How Israel has escalated Gaza bombing campaign

Published

15 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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A wave of deadly strikes in northern Gaza has marked a significant escalation in Israel’s offensive.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Friday evening it was “conducting extensive strikes and mobilising troops to achieve operational control in the areas of Gaza”.

Earlier, it said it had struck “over 150 terror targets” across the Gaza Strip in the previous 24 hours – an average of one airstrike every 10 minutes.

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed more than 250 people since Thursday morning, the Hamas-run health ministry in the region said on Friday.

Nurse and his family killed in strike

The impact of this new bombardment is cataclysmic, as this video of an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia, northern Gaza, verified by Sky News, shows.

Other videos show huge smoke clouds rising from airstrikes on residential neighbourhoods surrounding the city’s Indonesian Hospital.

The hospital’s director, Dr Marwan al Sultan, told Sky News: “There is a shortage of everything except death.”

Among those killed in Jabalia on Friday was 42-year old Yahya Shehab, a nurse for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF).

He was killed alongside his wife Tamara, 37, and their five children: Sarah, 18, Anas, 16, Maryam, 14, Aya, 12 and Abdul, 11.

He is survived by his niece Huda, 27, a civil engineer, who lives nearby with her husband Ahmad Ngat, 31, and their two young sons, Mohammed, seven, and Yusuf, four.

Ahmad remembers Yahya as kind and generous, and that he would use his skills as a nurse to treat Mohammed and Yusuf whenever they were sick.

“His kids were great too,” Ahmad says. “May God have mercy on them.”

Operation Gideon Chariot

An Israeli official said Friday’s strikes were preparatory actions in the lead-up to a larger operation.

Earlier this month, Israel’s security cabinet approved “Operation Gideon Chariot” – a plan to “capture” all of Gaza and force its entire population to move to a small enclave in the southern Gaza Strip.

At the time, a defence official said the operation would go ahead if no hostage deal was reached by the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East. That visit ended on Friday 16 May.

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Hamas had proposed releasing all hostages in exchange for a permanent end to the war. Last month, Hamas turned down Israel’s offer of a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the militant group laying down its weapons and releasing half the living hostages.

Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who sits in the security cabinet, said of Operation Gideon Chariot that Gaza would be “entirely destroyed”, and that its population will “leave in great numbers to third countries”.

Ahmad says he is ready to leave Gaza with his family at the earliest opportunity.

“We want to live our lives,” he says.

His wife Huda grieving the loss of her uncle Yahya, is seven months pregnant. The family are constantly struggling to find enough food for her and the children, he says.

“Unfortunately, she suffers greatly,” Ahmad says. “She developed gestational diabetes during this pregnancy.”

Israel has prevented the entry of all food, fuel and water since 2 March. On Monday, a UN-backed report warned that one in five people in Gaza were facing starvation.

Satellite imagery may show new aid hubs

Under new proposals backed by the US, Israel now intends to control the distribution of aid via private military contractors.

The proposals, set to start operating by the end of May, would see aid distributed from militarised compounds in four locations around the Gaza Strip.

Satellite imagery from recent weeks shows Israel has constructed four compounds which could be used for aid distribution.

Construction began in April and was completed by early May.

Three of these are clustered together in the southwest corner of the Gaza Strip, with one in the central Netzarim corridor.

None are located in northern Gaza, where Ahmad and Huda’s family live.

The UN has called this a “deliberate attempt to weaponise” aid distribution and has refused to participate.

The planned aid distribution system is being coordinated by a new non-profit, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was set up in February in Switzerland.

Its board includes a former head of World Central Kitchen, as well as people with close ties to the US military and private military contractors.

Proposals drawn up by the GHF say the four planned aid distribution sites could feed around 1.2 million people, approximately 60% of Gaza’s population.

The GHF later requested that Israel establish additional distribution points.

Speaking to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, UN Relief chief Tom Fletcher said the plan “makes starvation a bargaining chip”.

