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Life in Gaza is dominated by fears of Israeli attacks, finding somewhere safe, worrying about food, water, medicine and whether loved ones are still alive.

In the middle of this brutal present, some world leaders have already begun discussing the future, once the war is over.

The United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says neither will there be a place for the Palestinian group Hamas, nor can Israel reoccupy the Gaza Strip.

That is contrary to what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is saying.

Why do some leaders appear more concerned about who will govern Gaza once the bloodshed is over than in ending the war?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Mohammed Nablusi – Lawyer and organiser with the Palestinian Youth Movement

Ilan Pappe – Israeli historian and author of, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Vincent Fean – Former British consul general in Jerusalem and trustee of the Balfour Project

Gaza City – Ibrahim Abu Rish feels fresh, thanks to a barber at al-Shifa Hospital who gave him a haircut.

The civil defence rescuer, who has been doing this job for 15 years, has not been home in more than a month.

“My home is in Karameh, and the whole neighbourhood got destroyed,” he said. “I haven’t had a chance to see my wife and children yet, who are displaced. My wife calls me many times a day, but I can’t answer her every time.”

Abu Rish, 35, has witnessed things over the past month that are worse than anything he could have imagined. The Israeli bombardment of the blockaded Gaza Strip has killed more than 10,500 Palestinians since October 7, most are women and children. Israeli air raids have targeted homes, residential blocks, entire neighbourhoods, schools, mosques, churches and hospitals.

“This war has no mercy,” Abu Rish said. “We cannot guarantee our own safety.”

At least seven rescue workers have been killed.

Abu Rish’s colleague Mohammed al-Ghaleez and five other civilians were killed in an Israeli air attack on the al-Tuffah police station on Salah al-Din Street in Gaza City.

“The hardest thing I’ve seen is the torn bodies of children, the children under the rubble who we can’t reach,” Abu Rish said. “Bodies litter the streets. The smell of this city is one of rotting, decomposing bodies.”

He has also seen people desperate for water drinking from the hoses the civil defence uses to extinguish fires.

More than 2,660 people are missing under the rubble, including 1,350 children.

“It drives me crazy that we can’t save these people,” he said. “I’ve had to tell people that we cannot rescue them. I could see them, but there was no way to reach them. Imagine waiting for death like this.”

The civil defence is sorely lacking in heavy machinery and equipment needed to move the rubble, his colleague Musleh al-Aswad said. Their vehicles are rusty, and if they don’t break down from a mechanical problem, the damaged roads and shrapnel hinder their operations.

“We don’t have the resources,” the 40-year-old said. “No fire engines, vehicles, ambulances, machines. People use metal cutters and their hands to dig through the rubble.”

Tractors and excavators are rare and, even if available, need fuel to work, which is not available.

Telecommunications blackouts add stress and prevent rescue teams from coordinating with each other.

“I’ve been in the field since 2007 and in every war since then,” al-Aswad said. “But this one, … what is happening to us is unprecedented.”

He sees his family every few days, stealing half an hour with them and making sure they’re OK before changing his clothes to head out again.

“We are definitely afraid in our line of work, but our determination is stronger,” he said. “We took an oath to protect our people.”

Abu Rish said there hasn’t been a single road that Israeli warplanes and tanks have not targeted, and when they strike, it’s always more than once.

“We want a ceasefire and for the injured to be transferred outside for treatment and for all of this to end,” he said. “Enough.”

Bogota, Colombia – As Israel’s bombardment of Gaza enters its second month, world leaders have increasingly voiced concern over the rising death toll and suspected human rights violations in the Palestinian territory.

But in the West, few have been as vocal — or as severe in their criticism — as the leftist leaders in Latin America, many of whom came to power as part of a progressive wave known as the “pink tide”.

On October 31, Bolivia severed its diplomatic relations with Israel, citing “the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive taking place in the Gaza Strip”. Colombia and Chile echoed that criticism, recalling their diplomats from Israel the very same day.

“If Israel does not stop the massacre of the Palestinian people, we cannot be there,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro posted on the social media platform X.

His message came minutes after his Chilean counterpart, Gabriel Boric, denounced the Israeli offensive as a “collective punishment on the Palestinian population in Gaza”.

Analysts said these acts of censure send a powerful signal from Latin America, a region that has largely maintained close, if sometimes tense, ties with Israel.

“It speaks to a Latin America that is not willing to tolerate such obvious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law,” said Mauricio Jaramillo, an international relations expert.

The Latin American leaders’ sharp rhetoric, he added, stood in stark contrast with statements from other Western leaders, like United States President Joe Biden, who have been more circumspect in their criticism of Israel.

