Israel-Hamas war: The impossible conditions for children born into conflict
Imagine having not one, but two babies born in the middle of war.
Lina Hammad gave birth to twins in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
It should be a time of celebration, but the stress of keeping the infants, and two other children alive, is all-consuming.
The impact of war always hits the most vulnerable.
Speaking from a damp, cold room in Khan Younis, Lina explains she had a difficult birth and needed anaesthetic and medicine that the hospital didn’t have because of the war.
Lina Hammad says she was not given anaesthetic during birth of her twins
She says the conditions are impossible: “We are sitting on blankets on a cement floor. There are no vaccinations. We need nappies, milk and clothes.”
There are four children in the family, all of them are sick.
“It’s cold, the wind comes in and it’s hard for the children,” she says. “They have chest infections and diarrhoea.”
There’s a gnawing fear among Gaza‘s parents, how do they save their children from the war, hunger and disease that is now ravaging the Gaza Strip?
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‘Quiet and unprecedented’ in Bethlehem
The aid agency Save the Children says Gaza is now the world’s most dangerous place to be a child.
More children have died in this war than in all the world’s major conflicts combined over the last three years. It’s staggering.
Lina can’t even contact her own mother. Like all the enclave’s infrastructure, Gaza’s telecommunications system has broken down.
As for her children, Lina says: “They are still coughing, I swear they can’t sleep at night. I fear for them. Last night my son was suffocating.”
Quality of life has plummeted
While Gaza is in the grips of a man-made humanitarian catastrophe, in the other Palestinian territory – the occupied West Bank – tension is boiling.
Palestinians say Israeli arrests, raids and road closures across the West Bank is making life for those living under Israeli military occupation, go from bad to worse.
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Israel says its military action in the territory is targeted at armed fighters, Palestinian militant groups and rioters.
The UN reports that this has been the deadliest year on record for Palestinians across the West Bank, by miles.
According to the agency’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), 457 Palestinians have been killed in the territory this year.
Thirty-five Israelis have also been killed in the West Bank.
In the folds of the hills and olive groves lies the village of Husan, with a population of 10,000 people. It is reeling from the impact of daily raids by the Israeli military.
Its residents tell Sky News that since the 7 October deadly rampage by Hamas, their quality of life has plummeted to a new low.
Mahmoud Zeoul was killed during an Israeli raid
On Wednesday, 18-year-old Mahmoud Zeoul, was killed during an Israeli raid.
His family say he was shot dead by the Israeli military.
In a statement to Sky News the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said there had been a riot in the village and Palestinians had thrown explosives and stones. It says it’s investigating the death.
Safaa Zeoul says the Israeli military raids the West Bank every day
But his mother, Safaa Zeoul, says: “The (Israeli) army raids the area every day. They occupy our land and it’s natural to resist them.
“We don’t have weapons but stones. They respond to stones with snipers. They are afraid of stones.”
When we visited the family, people from the local village came by to pay their respects. Local women told us they are afraid about their sons’ futures.
Tension is boiling in the West Bank
“What is going on in the West Bank is the reaction to what is happening in Gaza,” Ms Zeoul says.
“They (the IDF) shoot people indiscriminately.”
A short drive from Husan is the Christian city of Bethlehem. But there are no Christmas celebrations this year, it’s been cancelled.
Daniella Dukmak is a resident in Bethlehem
With war raining down on Gaza, the West Bank’s Christian community is mourning their friends and family displaced and killed in the southern coastal enclave.
“In 25 years I’ve never witnessed such an incredibly sad Christmas,” Bethlehem resident, Daniella Dukmak, says.
“This Christmas, we can’t turn a blind eye to what’s going on in Gaza.”
The cardinals have arrived, the finishing touches are being made; Vatican City is preparing for an election like no other.
On Wednesday, the papal conclave begins and many visitors to St Peter’s Square already have a clear view on what they would like the outcome to be.
“I want a liberal pope,” says Joyce who has travelled to Rome from the US.
“My number one is Pierbattista Pizzaballa,” says blogger Teodorita Giovannella referencing the 60-year-old Italian cardinal.
Rome resident Michele Rapinesi thinks the next pope will be the Vatican’s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, who was Pope Francis’ number two.
Joyce has travelled all the way to Rome from the US
Michele Rapinesi speaks to Siobhan Robbins
Although the job of selecting the next pontiff lies with 133 cardinal electors, Ms Giovannella and Mr Rapinesi are among 75,000 Italians playing an online game trying to predict who they’ll pick.
Fantapapa is a similar format to fantasy football, but teams are made up of prospective pontiffs.
Ms Giovannella has chosen three popular Italians as her favourites: Cardinals Pizzaballa, Zuppi and Parolin.
After 47 years she wants an Italian pope but believes an Asian or African would be a good “plot twist”.
Despite the growing speculation and excitement, for the cardinal electors the papal conclave is the serious and sombre process of choosing the next leader of the Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion followers.
Teodorita Giovannella is hoping the next pope will be a fellow Italian
To keep the vote secret, they are locked in the Sistine Chapel which has been swept for hidden cameras, recording equipment and bugs.
The windows are covered to keep the outside world out and to stop drones from spying.
Mobile phones are banned and signal jammers have been installed to help stop any information being leaked.
Ballots are burned after they are cast and a plume of coloured smoke shows people if a new pope has been chosen.
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Preparations inside the Sistine Chapel
The cardinal who is elected will become one of the most powerful men in the world and will set the course for the Catholic Church for years to come, making decisions which will affect the lives of millions of people worldwide.
Pope Francis’ 12-year reign pulled the church in a more progressive direction.
His fight for migrants and climate change made him a muse for Roman street artist Mauro Pallotta.
He met him five times and painted more than 30 pictures of him, celebrating his life on the walls of Rome.
Siobhan Robbins with Rome street artist Mauro Pallotta
One of Mr Pallotta’s artworks of Pope Francis
One shows Francis with a catapult shooting out hearts.
“It depicts the strong love he had for people,” Mr Pallotta explains.
In another, he wears a cape and is depicted as a superhero.
“I hope the new pope continues the way of Pope Francis and remembers the poor people of the world,” he says.
Whether the next pontiff is another pope of the people, a progressive or conservative will soon be decided by the cardinals.
Their choice will determine if the Catholic Church continues down the route set by Francis or takes a different path.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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IDF reservists call for end to war in Gaza
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
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