(LONDON) -- At least one person was killed and two people were injured by an overnight Russian drone strike on a kindergarten building in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, local officials there said on Wednesday, as Moscow's cross-border attacks continued despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's unilateral declaration of a temporary ceasefire beginning at midnight on Tuesday.

Ukraine's air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 108 drones and three missiles into the country overnight, of which 89 drones were intercepted or suppressed. The missiles and nine drones impacted across eight locations, the air force said.

Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, claimed to have downed at least 53 Ukrainian drones overnight. The ministry did not specify whether any Ukrainian drones were intercepted after the unilateral Ukrainian ceasefire came into effect at midnight on Tuesday.

Sumy was among several targets of Russia's overnight strikes. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said in posts to Telegram that at least four people were killed and 19 people injured by Russian strikes in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, which damaged infrastructure plus administrative and residential buildings.

In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the ministry said, two women were injured by a drone strike on a house in the southwest of the city which also sparked a fire.

Ukraine's State Emergency Service also reported a Russian drone attack on an apartment building in the southern city of Kherson.

Tuesday night's attacks followed a major Russian missile and drone attack on several Ukrainian cities earlier in the day, in which officials said at least 28 people were killed.

Zelenskyy issued a statement on Wednesday condemning what he described as Russia's "brutal attacks" and Moscow's refusal to partake in the Kyiv-proposed 24-hour ceasefire.

"On all key frontline areas, assault operations are ongoing, and just since the beginning of today, the Russian army has carried out nearly 30 assault operations. More than 20 airstrikes involving over 70 aerial bombs were recorded just last night and this morning," Zelenskyy wrote.

"During the night, the Russian army also launched attacks with various types of drones," the Ukrainian president added.

"Ukraine has clearly stated that it will respond in kind, given the persistent Russian appeals through the media and social networks to maintain silence during the Moscow parade," Zelenskyy wrote, referring to the planned "Victory Day" celebrations in the Russian capital planned for May 9.

Russian President Vladimir Putin this week announced a unilateral truce on May 8 and May 9. Zelenskyy then said Ukraine would mark its own 24-hour ceasefire beginning at midnight on May 5.

"Russia must end its current war. Even with the internet shut down and most Russians' communications blocked, it's absolutely clear that their leadership could emerge from the bunker and choose peace," Zelenskyy wrote. "Our diplomatic proposals are on the Russian side, and the only thing needed is Russia's willingness to move towards real peace."

"As of today, we note that the Russian side has disrupted the ceasefire. Based on the results of our military and intelligence evening reports, we will determine our further actions," he added.

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(WASHINGTON) -- U.S. Southern Command said in a statement that it struck an alleged "narco-trafficking" boat in the Caribbean Sea on Monday, killing two people.

"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," SOUTHCOM wrote in a post to X.

"Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed," it added. SOUTHCOM also published a video of the strike on X.

At least 189 people have now been killed by U.S. strikes in Operation Southern Spear.

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(LONDON) -- On NATO's southeastern flank, one ally is reporting an increasing rate of Russian drone violations and related air policing missions, as Moscow expands its long-range strike campaign against targets all across Ukraine.

Romania, a nation of some 19 million people, shares around 400 miles of border with Ukraine. To its east, Romania abuts the Black Sea, the Danube River and -- beyond that -- Ukraine, putting that part of the country in particular on the front lines of Russia's war against its neighbor and Moscow's wider showdown with the NATO alliance.

The contact zone there spans the Danube, the river's width of around 1,640 feet -- less than three football fields -- separating Romania and its NATO defenses from the Ukrainian river ports that have for years been a focus of Russia's long-range drone and missile bombardments.

Data provided to ABC News by Romania's Defense Ministry shows that the rate of Russian attacks on Ukrainian targets close to the NATO frontier is increasing, resulting in more regular scrambling of NATO fighters for defensive missions, more violations of NATO airspace by Russian drones and the discovery of more munition fragments on allied territory. 

In all four categories, 2026 is set to be a record-breaking year, according to Bucharest's tallies.

As of April 28, since the start of 2026, Romania recorded seven airspace violations by Russian drones, the discovery of munition fragments 11 times and the scrambling of "Air Policing" missions 18 times, a Defense Ministry spokesperson told ABC News. Those incidents were the result of the 25 Russian attacks on Ukrainian areas close to Romania's border.

Within the first four months of this year, the figures are already approaching the record annual highs set across 2025, during which Romania reported nine airspace violations, the discovery of fragments 16 times, 21 air policing missions and 28 attacks on Ukrainian targets close to Romania.

In total since Russia launched its invasion, Romania has recorded 25 airspace violations, the discovery of fragments 47 times, 53 air policing scrambles and 91 attacks on Ukrainian targets close to the shared border, the Defense Ministry's data showed.

Thus far, then, the first third of 2026 alone accounts for around 28% of all airspace violations since 2022, 23% of incidents of fragment discovery, nearly 34% of all air policing missions and 27% of attacks close to Romania's border.

Constantin Spinu, a former Romanian Defense Ministry official who left his role in 2025, told ABC News that Bucharest always expected Russia to expand attacks along the country's shared border with Ukraine, particularly after the breakdown in 2023 of the Black Sea Grain Initiative -- negotiated between Russia and Ukraine in 2022 -- which had sought to ensure the safe flow of grain exports from southern Ukrainian and Russian ports.

"We were very much aware that this would happen," Spinu said. "It was not possible back then to foresee the amplitude of the attacks."

The first Russian drone was discovered on Romanian territory in the fall of 2023, according to officials in Bucharest, though that craft was not equipped with explosives. "We realized again that it was a matter of when, not a matter of if, drones equipped with explosives would hit Romanian soil," Spinu said.

The Defense Ministry's data, Spinu said, showed a "clear" and "growing tempo" of Russian attacks on Ukrainian targets along the Romanian border.

'Emphasis on restraint'
Romania has yet to shoot down any Russian drones or other munitions in its airspace, though national law does allow forces to engage drones in Romanian airspace during peacetime if lives or property are at risk.

There is no suggestion that Russian drones have been aimed at targets in Romania, Spinu said. "All the situations were consequences of their attacks on Ukrainian targets," he said. "I don't see this changing in the future."

Last week, British fighter jets were scrambled to track multiple drones attacking targets in Ukraine close to the Romanian border.

Initial reports suggested that the British aircraft intercepted the craft while they were in Ukrainian airspace, though the U.K. and Romanian defense ministries later clarified that the allied pilots tracked, but did not fire upon, the drones.

Romanian authorities said that around 200 people were evacuated during the incursion, which saw one drone land in the southeastern border city of Galati. Romanian President Nicusor Dan said it was "the first incident where Romanian property has actually been damaged, a threshold we take very seriously."

Following that incursion, Russia's ambassador in Bucharest -- Vladimir Lipayev -- told the state-run Tass news agency that the incident was a "provocation" by Kyiv.

Romania's Foreign Ministry summoned Lipayev to protest the violation. The ambassador, though, told Tass after the meeting, "Due to the lack of any objective evidence of the drone's national identification, the protest was rejected as far-fetched and groundless."

The incident again raised questions as to whether NATO forces should intercept Russian munitions close to allied borders while they are still in Ukrainian airspace.

Ionela Ciolan, a research officer at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies think tank in Brussels, told ABC News that Romania's political leadership has shown "a consistent emphasis on restraint" regarding wayward Russian drones.

"Those in power in Bucharest are careful to avoid any actions that could be interpreted as direct participation in the conflict," Ciolan said. Questions as to a more assertive NATO posture "remain largely absent from the domestic agenda," she added.

Oana Popescu-Zamfir, the director of the GlobalFocus Center think tank in Bucharest, told ABC News that the government in Bucharest is broadly "downplaying these incidents and avoids commenting too much about them."

"The general perception that still the war is something that -- though it's on our border -- is still kind of distant," Popescu-Zamfir said. The official understanding appears to be that the violations are "not a direct act of hostility from Russia," she added.

That stance could be partly down to domestic political considerations, Ciolan said. "Romanian society has become increasingly polarized," Ciolan said. Recent data suggests that only about 55% of Romanians primarily blame the Kremlin for the war, while approximately 14% attribute responsibility to Ukraine and others point to the U.S. or the European Union," she said.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the declared intention of toppling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government in Kyiv.

The "special military operation," as the Kremlin described the invasion, followed eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, sparked by Russia's annexation of Crimea and fomentation of separatist rebellion in the eastern Donbas region.

