could see the Chinese crew taking pictures – just metres away from us.

Then suddenly, a volley of water was fired at the boat. The force of it seemed to take even the experienced crew on board by surprise.

We were on the stern of the vessel and got soaked. As we were ushered inside, the roof of part of the deck that some of us had spent the previous night sleeping on was ripped apart. Despite the damage, the water cannons continued to fire.

Within hours the Chinese coastguard was trying to get the first word out to the world about the incident.

They say the Philippine vessel we were on has been “expelled”.

The team on board the Philippine vessel tell us they’re turning back because the other ship they were travelling alongside has had its radar damaged by the water cannons.

Read more:
US accuses Beijing of ‘bullying’ in South China Sea
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There is arguably one silent player in this fraught moment – America.

The US has recently deepened its military and diplomatic ties with the Philippines. It’s described China’s actions as “coercive and unlawful”.

It has also made clear that due to a joint defence treaty, it will take action if Beijing conducts a military attack.

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That’s raised the temperature of this tussle and the spectre of a superpower showdown.

No one wants that yet, but the chances of a dangerous misstep now look far higher.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin ran home when her husband, John, called last week. He had just been told by the FBI and Israeli intelligence that Hamas was about to publish a video of their son Hersh, from captivity in Gaza.

It was the first proof he was alive since he was taken hostage at the Nova music festival on 7 October.

She said: “I’m running home so that we could be together. I was quickly calling the grandparents, my daughters and our team, the people who surround us every day and help us to warn them, because we didn’t know what was going to be in the video. So we were scared.

“We watched it together with everybody else and truthfully, the first time we saw it, we were just crying and not really listening, just hearing his voice, not listening to the content.”

In the video, Hersh is sat against a plain white wall, wearing a red and blue t-shirt.

The handsome 24-year-old, whose smiling photo is on most street corners in West Jerusalem alongside the phrase “Free Hersh” is now pale, with bags under his eyes and cropped hair.

His left hand is missing, blown off by a grenade as Hamas stormed into Israel that October morning. The toll of seven months as a Hamas hostage is obvious.

“There wasn’t anger. It was relief, and heartbreak that he looked obviously medically compromised and fragile, seeing his arm for the first time since seeing his arm blown off from the original abduction video was something.

“As a parent, you would never want to see that.”

Rachel has only watched the full video properly three times but has viewed it on mute to see her son moving and listened to the audio close to her ear just so that she could hear his voice.

“I’ll take it as a mother when he says that the most important thing is family and he talks to us saying: ‘I love you and I hope you know that. I’ll see you soon’. And again, that was probably all scripted, but I’ll take it.

“When you’re starving and someone gives you a dry piece of bread, you’ll take it, and I was glad to take it.”

Rachel’s father, Hersh’s grandfather, broke down in floods of tears when he heard about the video. He had been privately convinced his grandson was dead but had stayed strong for his daughter’s sake.

A potential ceasefire?

Negotiations for a new ceasefire are ongoing.

Hamas is studying a new proposal from Israel that reportedly demands the release of 20 hostages in an initial phase in return for a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces and the freedom for Gazans in the south to return home to the north.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday described it as a “generous” offer and Hamas is expected to deliver its answer in the coming days.

Get the latest updates on the Israel-Hamas war

For the families of the 133 hostages still in Gaza, it has been traumatic to have hopes raised so many times, only for a possible deal to fall apart.

‘Don’t count your hostages until they’re home’

For seven months Rachel has not worn make-up or jewellery, listened to music or watched the news.

The only accessory on her clothing is a ripped piece of tape with the number 207 written on: the number of days her son has been hostage.

With her husband, she has travelled to Washington and Davos to address world leaders and campaigned to keep the story of every hostage alive.

Like every hostage family member I have met over the past seven months, their focus is not just on bringing their loved one home, but every single hostage home.

“You know honestly, we’ve learned the expression ‘don’t count your chickens before they hatch’ and so we say, ‘don’t count your hostages until they’re home’.

“I just think we have to protect ourselves emotionally and psychologically, so we’re certainly optimistic and hopeful and always praying for a positive outcome, but I’m very cautious.

“I think all of the families are very careful not to be counting on something before we really have a reason to count on it.”

Read more:
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‘Not just’ about the hostages

Rachel’s message to leaders, as the negotiations again enter a difficult and crucial phase, is to compromise for the sake of everyone, Israelis, Palestinians and other nationalities caught up:

“It’s not just about the 133 hostages who represent 25 different countries who are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist, and who range in age from 15 months old to 85, 86 years old. This is not just about the 133 hostages.

“This is about hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians who are suffering in this region, in Gaza.

“And there can be an end to it. I think that it will require tremendous courage and compromise. Compromise is always difficult. Prices are always steep. It’s always painful. That’s the point of compromise, is that you’re willing to give up on something you hold dear for something that’s even more precious, but you pay for it.

“And I would say to the people who are in those rooms to make the bold choice to do the thing that will give your people relief, your own people relief.”

In Tehran’s Revolution Square, two women clad in long black burqas approach another woman, dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and a hijab, or head scarf.

She tries to walk away, but one of the women in burqas grabs her by her sleeve and pulls her back, yanking her onto the ground. She is surrounded, wrapped in a blanket and bundled into a white van.

