World

Tunnels under children’s bedrooms and silent streets – Sky News witnesses flattened city in Gaza

Published

1 year ago

September 14, 2024

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Rafah is now a wasteland.

The city in Gaza has been totally flattened by months of war.

The rubble in places is many metres high, the buildings that are still standing are hollow shells, their dark, empty windows like vacant souls in a horror show.

Were it not for the constant whine of drones overhead, the streets would be silent.

The silence is occasionally broken by gunfire as remaining Hamas fighters step out of the ruins to fight a battle they’re losing.

Honestly, sometimes it is just hard to find the words to describe what you’re seeing.

I stood in what was a side street, surrounded by the remains of houses with clothes still hanging in wardrobes, children’s toys on the floor, a large cuddly bear hanging from a first-floor bedroom, and a pink tricycle vivid among the grey dust and debris.

Fifty metres away was a large roundabout, the recognisable contours of a school building still stood on the far side of the street.

Two Israeli tanks were parked there, watching, guarding, ready for the slightest movement.

It was on these streets and in these buildings where Hamas built up its arsenal, dug its tunnels and planned its attacks. And they’re still there.

International journalists cannot independently enter Gaza without an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) escort.

So it’s impossible to know whether this level of destruction was necessary or needless vengeance, punishment for a population considered collectively guilty for the worst massacre in Israel’s history.

I’d been into Gaza before the war and as I stood still, taking it all in, my memories started to bring the streets back to life.

I could see the bustle of the markets and restaurants, I could hear the constant traffic and the noise of children, so many children – half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 18.

“I know how bad this looks,” one soldier privately told me, “but we had no choice: Hamas had months to prepare for the Rafah fight, they set booby traps in houses and fought hard.”

A few metres away was the tunnel where six murdered Israeli hostages were found two weeks ago.

The entry shaft was under a child’s bedroom painted with Disney figures, quite possibly directly beneath the bed itself.

I was able to picture that room as I stood quietly taking it in, and I could imagine the joy of a child going to sleep watched over by Mickey Mouse and Cinderella.

I wonder where that child is now?

And how do you judge that stolen innocence with the tragedy that happened beneath it? Six people, also innocent, executed with bullets in the back of their heads.

Rafah is a city of ghosts.

We had driven into Gaza along the Philadelphi corridor, the nine-mile passage that runs along the Egyptian border fence and which has been the latest and heavily debated sticking point to a ceasefire deal.

Much of it is newly tarmacked by the Israelis, creating a highway that runs east to west.

They now have full control of it, and they now surround Gaza on all four sides.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on keeping an IDF presence there to prevent Hamas smuggling weapons back in.

He also fears Hamas could try to smuggle hostages out of Gaza and, he claims, into Yemen or Iran, something that Israeli security officials say is not backed up by intelligence.

The Israeli military has uncovered nine tunnels running into Egypt. They were already blocked off by Hamas and the Egyptians before the Israelis got there.

We were shown one, big enough to drive vehicles through. Machines nearby are drilling deep into the ground in search of more tunnels. The IDF isn’t certain they will find any.

There is still hopeful talk of a ceasefire, but frankly, it doesn’t feel likely.

The IDF believes it has created the conditions for one, but the decision is up to the politicians.

Up to the leaders, Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar and Mr Netanyahu. Each blames the other for the failure to reach an agreement.

In the meantime, the war in Gaza is changing – the fighting continues and airstrikes are still killing people on a daily basis, but it’s moving towards a grinding counter-insurgency and if that’s what the Israeli government wants, then it could be like this for years.

Sky News was granted permission by the Israeli military to enter Gaza – though our team’s movements were restricted and the material we gathered had to be authorised by the IDF

World

UN Commission says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

Published

9 hours ago

September 16, 2025

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UN Commission says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, according to a commission established by the United Nations.

The report claims “it is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza” and says Israel’s actions meet the criteria set down for defining a genocide.

It is the first time that such an explosive allegation has been made publicly by a UN body, and is likely to be greeted with fury by the Israeli government.

Follow live updates: ‘Gaza is burning’ after overnight strikes

Israel‘s Foreign Ministry said it “categorically rejects this distorted and false report” and called for the commission to be abolished.

“Three individuals serving as Hamas proxies, notorious for their openly antisemitic positions – and whose horrific statements about Jews have been condemned worldwide – released today another fake ‘report’ about Gaza,” it said in a statement.