The cost of action
The first instance of NATO nations downing drones came last year, when Polish and Dutch fighters destroyed three Russian drones over Poland. At least 19 drones penetrated Polish airspace in that instance, according to Warsaw.

After that incident, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Moscow was engaging in "reckless behavior" and said the incursion was not "not an isolated incident."

"Allies are resolved to defend every inch of allied territory," Rutte added. "We will closely monitor the situation along our eastern flank, our air defenses continually at the ready."

Russian officials have broadly denied any responsibility for munition incursions into neighboring nations, while also accusing NATO states of allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for routing drone attacks into Russia -- an allegation allied leaders have denied.

As incursions mount, politicians in NATO member states are facing more public pressure to take action. But a more assertive response could carry political, military and economic risks, the analysts who spoke to ABC News said.

"It is extremely costly to shoot down drones that may only cost a few thousand euros with missiles that can cost hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of euros," Ciolan said. Engaging incurring Russian drones could also hand Moscow useful military intelligence on NATO capabilities.

Romania and other NATO allies are rushing to adopt versions of cheaper counter-drone munitions showcased by Ukraine. In January, for example, Romanian military chief Gen. Gheorghita Vlad said Bucharest planned to acquire the U.S.-made MEROPS interceptor drone.

The costs of intercepting could also balloon if targets are engaged over populated areas, with drones, defensive munitions and falling debris all posing risks to people and property on the ground.

"It doesn't make sense from an economical point of view, but also from a public safety point of view," Spinu said.

Popescu-Zamfir said that while Romania has "made progress" on the issue, the country largely lacks the political will and means to engage.

"We now have a clear legal framework that actually allows us to directly engage the drones," she said, "and it also allows the pilots, in cases where we use fighter jets, to make that decision."

"But we don't actually have the equipment," Popescu-Zamfir added. "We have started positioning more radars and sensors around the Danube Delta, but we're nowhere near where we should be."

Romania, along with its NATO allies, faces a difficult and ever-evolving threat, Spinu said.

"You cannot install defensive equipment that would cover the whole border of Romania with Ukraine," he explained. "That's not militarily or economically possible. And no country in the world would be able to do that."

"It's a matter of risk calculation," Spinu said, suggesting that the defense of populated areas and critical infrastructure must take precedent over sparsely-populated border regions in which Russian drones have largely fallen.

"I don't think anyone has the perfect solution," Spinu added. "Not even the most developed armed forces in NATO."

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(WASHINGTON) -- Despite facing the 60-day deadline under the War Powers Act, the president is not asking Congress for authorization, rather providing an update to the posture of U.S. forces in the region.

Echoing Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth, the president noted that he ordered a two-week ceasefire on April 7 that has since been extended.

"On April 7, 2026, I ordered a 2-week ceasefire. The ceasefire has since been extended," Trump wrote. "There has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026. The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated."

Trump also stressed that he ordered Operation Epic Fury "consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests at home and abroad, and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests."

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(MEXICO CITY) -- More than 20 million people in Mexico City are living on ground that's sinking above an ancient reservoir.

The city has long been recognized as one of the fastest sinking sites in the world, but researchers didn't have the ability to continuously track the movement from space until now.

NASA shared a satellite image on Wednesday from the U.S.-India satellite NISAR that captures parts of Mexico's capital sinking by more than half an inch every single month. The space agency said the impact of those incremental changes have added up over time, leading to "fracturing roads, buildings, and water lines" across the city.

Dora Carreón-Freyre, a researcher who has studied Mexico City's sinking for more than 25 years, has seen that damage up close in the Iztapalapa region, which she says is one of the hardest hit.

"The houses that are founded in [volcanic] rock are stable, but the houses in the middle between the rock and the lacustrine plain are already broken, most of them," Carreón-Freyre told ABC News. "In 2017, a taxi fell inside a fracture."

Over the years, scientists studying the city’s land subsidence, a scientific term for sinking, primarily relied on ground and space satellites that could only collect annual data.

NASA says NISAR is the first satellite to carry two radar systems at different wavelengths, allowing it to record near real-time ground movement changes from space every 12 days. For David Bekaert, a scientist who works on the NISAR mission, that frequency is what makes the data so valuable.

"This all allows us to build time series or snapshots on how the ground is moving over time," Bekaert  told ABC News.

For researchers who have spent decades studying the city on foot, the new satellite data offers something they never had before.

"To have these tools and to realize the distribution of these differential rates –it's amazing," Carreón-Freyre said. "Things that we only learned by walking everywhere when we were young, it's different now. Technology is here to help us."

The image is a compilation of data collected by NISAR between October 2025 and January 2026.

A century of sinking

Th fact that Mexico City is sinking is not new. NASA says it has been documented the changes for more than a century.

According to a 1995 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the city was already sinking roughly two inches per year by the late 1800s.

By the 1950s, that number jumped to 18 inches, the report found.

The first finding was reported by engineer Roberto Gayol in 1925, who pointed to a large canal and tunnel built to drain water out of the city's waterlogged ground as the potential cause.

Scientists now point to a more direct culprit — decades of draining the ancient lakebed aquifer that the city was built on.

As water is pumped out, the ground above it compacts and stays that way, according to a study published by the American Geophysical Union. Think of wet clay that gets squeezed flat and hardens in place.

Still, not every part of the city sinks at the same rate, Bekaert said.

"That compaction causes the ground surface to sink, and because it doesn't happen evenly, different parts of the city move at different rates," Bekaert explained.

Parts of the city have lost as much as 30 feet of elevation over the last century, according to researchers, and scientists say the worst-hit areas have sunk as much as 127 feet.

NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation launched NISAR on July 30, 2025, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

Mexico City is just the beginning when it comes to this technology, scientists say.

"More broadly, my interest lies in mapping ground motion across coastal zones, where a large proportion of the world's population lives and understanding surface change is particularly important," Bekaert said.

Scientists say NISAR can now continuously monitor sinking cities anywhere on Earth — a capability Carreón-Freyre says is urgently needed as that threat is already playing out elsewhere in the world.

"And what I saw in the Philippines is really terrible because they have two phenomena working together that is very bad for the population: subsidence and sea level rise," she said. "They are sinkings 30 centimeters per year."

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(LONDON) -- A stabbing attack in London that officials said injured two Jewish men has been declared a "terrorist incident," police said.

The suspect -- a 45-year-old man -- was arrested after trying to attack officers who responded to reports of people being stabbed in the Golders Green neighborhood in Northwest London, the Metropolitan Police said.

The incident took place at 11:16 a.m. local time in London on Wednesday.

"One male was seen running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and attempting to stab Jewish members of the public," Shomrim NW London, a charity that operates an emergency response team in the area, said on social media.

Two men -- aged 76 and 34 -- were treated at the scene for stab wounds before being taken to a hospital, where they are both listed in stable condition, police said.

The suspect was Tasered and arrested after allegedly trying to stab officers, police said. No officers were injured.

The suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in custody, the Metropolitan Police said. He has a history of serious violence and mental health issues, according to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.

Specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing are leading the investigation. inquiry

"One of the lines of inquiry is whether this attack was deliberately targeting the Jewish community in London," he added.

Mayor Sadiq Khan of London condemned the "appalling attack on two Jewish Londoners in Golders Green."

"London's Jewish community have been the target of a series of shocking antisemitic attacks," Khan said in a statement. "There must be absolutely no place for antisemitism in society. The Met have stepped up high visibility patrols in the area."

Sarah Sackman, a member of Parliament who represents the area, said she was aware of the "serious stabbing" in Golders Green.

"The attacks on British Jews are an attack on Britain itself," she said in a statement posted on social media. "It is unconscionable that Jews are being targeted in this way."

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was addressing questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, said it was "deeply concerning to everyone in this House." He added that a police investigation was underway.

Wednesday's alleged stabbing was at least the third violent incident reported in the Golders Green area -- which is well-known for its sizable Jewish community -- in recent weeks.

In late March, four ambulances belonging to the Jewish community ambulance service, Hatzalah, were firebombed in a suspected antisemitic attack, according to the Met Police.

And on Tuesday, an arson attack was reported on a memorial wall in Golders Green, which is dedicated to thousands of protesters killed in an Iranian government crackdown on nationwide protests in January, police said.

The wall is located close to a local Jewish center, although police said the Tuesday alleged attack was "not being treated as a terrorist incident and officers are keeping an open mind about the motive behind the attack."

ABC News' Joe Simonetti and Zoe Magee contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) -- Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors are expected to convene again at the State Department on Thursday for a second round of meetings amid the latest conflagration in the Middle East.

