Panic and heartbreak: The devastating effect of an airstrike in Gaza

Published

2 years ago

December 8, 2023

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As Israel’s southern offensive continues, and thousands of Palestinians have been injured or killed, Khan Younis has been hit with an airstrike. Sky News’ chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay reports on the scenes in the city and the strike’s “devastating effect”.

It’s two months since Hamas crossed the border from Gaza, entered Israel and launched its bloodthirsty attack; killing, looting, and taking hostages.

Since then, Israel has launched its enormous response that started with airstrikes and artillery barrages and is now a full-on invasion of the whole of Gaza with soldiers and armoured vehicles fighting street to street.

In the process, much of the north of Gaza has been completely flattened. The Israel Defence Forces say hundreds of tunnel entrances have been found and a major proportion of the tunnel network destroyed.

Follow latest: ‘Hundreds’ killed in single day

Everybody in Gaza is affected by the Israeli invasion. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to move locations multiple times. Many of the two million odd population is now crammed into the south, where there is little aid and little safety.

There is no ceasefire and there appears to be little prospect of one. International aid agencies and the United Nations have called for a ceasefire, although countries like the UK and the US talk about targeted attacks, increased aid for Gaza, pauses in the fighting – but crucially not a ceasefire.

Israel is unrepentant and seems happy to ignore condemnation, particularly from Arab countries and the UN, while it works towards its two objectives: freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas.

The problem for them is that despite its overwhelming dominance of the battle space, no more hostages have been found and the Hamas leadership appear not to have been killed or captured.

Until they achieve something, this war will grind on and each day pictures of life and death in Gaza get worse and worse.

The latest images show the immediate aftermath of an airstrike in Khan Younis – and its devastating effect.

On a main road there are injured everywhere, dazed and covered in dust and blood, and panic everywhere as an ambulance pulls up.

A man calls for help and shouts at others to come and help dig through the rubble by hand.

Off the main road a house is on fire, much of it has been destroyed.

An injured survivor with blood covering his face stands in the rubble, unsure what to do next.

Two men approach, and one lifts him onto his back and carries him away.

There are children injured, too. Footage shows rescuers bringing a little girl to the edge of the smashed building, they lower her down. She’s followed by another little girl, and then another.

The rescuers, neighbours and friends search through the building, shifting rubble trying to find more survivors.

Another is trapped under rubble. A red scarf is placed near her head to try keep her comfortable as they frantically try to figure out how to extract her from the mass of concrete on top of her.

Survivors of this airstrike say there were about 50 people staying at this house, and that many of them had already been forced from their homes elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.

Ashraf Abu Asif’s wife and two daughters were killed in this attack.

“I am a resident of Bena Sela, we got displaced and came to the house of Abu Faiz and Abu Salah. We came here to live in the safety of God. We saw nothing until a missile fell on us,” he said.

“God rescued me, but my children, my brother’s children, my in-laws, everyone was at this home,” he added, saying he was going to the hospital next to try find other family members.

The IDF is now operating across the entire Gaza Strip.

From central Gaza, our team sent us pictures showing the scene outside one of the main hospitals still operating there.

Rimah Murad Mansi is sheltering behind the al Aqsa Hospital with her children. Crucially, she’s not inside the compound, so she and her family are exposed.

“They have hit us with everything they had. They hit us with everything, they humiliated us,” she said, saying they have no food or water.

“We have seen too much, and it is enough. The whole world is just looking at us, it is enough! We have seen everything, enough with it. Stand with us, stop this insanity. Stop being silent.”

Among crowds outside the front of the hospital, a little boy is looking for his father.

“Here he is, here he is,” he cries, as he sees his father’s body wrapped in a white sheet.

He has just realised his father is dead.

He is utterly inconsolable. It’s the dawning realisation of his own loss that’s so heart-breaking.

And with no prospect of a ceasefire these scenes of the injured, the dead, and the mourning, will be repeated constantly.

World

‘Horrific incident’ at sheriff training facility in LA – at least three people dead

Published

5 hours ago

July 18, 2025

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'Horrific incident' at sheriff training facility in LA - at least three people dead

At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.

A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.

The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).

Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.

Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.

“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”

California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.

“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.

The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.

“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.

“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.

The cause of the explosion is being investigated.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

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World

Unmasked: The 18 Russian spies who mounted series of attacks on UK

Published

5 hours ago

July 18, 2025

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Unmasked: The 18 Russian spies who mounted series of attacks on UK

Dozens of Russian spies have been sanctioned by the government – including those responsible for targeting Yulia Skripal five years before her attempted murder in Salisbury.