In response to Latin America’s diplomatic backlash, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Colombia and Chile to support its right “to protect its citizens”. To do otherwise, Israel suggested, would be to align “with Venezuela and Iran in support of Hamas terrorism”.

It also called Bolivia’s decision to cut relations altogether “a surrender to terrorism”.

Bolivia, Chile and Colombia were not alone in their criticism. By Friday, the leftist government in Honduras had likewise pulled its ambassador from Israel for “consultations”. And after last week’s bombing of Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, more left-leaning leaders from Latin America spoke out against the Israeli violence.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Argentina, for instance, home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America, condemned the attack in a statement: “Nothing justifies the violation of international humanitarian law.”

Cold War legacy on left-wing politics

The current conflict in Gaza, however, is not the first time Latin America’s leftist leaders have taken a stand against Israel.

Jaramillo pointed out that Cuba’s Fidel Castro became the first Latin American leader to break relations with Israel back in 1973.

Announced in the midst of the Cold War, Castro’s decision served as a rebuke both to Israeli aggression in the Middle East and to its biggest ally, the US — Cuba’s adversary at the time.

The legacy of the Cold War has primed Latin America’s leftist leaders to be sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, according to Jehad Jusef, the vice president of the Palestinian Union of Latin America, an association of Palestinian diaspora groups.

During the Cold War, the US backed military dictatorships in Latin America that suppressed leftist movements, Jusef said.

That history, he argued, serves as a parallel for the modern-day situation in Gaza, where the US is supporting Israel in a campaign that has raised grave human rights concerns.

Israel played its own role in Latin America’s Cold War period, serving as a major arms dealer to the US-backed military dictatorships in places like Guatemala and Argentina.

“Imperialism in Latin America is the same as imperialism in the Middle East,” Jusef said.

Experiences with displacement

Experts said Israel’s settlement of Palestinian territories has also fostered a sense of recognition among Latin American leaders.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians faced displacement during the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel after a period of prolonged Western involvement in the region. The UN continues to denounce the expansion of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories like the West Bank as illegal.

That history resonates in Latin America, where an estimated 42 million people identify as Indigenous. They too continue to grapple with a legacy of dispossession from their ancestral lands and racial discrimination, as part of European colonisation.

“Progressive movements in Latin America approach the Palestinian cause as one of decolonization,” said Manuel Rayran, an expert in international relations. “They identify with that cause because [many of the inequalities] seen in Latin America today are inherited from colonialism.”

Some political analysts like Cecilia Baeza have noted that Indigenous groups have even taken a leadership role in supporting Palestinian causes.

“In Chile and Bolivia, where this political convergence is particularly strong, it is not unusual to see Palestine solidarity protests called by both Palestinian diaspora organizations and Indigenous movements,” Baeza wrote in a 2015 article.

Political divides shape Israel relations

Support for the Palestinian cause also falls along stark ideological lines in Latin America.

In the case of Bolivia, the country’s first Indigenous president — the socialist Evo Morales — was also the first to sever relations with Israel in 2009.

But his successor, the right-wing Jeanine Áñez, decided to renew ties within weeks of taking office.

The country’s current president, Luis Arce, is considered part of the present-day “pink tide”.

This leftward trend began with the election of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico in 2018 and continued with leftist victories in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Honduras and Chile.

In Colombia, the 2022 swing to the left was particularly historic: Never before had a left-wing president taken office.

But Petro’s victory in Colombia has shown some of the weakness of the latest “pink tide” movement.

Breaking ties comes at a cost

Only a year into his term, Petro’s approval ratings have plummeted to 32 percent, as he struggles to implement his domestic platform against a strong right-wing backlash.

While opposition leaders in Colombia have accused Petro of using the crisis in the Middle East to divert attention away from his domestic troubles, Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst for the think tank Crisis Group, questioned that logic.

She argued that — instead of winning public opinion points at home — Petro’s decision to take a stand against Israel could come at a cost.

After Petro compared remarks made by the Israeli defence minister to those made by Nazis, Israel suspended its military exports to Colombia, including the sale of planes and machine guns used in the government’s efforts against rebel forces.

Actions and comments from other Latin American leaders could lead to similar repercussions, Dickinson warned. Israel’s defence exports alone are a $12.5bn industry.

“This is not an easy or obvious decision,” she said. “It’s clearly a political choice that these leaders have made despite the possible risks to their own interests.”

The diplomatic rebuke from countries like Colombia, Chile and Bolivia is unlikely to deter Israel from escalating the war, she added.

“These are countries that don’t have a definitive economic or political relationship [with Israel] that could shift the conflict in one way or another,” Dickinson said.

It does, however, build pressure on the US, Israel’s closest ally, to call for a ceasefire.