The first direct negotiations between the two states since 1993 are intended as preparatory meetings to shape future talks on a deal to normalize ties between the countries.

Thursday's meeting is expected to focus on extending a shaky ceasefire that has halted fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, long considered by experts as a "state within a state" wielding enormous influence over Lebanon's political, economic and security spheres.

The technocratic government in Beirut, which came to power in 2025, is juggling dual pressure campaigns -- sustained Israeli attacks and seizure of Lebanese territory on one hand and the internal threat of Hezbollah and its Iranian backers on the other.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Tuesday that the goal of the negotiations was to "stop hostilities, end the Israeli occupation of southern regions and deploy the [Lebanese] army all the way to the internationally recognized southern borders."

"We negotiate for ourselves," Aoun said. "We are no longer a pawn in anyone's game, nor an arena for anyone's wars. And we never will be again."

Paul Salem, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute think tank, told ABC News from Beirut that Thursday's talks are "historically significant in what they might eventually lead to," but framed the meetings as the first steps on a long and difficult road.

The government in Beirut is facing "a prolonged conundrum," Salem said. "Iran is insisting on maintaining its presence and backing Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah seems to be happy to continue to play their role with Iran."

And in southern Lebanon, Israel seems intent on a devastating campaign and seizure of land which its Defense Minister Israel Katz has repeatedly said will be modeled on the destruction of Gaza.

"The Lebanese state needs to be able to bolster its credibility by not allowing a long-term Israeli occupation," Salem said.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office told ABC News of the talks that there is "one obstacle: Hezbollah the Iranian proxy holding Lebanon hostage and threatening Israel. Peace through strength: remove Hezbollah and peace becomes possible."

President Donald Trump's administration pushed for a ceasefire in Lebanon earlier this month, as the White House sought a pause in the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran. Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel following the first round of talks on April 14 -- a ceasefire Netanyahu seemingly had no choice but to support.

But Trump and his top officials have also made clear that Hezbollah cannot be allowed to retain its pre-war clout within the country, nor continue to pose a military threat to Israel.

"We will make Lebanon great again. It's about time we did so," Trump said over the weekend.

Ahead of Thursday's talks, a State Department official told ABC News, "The United States welcomes the productive engagement that began on April 14."

"We will continue to facilitate direct, good-faith discussions between the two governments," the spokesperson added.

A tentative ceasefire

Thursday's talks in Washington will resume amid a tentative U.S.-backed ceasefire, under which Israeli strikes against alleged Hezbollah targets continue in eastern and southern Lebanon.

Under the U.S.-backed deal, Israel retains the right to fire on what it deems an "imminent threat" to its troops. The IDF has fired several times on Hezbollah targets since the ceasefire began on April 17. On Tuesday, Hezbollah said it fired rockets and drones at Israeli forces for the first time since a 10-day truce took effect.

Israeli ground forces are still operating in southern Lebanon, with the goal, according to Israeli officials, of establishing a demilitarized "buffer zone" between the Israeli border and the Litani River, around 18 miles to the north.

The IDF says it is holding approximately 15 positions about six miles deep into southern Lebanon, which it says includes about 50 Lebanese villages. Israeli officials have blamed the Lebanese government for being unable or unwilling to keep Hezbollah away from Israel’s northern border -- a responsibility set out in the U.S.-brokered November ceasefire.

The campaign includes the razing of dozens of Lebanese towns and villages, plus the forced -- and, at least for some, permanent -- displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

Human Rights Watch said this month that more than a million people across the country have been forced to flee their homes -- nearly one-fifth of the entire population of the country. The Israeli evacuation orders have included all of southern Beirut, the suburbs of which are traditionally considered a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israeli action has killed at least 2,294 people and wounded another 7,544 people since March 2, Lebanon's Health Ministry said last week. The strikes included a barrage of more than 100 strikes within 10 minutes on April 8, killing at least 357 people across the country, Lebanese authorities said.

Israeli health officials say Hezbollah gunfire, rockets and drones have killed 20 Israelis since March 2 and injured hundreds of others.

On March 2, Hezbollah joined Iran in its response to the U.S.-Israeli military campaign launched against Iran on Feb. 28. With those strikes, Hezbollah broke a U.S.-backed cross-border ceasefire that had been in place since November 2024. Hezbollah said the attacks were retaliation for alleged Israeli violations of the same ceasefire.

Hezbollah defied assessments it had been substantially weakened by its two-year involvement in the war in Gaza, firing more than 6,500 munitions toward Israel in the first five weeks of renewed fighting, according to the IDF.

Hezbollah fighters have also inflicted significant casualties on invading Israeli forces. Sixteen Israel Defense Forces troops had been killed in the current round of fighting in Lebanon as of Wednesday. The IDF says it has killed more than 1,800 Hezbollah operatives since March 2.

"Hezbollah is back in business," Salem said. Israel's operation "enables Hezbollah to resume its resistance narrative. And it certainly suits Iran to keep the Lebanon front open and active, to keep Israel distracted and to drain some of its resources and attention."

Dual threats

Within Lebanon, Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have faced veiled threats from Hezbollah and Tehran.

After the first round of talks in Washington, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said Aoun's government was "subjecting Lebanon to these humiliations by negotiating directly with the Israeli enemy and listening to its dictates."

Hezbollah is not a party to the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which seeks to sideline the Iranian-backed militant group.

Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah member of parliament, has called on Aoun to pull out of the talks. "We will reject and confront any attempt to impose political costs on Lebanon through concessions made to this Israeli enemy," Fadlallah told AFP this week, though said the group wants "the ceasefire to continue" along with an Israeli withdrawal.

A potential clash between Beirut and Hezbollah has been brewing since the Aoun-Salam government took power last year.

In an unprecedented step, The Lebanese cabinet has repeatedly asserted its ambition for Hezbollah to disarm and has declared all military activity by the group to be illegal. Earlier this month, the cabinet ordered security forces to restrict weapons in Beirut exclusively to state institutions

The state's all-volunteer Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is widely considered to be outgunned by Hezbollah, though it has around 80,000 personnel. Polls suggest the LAF is broadly popular among Lebanese people, but its multi-sectarian character has raised questions as to whether it would prove dependable in the event of renewed communal fighting.

But despite Hezbollah's mauling in the last round of fighting with Israel and the loss of a key neighboring partner with the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2024, observers say the group -- which is part of the Lebanese government and holds more than a dozen seats in parliament -- retains extensive military and political power, particularly in parts of the capital Beirut and in its southern and eastern heartlands.

Before the outbreak of its latest war with Israel in 2023, estimates of Hezbollah's military strength ranged from 30,000 to more than 50,000 operatives.

Israeli leaders have committed to an open-ended seizure of parts of southern Lebanon and demanded Beirut's assistance in the total disarmament of Hezbollah, raising fears that Lebanon's confessional power-sharing system could fracture and the country slide back into the kind of civil war that killed more than 100,000 people between 1975 and 1990.

Israeli leaders have been clear that they will not tolerate Hezbollah’s presence in southern Lebanon, vowing to keep troops there until the militant group is disarmed.

Risking such a calamity on behalf of Israel -- a country which has invaded Lebanon six times since 1978, which is now again occupying parts of the south and which Lebanese authorities say has killed thousands of Lebanese civilians in three and a half years of war with Hezbollah -- may be deeply unpopular.

LAF chief Gen. Rodolphe Haykal said on Tuesday that Lebanon "will reclaim every inch of its land under Israeli occupation," according to a readout posted to the LAF's X page.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's patrons in Iran -- specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- appear unwilling to give up their Lebanese ally, which for decades has been perhaps the most potent proxy within of Tehran's "forward defense" strategy by which Iran has sought to deter and punish U.S.-Israeli action against it.

Prominent Iranian leaders who survived the initial U.S.-Israeli onslaught demanded that Lebanon be included in the two-week ceasefire announced on April 8. "For years, Hezbollah has been fighting with the Zionist regime, but in the recent war, Hezbollah fought for the Islamic Republic," parliament speaker and lead Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said.

Others have hinted at costs for Beirut if the government tries to defang Hezbollah. Ali Akbar Velayati -- an adviser to Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamanei -- for example, said in a post to X this month that Salam "should know that ignoring the unique role of the resistance and the heroic Hezbollah will expose Lebanon to irreparable security risks."

"Lebanon's stability rests exclusively on cohesion between the government and the resistance," Velayati said.

For many Lebanese -- Shiites among them -- the return to war between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran means more turmoil piled atop years of cascading economic and political crises.