The scene is from one of many videos that have been circulating widely on social media in recent weeks, showing incidents of the latest crackdown by Iran’s so-called morality police.

But this time, another enforcement group is more visibly working alongside the regime – and they are also women.

Sky News has analysed dozens of videos showing incidents of authorities’ renewed campaign targeting women for not properly wearing their hijab in accordance with the regime’s strict sharia law.

“Before this new wave of attacks started, I was planning to get rid of some of my longer clothes, because I don’t feel comfortable in them,” said Leila, an Iranian woman in her 20s living in Tehran. She spoke to Sky News on condition of anonymity.

“Now, I find myself wearing those even though I hate them, because I think I wouldn’t feel safe going out of my house wearing something that I could potentially lose my life over, or that I could get arrested for.”

‘Ambassadors of Kindness’

What’s notable about this recent spate of arrests is the increased presence of women in burqas, considered by Iranian leaders as the most modest form of dress, working with authorities.

They are part of a new enforcement group, dubbed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as “Ambassadors of Kindness”, who are helping enforce harsh regulations and silence dissent, one expert said.

Some young Iranians are calling them “bats”.

Leila was recently in the street when she spotted the police and stopped to cover her hair. She was then approached by a woman wearing a full hijab who told her she should “be afraid of God, not the police”.

“The truth is that when someone is wearing full hijab I am afraid that she might be with the police,” she said.

It’s not the first time the IRGC has employed women to help them. But Hadi Ghaemi, director of New York-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), says they’ve increased in number, as have the physical presence of morality police, white vans and police cars, which are used in the arrests of women on the street.

“They’re not armed, but they’re meant to go intimidate women by politely and kindly warning them. Then if the woman doesn’t listen, they call over security forces,” said Mr Ghaemi.

“What’s really scary is the way [authorities] are recommending citizens turn on citizens.”

War at home

As Iran launched its first ever attack on Israel, it intensified this less-noticed war at home.

Three days before it flew missiles into Israel, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, said that women in the Islamic Republic must obey the dress code, regardless of their beliefs.

Then on Saturday 13 April, Tehran’s police chief Abbas Ali Mohammadian said people who ignored prior warnings faced legal action.

Read the latest on the Israel-Hamas war here

Not long after his statement was released, videos showing white police vans on the streets of cities across Iran went viral.

Iranian authorities say their Nour (Persian for ‘light’) campaign targets businesses and individuals who defy hijab law and responds to demands from devout citizens who are angry about the growing number of unveiled women in public.

“The level of brutality is very, very high right now,” said Masih Alinejad, an Iranian American journalist and activist.

“This time they are more emboldened. You can see it on their faces and see it from the huge number of them.”

In one video analysed by Sky News, at least six officers wearing yellow vests appear to be arresting one woman outside a train station in Tehran. She resists but fails to break free, and is ushered into a white van.

In another video posted the same day authorities announced their campaign, footage shows a cluster of white police cars, vans, and men in uniform in Tehran’s Valiasr Square.

Sky News was able to verify the precise location of the videos and the date each clip first appeared online.

Women and girls arrested

Morality police vans had largely vanished from the streets of Iran since last year, when widespread protests erupted across the country in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman who died while being detained for improperly wearing her hijab.

Read more: Who was Mahsa Amini?

Police now appear to be back out in force, as a draconian ‘hijab and chastity’ bill is also currently making its way through the country’s parliament. One group of students reported new facial recognition software installed at a university dormitory.

But while street protests have died down, resistance to the regime’s hardline policies has not.

Iranian authorities released footage purporting to show members of the public being rude to, and lashing out at, morality police.

But this has backfired, said Ms Alinejad: “Now that video is going viral because people are so proud of the young women.”

Mina, another Iranian woman, had her car confiscated for three weeks last year because of her hijab. But she remains defiant.

Read more: Death sentence imposed on Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi

“We fight not only to have the right to choose coverage, but to have the right to choose a lifestyle,” she said.

Another video showed the arrest of a woman for allegedly not wearing her hijab in Haft Tir metro station in Tehran.

But a crowd surrounded her, chanting “free her” and calling the police “dishonoured.” Not long after the noise began, the police released the woman.

The ‘war against women’

As these videos went viral, so did talk about Iran’s “war on women”. Since 12 April there has been a steady rise in the number of times the Farsi for ‘mandatory hijab’ (حجاب اجباری) was used across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On 11 April the phrase was used 585 times – but by 22 April it was mentioned in almost 10,000 posts, according to social listening platform Talkwalker.

The hashtag #IRGCTerrorists was also repeatedly used to accompany posts about discrimination against women. This peaked on 16 April, when more than 234,000 posts used this hashtag.

Farsi for ‘War against women’ (جنگ_علیه_زنان) then surged the following day and was used almost 30,000 times. Some 42% of these posts came from Iran itself.

What is next for the women of Iran?

“The anger among Iranians is much stronger and heavier than before,” Mina said.

“I don’t think they are going to give up that fight. The flame of revolution is still burning in Iran.”

Some women, she said, are willing to risk imprisonment: “They would rather get arrested but not live in humiliation and not live under these barbaric officers walking in the streets.”

Additional reporting by John Sparks, International correspondent, Sam Doak, OSINT producer

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.