Sally Nugent of BBC Breakfast was concerned about her colleague Lyse Doucet during a live conflict broadcast barely three miles from the beleaguered Gaza Strip.
The confrontation between Israel and Hamas has erupted, with over 1,700 people killed on both sides and nearly 187,500 people displaced from the Gaza Strip.
Following a surprise attack by Hamas on October 7, Israeli troops pledged to convert Gaza into “rubble,” and have launched retaliatory attacks in over 200 areas around Gaza, killing over 700 people and injured 4,000 more.
Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, spoke to Sally in the studio from Ashkelon, only three miles outside of Gaza.
However, her broadcast was cut short when someone off camera told her to move to safety.
‘There is an intensification of security in this zone,’ she began.
‘This is now a closed military zone, Gaza is just down this road, three miles away, and you can see in the distance a plume of black smoke.
‘And sometimes there’s a wall of black smoke rising from Gaza so intensely, so intense is the aerial bombardment of this coastal territory.’
Lyse, who reported with Clive Myrie in the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, went on to discuss Ashkelon’s recent Hamas attacks.
‘They’re still trying to enter this area by sea, by boat, or possibly by those paragliders,’ she went on.
She continued: ‘The shock and anger in Israel, the sense in Israel, the phrase that they’re using is we’re going to do whatever it takes, and it does seem that this time, Israel has decided that what it will take is going in on the ground.’
After a guy was heard shouting, Lyse was escorted away from the scene.
Interrupting herself, she said: ‘Sorry, I think we’re being told now… so I’m just going to keep recording.
‘I think, once we can get the camera off here, perhaps we can keep reporting.
‘We’re going to move now safely away, we’ve been told we’re moving away, we can see the black smoke rising there.
‘They’re worried that there possibly could be mortars landing in this area, so as a precaution we’re just moving a little away in a safer area.
‘We’re still safe to keep broadcasting,’ she reassured.
‘This is what it’s like, it’s a very, very unpredictable situation.’
‘Lyse thank you so much for that but we are going to let you and the crew get to safety as quick as possible,’ Sally urged, as the camera returned to the studio.
BBC Breakfast airs from 6am on BBC One.