Last month, Salam expressed his own frustration. "This war was imposed upon us," the Lebanese prime minister said, adding that Beirut "could have avoided it" if Hezbollah had not resumed attacks on Israel.

ABC News' Chris Boccia and Jordana Miller contributed to this report

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(LONDON) -- As the world awaits a resolution on the fate of the Strait of Hormuz -- one of the most vital global trade routes -- the seafarers who have been stranded for weeks aboard ships and tankers on either side of the waterway are desperate for answers.

Nearly 20,000 people on some 2,000 vessels are currently trapped in the Persian Gulf, waiting for a passage that may not come anytime soon, according to the International Maritime Organization.

"It's been almost 50 days since the war started, and uncertainty is our biggest fear," one seafarer told ABC News, speaking anonymously for their safety. "Not knowing if we are going to get out of this situation alive is our main concern — because it doesn't matter where you are in the Gulf, there is no safe place here."

The seafarer said they have been waiting to cross since Feb. 28, the day the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran started and the moment vessel owners effectively halted traffic through the strait. Insurance companies stopped covering ships in the region almost immediately, bringing maritime traffic to a standstill on a waterway that normally carries as much as 20% of the world's crude oil and refined petroleum products.

"There are several different dangers here," the seafarer explained. "This is a very narrow, enclosed strait. There are reports of sea mines — we don't know if they're real or not, but it doesn't really matter. Once the idea takes hold that mines might be there, no ship wants to pass. That's the first issue. The second is that in such a confined space, we're talking about the possibility of drones, unmanned vehicles, ballistic missiles — there are so many ways we could be attacked that I don't think the U.S. military or any other military can realistically protect us."

The fallout on global markets has been severe. The longer the strait remains closed, the deeper the energy crisis will cut, particularly across Asia, which depends heavily on Gulf oil exports.

High-stakes negotiations between Iran and the United States continue, with both sides debating the waterway's reopening, but the only fact that matters to those waiting is that the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, and the threat of attack is likely to keep it that way.

"I've seen missiles passing over our heads," the seafarer said. "I've seen drones and planes fly by every day, and we never know their intentions. I've watched vessels get hit with my own eyes."

The seafarer's experience has been echoed by others in the shipping industry.

“I gave my notice exactly one month ago,” another seafarer recently told The Guardian. “I’ve informed the master, I’m not willing to sail through the strait. It’s about safety, it’s all about safety.”

"I think a vessel owner or operator is going to feel extremely vulnerable considering the disconnect between diplomatic communication and military actions," Joshua Hutchinson, chief commercial officer at maritime risk agency Ambrey, told ABC News.

He said the industry expects the strait to remain under the control of Iranian authorities while the United States intensifies operations against Iranian vessels. "This will put continued strains on new ceasefire and peace talks," Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson said the industry needs "clear communication" in order for vessels to safely leave the Persian Gulf and clear the backlog. He forecasts it could take three weeks for all vessels to clear the strait.

The seafarer who spoke to ABC News described a grim scene currently of ships drifting with little direction, and listening on the ship-to-ship communication systems called the VHF line -- accounts of crews growing desperate for basic provisions, and some begging to go home.

"There are vessels in this area right now rationing food and water. Crews aren't getting paid properly, and crew changes are still extremely difficult to arrange," the seafarer said. "You can hear other crew members talking about their situations — people saying they haven't been paid, that food is running out. The worst part, for me, is hearing someone say they have no water."

Since the conflict began, the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) said it has received roughly 1,900 inquiries from seafarers across hundreds of vessels. About 20% were requests for repatriation; others raised concerns about dwindling supplies of fuel, food, and water.

"Civilian seafarers have already lost their lives, and tens of thousands more trapped near the Strait of Hormuz are spending every waking moment consumed by anxiety about how — or whether — they will make it home," ITF Maritime Operations Coordinator John Canias said. "While many watching from afar see this through the lens of an energy or economic crisis, make no mistake: this is also a humanitarian crisis. Seafarers transport 90% of everything we rely on in our daily lives — food, medicine, fuel. They deserve far better than this."

So far, the ITF says it has helped repatriate 450 seafarers from the region. For the thousands still waiting, relief has not come.

"We feel trapped — like we're in a prison," the seafarer who spoke to ABC News said. "The only way out is through the Strait of Hormuz, and right now, that's not possible."

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(NEW YORK) -- The man who opened fire at one of Mexico's busiest tourist sites was allegedly influenced by violent acts in the United States, Mexican officials said Tuesday.

The deadly mass shooting occurred during the late morning Monday at the Teotihuacan pyramids, an archaeological site outside of Mexico City. The shooter fired upon tourists from atop one of the pyramids while armed with a revolver that he reloaded at least twice before dying by suicide, according to José Luis Cervantes Martínez, the attorney general of the state of Mexico.

One person was killed and seven others wounded by gunfire, officials said. Several people also suffered injuries in the ensuing panic.

"We all know that we had not seen anything like this in Mexico before," Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday. "Based on information from the authorities, the individual showed signs of psychological issues and was influenced by incidents that occurred abroad."

The gunman held a plastic bag containing 52 rounds of ammunition during the attack, according to Cervantes Martínez. The shooter also had a bladed weapon on him and handwritten materials reportedly related to violent incidents believed to have occurred in the U.S. in April 1999, the attorney general said.

The shooting occurred on the same day as the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

"Evidence collected so far suggests a psychopathic profile of the attacker, characterized by a tendency to imitate violent acts that occurred in other places and at other times," Cervantes Martínez said at Tuesday's press briefing. "This phenomenon, known as a 'copycat' effect, is one of the lines of investigation in this case, as materials referencing violent acts and figures associated with such behavior were found."

The gunman, identified as Julio César Jaso Ramírez, is not linked to organized crime and appears to have acted alone in a premeditated act, officials said.

"Investigative findings indicate that the attack was not spontaneous. The attacker had previously visited the archaeological site on several occasions, stayed in nearby hotels, and from there planned and carried out his actions," Cervantes Martinez said.

The first report of an armed individual at the tourist site came at 11:20 a.m., officials said. State police and the Mexican National Guard responded and were also attacked. While returning fire, the gunman was shot in the leg by the National Guard, officials said. He shot himself while being subdued and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.

One person -- a Canadian woman -- was fatally shot and seven others suffered gunshot wounds during the attack, authorities said. Six others were also injured, such as from falls, in the incident, authorities said. Those injured were from Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Netherlands, Russia and the U.S., officials said.

Sheinbaum said authorities are investigating how the attacker was able to enter the site with a weapon.

In the wake of the deadly shooting, Mexico will be increasing security at archaeological sites and other public locations across the country by increasing the presence of the Mexican National Guard and installing screening equipment, the president said.

"In light of this event, it is necessary to strengthen inspections to prevent anyone from entering an archaeological site or public space with a firearm," Sheinbaum said.

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(TOKYO) --  A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck on Monday off Japan's northeastern coast, the U.S. Geological Survey said, prompting authorities to issue tsunami warnings and advisories along parts of the coast that were later downgraded to advisories and then cancelled.

"Based on the preliminary earthquake parameters, hazardous tsunami waves are possible for coasts located within 300 km of the earthquake epicenter," USGS said after the quake was detected.

The Japan Meteorological Agency initially said tsunami warnings were in place for some of the coast along the Pacific, along with lesser advisories and forecasts farther away from the quake's center.

"Residents in areas where tsunami warnings have been issued should immediately evacuate to higher ground or evacuation buildings and other higher, safer locations," Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said.

The tsunami waves that were expected to have been the highest struck the coast within hours, with the largest one registering about 80 cm, or about 2.5 feet, but officials said they had not ruled out further waves. Official warnings were still in place, although the U.S. weather officials said in an update that, based on available data, "the tsunami threat from this earthquake has now passed."

Preliminary U.S. data pinpointed the quake about 100 km, or about 62 miles, off the eastern coast of Miyako, USGS said. Light rumbling could be felt as far away as Tokyo. A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck nearby about 40 minutes afterward, according to USGS data.

The Japanese agency held a press conference on Monday, during which it identified the quake as having been a 7.5 magnitude one. The depth was 10 km, or about 6.2 miles. It occurred at 4:53 p.m. local time, the agency said.

A tsunami warning was issued under twenty seconds after the initial earthquake, an official said. Officials warned people to stay on the alert for about week, as an equal or lesser than quake may occur. The risk was especially elevated for the next two or three days, officials said.

