Israeli military ‘examining’ attack on Gaza aid shelter after Sky investigation

Published

2 years ago

March 27, 2024

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“Her leg is bleeding. Carry her from below… slowly and avoid the gas cylinder… let’s get out of here, pull!” a man shouted.

It was 20 February and an aid shelter in Gaza occupied by Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, had been struck.

Inside, the atmosphere was chaotic. People rushed to try to put a fire out in one of the building’s rooms, as others helped another person laying on the floor.

The attack on the medical facility, which was housing 64 people including MSF drivers and their families, killed two people and injured seven others.

Using on-the-ground footage, open-source techniques and interviews with witnesses and weapons experts, a Sky News investigation has pieced together how the incident unfolded and the evidence and experts we’ve spoken to suggest it was struck by an Israeli tank round.

As a result of our investigation, the Israeli army (IDF) said it is conducting its own “examination” into the incident.

It said its forces “fired at a building that was identified as a building where terror activity is occurring”. However, it has not so far provided evidence for this claim.

The statement added: “After the incident, reports were received of the death of two uninvolved civilians in the area. The IDF regrets any harm to civilians and does everything in its power to operate in a precise and accurate manner.” It said an investigation had been launched.

The attack

The MSF shelter is located in a sparsely populated coastal area in Mawasi, south-western Gaza, around 6km northwest of the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Sky News spoke to five witnesses inside and outside the shelter and our team on the ground visited the site. The aid organisation said the contracted building was used to shelter its drivers and their families.

Two witnesses – who wish to remain anonymous and were inside the shelter – said on the night of 20 February, families were sitting inside talking before the attack took place at around 8pm.

One witness said they suddenly heard “loud noises” which sounded like a tank track. They ran to the shelter’s entrance to close it and turn off the exterior lights.

“The loud noises were getting louder as the tanks were getting closer to our shelter… And by the time I got back to the designated place… the whole building was shaking violently,” they said.

Witness ‘saw fire light up’

Another witness, a cousin of the landlord who owned the building and was sheltering at a relative’s house nearby at the time of the attack, said he also heard the “sound of tanks and gunshots” and lay on the floor.

Jihad al-Agha said he saw “fire light up” inside the MSF building and believes tanks were “roughly 20 metres away” from where he was.

He said the ground and first floor of the building were being used by MSF while members of the landlord’s family were living on the top floor.

Another neighbour also heard “sounds of the tanks and gunshots” at around 8.30pm.

Abu Hashem al-Aghar said after the attack, he left his house and “went towards the sound of women and children’s screams, saved them from the inside, the fire”.

He said he took the injured into his home and looked after them until emergency services arrived around two hours later.

A projectile enters the shelter

Sky News visited the site and obtained and analysed a trove of images and videos following the incident and corroborated them with witness testimony and expert analysis to help piece together what happened.

An image of the exterior of the building suggests that a projectile entered from the south-west facing central window on the first floor of the MSF shelter.

The picture above shows a circular hole in the top corner of one of the windows. Inside this room, a damage pattern can be seen on the ceiling – another indication that the projectile came through the window.

Using the images, Amael Kotlarski, Weapons Team Manager at Janes, a defence intelligence firm, told Sky News: “I’d say whatever came through the window, came from an upward angle and detonated either on impact with the roof, or air bursted just below it. Given the damage on the roof, I’m inclined to the latter rather than the former.”

He said the damage on the dividing wall next to the window suggests it was “blown outwards”. Based on the imagery we have seen; we identified only one entry point of this kind.

Videos filmed from inside and outside the shelter show a fire in one of the north-facing rooms of the first floor.

Witnesses and MSF said a gas canister was hit after the building was struck and caught fire.

A gas canister can be seen in the same room in aftermath imagery. However, we are unable to verify the exact cause of the fire.

What hit the building?

Former British army artillery officer and director of Chiron Resources, Chris Cobb-Smith said that given the upward trajectory of the projectile by the window, it would also “appear that the shot was fired at relatively close range”. Sky News has been unable to determine the exact distance the projectile was launched from.

