Grandmother, 80, ‘fell to her knees’ after IDF shot her six times during raid, says son
As we stare at a bullet-ridden wall, two young Palestinian boys stand behind us on a stoop and look on in fearful awe.
“It’s the military,” one boy in a beige hoodie tells his friend. His friend stares at the wall with wide eyes and gives a little nod.
Balata camp in Nablus, the commercial centre of the West Bank, has just come out of a two-day Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid when we go to visit.
Mounds of dug-up dirt line the tarmac of the main road through the market. Shop owners sullenly stare at the reminders of the violent exchange of gunfire that shook their neighbourhood hours earlier. On the wall are decorated portraits of killed armed militants from various factions in the area.
A pile of shattered glass marks where 80-year-old Halima Abu Leil was shot dead. Her son says she “fell to her knees” after Israeli forces fired at her six times when she went to buy groceries on Thursday morning.
The IDF says it is aware of the reports that “during the exchanges of fire with the terrorists, uninvolved civilians present in the area were harmed”.
“My mum was elderly and had cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. They could see she was an old woman – why would they fire at her?” asks Halima’s son.
He’s happy to be filmed but won’t share his first name – not a sign of irrational paranoia but a need for safety in a climate of increasing IDF raids and surveillance. A name translates into an ID number that can be tracked down.
Halima’s son is happy to be filmed but won’t share his first name
He takes his six-year-old son to the local mosque for Friday prayer. We film men of all ages pouring into the foyer but are not permitted to film the sermon that follows. The building tension is felt in every corner of the camp – even in the rooms reserved for God.
“No one is with the Palestinians but God,” he told us at his mother’s funeral 20 minutes earlier.
“Every single Palestinian is targeted, no one is exempt. Not children, not the elderly, no one.”
One of Halima’s daughters mourning the loss
Sibling not new to sudden loss
He sits next to his sister who is not new to sudden loss. She says her two sons are gone – one was killed last year and the other is in prison.
“What law is this? Children and pregnant women are killed. Our sons leave the house and don’t come back,” says Halima’s daughter.
“They can see she’s an elderly lady but they shot her six times – in her legs, in her chest. When she was first shot in her legs, she knelt on the ground,” she adds.
IDF statement
We approached the IDF about Halima’s death. This was their response:
“Early on Thursday, the IDF conducted a counterterrorism activity to apprehend an individual suspected of terror activity in the area of Balata in Nablus. During the activity, the IDF soldiers engaged in exchanges of fire with terrorists who opened fire and hurled explosives toward IDF soldiers. Hits were identified. In addition, IDF soldiers encircled a structure in which terrorists barricaded themselves. No IDF injuries were reported.”
The IDF say this footage shows armed terrorists in the vicinity of Israeli soldiers. Pic: IDF
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In Balata camp there are no dominant armed factions but a medley of affiliated fighters.
“When they see oppression like this – they want to fight,” says Halima’s daughter. Her sons were loyal to the armed resistance growing in their neighbourhood.
Nablus in the West Bank
As men pour out of the mosque into the street where Halima was killed, I ask an older man where the fighters are today.
“We don’t see them anymore,” he says in a hushed tone. “They are in hiding because of the increased raids.”
“These are just young men with guns – meagre protection in the face of Israeli military hardware. What’s an M16 to a tank?”
As diplomats scramble to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, peace feels more elusive than ever in the West Bank.
A report into the deadly Lisbon Gloria funicular crash has said the cable linking the two carriages snapped.
The carriages of the city’s iconic Gloria funicular had travelled no more than six metres when they “suddenly lost the balancing force of the connecting cable”.
The vehicle’s brake‑guard immediately “activated the pneumatic brake as well as the manual brake”, the Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft Accidents and Railway Accidents said.
Flowers for the victims in Lisbon. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
But the measures “had no effect in reducing the vehicle’s speed”, as it accelerated and crashed at around 60kmh (37mph), and the disaster unfolded in less than 50 seconds.
Questions have been asked about the maintenance of the equipment, but the report said that, based on the evidence seen so far, it was up to date.
A scheduled visual inspection had been carried out on the morning of the accident, but the area where the cable broke “is not visible without dismantling.”
The Gloria funicular is a national monument that dates from 1914 and is very popular with tourists visiting the Portuguese capital.
The Gloria funicular connects Lisbon’s Restauradores Square to the Bairro Alto viewpoint
It operates between Restauradores Square in downtown Lisbon and the Bairro Alto neighbourhood.
The journey is just 276m (905ft) and takes just over a minute, but it operates up a steep hill, with two carriages travelling in opposite directions.
How the disaster unfolded
At around 6pm on Wednesday, Cabin No.2, at the bottom of the funicular, “jerked backward sharply”, the report said.
“After moving roughly 10 metres, its movement stopped as it partially left the tracks and its trolley became buried at the lower end of the cable channel.”
Cabin No.1, at the top, “continued descending and accelerated” before derailing and smashing “sideways into the wall of a building on the left side, destroying the wooden box [from which the carriage is constructed]”.