The U.S. Tsunami Warning System said a "destructive" Pacific-wide tsunami was not expected "and there is no threat to Hawaii."

ABC News' Joe Simonetti and Victoria Beaule contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) -- Even as a fragile two-week ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. holds – sparing about 90 million Iranians from the immediate threat of bombardment – many Iranians at home and abroad say they still face an intensifying wave of threats from the Islamic Republic regime as it continues cracking down on dissent.

The leaders of the Iranian regime have escalated measures to silence any kind of protests and criticisms against their policies both inside the country and across its diaspora, Iranians and observers inside the country and abroad told ABC News.

Shiva, a London-based Iranian journalist, says she has received direct threats from Iranian security forces, been labelled a “traitor” and had her assets in Iran confiscated. Shiva and other Iranians who spoke with ABC News in recent days asked not to be identified by their real names because of security concerns.

She is one of more than 400 Iranian journalists and artists abroad whose assets in Iran have been seized by the Islamic Republic for allegedly supporting what authorities describe as "hostile foreign actors," according to a judiciary statement issued on April 11.

Since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, the Islamic Republic judicial authorities have repeatedly said that they would adopt extreme measures against those who “collaborate with the enemy” – a broad accusation that they usually use against protesters. 

The measures range from harsh sentences by the judiciary including death sentence and lengthy prison terms on protesters at home, to seizing local assets belonging to dissidents abroad.

Despite the threats against her, Shiva says she is most concerned about her family who live in Iran and could face harassment by authorities because of her reporting, she told ABC News on Wednesday.

Having covered the situation of human rights violations in Iran, she added that she is "extremely worried" about the situation of the imprisoned protesters in the country.

"What worries me is my family, and the people inside Iran," Shiva said, "the voices of people inside the country are not being heard – those who are at risk of execution, those who are being silenced."

A judicial authority told the state media on Tuesday that such moves are aligned with the new legislation of the country made to intensify penalties for espionage and cooperation with countries that are deemed as “hostile” to Iran including Israel and the United States.

Arrests, prison situation and executions

In the months before the war with the U.S. and Israel began in late February, the Iranian regime committed massacres to suppress a series of nationwide protests in the country while imposing an internet blackout to prevent voices of protesters and families of the victims from being heard by the world, and to disrupt their communication with one another, according to the U.S. and international observers.

According to the U.S.-based Human Rights News Agency (HRANA), over 7,000 people – including at least 6,488 protesters – were killed in the protests which had been ignited over the severe economic hardships with dramatic fall of the country’s currency in the last days of December 2025. ABC News could not independently verify those figures.

Security forces arrested more than 50,000 people across the country, HRANA reported. Two Iranian lawyers and several human rights activists told ABC News at the time that those behind the bars did not have access to basic rights including having access to a lawyer or a fair transparent trial.

Rule of fear

The situation got even worse for dissidents in Iran after the U.S. and Israel started the war on the country, Iranians told ABC News, following President Donald Trump's Feb. 28 address to Iranians, in which he said that they can "take over" their government once the U.S. and Israel are finished.

"The hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take," Trump said in that address as the war began. 

Iran’s police chief, Gen. Ahmad-Reza Radan warned Iranians in a March 11 interview on state TV that they would be shot dead if they came to streets to protest. "If people take to the streets to protest, we will do what we did to the enemy. Our hand is on the trigger," Radan said.

During the war, main squares and streets of cities were again taken over by the police, armed forces and plain clothes security agents of the regime as several Iranians from Tehran, Isfahan, Rasht and other cities of the country told ABC News. The forces would not only control the streets on checkpoints, but would use loudspeakers to play religious and revolutionary propaganda songs.

"At night, I see the regime forces marching on the streets of my neighborhood," Saghar, a resident of west Tehran, told ABC News after the war began.

"When I hear their voices, I feel like I want to scream," she said. "I see them from the window and I get so angry that I like to throw everything I can at them. Why don't I have a share of the streets of my city? Everywhere is under their control."

Behind bars in an unknown location 

The anger is even more fierce for many families of victims and prisoners of the protests.

Shailin Asadollahi, sister of an Iranian prisoner, told ABC News during the war that her family had no information at the time about the whereabouts of her brother Ali Asadollahi, a dissident poet, who was jailed by the regime. Asadollahi and many other prisoners had been transferred to locations unknown to their families after the war began, she said, creating a dire fear among families about their loved ones' safety and wellbeing.

“I am so distressed and worried. I feel I struggle to even breathe when I think about where my brother is when bombs constantly fall over the city," she told ABC News. "But Ali told us upon his arrest that no matter what happens to him we need to be the voice for all prisoners, not just him."

“It is not just about us knowing where they are,” Shailin said. “Even a few prisoners who have called their families have said that they hear the bombs but don’t know where they are,” she added.  

Following the destruction of some of the main judicial facilities of the country in the U.S.-Israeli attacks and closure of some state organizations, an Iranian lawyer in the country told ABC News that it had become almost impossible to get any update from the status of prisoners.

“Neither families nor us as lawyers know who to call and where to follow up the situation of the prisoners as no one from the judiciary is responsive," the lawyer told ABC News. She asked not to be named over security concerns.

New arrests 

Iranian authorities also appeared to accelerated arrests during the war and the current ceasefire on a range of charges, including espionage and actions against national security. The intelligence ministry and the IRGC intelligence forces publish news of recent arrests in different cities almost every day.

In one of the latest cases, 22 people were arrested in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, the semi-official Tasnim News agency reported, quoting the police.

Collaboration with the "enemy media" is one of the common charges for those who are arrested. The Iranian police chief said in March that 500 people were arrested for sending information to "the enemy and anti-Iranian media." Hundreds more have been arrested since then according to the daily reports from Iranian authorities.

Record number of executions, observers say 

HRANA said on April 2 that the implementation of death sentences in Iran has entered "a new and deeply alarming phase." During the war, at least 10 political prisoners have been executed, and there is “a noticeable acceleration in executions,” HRANA reported.

Amirhossein Hatami, an 18-year-old protester, was one of those 10 protesters. He was executed on April 2, on charges related to the nationwide protests in the country in January, according to Mizan News Agency, the official news outlet of the country's judiciary. The report added that Hatami was allegedly involved in burning a government property.

Amnesty International, writing on social media, described Hatami's trial as "grossly unfair."

Two other protesters, Mohammadamin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast, who had been arrested for the same case were later executed three days later, Mizan reported. 

A source close to one of the four prisoners' families told ABC News that that these protesters along with two others arrested on this case had been moved from the prison's general ward and their lives are under imminent threat of execution.

The recent execution of protesters comes despite Trump's warnings to Iranian authorities before the war that continuing to execute protesters could trigger a strong response.

"The war was never about Iranian protesters and Iranian people's rights," Shadi, an Iranian woman from Rasht posted on her Instagram story in April along with the news of the recent executions.

"If Trump cared about us and our lives, there would be one point about human rights situation in Iran in their 15-point proposal," she wrote. "But there is no mention of Iranian people in there. It is all about the oil and Iran's proxies aboard and the Strait of Hormuz."

At least 1,639 people were executed by the Iranian regime in 2025, which was 68% more than the year before and highest number recorded since 1989, according to a joint report by Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (EPCM), on April 13.  

Stifling journalism and activism

While Iranian journalists abroad like Shiva who have tried to do their jobs are now facing growing threats and potential punishment from the regime, journalists and activists inside the country face even harsher restrictions. Many are unable to speak openly about people’s suffering from the scars of war and state repression.

"Tyranny, war, sanctions, executions and imprisonment, all are tools for the destruction of Iran and the annihilation of its people’s lives," Zia Nabavi, a dissident activist in Iran, wrote on his Instagram story in March.

Nabavi has spent more than a decade in prison for his activism and is one of many dissidents who believe the war will not bring about positive outcomes for Iranians.

Some believe that war against the Islamic Republic could lead to regime change. But Nabavi and others argue it would instead erode the fragile space needed to pursue social freedoms and equal rights, reducing public demands to survival amid the devastation caused by conflict.

Nabavi believes that those who impose executions, sanctions and wars on Iranians are different, but "the arrival of one does not mean the departure of another," as they are all "life-killing," he wrote.

"They can walk hand-in-hand to escort us toward the darkest possible fate," Nabavi added in his Instagram story.

Despite the pressures – from war, censorship and ongoing security threats – journalists like Shiva say they will continue their work, documenting events and sharing stories about Iran.

"The Islamic Republic is trying to extend its censorship and intimidation beyond its borders. But it cannot silence me here," Shiva said.

