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Israel is preparing to launch a “coordinated offensive” on the Gaza Strip, after the deadline given to Palestinians to move south to escape passed. Up to 1.1 million people on the sliver of land were offered safe passage south of the Gaza Wadi river by Israel’s Defence Forces until 4pm local time on Saturday (2pm

Holding out his phone, a soldier walked towards me in the shattered ruins of a kibbutz in southern Israel. “This is my friend,” he said, showing a photograph on the screen of a beautiful young woman and her fiancé. Their names were Nieve Raviv, 27, and Nirel Zini, also in his 20s. The soldier described

Israel’s military says infantry backed by tanks have carried out “localised raids” in the Gaza Strip. It comes ahead of an expected ground operation, with Israel warning more than a million people in the north of Gaza to evacuate to the south. The small raids were carried out to attack Hamas rocket crews and seek

Israeli infantry and tanks have carried out “localised raids” in Gaza – the first hint at a shift to ground assaults. The small raids were carried out to attack Hamas rocket crews and seek information on the location of hostages taken by Palestinian gunmen last Saturday, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. It is the first

Britons are “highly likely” to be among those held by Hamas in Gaza, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has told Sky News. The cabinet minister revealed the UK had also sent additional intelligence personnel to the region as part of efforts to release those captured or assist citizens trapped in the besieged enclave. His comments came

I walked up the hill to the main stage area of the Nova Festival site knowing we were entering a murderous scene the world has heard so much about but has yet to fully understand. As I passed bullet-ridden cars where people trying to escape were gunned down; burnt-out cars where some young people had

The government has organised flights to get British nationals out of Israel, the Foreign Office has said. The first flight is set to leave Tel Aviv later on Thursday, it added. Airlines and governments are scrambling to evacuate thousands from Israel ahead of a possible ground assault on Gaza. Evacuation efforts come as the combined

An Irish-Israeli woman who went missing after Hamas attacked a music festival at the weekend has been confirmed dead. Kim Damti, 22, was at the event in Re’im in southern Israel when she was last seen, the Irish government confirmed. The festival was attended by several hundred people when Hamas gunmen opened fire. This breaking

Seventeen British nationals, including children, are feared dead or missing in Israel after an attack by Hamas, Sky News understands. Three Britons are already confirmed to have died in the weekend’s attack. At least 1,200 Israelis are dead and more than 2,700 have been wounded, according to the latest figures supplied by the IDF (Israeli

From destroyed homes I watched stretcher bearers bringing out the body of a small child.    Without saying a word, the men carried the body and loaded it onto a truck alongside the bodies of other members of the community murdered as they hid or tried to defend themselves. We were taken to the Kfar

Hamas’s armed wing has warned people living in the Israeli city of Ashkelon that they have until 5pm local time to leave. The al Qassam Brigades, as the group is known, posted on social media that its warning to leave by 3pm UK time was in response to the “crime of the enemy”. The statement

Families seized and separated. Men, women and children hauled off to captivity, some of them shot on the way, girls raped, their belongings ransacked and looted. It is a catalogue of atrocities that recalls some of the darkest moments in Jewish history and yet it has happened in the 21st century in a country that

A British-Israeli citizen and his wife have told of their 12 hour ordeal locked in a bomb-proof safe room as Hamas militants set their house on fire and gunfights erupted around them.  At times, they were just inches from the militants and were forced to stay put as Hamas fighters engaged Israeli Defence Force (IDF)

Israel’s prime minister has warned people living in Gaza to leave the area as he vowed to reduce parts of the territory “into rubble” in revenge for a “black day”. Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier said Israel was at war with Palestinian militants from Hamas, which governs Gaza, after their fighters launched a surprise attack on

Hamas has claimed its militants have taken hostages during their attack on Israel. The militant group has posted footage on its Telegram account showing its fighters pulling Israeli soldiers out of a tank. Sky News has also geolocated footage from the Erez checkpoint by the Gaza border, in which hostages are seen being beaten, as