The Foreign Office has announced that three units of the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU) have been hit with sanctions, alongside 18 military intelligence officers.

Politics latest: Diane Abbott suspended from Labour

GRU officers attempted to murder Yulia Skipal and her father Sergei using the deadly Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury.

The 18 military intelligence officers have been targeted because of a sustained campaign of malicious cyber activity over many years, including in the UK, the Foreign Office said.

The government also accused the GRU of using cyber and information operations to “sow chaos, division and disorder in Ukraine and across the world”.

One of the groups sanctioned, Unit 26165, conducted online reconnaissance to help target missile strikes against Mariupol, including the bombing of Mariupol Theatre where hundreds of civilians, including children, were murdered.

Other military officers who have been sanctioned previously targeted Yulia Skripal’s mobile phone with malicious malware known as X-Agent.

The Skripals had moved to the UK after Sergei Skripal became a double agent, secretly working for the UK. He was tried for high treason and imprisoned in Russia – and later exchanged in a spy swap.

But five years after Yulia’s phone was targeted, the pair were poisoned with the nerve agent, Novichok, in Salisbury. Russia has always denied being involved in the chemical attack.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilise Europe, undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said.

“The Kremlin should be in no doubt: we see what they are trying to do in the shadows and we won’t tolerate it.”

He said the UK was taking “decisive action” with the sanctions against Russian spies.

“Putin’s hybrid threats and aggression will never break our resolve. The UK and our allies’ support for Ukraine and Europe’s security is ironclad.”

Those sanctioned today include:

Aleksandr Vladimirovich Osadchuk

Yevgeniy Mikhaylovich Serbriakov

Anatoliy Sergeyvich Kovalev

Artem Valeryvich Ochichenko

The 161st Specialist Training Centre (TsPS) (Unit 29155) of the GRU

Vladislav Yevgenyevich Borovkov

Nikolay Aleksandrovich Korchagin

Yuriy Federovich Denisov

Vitaly Aleksandrovich Shevchenko

Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov

Aleksey Viktorovich Lukashev

Sergey Sergeyevich Vasyuk

Andrey Eduardovich Baranov

Aleksey Sergeyevich Morenets

Sergey Aleksandrovich Morgachev

Artem Adreyevich Malyshev

Yuriy Leonidovich Shikolenko

Victor Borisovich Netyksho

Dmitriy Aleksandrovich Mikhaylov

African Initiative

Artyom Sergeevich Kureyev

Anna Sergeevna Zamaraeva

Victor Aleksandrovich Lukovenko

World

Antarctica’s oldest ice arrives in UK for analysis on climate shifts

Published

5 hours ago

July 18, 2025

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Antarctica's oldest ice arrives in UK for analysis on climate shifts

Antarctica’s oldest ice has arrived in the UK for analysis which scientists hope will reveal more about Earth’s climate shifts.

The ice was retrieved from depths of up to 2,800 metres at Little Dome C in East Antarctica as part of an international effort to “unlock the deepest secrets of Antarctica’s ice”.

The ice cores – cylindrical tubes of ancient ice – will be analysed at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge, with the ultimate goal of reconstructing up to 1.5 million years of Earth’s climate history, significantly extending the current ice core record of 800,000 years.

The research is also expected to offer valuable context for predicting future climate change, Dr Liz Thomas, head of the ice cores team at the British Antarctic Survey, said.

Over the next few years, the samples will be analysed by different labs across Europe to gain understanding of Earth’s climate evolution and greenhouse gas concentrations.

Dr Thomas said: “It’s incredibly exciting to be part of this international effort to unlock the deepest secrets of Antarctica’s ice.

“The project is driven by a central scientific question: why did the planet’s climate cycle shift roughly one million years ago from a 41,000-year to a 100,000-year phasing of glacial-interglacial cycles?

“By extending the ice core record beyond this turning point, researchers hope to improve predictions of how Earth’s climate may respond to future greenhouse gas increases.”

The ice was extracted as part of the Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice project, which is funded by the European Commission and brings together researchers from 10 European countries and 12 institutions.

“Our data will yield the first continuous reconstructions of key environmental indicators-including atmospheric temperatures, wind patterns, sea ice extent, and marine productivity-spanning the past 1.5 million years,” Dr Thomas said.

“This unprecedented ice core dataset will provide vital insights into the link between atmospheric CO₂ levels and climate during a previously uncharted period in Earth’s history, offering valuable context for predicting future climate change.”