Dickinson said she suspected that the South American countries timed their actions to coincide with an international summit in Washington last Friday. Both Petro and Boric used the meeting to encourage their US counterpart to condemn Israeli actions.

“It’s a point of entry for Latin American leaders to push this forward with the United States,” Dickinson said.

Israel’s military has claimed Hamas operates at al-Shifa, which the armed group and hospital officials have denied.

Israel has attacked three hospitals in Gaza, including the enclave’s biggest medical complex, resulting in what appear to be multiple casualties, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-governed enclave has said.

Israel’s military struck a yard at the al-Shifa Hospital complex, where thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering, Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said on Friday.

“Israel is now undertaking these dangerous steps against the hospitals to put them completely out of commission and subsequently displace the people sheltering in them, as well as the patients and medics,” al-Qudra told Al Jazeera.

Israel’s military has said that Hamas operates a command centre at the site of the hospital, including entrances to its extensive tunnel network, which Hamas and hospital officials have denied.

Israeli officials did not immediately comment on reports of the latest strikes.

Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director general of al-Shifa Hospital, said the strike hit civilians located next to a number of journalists in the yard, wounding four, including two critically.

“This led to a lot of casualties, including critical injuries. It could have been a massacre in this place because of the number of people in this complex,” Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera.

“Before that, they bombed a building very close to the hospital. And now, there are heavy clashes and heavy bombing next to the hospital.”

Abu Salmiya said that medics and patients were in a state of fear due to near-constant explosions near the facility.

“Not a second goes by without bombing close to the hospital. Many of the hospital’s windows have been broken, and there is fear and anxiety amongst the medics and the patients and the displaced people,” he said.

“This is a war against the hospitals and a war against all the [Palestinian] citizens.”

Video of the apparent aftermath of the attack showed several people screaming and scrambling for cover, and an injured man lying on the pavement in a pool of blood.

Al-Qudra said that two children’s hospitals, Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr, had also been hit by “direct attacks and bombardments” on Friday.

Omar Shakir, Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine director, said on social media that medical facilities must be protected and that “no area is a free-fire zone”.

The attack on al-Shifa is the latest in a series of reported strikes on or near the Gaza City hospital in recent days.

Last week, Israel’s military bombed an ambulance outside the hospital, killing 15 people, according to Palestinian officials.

On Monday, Al Jazeera and Palestinian media reported that Israeli forces had struck solar panels providing electricity to the medical complex, prompting denials by Israeli officials.

Israeli military officials have released pictures, illustrated maps and audio recordings that they say show that Hamas is using the facility to plan operations and hide its fighters.

“Hamas terrorists operate inside and under [al-Shifa] Hospital and other hospitals in Gaza,” spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said last month.

Hamas, health authorities and al-Shifa Hospital officials have denied that the armed group is hiding in or under the complex.

Israel’s military has repeatedly ordered the hospital to evacuate in recent weeks, drawing condemnation from humanitarian groups that say medical facilities must be spared from fighting.

“Chess saved my life,” Kamila says.

There is mischief in her eyes as she moves her queen in a piercing diagonal, opening up my crumbling defence. Checkmate is just moves away, a formality.

Once a rising chess star in eastern Ukraine, Kamila Hryshchenko was forced to leave her home in Kramatorsk when the bombs started to fall around her.

Still just 21 years old, she now lives in Hull after an international network of chess players helped whisk her and her mother to safety.

After switching to play for England to show her appreciation, Kamila Hryshchenko is now one of the highest ranked players in the country. The top spot? That’s now occupied by a Russian.

As Nikita Vitiugov makes his debut for England in the European Team Chess Championship today, we dive into the enthralling world of professional chess…

‘We knew our world chess family was going to help us’

When Vladimir Putin unleashed his war on Ukraine in February 2022, the city of Kramatorsk came under regular attack from missiles and bombs.

The first days of the invasion were marked by chaos and confusion, and incredible danger.

“I wanted to leave but we didn’t know what was going on or where Russian soldiers were,” Kamila tells Sky News.

They reached out to Andrei Ciuravin, a Ukrainian already living in the UK, who got the wheels in motion for Kamila’s long journey from Ukraine.

“Chess is a family, especially in these hard times. We knew our world chess family was going to help us.”

Kamila and her mother left via the busy Kramatorsk railway station, which in the early days of the war was constantly packed with thousands of people trying to flee west to relative safety.

A few days later, a Russian missile attack on the rail hub killed more than 30 people and wounded over 100 others.

Their hair-raising rail journey from Kramatorsk in the east to Chernivtsi on the western border with Romania saw their train constantly stopping as the driver received warnings from the Ukrainian army about bombs and blocked routes.