"They have already taken away my ability to return home, but they cannot take away my voice," she said.

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(NEW YORK) -- More than two weeks after American Lynette Hooker went overboard and disappeared in the Bahamas, her daughter is speaking out to ABC News.

"It still feels surreal," Karli Aylesworth said. "... This feels like something you just watch in a movie, but it's my life."

Aylesworth's mother, Lynette Hooker, has been missing since the evening of April 4 when Aylesworth's stepfather, Brian Hooker, said she went overboard. The couple had departed Hope Town for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay, when bad weather caused her to fall off their dinghy, Brian Hooker told authorities.

Brian Hooker, 58, was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on April 13 without charges.

Brian Hooker told ABC News on April 14 that he was staying in the Bahamas with a "sole focus" of finding his wife, "no matter how likely or unlikely that is."

But Brian Hooker then left the Bahamas, his attorney said on April 15, noting that his mother is not well.

Aylesworth and her boyfriend said they doubted Brian Hooker's story from the beginning and are now left with more questions than answers.

"I don't understand how she drowned or got floated away," Aylesworth said. "It just made me be more, 'Why didn't he do this? Why didn't you do that? Why did that happen?'"

Aylesworth said she met with the Coast Guard and the Bahamian authorities, who allowed her to visit the sailboat her mother and stepfather called home.

"I went and got some of her belongings, like a headband. I got her 'L' necklace that she used to always wear. I got a picture frame I made for her, something that my grandma sewed for her," she said.

"It was really hard because it was almost eerie, because I felt like she was going to, like, come out of the corner or something," she said. "... Just knowing that she'll never, I don't know, it's just hit me like a freight train that she's not there."

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(NEW YORK) -- The daughter of Lynette Hooker, an American woman who is missing in the Bahamas, has arrived on the islands with her boyfriend to help with the search after her stepfather, Brian Hooker, left the country.

Karli Aylesworth and her boyfriend, Steve Hansen, said they gave a statement to Bahamian police and plan on retracing her mother's last steps.

"They're just not releasing information because it's an ongoing investigation, which we understand," Hansen told ABC News.

"We seem frustrated because of the fact that we haven't found her yet, and we would hope by now we would have," he added.

Aylesworth's mother, Lynette Hooker, has been missing since the evening of April 4 when Brian Hooker said she went overboard. The couple had departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay, when bad weather caused her to fall off their dinghy, Brian Hooker told authorities.

Brian Hooker, 58, was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on Monday without charges.

Brian Hooker told ABC News on Tuesday that he was staying in the Bahamas with a "sole focus" of finding his wife, "no matter how likely or unlikely that is."

He said at the time that he planned "to go back to the boat, and then hire or beg people to help me go find some areas to search."

But Brian Hooker then left the Bahamas, his attorney said on Wednesday, noting that his mother is not well.

Hansen said he and Aylesworth were surprised to learn her stepfather left.

"We're not gonna say that he doesn't deserve to see his mother before she dies, but we're just saying Karli didn't get that option. Karli didn't get the option to see her mother before she died," Hansen said.

The Royal Bahamas Defence Force said in a statement Thursday that the search and recovery work is ongoing, with operations involving "extensive shoreline patrols, sea patrols, aerial drone surveillance, and submersible drone operations."

ABC News' Brian Andrews contributed to this report.

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(VENICE, Italy) -- One of the world's most iconic cities could be heavily impacted by climate change and sea level rise in the coming years, leading researchers to search for solutions on how to protect it.

Venice, the historic Italian city known for its canals that serve as water traffic corridors, has been said to be sinking for nearly a century. The site within the vicinity of the Venetian Lagoon has flooded increasingly over the past 150 years, according to a paper published in Scientific Reports on Thursday.

Historically, there have been 28 events in which seawater flooding impacted at least 60% of the city, according to the paper. Eighteen of those events have taken place in the last century.

Piero Lionello, a professor of atmospheric physics and oceanography at the University of Salento in Italy and native Venetian, has noticed an uptick in flooding events throughout his lifetime, he told ABC News.

"The rate has been quite impressive the last three decades," he said.

Climate experts are now calling for long-term planning to protect the city from rising sea levels over the next several centuries.

The Venetian Lagoon is a "special system" because it is so connected to the Adriatic Sea, said Lionello, the lead author of the paper.

Proposed strategies to prevent flooding as sea levels rise include movable barriers, ring dikes -- which are circular or oval-shaped embankments designed to protect localized areas from floodwaters -- or even closing the Venetian Lagoon and relocating the city, according to the paper.

Currently, the city is defended by a trio of movable barriers at the edge of the Venetian Lagoon. The MOSE project, installed in the 1990s, is a system of mobile flood barrier shields as tall as a five-story building that can be raised to separate the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea during high tides.

The system allows the waterways of Venice to function normally during high tide and has prevented flood disasters from storm surge. But it won't be sufficient in the future, Lionello said.

"The present system, it will certainly be become inadequate," he said.

The existing movable barriers may be effective against sea level rise up to 1.25 meters, or about 4.1 feet, according to the paper. But this benchmark is likely to be exceeded by the year 2300 under a low-emissions scenario due to rising global temperatures and ground subsidence -- the gradual sinking of the ground -- the researchers said.

Dikes may be necessary to protect Venice's city center from the rest of the lagoon, according to the paper. The dikes would consist of walls surrounding the city, separating it from the lagoon, Lionello said.

Construction of dikes could cost between $600 million and $5.3 billion, according to the paper.

A "super levee" that could cost more than $35 billion to construct may be needed to close the lagoon and protect the land that is already below sea level.

If sea levels rise enough, it may be necessary for the city's residents and historic landmarks to be moved inland, the researchers said. Relocating the city could be necessary beyond a 4.5-meter, or nearly 15-foot, sea level rise, which is projected to occur after 2300 under a high emissions scenario, according to the paper. Relocating the city could cost up to $118 billion, according to the researchers.

This solution is the most "provocative" and would involve moving individual buildings and monuments inland, Lionello said.

"You can preserve a building. You can have different solution to keep people living there, but it will be a completely different Venice from the Venice that we have now," Lionello said.

The system of mobile barriers has been working overtime, according to officials. The MOSE barriers were lifted from the seabed to stop water from the Adriatic Sea from entering the lagoon 31 times during a six-month period between October 2023 and April 2024.

Climate scientists have predicted a steady rise in sea levels in the Adriatic Sea -- with the lagoonal ecosystem in Venice experiencing relative sea level rise of about 2.5 millimeters per year, a 2021 study found.

Over the past 60 years, high tides in the Venetian Lagoon have become more frequent.

Between 1870 and 1949, 30 high tides exceeded 1.1 meters -- or 3.6 feet -- the level above which the MOSE barrier system is activated, according to the Venice Tide Study Center. There were 76 such high tides between 2015 and 2024 alone.

Rapid action to protect the city of Venice from climate change is “essential,” especially since the construction of large-scale interventions could take decades, the researchers said.

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(LONDON) -- At least 16 people were killed and another 100 were injured in Ukraine as Russia targeted the country with a "massive" drone and missile attack on Wednesday and into Thursday morning, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia launched almost 700 drones and 19 ballistic missiles, along with cruise missiles, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Ukraine shot down about 636 drones and "some" of the missiles, he added, saying, "Unfortunately, not all."

At least 16 people were killed across Ukraine, officials said. Zelenskyy said at least 100 people had been reported wounded "as of now."

"Tragically, there are fatalities in Odesa, Kyiv, and Dnipro," he said in a social media post. "Among those killed is a boy -- he was 12 years old. My condolences to the families and loved ones."

Most of the missiles targeted Kyiv, the capital, the president said, but damage and deaths were also reported across the country. Some missiles or drones that made it through Ukraine's defenses struck and damaged residential buildings, Zelenskyy said.

"Another night has proven that Russia does not deserve any easing of global policy or lifting of sanctions," Zelenskyy said. "Russia is betting on war, and the response must be exactly that: we must defend lives with all available means, and we must also apply pressure for the sake of peace with the same full force."

Russia has chosen to "deliberately terrorise civilians" with its attacks on residential areas, Antonio Costa, the European Council president, said on Thursday. The EU would continue to "increase pressure" on Moscow, he said.

"Russia must stop this war of terror," Costa said. "A comprehensive, just, and lasting peace for Ukraine based on the principles of the U.N. Charter and international law must be achieved."