“It’s difficult to draw definitive conclusions merely from imagery however I believe the damage is the result of a tank round being fired directly into the building.

“Only a tank shell would cause that type of damage. Only a tank would have the ability to launch a projectile at that range and at that trajectory and bearing.”

A collection of fragments was also pictured inside the building.

Mr Kotlarski said two types of fragments can be observed one with pre-scoring (in yellow) which are “likely to be from the shell body itself” while the small balls (in orange) are “pre-formed fragments which are likely to be stored in a matrix inside the warhead section of the shell”.

He added that the size and thickness of these indicates they “likely come from a large calibre munition”.

‘Consistent’ with tank round

Mr Cobb-Smith said the remnants are “consistent” with those of an “expended tank round” – adding that they are similar to those he has personally recovered in 2009 and 2012 while investigating the aftereffects of tank shell strikes.

He added he is “unaware of any direct fire weapons of this calibre being operated by Hamas” and that he is “doubtful that anything of this size would have been able to be deployed and fired with the amount of IDF activity in the area”.

Alongside the projectile, witnesses and MSF also told Sky News that gunfire was heard during the attack – one witness said they heard “many bullets” while on the ground floor before they said the building was hit.

MSF general director Meinie Nicolai, who visited the site soon after the attack, said bullets were fired at the front of the shelter.

Israeli presence that day

On the day of the attack, the Israeli army said on its Telegram channel that its forces were “operating” in northern, central and southern Gaza Strip and continuing “intensive operations in western Khan Younis”.

But it did not say its forces were operating in the immediate area around the shelter.

The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee, published an evacuation map on 20 February of two neighbourhoods further north in and around Gaza city. But this did not cover the area where the shelter is located.

What happened after the attack

Following the attack, witnesses and MSF said emergency services arrived at the scene at least two-and-a-half hours after the incident due to security concerns.

The injured were then taken to hospital.

Those killed were the wife and daughter-in-law of an MSF staff member – while the injured included four women aged 74, 29, 20 and 16 alongside twin girls – a year-and-a-half old, and a 30-year-old man. All but one of those injured were from the same family.

Ms Nicolai told Sky News she was “perplexed” by the attack on the facility.

The organisation said: “The shelter was used by humanitarian personnel and their family members, identified by an MSF flag, and notified to the Israeli authorities. We refute any allegations of terror activity occurring in MSF-run structures. It is a civilian space, and this shows that nowhere is safe.”

Ms Nicolai told Sky News that she thinks an Israeli tank fired at the building

“It seems it is a shell that was shot from a tank. And that would be an Israeli tank. So, I think, the Israeli forces are responsible,” she said.

MSF based their own conclusion on independent weapons experts who surveyed the scene and said they believe the “fragments of the shell that were recovered match the characteristics of ammunition that Israeli Merkava tanks are known to use” and spoke to colleagues who witnessed the attack. Sky News was not able to determine the exact weapon that was used.

‘No evacuation order’ issued before attack

MSF said the attack was also concerning as “no evacuation order” was issued for the building and they claimed Israeli forces knew that the building was used by MSF.

The aid organisation said Israeli forces have been “clearly informed of the precise location” of the shelter.

MSF told Sky News: “Despite the deconfliction procedures agreed with the Israeli authorities, MSF had not received any notification nor warning for evacuation prior to the attack on its shelter.”

Ms Nicolai added: “Israel has reconfirmed they had the coordinates of this building.”

The Israeli army did not respond to a Sky News request for comment on whether they knew the coordinates of the shelter.

Flagged building

An MSF flag outside the building indicated that it was used by MSF as a medical facility. Sky News obtained images taken the day after the attack showing the flag outside the building’s entrance. Our Gaza team has since visited the site and seen the flag outside the building.

International law

Hospitals and, in general, medical facilities, are given special protections under international humanitarian law meaning they cannot be attacked.