It crashed into a cast‑iron streetlamp and a support pole, causing “significant damage” before hitting “the corner of another building”.
Cable failed at top
Analysis of the wreckage showed the cable connecting the cabins failed where it was attached inside the upper trolley of cabin No.1 at the top.
The cable’s specified useful life is 600 days and at the time of the accident, it had been used for 337 days, leaving another 263 days before needing to be replaced.
The operating company regards this life expectancy as having “a significant safety margin”.
The exact number of people aboard each cabin when it crashed has not been confirmed.
Britons killed in disaster
Kayleigh Smith, 36, and William Nelson, 44, died alongside 14 others in Wednesday’s incident, including another British victim who has not yet been named.
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Five Portuguese citizens died when the packed carriage plummeted out of control – four of them workers at a charity on the hill – but most victims were foreigners.
Any remaining residents in Gaza’s largest city should leave for a designated area in the south, Israel’s military has warned.
Israeli forces are carrying out an offensive on suburbs of Gaza City, in the territory’s north, as part of plans to capture it – raising concern over an already-devastating humanitarian crisis.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced pressure to stop the attack and allow more aid in, the military has announced a new humanitarian zone in the south.
Spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Gaza City residents should head to a designated coastal area of Khan Younis.
There, he said they would be able to receive food, medical care and shelter.
On Thursday, Israel said it has control of around 40% of Gaza City and 75% of the entire territory of Gaza.
Many of the city’s residents had already been displaced earlier in the war, only to return later. Some of them have said they will refuse to move again.
That’s despite the military claiming it is within a few kilometres of the city centre, coming after weeks of heavy strikes.
But the war in Gaza has left Israel increasingly isolated in the diplomatic sphere, with some of its closest allies condemning the campaign that’s devastated the territory.
Just two weeks ago, a famine was declared in Gaza City and surrounding areas by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity.
A resident runs with his belongings in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
There is also concern within Israel, where calls have grown to stop the war and secure the release of the remaining 48 hostages.
Israel believes 20 of those hostages are still alive.
Even as relatives of those hostages lead protests, Mr Netanyahu continues to push for an all-or-nothing deal to release all hostages and defeat Hamas.
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On Friday, Donald Trump said Washington is in “very deep” negotiations with Hamas to release the captives.
“We said let them all out, right now let them all out. And much better things will happen for them but if you don’t let them all out, it’s going to be a tough situation, it’s going to be nasty,” he added.
Hamas is “asking for some things that are fine”, he said, without elaborating.
A man was heard screaming in the water moments before he died after a shark attack in Sydney, witnesses have said.
Emergency services responded to reports that a man in his 50s had suffered critical injuries at Long Reef Beach shortly after 10am (1am in the UK) on Saturday.
The man, whose identity has yet to be confirmed, was brought to shore but died at the scene, authorities have said.
Two sections of a surfboard have been recovered and taken for examination, and beaches near the area are closed as drones search for the animal.
Police are liaising with wildlife experts to determine the species of shark involved.
Pic: Sky News Australia
Surfer screamed ‘don’t bite me’
Speaking to Sky News Australia, witness Mark Morgenthal said he saw the attack and that the shark was one of the biggest he had ever seen.
“There was a guy screaming, ‘I don’t want to get bitten, I don’t want to get bitten, don’t bite me,’ and I saw the dorsal fin of the shark come up, and it was huge,” Mr Morgenthal said.
“Then I saw the tail fin come up and start kicking, and the distance between the dorsal fin and the tail fin looked to be about four metres, so it actually looked like a six-metre shark.”
Mark Morgenthal said it ‘looked like a six metre shark’ in the attack. Pic: Sky News Australia
Victim was a father and experienced surfer
New South Wales Police Superintendent John Duncan said at a press conference that the victim was 57 years old, calling the incident a “terrible tragedy”.
“The gentleman had gone out about 9.30 this morning with some of his friends, about five or six of his mates,” he added. “He’s an experienced surfer that we understand.
“Unfortunately, it would appear that a large, what we believe to be a shark, has attacked him. And as a result of that, he lost a number of limbs.
“His colleagues managed to make it back to the beach safely, and a short time later, his body was found floating in the surf, and a couple of other people went out and recovered it.”
Mr Duncan added that officers “understand he leaves behind a wife and a young daughter… and obviously tomorrow being Father’s Day is particularly critical and particularly tragic”.
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Local surfer and eyewitness Bill Sakula also told reporters at the beach: “It’s going to send shockwaves through the community.
“Everyone is going to be a little bit nervous for a while.”
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Surf Life Saving NSW has deployed a drone to search for further shark activity.
Its chief executive Steve Pearce said: “Our deepest condolences go to the family of the man involved in this terrible tragedy.”
Shark attacks are very rare, with this incident widely thought to be the first in New South Wales this year.
The last time a person in Sydney was killed in a shark attack was in February 2022 – the city’s first fatal shark attack since 1963.
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