‘Thinking with our heads and wombs’: Mums of Israeli soldiers at war

Published

8 months ago

October 9, 2024

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In the 1990s, Anat Saban joined a movement of mothers that rose up to protest against their sons being sent to fight in Israel’s first war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“We were accused of thinking from our womb,” she told Sky News. Her son served in Lebanon from 1996 to 1997.

“[But] I think that our advantage is that on top of thinking from our heads, we think from our womb.”

Peaceful demonstrations by the so-called Four Mothers group helped to pressure the then government finally to withdraw Israeli troops from their northern neighbour in 2000.

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More than two decades later, though, with boots back on the ground inside Lebanon, Anat, aged 76, says she is wary about the mission and worried for their safety.

But she is no longer completely opposed to the war after the 7 October atrocities by Hamas in southern Israel last year left her terrified that Hezbollah could launch the same kind of cross-border rampage where she lives in the north – unless the militants are stopped.

“I’m afraid they’ll come from tunnels, with parachutes, something that’s beyond our control,” she said. “The fear is so deep that I don’t know if I can recover from it.”

‘Home is the most beautiful place’

The terror prompted her and tens of thousands of other Israelis to flee their homes across northern Israel a year ago.

Anat is now living in a rented apartment with her husband in Tel Aviv and is unsure whether she will ever feel safe enough to return to her hometown of Shlomi.

“I’m afraid. I ask myself, ‘How will I get home? How will I be able to sit at home and feel peaceful?’… I’ve learned during this period not to plan ahead, only the nearest future, day by day, it’s the only way to survive.”

Asked what she misses most about home, she said: “The nature… We would wake up in the morning, take a walk in the forest, looking at the flowers, a three-minute drive to the beach. It is the most beautiful place.”

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Sky News travelled to Shlomi to visit the house Anat had to abandon.

Her town, in northwestern Israel, is close to the Mediterranean coast and shares a border with Lebanon.

Zig-zag white walls stretch up hilly terrain, marking the dividing line between the two nations.

This area was once a vibrant community but most of the residents have fled because of the war, leaving cats to patrol the streets.

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On a largely deserted residential road we found Anat’s two-storey home, framed by a lemon tree. The windows were shuttered like most of the surrounding houses.

Suddenly, as we stood outside, we heard the sound of a warplane overhead and then the crack of an explosion nearby.
We ran for cover next to the house before venturing back out.

White smoke could be seen chugging into the air next to the border wall, which is just a few hundred metres from Anat’s front door – the starkest possible reminder that this town is in a war zone.

On the same street, we spotted a woman, with her husband, stopping outside their home to retrieve some clothes.

Iris Uzana, 55, said they too fled the neighbourhood last year.

In a country that has conscription, all three of her sons are currently serving in the military, including one who was wounded fighting against Hamas in Gaza.

“Very hard. You’re not calm,” she said about her feelings of being a mother with children who are fighting in the war.

“The first six months, I couldn’t talk to anyone, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t listen to anyone… I wouldn’t wish for any mother in Israel to feel what I felt. It’s horrible.”

Asked whether she supported the operation, even though her sons were risking their lives for their country, Iris said: “Yes of course. It’s for our benefit, so we can return home safely and peacefully.”

A day after we visited Shlomi, however, the town was declared to be part of a widening closed military zone – a sign that the war is expanding on Anat and Iris’s doorstep.

World

Ukraine’s drone attack in Russia shows Kyiv felt it had nothing to lose

Published

4 hours ago

June 1, 2025

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Ukraine's drone attack in Russia shows Kyiv felt it had nothing to lose

An audacious Ukrainian drone attack against multiple airbases across Russia is a humiliating security breach for Vladimir Putin that will doubtless trigger a furious response.

Pro-Kremlin bloggers have described the drone assault – which Ukrainian security sources said hit more than 40 Russian warplanes – as “Russia’s Pearl Harbor” in reference to the Japanese attack against the US in 1941 that prompted Washington to enter the Second World War.

Ukraine war latest: Russia accuses Kyiv of ‘terrorist attack’

The Ukrainian operation – which used small drones smuggled into Russia, hidden in mobile sheds and launched off the back of trucks – also demonstrated how technology and imagination have transformed the battlefield, enabling Ukraine to seriously hurt its far more powerful opponent.

Moscow will have to retaliate, with speculation already appearing online about whether President Putin will again threaten the use of nuclear weapons.

“We hope that the response will be the same as the US response to the attack on their Pearl Harbor or even harsher,” military blogger Roman Alekhin wrote on his Telegram channel.

Codenamed ‘Spider’s Web’, the mission on Sunday was the culmination of one and a half years of planning, according to a security source.