Oona Hathaway, an international law professor at Yale Law School said these facilities are “presumed to be civilian objects and not subject to targeting during armed conflict”. She said these protections also cover medical staff and those “playing a role in providing medical support”.

She added: “They can lose that status if they are used for military purposes”, but added there must be a “demonstration” that they have been used for those military purposes “before any kind of attack is permissible against a medical facility”.

Ms Hathaway said that if the Israeli army was responsible for the attack and intentionally targeted a civilian object then it is “potentially a war crime”.

She said: “There are a number of questions that are going to have to be asked. So first is did they, in fact have a legitimate military objective? What was the intelligence that they had, if any, or reason to believe that they had, that this was being used for military purposes?

“If they didn’t have that information, if they didn’t know that was being used for military purposes, then it isn’t a legitimate military objective. And then if they’re intentionally targeting a civilian object, in particular a civilian object that’s being used by military, by medical personnel, that is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and potentially a war crime.”

In response to our investigation, the Israeli army said: “During operational activity in Khan Yunis, the IDF forces fired at a building that was identified as a building where terror activity is occurring. After the incident, reports were received of the death of two uninvolved civilians in the area.

“The IDF regrets any harm to civilians and does everything in its power to operate in a precise and accurate manner in the combat field.

“As part of the lesson learn process the IDF conducts during the combats, the IDF began an examination of the incident.”

It added that the incident would be examined by the Israeli Army’s General Staff’s Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism – which it says is an “independent” body responsible for examining exceptional events that take place during war.

Editorial: Adam Parker, OSINT editor, Natasha Muktarsingh, assistant editor Data & Forensics, Chris Howard, editor Data & Forensics

Additional reporting: Tom Cheshire, Data & Forensics correspondent and Sky News team in Gaza

Production: Michelle Inez Simon, visual investigations producer

Graphics: Taylor Stuart, designer

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.

World

Revealed: The plan for a ‘New Gaza’ – and the four militias Israel is backing to defeat Hamas

Published

5 hours ago

October 25, 2025

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Revealed: The plan for a 'New Gaza' - and the four militias Israel is backing to defeat Hamas

Israel may have agreed to stop fighting in Gaza, but it is backing armed groups that plan to fight Hamas to the bitter end.

Sky News has confirmed for the first time that four anti-Hamas militias are all backed by Israel, and consider themselves part of a joint project to remove Hamas from power.

The groups are all operating from areas still under Israeli control, behind what’s been called the “yellow line” – the boundary for Israel Defence Forces (IDF) troop deployments established by the ceasefire agreement.

“We have an official project – me, [Yasser] Abu Shabab, [Rami] Halas, and [Ashraf] al Mansi,” says militia leader Hossam al Astal, speaking to Sky News from his base in southern Gaza.

“We are all for ‘The New Gaza’. Soon we will achieve full control of the Gaza Strip and will gather under one umbrella.”

The footage below, shared with Sky News, shows troops from Hossam al Astal’s militia parading near its base.

We used the video to identify the location of the militia’s headquarters for the first time.

It is situated on a military road that runs along the yellow line, less than 700 metres from the nearest IDF outpost.

“I’m hearing the sound of tanks now while I’m speaking, perhaps they’re out on patrol or something, but I’m not worried,” says al Astal.

“They don’t engage us, and we don’t engage them […] We’ve agreed, through the coordinator, that this is a green zone, not to be targeted by shelling or gunfire.”

The New Gaza

This area, now a patchwork of rubble and military berms, was once a leafy suburb of Gaza’s second city, Khan Younis.

Al Astal says he grew up here, but was forced to flee in 2010 after being pursued by Hamas over his involvement in militant groups aligned with their rival, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA).

He spent the next 11 years abroad, working for the PA’s security services in Egypt and Malaysia.

Two months after he returned to Gaza, he was accused of involvement in the 2018 assassination of a Hamas member in Malaysia and sentenced to death.