Russian officials said on Thursday that Ukraine launched its own barrage of drones targeting several areas in Russia. Moscow said its military downed more than 200 drones. At least one Ukrainian drone struck a port on Russia's Black Sea coast, along with other coastal cities, the local governor said.

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(NEW YORK) -- The husband of a woman who was reported missing in the Bahamas after going overboard on a dinghy was questioned again by police on Monday as he awaits any charging decision in connection with her disappearance, according to his attorney.

Lynette Hooker, 55, of Michigan, has been missing for over a week. She and her husband, Brian Hooker, 58, had departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay around 7:30 p.m. on April 4, when bad weather caused Lynette Hooker to fall overboard, her husband told authorities.

Brian Hooker was arrested on Wednesday in connection with his wife's disappearance and interviewed by Bahamian police for approximately three hours on Friday. Police subsequently requested an extension to give them until Monday evening to make any charging decision, according to his attorney, Terrel Butler.

He was questioned by police again on Monday for about an hour, according to Butler, who said investigators did not present any new evidence. She also said police have not given Brian Hooker any updates on the search for his wife since his arrest. 

Police have until 7:20 p.m. ET Monday to charge or release him, according to Butler.

Butler said Brian Hooker is considered a suspect in his wife's disappearance and denies any wrongdoing.

Following his initial interview on Friday, Butler said Brian Hooker was "questioned in relation to causing harm, which resulted in her death."

"He definitely denies causing her death and he's still asking about her and is hopeful that she will be recovered," she continued, saying they have not been informed of any evidence that her body has been recovered. 

The attorney said Brian Hooker is "heartbroken" over the disappearance of his wife of 25 years and that his arrest has been "traumatic."

His arrest came after multiple sources told ABC News a criminal investigation had been opened into whether there was any wrongdoing in the case. The U.S. Coast Guard is leading the probe, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

In a statement posted to social media last Wednesday, Brian Hooker said "unpredictable seas and high winds" caused his "beloved Lynette to fall from our small dinghy" near Elbow Cay.

"Despite desperate attempts to reach her, the winds and currents drove us further apart. We continue to search for her and that is my sole focus," he said.

Brian Hooker told police that his wife was holding the boat key when she went overboard, causing the 8-foot hard-bottom dinghy's engine to shut off, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force. He subsequently paddled the boat back to shore, arriving at a marina at around 4 a.m. on April 5, and reported his wife overboard, police said.

The Hookers documented their sailing travels on social media under the name "The Sailing Hookers."

Lynette Hooker's daughter, Karli Aylesworth, has called for a "full and complete investigation" into her mother's disappearance.

She told ABC News her stepfather, Brian Hooker, told her that her mom "fell out of the boat and that he threw a life jacket to her or something, and he doesn't know if she got it or not."

Lynette Hooker's mother, Darlene Hamlett, told ABC News she hopes "we find the truth" amid the investigation and alleged the couple have had a volatile relationship. 

"I just want the truth to come out and I'm hoping that they can do that, and I hope they find her and that that will help clear up all of this," she said.

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(PARIS and LONDON) -- Foreign leaders expressed hope for a full peace deal to end the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in their reactions to Tuesday's two-week ceasefire, which was first announced by President Donald Trump and later confirmed by Iranian officials.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a post to X that the ceasefire agreement "will bring a moment of relief to the region and the world. Together with our partners we must do all we can to support and sustain this ceasefire, turn it into a lasting agreement and re-open the Strait of Hormuz."

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani likewise suggested the ceasefire was "a very positive development" which "moves us toward a peace agreement -- for the civilian population, for the region, and for Israel -- but also for our economy."

German Friedrich Merz thanked Pakistan for its mediation efforts, adding in a post to X, "The aim now is to negotiate a lasting end to the war. We are in close coordination with our partners on this matter."

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said the ceasefire brought "much-needed de-escalation" and said that further negotiations are "crucial."

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has been a prominent European critic of the war, said in a post to X that the ceasefire was "welcome news," but added, "Momentary relief must not make us forget the chaos, the destruction, and the lives lost."

"The Spanish government will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket," Sanchez added. "What is needed now: diplomacy, international law, and PEACE."

French President Emmanuel Macron stressed that the situation in Lebanon -- another theater of the conflict in which Israel is fighting against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia -- is "critical."

Macron said the ceasefire extended to Lebanon, as did Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said overnight that Lebanon was not included in the agreement. Israel continued intense strikes in Lebanon, including on Beirut, on Wednesday.

Macron called the ceasefire "a very good thing" and said the question of Lebanon is "one of the most delicate.” Hezbollah, Macron said, made a "strategic error" by attacking Israel and dragging Lebanon into the regional crisis, but said Israel's strikes and occupation of southern Lebanon "cannot be a long-term response."

Persian Gulf and other regional nations also welcomed the ceasefire in Iran, though several reported fresh Iranian drone and missile attacks on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry expressed its support for the pause in a statement posted to X, while Qatar's Foreign Ministry described the ceasefire as "an initial step toward de-escalation." Doha also stressed "the necessity for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take the initiative to immediately cease all hostile acts and practices."

Oman -- traditionally a mediator of U.S.-Iranian talks -- said in a Foreign Ministry statement that it affirmed "the importance of intensifying efforts now to find solutions capable of ending the crisis at its roots and achieving a permanent cessation of the state of war and hostile acts in the region."

Jordan's Foreign Ministry in a post to X "emphasized the importance of opening the Strait of Hormuz and ensuring freedom of international navigation without restrictions in accordance with international law."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said in a post to X that the news "undoubtedly brought relief to the hearts of millions of peace-loving people across all corners of the earth," adding that Cairo valued Trump's "decision to heed the voice of reason."

The Turkish Foreign Ministry released a statement expressing its backing for the peace process, adding, "We will continue to extend all necessary support for the successful conclusion of the negotiations to be held in Islamabad," referring to Friday's planned talks.

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(LONDON) -- As President Donald Trump pulled back from threats to annihilate "a whole civilization" when the Iranian regime agreed to a ceasefire and open the critical Strait of Hormuz, some people in the Islamic Republic expressed relief after juggling feelings ranging from despair to doom.

Trump had given the Iranian regime a deadline of 8 p.m. ET Tuesday -- which would have been Wednesday, April 8, at 3:30 a.m. in Tehran -- for the Iranian government to strike a peace deal or risk the destruction of all bridges and power plants in Iran.

He later extended the deadline to two more weeks as Iran agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz and work to forge a peace deal.

Sohreh, a 33-year-old journalist and resident of Tehran, told ABC News she felt an immediate sense of "relief" when she heard that a ceasefire agreement had been brokered.

"My heart was about to stop," Sohreh said in a written message to ABC News of the hours she and other Iranian citizens spent on Tuesday bracing for the massive U.S. to strike on its power plants, bridges and infrastructure before the attack was called off. "I cried all day for Iran and prayed to a God I don't believe in: 'A miracle, please, send a miracle. I can't live after the destruction of Iran.'"

Leading up to the ceasefire announcement, Iranians who have been in contact with ABC News throughout the conflict, which began with a Feb. 28 U.S.-Israel joint attack, recalled moments of joy as it appeared the Iranian regime was about to be toppled and disappointment that the Islamic Republican Guard Corps (IRGC) had refused to give up the fight.

An internet blackout imposed by the regime has made it challenging to communicate with people inside Iran, so it's difficult to gauge how people in the country are feeling. Some have managed to get messages to ABC News.

"I am against the regime and I want them gone with every cell of my body. I have participated in the protests against the regime. But by no means I agree with a foreign power destroying what has been built by my people, for my people, and for the future of our children," Fatemeh, a 40-year-old engineer who lives in Tehran, told ABC News in a written statement on Monday.

Citing security reasons, Iranians like Fatemeh and Sohreh who have communicated with ABC News, spoke on condition that their real names not be used.

Sohreh recalled a rollercoaster of emotions since the conflict began, from hope that the regime would be toppled to despair that it was hanging on and prolonging the pain of regular Iranians.

"I danced so much to the news of Khamenei's death, so much that my legs hurt and I fell," Sohreh said in a message to ABC News on Monday, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, who was assassinated in a strike on the first day of the conflict.

But as the war dragged on, Sohreh said she battled doubts that the U.S.-Israel attacks would bring the regime to its knees. "We ask ourselves what if the war continues?" she said.

"When they hit Asaluyeh, everyone was feeling terrible," Sohreh said of Monday's strike by Israel Defense Forces on Iran's southern petrochemical infrastructure in the Persian Gulf port city of Asaluyeh. "We wonder what to do if they hit the infrastructure. They don't belong to the Islamic Republic. They are built by our own children. They belong to Iran and the future of Iran."