In that time, Ukraine’s secret service smuggled first-person view (FPV) drones into Russia, sources with knowledge of the operation said.

Flat-pack, garden-office style sheds were also secretly transported into the country.

The oblong sheds were then built and drones were hidden inside, before the containers were put on the back of trucks and driven to within range of their respective targets.

At a chosen time, doors on the roofs of the huts were opened remotely and the drones were flown out. Each was armed with a bomb that was flown into the airfields, with videos released by the security service that purportedly showed them blasting into Russian aircraft.

Among the targets were Tu-95 and Tu-22 bomber aircraft that can launch cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian side. An A-50 airborne early warning aircraft was also allegedly hit. This is a valuable platform that is used to command and control operations.

The use of such simple technology to destroy multi-million-pound aircraft will be watched with concern by governments around the world.

Suddenly, every single military base, airfield and warship will appear that little bit more vulnerable if any truck nearby could be loaded with killer drones.

The most immediate focus, though, will be on how Mr Putin responds.

Previous attacks by Ukraine inside Russia have triggered retaliatory strikes and increasingly threatening rhetoric from the Kremlin.

But this latest operation is one of the biggest and most significant, and comes on the eve of a new round of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv that are meant to take place in Turkey. It is not clear if that will still happen.

US President Donald Trump has been pushing for the two sides to make peace but Russia has only escalated its war.

Ukraine clearly felt it had nothing to lose but to also go on the attack.

World

Two dead and hundreds of arrests across France after PSG’s Champions League win

Published

10 hours ago

June 1, 2025

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Two dead and hundreds of arrests across France after PSG's Champions League win

Two people are dead and nearly 560 people were arrested after disorder broke out in France following Paris Saint-Germain’s victory in the Champions League final, the French interior ministry has said.

The ministry added 192 people were injured and there were 692 fires, including 264 involving vehicles.

A 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death in the city of Dax during a PSG street party after Saturday night’s final in Munich, the national police service said.

The second person killed was a man who was hit by a car while riding a scooter during PSG celebrations, the interior minister’s office said.

Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez has said the man was in his 20s and although the incident is still being investigated, it appears his death was linked to the disorder.

Meanwhile, French authorities have reported that a police officer is in a coma following the clashes.

The officer had been hit by a firecracker that emerged from a crowd of supporters in Coutances in the Manche department of northwestern France, according to reports in the country.

Initial investigations reportedly suggest the incident was accidental and the police officer was not deliberately targeted.

The perpetrator has not been identified.

The interior ministry earlier said 22 security forces workers were injured during the chaos – including 18 who were injured in Paris, along with seven firefighters.

In a news conference today, Mr Nuñez said only nine of the force’s officers had been injured in the French capital.

He added that fireworks were directed at police and firefighters were attacked while responding to car fires.

There were 559 arrests across the country during the disorder, including 491 in Paris. Of those detained across the country, 320 were taken into police custody – with 254 in the French capital.

Mr Nuñez said although most people wanted to celebrate PSG’s win, some only wanted to get involved in fights with police.

He also said the force is only at “half-time” in its response because the PSG team will be celebrating their Champions League victory on the Champs Élysées later today.

Mr Nuñez said that the police presence and military presence in Paris will be increased on the ground for the parade.

It comes after flares and fireworks were set off in the French capital after PSG beat Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich – the biggest ever victory in a Champions League final.

Around 5,400 police were deployed across Paris after the game, with officers using tear gas and pepper spray on the Champs Élysées.

At the top of the Champs Élysées, a water cannon was used to protect the Place de l’Etoile, near the landmark Arc de Triomphe.

Police said a large crowd not watching the match tried to push through a barrier to make contact with officers.

Some 131 arrests were made, including 30 who broke into a shoe shop on the Champs Élysées.

Police have said a total of four shops, including a car dealership and a barbers, were targeted during the disorder in Paris.

Two cars were set alight close to Parc des Princes, police said.

PSG forward Ousmane Dembélé appealed for calm in a post-match interview with Canal+, saying: “Let’s celebrate this but not tear everything up in Paris.”

After the final played at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, thousands of supporters also tried to rush the field.

Police lined up in front of the PSG end of the stadium at the final whistle, but struggled to contain the fans for several minutes when they came down from the stands following the trophy presentation.

Désiré Doué, the 19-year-old who scored two goals and assisted one in the final, said after the game: “I don’t have words. But what I can say is, ‘Thank you Paris,’ we did it.”

Despite being a supporter of PSG’s rivals Olympique de Marseille, French President Emmanuel Macron also said on social media: “A glorious day for PSG!

“Bravo, we are all proud. Paris, the capital of Europe this evening.”

Mr Macron’s office said the president would receive the players at the Elysee Palace on Sunday.