“When the war started, they left us locked up, hoping the Israelis would bomb the prison and rid them of us,” he says. “Two months later, we broke down the doors and escaped.”

He says that his weapons, mainly Kalashnikov rifles, are purchased from former Hamas fighters on the black market.

Ammunition and vehicles, on the other hand, are delivered through the Kerem Shalom border crossing after coordination with the Israeli military.

This is the same border crossing used by another militia leader, Yasser Abu Shabab.

Sky News previously revealed that Abu Shabab’s militia was smuggling vehicles into Gaza with the help of the Israeli military and an Arab-Israeli car dealer.

Al Astal says he uses the same car dealer. One of his vehicles appears to have Hebrew writing on the side, which has been partially scratched out.

He says his militia also receives weekly deliveries of everyday items needed to support the civilians living at the camp.

“We currently provide basic medical and education support to roughly 30 families,” he says.

“Children can get apples and bananas, food and drink, chips and so on. By contrast, in the other area, in the tents, you find five-, 10- or even 15-year-olds surviving on little more than lentils and pasta.”

He says these supplies come in via weekly deliveries. In the video below, a cargo truck can be seen at the militia’s base.

A similar cargo truck can be seen in satellite imagery of the camp, taken on 14 October.

Sky News has also confirmed that the other two militias, which are operating in the north of Gaza, are receiving supplies from Israel.

The video below, filmed by a member of Ashraf al Mansi’s militia, shows a car loaded with supplies driving towards their base.

Sky News previously confirmed that this road leads either from an IDF outpost or from the Erez border crossing with Israel.

A member of the other militia operating in northern Gaza, which is led by Rami Halas, told Sky News that coordination with the IDF is done indirectly through the District Coordination Office.

It’s part of the Israeli defence ministry, but also includes officials from the PA – Palestine’s internationally recognised government, based in the West Bank.

This fits with what we were told by al Astal, by an Israeli soldier stationed at Kerem Shalom, and by a senior commander in Abu Shabab’s militia – that coordination with the military is managed indirectly, and that the PA plays a key role.

“I have people within my group who are still, to this day, employees of the Palestinian Authority,” says al Astal.

The PA did not respond to Sky’s questions, but has previously denied having any relationship to these militias.

“The Palestinian Authority can’t admit to having a direct relationship with us,” the militia leader says.

“It already has enough issues and doesn’t want to add to that burden. You know, if word got out that they had ties with militias or with the occupation forces, you can imagine how that would look.”

Military coordination

Although he acknowledges working with Israel to secure supplies, al Astal denies he has ever coordinated military operations with the IDF.

Sky News previously reported that Israeli aircraft had intervened in two battles fought by Abu Shabab’s militia.

We asked Abu Shabab whether these were due to coordination, but did not receive a response.

Hamas accused al Astal’s militia group of direct military coordination after several of its fighters were killed when Israel intervened during a battle between the two groups on 3 October.

The footage below, published by the IDF, shows the strikes that day.

“I don’t control Israeli airstrikes,” al Astal says. “The Israelis simply saw armed Hamas military groups and struck them.”

In April, two months before he founded the militia, al Astal’s own tent was hit by an Israeli bomb. The strike killed his 22-year-old daughter, Nihad, who was seven months pregnant.

“People accuse me of collaboration,” he says. “How can anyone speak about me like that? Were the Israelis ‘joking around’ with me with a missile?”

He believes the strike was intended for a Hamas member living nearby.

“If I listed every crime against children and women, the blame wouldn’t rest on Israel but on Hamas, which hid among the people.”

Support from outside powers

Multiple sources also told Sky News that the militias are also receiving support from outside powers.

The deputy leader of Abu Shabab’s militia, Ghassan al Duhine, has twice been photographed next to a vehicle with a UAE-registered licence plate.

Sky News also found that the logo of the group’s armed wing, the Counter Terrorism Service, is almost identical to that used by a UAE-backed militia of the same name operating in Yemen.