“It is cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement,” he said.

Large areas of Gaza have already been razed in recent weeks, including vast tracts of the southern city of Rafah, where many had fled during the war’s early stages.

Sky News analysis of satellite imagery shows approximately two-thirds of Rafah’s built-up area (66%) has been reduced entirely to rubble, with buildings across much of the rest of the city showing signs of severe damage.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch executive director Federico Borello said the UK and US have a duty, under the Genocide Convention, to “stop Israeli authorities from starving civilians in Gaza”.

He said: “Hearing Israeli officials flaunt plans to squeeze Gaza’s two million people into an even tinier area while making the rest of the land uninhabitable should be treated like a five-alarm fire in London, Brussels, Paris, and Washington.”

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Friday that Israel’s new offensive is intended to secure the release of its hostages. “Our objective is to get them home and get Hamas to relinquish power,” he said.

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.

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At least 100 people killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza – ‘complete families wiped out’ says health ministry

Published

3 hours ago

May 18, 2025

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At least 100 people killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza - 'complete families wiped out' says health ministry

At least 100 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight and into Sunday, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Local medics also report that women and children were among the dead – as Israel launches an escalation of its war in Gaza to ramp up pressure on Hamas.

“Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by Israeli bombardment,” Khalil Al-Deqran, Gaza health ministry spokesperson, told the Reuters news agency.

Nasser hospital, in the southern city of Khan Younis, said it received the bodies of 20 people killed in strikes that hit houses and tents in the Muwasi area. Hamas described that as a “new brutal crime”.

In central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed in two separate strikes, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the town of Deir al Balah.

Meanwhile, first responders from the health ministry and the civil defence reported at least 36 people were killed in multiple strikes in Jabalia, northern Gaza.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the latest strikes.

Israel has blocked the entry of medical, food and fuel supplies into Gaza since the start of March. It is attempting to pressurise Hamas into freeing Israeli hostages and has approved plans that could involve seizing the whole of Gaza and controlling aid.

It comes as peace talks between Israel and Hamas take place in Qatar this weekend, although sources told Reuters there had been no breakthrough.

Sky News Arabia reported that Hamas had proposed freeing about half its Israeli hostages in exchange for a two-month ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

A Palestinian official close to the talks said: “Hamas is flexible about the number of hostages it can free, but the problem has always been over Israel’s commitment to end the war.”

Earlier on Sunday, Gaza’s health ministry issued a statement accusing Israel of “intensifying its systematic campaign to target hospitals”.

“After putting the European Gaza Hospital out of service a few days ago, the Israeli occupation has intensified its targeting and siege of the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip since dawn today,” it added.

Israel has previously denied deliberately targeting civilians and accused Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes.

This week, Israel said it had bombed the European Hospital because it was home to an underground Hamas base, but Sky News analysis has cast doubt on its evidence.

Separately, the Israeli military said on Sunday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they had targeted Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv with two ballistic missiles.

The Houthis have fired at Israel because of the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, while Israel has carried out airstrikes in response, including one on 6 May that damaged Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa and killed several people.

The conflict began on 7 October 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others.

Israel’s military response has seen the deaths of more than 53,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.

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World

Donald Trump says he has call with Putin planned – as Ukraine condemns Russia over bus attack

Published

12 hours ago

May 18, 2025

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Donald Trump says he has call with Putin planned - as Ukraine condemns Russia over bus attack

Donald Trump has said he will speak to Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy separately on Monday in a bid to secure a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine.

The US president made the announcement on Truth Social – shortly after the Ukrainian president condemned Russia for the “deliberate killing of civilians” after a drone hit a bus in north-eastern Ukraine.

Mr Trump said he will speak to Mr Putin over the phone. He will then talk with Mr Zelenskyy and “various members of NATO”, he wrote.

In an all-caps post, he said: “HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY, A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END. GOD BLESS US ALL!!!”