“The report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others. These fabrications have already been thoroughly debunked.”

The accusation of genocide is made by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The commission, which has been studying the conduct of Israel since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, has concluded that Israel has committed four of the five acts laid out in the Genocide Convention.

It alleges Israel has been killing Palestinians or forcing them to live in inhumane conditions that led to death; causing serious bodily or mental harm, including through torture, displacement and sexual crime; deliberately imposing inhumane conditions, and fourthly, imposing measures intending to prevent births.

This final claim is linked to an attack on the Al-Basma IVF clinic, which the commission claims destroyed around 4,000 embryos and a further 1,000 sperm samples.

The report claims Israel has “flagrantly” ignored “numerous warnings” over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and has set out to “destroy the healthcare system in Gaza”.

It also alleges that Israeli military personnel have carried out sexual and gender-based violence, including “rape and sexualised torture”, as part of “a pattern of collective punishment”, and accuses Israeli forces of deliberately targeting some children “with the intention to kill them”.

Although other UN bodies and personnel have previously linked Israel’s actions with allegations of genocide, this is the first time that any UN body has claimed to have made a definitive judgment.

“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with the Israeli authorities at the highest echelons,” said Navi Pillay, the chair of the commission.

Within the report, it concludes that “Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, have incited the commission of genocide”.

Nearly 65,000 people are now believed to have died, according to figures collated by Gaza’s health ministry. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

The commission claims that a majority of these are women, children and elderly people.

The commission says it is now looking at further evidence against other individuals accused of inciting genocide.

Last year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant for allegedly committing the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare and also for war crimes during the Gaza conflict.

Mr Netanyahu described the warrants as “antisemitic”, while a sense of outrage echoed across much of the political spectrum in Israel.

Then US President Joe Biden called the warrants “outrageous”; his successor, Donald Trump, issued an executive order to introduce sanctions against personnel from the ICC, while inviting Netanyahu to the White House.

It is hard to believe that either Israel or the US will be any more accepting of this report. Israel has long claimed that the UN is biased against it and is more liable to criticise Israel than any other nation.

The US, which offered a rare, if mild, rebuke to Mr Netanyahu after he launched an attack on Hamas officials in Qatar last week, has since sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Jerusalem as a sign of solidarity.

The commission has asked for nations to stop supplying Israel with weapons and says states have a “legal obligation” to do everything within their power “to stop the genocide in Gaza”.

It also calls on Israel to immediately allow “unhindered” access for internationally recognised aid agencies, including the UN.

It wants the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), set up earlier this year by Israel with American help, in order to distribute aid, to be shut down.

Hundreds of people have been killed around GHF sites, while a separate UN-backed body has said that parts of Gaza have been designated as suffering from famine.

Read more from Sky News:
Zelenskyy makes demand of Trump
Trump sues New York Times

Israel denies this – a senior military leader told me that “it is a pure, total lie – there is enough food for everyone”. It claims that the UN relied on faulty data and Hamas propaganda.

This latest UN report is likely to be met with similar claims.

Earlier this month, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution stating that Israel’s conduct passed the threshold of committing genocide.

However, a report from the British government said it had “not concluded” that Israel intended to “destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.

World

Zelenskyy demands ‘clear position’ from Trump on ending war

Published

13 hours ago

September 16, 2025

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Zelenskyy demands 'clear position' from Trump on ending war

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a “clear position” from Donald Trump to stop Vladimir Putin and end the war in Ukraine.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News’ lead world presenter Yalda Hakim, the Ukrainian president said the only way for the fighting to stop was for defined security guarantees to first be put in place.

And that, he said, could only come if Mr Trump was bold.

He told Sky News he hopes UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer would drill into the detail of securing Ukraine’s future with the president during his state visit to Britain this week.

He said: “I very much hope he (Starmer) will be able to have a very specific discussion on the security guarantees of the US for Ukraine.

“Before we end the war, I really want to have all the agreements in place. I want to… have a document that is supported by the US and all European partners. This is very important.

“To make this happen, we need a clear position of President Trump.”

‘Make Putin afraid’

Mr Zelenskyy also urged the US leader to take “strong personal steps” to “stop Putin”, after Mr Trump urged NATO allies to stop buying Russian oil and put tariffs on China to pressure Moscow.