The logo used by al Astal’s militia, the Counter Terrorism Strike Force, similarly uses the same illustration as that used by a different UAE-backed militia, also based in Yemen.

The UAE did not respond to Sky’s request for comment.

When we asked al Astal whether he enjoyed the backing of the UAE, he smiled.

“God willing, in time everything will become clear,” he said. “But yes, there are Arab countries that support our project.”

That project, al Astal says, has a name: The New Gaza.

‘No war… no Hamas, no terrorism’

“Very soon, God willing, you will see this for yourselves; we will become the new administration of Gaza. Our project is ‘The New Gaza’. No war, at peace with everyone – no Hamas, no terrorism.”

Two days after Sky News spoke to al Astal, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, used the phrase himself while suggesting that Gaza could be split indefinitely along the yellow line.

“No reconstruction funds will be going into areas that Hamas still controls,” Kushner told reporters on Wednesday.

“There are considerations happening now in the area that the IDF controls, as long as that can be secured, to start the construction as a ‘New Gaza’ in order to give Palestinians living in Gaza a place to go, a place to get jobs.”

The IDF declined to comment on these findings. Hamas, the PA and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli agency which manages the Israel-Gaza border, did not respond to our requests for comment.

World

US ramps up ‘drug boats’ operation by sending in aircraft carrier to region

Published

5 hours ago

October 25, 2025

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US ramps up 'drug boats' operation by sending in aircraft carrier to region

The US has announced it is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America as it ramps up an operation to target alleged drug smuggling boats.

The Pentagon said in a statement that the USS Gerald R Ford would be deployed to the region, including the Caribbean Sea, to “bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere”.

The vessel is the US Navy’s largest aircraft carrier. It is currently deployed in the Mediterranean alongside three destroyers, and the group are expected to take around one week to make the journey.

There are already eight US Navy ships in the central and South American region, along with a nuclear-powered submarine, adding up to about 6,000 sailors and marines, according to officials.

It came as the US secretary of war claimed that six “narco-terrorists” had been killed in a strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea overnight.

Pete Hegseth said his military had bombed a vessel which he claimed was operated by Tren de Aragua – a Venezuelan gang designated a terror group by Washington in February.

Writing on X, he claimed that the boat was involved in “illicit narcotics smuggling” and was transiting along a “known narco-trafficking route” when it was struck during the night.

All six men on board the boat, which was in international waters, were killed and no US forces were harmed, he said.

Ten vessels have now been bombed in recent weeks, killing more than 40 people.

Mr Hegseth added: “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat al Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”

While he did not provide any evidence that the vessel was carrying drugs, he did share a 20-second video that appeared to show a boat being hit by a projectile before exploding.

Speaking during a White House news conference last week, Donald Trump argued that the campaign would help tackle the US’s opioid crisis.

“Every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives. So every time you see a boat, and you feel badly you say, ‘Wow, that’s rough’. It is rough, but if you lose three people and save 25,000 people,” he said.

Analysis: Is the US about to invade Venezuela?

It’s a question that’s got more relevant – and more urgent – over the last 24 hours.

The US government has just deployed the world’s largest aircraft carrier and its associated battleships to the Caribbean, just off the coast of Venezuela.

So: what’s going on?

Well, on the face of it, it’s a drugs war. For weeks now, the Trump administration has been using the US military to “dismantle transnational criminal organisations and counter narco terrorism in the defence of the homeland”.

Basically: stopping the drugs supply into America.

Dealing with the demand might actually be more effective as a strategy, but that’s another story.

Donald Trump’s focus is to hit the supply countries and to hit them hard – and this is what that has looked like: drones and missiles taking out boats said to be carrying drugs from places like Venezuela into the US.

We can’t know for sure that these are drugs boats or if the people are guilty of anything, because the US government won’t tell us who the people are.

But alongside this, something bigger has been going on: a massive build-up of US troops in the Caribbean, over 6,000 sailors and marines are there.

Here’s the thing: an aircraft carrier is not remotely suited to stopping drug smuggling.

