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A fresh wave of rail strikes will affect train journeys across the country this week.

Ongoing pay disputes between the government and the ASLEF and RMT unions will see staff walk out on Wednesday 31 May, Friday 2, and Saturday 3 June.

There is also an overtime ban for ASLEF drivers on Thursday 1 June.

Both unions have rejected the pay offers put forward by the government so far this year, with bosses claiming there is still strong support for industrial action among their members. Meanwhile commuters have been suffering months of regular train cancellations.

This Saturday’s disruption will affect people travelling to the FA Cup final at Wembley, the Epsom Derby in Surrey, England v Ireland test match at Lord’s and Beyonce’s Renaissance tour date at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Here are all the train operators impacted:

Avanti West Coast

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No services running on any routes on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

Fewer trains running on reduced hours on Friday 2 June.

Services will be busier than usual, with some knock-on timetable changes on Thursday 1 and Sunday 4 June.

Chiltern Railways

No trains on any routes on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

Very limited service on Friday 2 June, with “essential travel only” encouraged.

Amended timetable with busier-than-usual services on Thursday 1 June.

C2c

Most trains will not stop at Limehouse on Friday 2 June.

CrossCountry

No trains on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

Limited services on Friday 2 June.

Normal services on Thursday 1 and Sunday 4 June.

East Midlands Railway

No trains on any routes on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

Significantly reduced service between 7.30am and 6.30pm on Friday 2 June.

Possible short notice cancellations on Thursday 1 June, with passengers advised to check before they travel.

Great Northern

No trains running on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

Overtime ban may impact some services on Thursday 1 June.

Limited service with reduced hours on Friday 2 June.

Knock-on effect of strikes will mean fewer services before 7am on Sunday 4 June.

GWR

Extremely limited services will run between 7.30am and 6.30pm on Wednesday 31 May, Friday 2, and Saturday 3 June.

Minor changes to late-night services on Thursday 1 June.

Minor changes to early-morning services on Sunday 4 June.

Greater Anglia

Reduced service on Wednesday 31 May from 7am onwards, with most routes running no trains at all.

Some services cancelled due to short notice of strike action on Thursday 1 June.

Trains only running between 7am and 11pm on Friday 2 June with a reduced frequency.

Reduced service on most routes on Saturday 3 June, with no service between Cambridge and Liverpool Street.

Morning disruption expected on Sunday 4 June.

LNER

Reduced timetable with no trains running beyond Edinburgh on Wednesday 31 May and Saturday 3 June.

Minor changes to timetable on Thursday 1 and Sunday 4 June.

Reduced timetable on Saturday 3 June.

London Northwestern

No trains on any routes on Wednesday 31 May and Saturday 3 June.

Limited services on a limited number of routes on Friday 2 June.

Potential on the day cancellations or timetable changes on Thursday 1 June.

Northern

No trains on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

Limited service on Friday 2 June, with no replacement bus services and some stations closed.

South Western Railway

Reduced services on Wednesday 31 May and Saturday 3 June and no trains on the Island Line.

Short notice delays and cancellations possible on Thursday 1 June due to overtime ban.

Significantly reduced services with large parts of the network closed on Friday 2 June.

Southeastern

No trains running with no replacement buses on Wednesday 31 May and Saturday 3 June.

Intending to run a normal service on Thursday 1 June.

Only 58 out of 180 stations open, with no replacement buses for closed stations on Friday 2 June.

Southern

No trains running on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

Overtime ban may impact some services on Thursday 1 June.

Limited service with reduced hours on Friday 2 June.

Knock-on effect of strikes will mean fewer services before 7am on Sunday 4 June.

Thameslink

No trains running on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

Overtime ban may impact some services on Thursday 1 June.

Limited service with reduced hours on Friday 2 June.

Knock-on effect of strikes will mean fewer services before 7am on Sunday 4 June.

TransPennine Express

No trains on any route on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

Some services cancelled or altered on Thursday 1 June and Friday 2 June.

West Midlands

No trains on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

On the day cancellations and alterations possible as a result of overtime ban on Thursday 1 June.

Limited services on Friday 2 June.

Heathrow Express

Only one train an hour on Wednesday 31 May between 7am and 7pm.

No trains at all on Saturday 3 June.

Stansted Express

Trains roughly every 40 minutes between 4.40am and 12.30am on Wednesday 31 May.

Some services not running on Thursday 1 June.

Only two trains an hour between 7.11am and 12.30am on Friday 2 June.

Services roughly every 30 minutes between 4.40am and 12.30am on Saturday 3 June.

Gatwick Express

No Gatwick Express trains on Wednesday 31 May or Saturday 3 June.

People travelling to Gatwick on Friday 2 June can use Southern or Thameslink trains instead.

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Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

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Nine of Gazan doctor's 10 children killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.

Warning: This article contains details of child deaths

Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.

Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.

Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.

In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.

The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.

Rescuers removing the children's bodies from the rubble. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.

“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”

Rescuers placing the children's bodies in a van. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack

Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.

Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.

Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar's husband who is also a doctor, being taken into hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.

Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.

Rescuers unload the children's bodies. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
Image:
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence

‘No political or military connections’

Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.

“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”

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Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies

He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”

Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.

Read more:
Mum of emaciated baby in Gaza says ‘I don’t want to lose her’
Dad wrongly pronounced dead in Israeli bombing killed in airstrike

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Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.

Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

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UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes

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UN's Antonio Guterres condemns 'teaspoon' of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes

The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.

He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.

A woman walks amidst rubble at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters

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Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’

Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.

The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.

Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.

Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.

More on Gaza

Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.

Palestinians carry a body at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia, northern Gaza .
Pic: Reuters
Image:
A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters

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‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza

The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.

The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.

The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.

Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip May 23, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Image:
Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters

But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.

Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.

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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

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’12 people’ injured in stabbing at Hamburg train station – as woman arrested

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'12 people' injured in stabbing at Hamburg train station - as woman arrested

A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.

An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.

They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.

Police at the scene of a stabbing at Hamburg Central Station. Pic: AP
Image:
Police at the scene. Pic: AP

Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.

There was no immediate information on a possible motive.

The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.

The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.

More on Germany

A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.

Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.

Read more from Sky News:
Trump threatens EU with 50% tariff
Mum of emaciated Gazan baby: ‘I don’t want to lose her’

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Four tracks at the station were closed in the evening, and some long-distance trains were delayed or diverted.

Hamburg is Germany‘s second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.

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