“I believe that the US is strong enough to take decisions of their own,” he said. “I believe Donald Trump can give us air defence systems in quantity and US has enough.

“I’m sure the US can apply enough sanctions in order to hurt the Russian economy, plus Donald Trump has enough force to make Putin afraid of him.

“Europe has already introduced 18 sanctions packages against Russia. And all that’s lacking now is a strong sanctions package from the US.”

His comments came following criticism in his interview with Sky News – at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv – of the recent Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.

He said Mr Trump “gave a lot to Putin” and that “he should have paid more” for it.

“I believe, if it was a trilateral meeting [with Ukraine included], we would have some result,” he added.

Putin ‘testing NATO’, warns Zelenskyy

As news broke that British fighter jets were flying air defence missions over Poland after a Russian drone incursion, Hakim asked the Ukrainian leader what message he thought Putin was sending to Europeans.

“He’s testing NATO,” he said. “He wants to see what NATO is ready for, what they’re capable of, both diplomatically and politically, and how the local population will respond to this.”

“Also, in my opinion, the other message they are sending is, ‘don’t you dare to give Ukraine additional air defence systems, because you might need them yourself.'”

Bristling with frustration – Zelenskyy’s message is clear

Yalda Hakim

Lead world news presenter

@SkyYaldaHakim

Ukraine’s president has a very clear message for Trump – you alone have the power to stop Putin, and the time to act is now.

Meeting with me in Kyiv on the eve of the US president’s state visit to Britain, Zelenskyy bristled with frustration at the failure of the Western powers to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin, even as the Russians escalated their attacks on Ukraine.

Asked if the summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska has proven a mistake, he responded without hesitation that Putin is clearly not paying a price for his actions.

Zelenskyy believes Trump is reluctant to put pressure on Putin because it might jeopardise attempts to end the war.

But the Ukrainian leader argues this isn’t the way to handle the Russian president.

Zelenskyy also argued Trump’s emphasis on getting the Europeans to ratchet up economic pressure – foremost by stopping their purchases of Russian energy and tariffing other buyers like China and India – was understandable, but that the world’s sole superpower shouldn’t wait for others to act.

Trump has called on EU countries to end all Russian oil and gas purchases – and only then will he consider imposing sanctions on Russia.

Mr Trump arrives in the UK today for an unprecedented second state visit, following an invitation from King Charles.

He and First Lady Melania will stay at Windsor Castle and be treated to a flypast by the Red Arrows as well as UK and US F-35 military jets on the east lawn, and a special Beating Retreat military ceremony.

They will also visit Chequers, the prime minister’s official country residence in Buckinghamshire, though details of what they will discuss – and whether it will include the situation in Ukraine – have not been revealed.

World

Face-to-face with Zelenskyy, his frustration with the West is clear

Published

16 hours ago

September 16, 2025

admin

Face-to-face with Zelenskyy, his frustration with the West is clear

Ukraine’s president has a very clear message for Donald Trump – you alone have the power to stop Vladimir Putin, and the time to act is now.

Meeting with me in Kyiv on the eve of the US president’s state visit to Britain, Volodymyr Zelenskyy bristled with frustration at the failure of the Western powers to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin, even as the Russians escalated their attacks on Ukraine.

Asked if the summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska has proven a mistake, he responded without hesitation that Putin is clearly not paying a price for his actions.

“He should have received a setback in this war and stop. Instead, he received de-isolation,” he said.

“He definitely wants to trick the US. He is doing everything he can to avoid sanctions, to prevent the US and Trump from putting sanctions on him.”

Zelenskyy believes Trump is reluctant to put pressure on Putin because it might jeopardise attempts to end the war.

But the Ukrainian leader argues this isn’t the way to handle the Russian president: “He understands force. That’s his language. That’s the language he understands. He doesn’t speak many languages, but that’s the language of force he understands – just like Russian, you know, his mother tongue.”

Zelenskyy also argued Trump’s emphasis on getting the Europeans to ratchet up economic pressure – foremost by stopping their purchases of Russian energy, and by putting tariffs on other buyers like China and India – was understandable, but that the world’s superpower shouldn’t wait for others to act.

Trump has called on EU countries to end all Russian oil and gas purchases, and only then will he consider imposing sanctions on Russia.

“I think the US is strong enough on its own,” Zelenskyy said.

“They can make this happen quicker and all that’s lacking now is a strong sanctions package from the US.”