However, it is a vital element of any planned ground or air war.

Trump is focused on stopping the drugs, yes, but is there actually a wider objective here: regime change?

He has been clear in his belief in spheres of influence around the world – and his will and want to control and dominate the Western hemisphere.

Influence domination over Venezuela could fix the drug problem for sure, but much more too.

The world’s largest oil reserves? Yes, they’re in Venezuela.

On Thursday, appearing at a press conference with Mr Hegseth, Mr Trump said that it was necessary to kill the alleged smugglers, because if they were arrested they would only return to transport drugs “again and again and again”.

“They don’t fear that, they have no fear,” he told reporters.

The attacks at sea would soon be followed by operations on land against drug smuggling cartels, Mr Trump claimed.

“We’re going to kill them,” he added. “They’re going to be, like, dead.”

Some Democratic politicians have expressed concerns that the strikes risk dragging the US into a war with Venezuela because of their proximity to the South American country’s coast.

Others have condemned the attacks as extrajudicial killings that would not stand up in a court of law.

Jim Himes, a member of the House of Representatives, told CBS News earlier this month: “They are illegal killings because the notion that the United States – and this is what the administration says is their justification – is involved in an armed conflict with any drug dealers, any Venezuelan drug dealers, is ludicrous.”

He claimed that Congress had been told “nothing” about who was on the boats and how they were identified as a threat.

World

Turkey urges US to act after accusing Israel of breaching Gaza ceasefire

Published

14 hours ago

October 24, 2025

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Turkey urges US to act after accusing Israel of breaching Gaza ceasefire

Turkey has urged the US to take action after accusing Israel of violating the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Washington and its allies should consider sanctions and halting arms sales to put pressure on Israel to abide by the agreement.

Turkey, a NATO member, joined ceasefire negotiations as a mediator, and increased its role following a meeting between Mr Erdogan and Donald Trump at the White House last month.

“The Hamas side is abiding by the ceasefire. In fact, it is openly stating its commitment to this. Israel, meanwhile, is continuing to violate the ceasefire,” Mr Erdogan told reporters.

“The international community, namely the United States, must do more to ensure Israel’s full compliance to the ceasefire and agreement,” he said.

Mr Erdogan was also asked about comments from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who hinted that he would be opposed to any peacekeeping role for Turkish security forces in the Gaza Strip.

The Turkish president said talks on the issue were still underway, adding: “As this is a multi-faceted issue, there are comprehensive negotiations. We are ready to provide Gaza any form of support on this issue.”

Israel has accused Hamas of breaching the truce and previously said its recent military action in Gaza was designed to uphold the agreement.

Relations between former allies Israel and Turkey hit new lows during the Gaza war, with Ankara accusing Mr Netanyahu’s government of committing genocide, an allegation Israel has repeatedly denied.

Speaking during a visit to Israel on Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a planned international security force for Gaza would have to be made up of “countries that Israel’s comfortable with,” but declined to comment specifically on Turkey’s involvement.

Around 200 US troops are working alongside the Israeli military and delegations from other countries, planning the stabilisation and reconstruction of Gaza.

The US is seeking support from other allies, namely Gulf Arab nations, to build an international security force to be deployed to Gaza and train a Palestinian security force.

Mr Rubio said many nations had expressed interest, but decisions had yet to be made about the rules of engagement. He added that countries need to know what they were signing up for.

“Under what authority are they going to be operating? Who’s going to be in charge? What is their job?” said Mr Rubio.

The secretary of state also reiterated his earlier warning to Israel not to annex the occupied West Bank, land that Palestinians want for part of an independent state.

A bill applying Israeli law to the West Bank won preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament on Wednesday.

“We don’t think it’s going to happen”, Mr Rubio said, adding that annexation “would also threaten this whole process”.

“If [annexation] were to happen, a lot of the countries that are involved in working on this probably aren’t going to want to be involved in this anymore. It’s a threat to the peace process and everybody knows it”, he added.