The Ukrainian town of Bilopillia today declared a period of mourning lasting until Monday after nine people were killed in a Russian drone attack – which occurred just hours after Kyiv and Moscow held peace talks.

Seven others were injured, Ukrainian authorities said. The bus was evacuating civilians from a frontline area when the drone hit, the country’s national police said.

A “father, mother and daughter” were among the dead, Mr Zelenskyy said, writing on Telegram: “All the deceased were civilians. And the Russians could not have failed to understand what kind of vehicle they were targeting.”

The attack has also been condemned by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who said he was “appalled”.

“If Putin is serious about peace, Russia must agree to a full and immediate ceasefire, as Ukraine has done,” he wrote on X.

Representatives for Kyiv and Moscow met for direct peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, just hours before the drone attack.

While the discussions – which were not attended by the Mr Putin or Mr Zelenskyy – did not result in a truce, both countries agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners in their biggest swap yet.

Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said on national television the exchange could happen as early as next week.

Russia ‘threatened eternal war’ at peace talks

After a Ukrainian official yesterday said Russia made “unacceptable” demands during the discussions, a source from the Kyiv delegation has now told Sky News that Moscow threatened “eternal war”.

Separately, a senior Kyiv official said Russia’s proposed ceasefire terms included the full withdrawal of troops from four regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Luhansk.

Moscow also called for international recognition that those regions and Crimea – annexed in 2014 – are Russian and for Ukraine to become a neutral state, with no allied troops stationed there, they said.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter.

Ukraine has rallied support from its allies following the talks, and a number have spoken out.

French President Emmanuel Macron said: “Today, what do we have? Nothing. And so I tell you, faced with President Putin’s cynicism, I am sure that President Trump, mindful of the credibility of the United States, will react.”

The EU is working on a new package of sanctions against Moscow, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

World

Israel and Hamas resume ceasefire talks after ‘extensive strikes’ on Gaza

Published

15 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Israel and Hamas resume ceasefire talks after 'extensive strikes' on Gaza

Israel and Hamas said ceasefire talks have resumed in Qatar – even as Israeli forces ramped up a bombing campaign and mobilised for a massive new ground assault.

Earlier, the Israeli military said it had been “conducting extensive strikes and mobilising troops” as part of preparations to expand operations in Gaza.

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said Hamas had “refused to discuss negotiations without a cessation of the war”, but after the airstrikes and the mobilisation of forces the militant group’s representatives “have agreed to sit in a room and seriously discuss the deal”.

“Israel emphasises that if the talks do not progress, the [military] operation will continue,” he added.

A Hamas source told Sky News that ceasefire talks began in Doha on Saturday morning.

Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters news agency that the two sides were involved in discussions without “pre-conditions”.

He added Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success.

More than 150 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

This week has been one of the deadliest phases of bombardment since a truce collapsed in March and marked a significant escalation in Israel’s offensive.

The Israeli military’s preparations to expand operations in Gaza have included the build-up of tanks and troops along the border.

It is part of “Operation Gideon Chariot”, which Israel says is aimed at defeating Hamas and getting its hostages back.

An Israeli defence official said earlier this month that the operation would not be launched before Donald Trump concluded his visit to the Middle East.

The US president ended his trip on Friday, with no apparent progress towards a new peace deal.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, leaders at the annual summit of the Arab League in Baghdad said they were trying to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

They also promised to contribute to the reconstruction of the territory once the war stops.

The meeting comes two months after Israel ended a ceasefire reached with the Hamas militant group.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 5 May that Israel was planning an expanded, intensive offensive against Hamas as his security cabinet approved plans that could involve seizing Gaza and controlling aid.

This week, Israel said it had bombed the European Hospital because it was home to an underground Hamas base, but Sky News analysis has cast doubt on its evidence.

Israel’s goal is the elimination of Hamas, which attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and seizing about 250 hostages.

Its military response has killed more than 53,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.