“Everything was connected with chess,” Kamila says, explaining how the Romanian Chess Federation and friends from the chess world helped them with a hotel and in getting her visa to the UK.

On 24 April, 2022 they arrived in England and were taken in by a family of chess players in Chichester – one month after leaving Kramatorsk.

Kamila and her mother eventually moved to Hull where they live now. Kamila studies computer science at the University of Hull – and of course continues to play chess.

Playing chess in the trenches

“That’s interesting,” Kamila says. She’s looking at our chessboard – we’re on our second game now – and considering her next move.

My king is under pressure and I’ve done my best to surround it with my remaining pieces. Have I managed to ward off the attacks from her rooks?

“Am I gonna lose? I don’t like it,” she quips. Maybe some hope for me, I wonder.

“Ah, I like it,” she adds, suddenly smiling. “Check.” It’s not long before it is, once again, checkmate.

With so many famous players hailing from Ukraine and Russia – after the decades of Soviet domination of the game – it’s unsurprising that the war has sent shockwaves through the world of chess.

Like countless other Ukrainians, Kamila had to leave her home because it was not safe anymore.

For men it has been mostly illegal to leave the country, and many have been called up to join the armed forces. Chess players are no exception.

Grandmaster Igor Kovalenko, ranked 60th in the world, didn’t know how to fire a rifle before he joined the army.

The 34-year-old was deployed to the fiercely contested Donetsk region of Ukraine. While his chess is mostly on hold, he was pictured playing an online event from the trenches during a quiet moment.

In East Yorkshire, Kamila and her mother spend much of their spare time doing everything they can to raise funds for Ukraine.

Her decision to change her chess federation from Ukraine to England – and thus play under the English flag – was a difficult one, she says.

“It was a very hard decision for me. It was so personal because of Ukraine and the war, and I want to support my country.

“When I changed federation I was thinking it’s better for my chess career and I can pay back lots of English people for their support here, supporting my chess.”

“We still support Ukraine,” she adds. “For me it’s better to help physically by fundraising and volunteering than just to have a flag next to my name.”

Read more:
Ukraine war not at ‘stalemate’, Zelenskyy says
Ban on Russian football teams to stay in place

Russian Vitiugov now England’s top-ranked player

As Russian tanks bore down on the Ukrainian capital in the first days of the invasion, an emergency meeting of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) council was held.

It voted to condemn the use of military force and barred Russian and Belarusian players from competing under their national flags.

Two months later, 44 top Russian chess players including a host of grandmasters signed an open letter to Vladimir Putin criticising the war and calling for a ceasefire.

“We share the pain of our Ukrainian colleagues and call for peace,” the letter said.

Since then, a series of senior Russian players have defected to other countries in protest against what the Kremlin is doing in Ukraine.

They include Nikita Vitiugov, 36, who has swapped St Petersburg for East Anglia.

Ranked 31 in the world, he’s now the top-rated player in England and is expected to make his debut under his new flag today at the European Team Chess Championship in Montenegro.

Changing country was a quick decision for Grigoriy Oparin, a grandmaster who grew up in Moscow and started playing chess when he was just four years old.

“It was just a total shock for me,” he said of the February 2022 invasion. “I could not believe it was happening.

“It was just so shameful that my native country started this war.”

Grigoriy, 26, told Sky News that he immediately began the process of changing from the Russian Chess Federation to the US Federation.

And while he has been able to switch his chess flag to the stars and stripes, he has been left unable to compete in official events for two years unless he agrees to pay a 35,000 euro (£30,400) release fee to the Russian Chess Federation.

“It’s a little bit unfortunate that I cannot play, but I think it’s such a minor issue considering everything that’s happening in the world.”

Karjakin’s support for war and self-imposed ban from world chess

But not all Russian chess players are opposed to the war.

Sergey Karjakin has sparked anger and criticism for his vocal support for Vladimir Putin’s efforts to annex Ukraine.

The world number nine, who himself was born in Ukraine, posted an open letter to the Russian president on social media just days after the invasion.

He discussed the “demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine and its ruling regime”.

“I express for you, our commander in chief, full support in defending Russia’s interests, our multinational Russian people, eliminating threats and establishing peace!”, he told Mr Putin.

Karjakin was handed a six-month ban by FIDE and still refuses to play in any tournament where he cannot play under a Russian flag.

Since then he has courted further controversy with his visits to occupied areas of Ukraine, including photo ops with Russian soldiers.

Among the questions about her dangerous journey to the UK and her love for Ukraine, I ask Kamila if she still enjoys playing chess, after so many years and so much else going on in her life.

“Every chess player has those moments when you want to give up,” she says.

“I still love it. I can’t really imagine myself without chess.”