On Tuesday morning, Trump posted an ominous message on his social media platform, saying, "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."

"I don't want that to happen, but it probably will," Trump wrote. "However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?"

During a news conference on Wednesday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared "a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield.

"A capital V military victory," said Hegseth, adding that the U.S. military had "achieved every objective."

Hegseth said that prior to the ceasefire being announced, the U.S. military was prepared to carry out the threat Trump made on Tuesday morning.

"Had Iran refused our terms, the next target would have been their power plants, their bridges and oil and energy infrastructure, targets they could not defend and could not realistically rebuild. It would have taken them decades. And we were locked and loaded," Hegseth said.

He added, "President Trump had the power to cripple Iran's economy in minutes, but he chose mercy. He spared those targets because Iran accepted the ceasefire under overwhelming pressure."  

Trump's ominous statement on Tuesday came after he told reporters on Monday during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, "The Iranian people, when they don't hear bombs go off, they're upset."

"They want to hear bombs because they want to be free," Trump said without attributing where he was getting his information from.

He went on to claim that the only reason Iranian civilians have not taken to the streets en masse to demonstrate against the regime is that "they will be shot immediately, and that's an edict. That's in writing."

Leila, a 36-year-old resident of Tehran who works as a manager of a shipping company, said she agreed with Trump, telling ABC News on Monday that when she doesn't hear bombs, she feels "upset." Leila, who described herself as anti-regime, said she longs for the day she sees American soldiers in Iran to save them.

In an earlier message Leila sent to ABC News on March 30, she said, "We don't have fear from the missile attacks, we just get very happy to watch them burning the bases of the IRGC."

Darius, a 38-year-old anthropologist from Tehran, told ABC News in a message sent on March 25 that he was initially anti-regime, but as the bombing continued, his opinion of the regime had started to change.

"The noise of the bombs and the fact that they are actually killing a lot of civilians pushes us more towards let's say rallying around the flag," Darius wrote. "We are fighting this war as a country and even though the Iranian state is not my cup of tea and even though I detest many of the things they do, still, I prefer to stand by their side against a Nazi in the White House."

At least 3,546 people, including 244 children and 1,616 other civilians, have been killed in Iran due to the U.S.-Israeli strikes since the war began, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News agency reported on Sunday.

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(LONDON) -- Ukraine launched more cross-border attack drones than Russia in a one-month period for the first time since the start of the ongoing war in 2022, according to daily data published by the Ukrainian Air Force and Russian Ministry of Defense, which was analyzed by ABC News.

Russia's defense ministry reported downing 7,347 Ukrainian drones during March, the highest monthly total ever reported by Moscow and an average of 237 craft each day. The defense ministry only publishes figures of Ukrainian drones it claims were shot down.

Ukraine's air force, meanwhile, said its forces faced 6,462 Russian drones and 138 missiles of various types across the course of the month, of which 5,833 drones and 102 missiles -- around 90% of drones and just under 74% of missiles -- were intercepted or suppressed.

Ukraine, therefore, faced a daily average of just over 208 drones and four missiles during March, according to the data published by Kyiv.

ABC News cannot independently verify the data released by either Russia or Ukraine. It is possible that both sides may seek to exaggerate the effectiveness of their air defenses, or to amplify the attacks against them as proof that their enemies are not interested in pursuing a peace deal, experts have suggested.

The combined tally of 6,600 Russian drones and missiles reported by Ukraine's air force across the month marks a new record high for a single month of Russian long-range attacks.

Ukraine's air force publishes what it says is a daily tally of Russian drone and missile strikes, including information as to how many munitions were intercepted and how many hit targets.

Russia launched the month's largest overall attack in a 24-hour period by either side. Ukraine's air force said Moscow launched 948 drones and 34 missiles into the country on March 24.

Long-range drone and missile strikes have been a key element of the conflict as both Kyiv and Moscow seek to degrade the other's economy and undermine their ability to prosecute and fund the ongoing war. The strikes have continued despite the resumptions of U.S.-brokered peace talks.

Russia has thus far been able to launch more drones and missiles into Ukraine, with Ukrainian leaders citing Moscow's nightly barrages as a severe threat to the country's strategic position. But March's data suggests the balance may be shifting more in Ukraine's favor, as Kyiv's long-term efforts to expand its drone and missile capabilities bear fruit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been clear on Kyiv's plans to expand Ukraine's long-range strike capabilities.

"Our production potential for drones and missiles alone will reach $35 billion next year," Zelenskyy said in October. "Despite all the difficulties, Ukrainians are creating their national defense product that, in certain parameters, already surpasses many others in the world."

"Never before in history has Ukrainian defense been so long-range and so felt by Russia," Zelenskyy added. "We must make the cost of war absolutely unacceptable for the aggressor -- and we will."

To date, the majority of Ukrainian strikes are believed to have been conducted using relatively cheap, Ukrainian-made drones. Increasingly, Ukraine is also using interceptor drones designed and built by Ukrainian companies to intercept incoming Russian strike drones.

Ukraine is now producing its own cruise missiles -- most notably the Flamingo, which Kyiv says has a range of more than 1,800 miles -- but its drone arsenal still accounts for the vast majority of projectiles reported shot down by the Russian defense ministry, according to daily data published by Moscow.

Over the past year, Ukraine has put a special focus on attacking Russian oil refining and transport facilities, hoping -- according to Ukrainian leaders -- to cut into a key funding stream for Moscow and its military.

Ukraine's most high-profile attacks of March came at Russia's Baltic Sea ports of ‌Ust-Luga and Primorsk -- key oil export hubs. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the strikes as "terrorist attacks."

Zelenskyy in February said Russia's energy sector is "a legitimate target" for attacks by Ukraine, because Russia uses revenue from sales of oil to procure weapons used to attack Ukraine.

"We do not have to choose whether we strike a military target or energy," Zelenskyy said while addressing students at the National Aviation University in Kyiv. "He sells oil, takes the money, invests it in weapons. And with those weapons, he kills Ukrainians," Zelenskyy said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian officials have broadly sought to downplay the Ukrainian attacks, with most reports of damage or casualties attributed to falling debris from intercepted drones, rather than craft that found their mark. When Russian officials do acknowledge damage, they often describe the strikes as “terrorist attacks.”

But plenty of publicly available information -- including video footage and photographs of the attacks -- indicate that a significant number of Ukrainian drones do penetrate Russian air defenses and impact at sensitive military and industrial sites.

Meanwhile, drone incursions into neighboring countries -- among them NATO allies -- have raised concerns of the war spilling over into non-combatant nations.

NATO aircraft are regularly scrambled in NATO nations like Poland and Romania in response to Russian drone attacks along Ukraine's western borders.

Allied officials have reported Russian drone violations in Romania, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Russian drones have also overflown Moldova, which is not a NATO member. Russian officials have denied responsibility for such incursions.

Stray Ukrainian drones have been reported falling in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) -- When Sundus al Kurd and her daughter Bissan were separated at the start of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023, she wasn't sure she'd see her again. Bissan was only a few days old when her mother allowed her to be medically evacuated from the Gaza strip to Egypt.

The premature baby's life was saved, along with others, by the World Health Organization and Palestinian Red Crescent during the height of the conflict, but now the two have been reunited.

"After all this time, my daughter is finally back in my arms!" al Kurd, a young Palestinian mother, exclaims as she held her child for the first time in over two years.

"Every day, I lived with fear -- fear that I might never hold her again, fear that she might forget me. But the moment I held her in my arms again, it felt like she had never been away. That moment was complete joy!" the 27-year-old al Kurd told ABC News.

Bissan, who has spent the last 2 1/2 years in Egypt, had been one of 33 premature babies trapped inside the Al Shifa hospital as the Israeli military laid siege to it in November 2023.

"Being reunited with my daughter is something I cannot fully describe. It is a mix of relief, love, and something deeper -- like life returning to me after being paused for years," al Kurd said.

"The first night we spent together was very emotional. I couldn't sleep. I kept watching her, holding her, making sure she was really there beside me. I was afraid to close my eyes, as if it was all a dream that might disappear," she said.

Bissan's life had been in imminent danger in November 2023, doctors said. The neonatal unit she was in at Al Shifa hospital was running out of fuel and oxygen, cut off by the Israeli army, which had encircled the hospital, saying that Hamas had a hidden command center in its precincts, something both Hamas medical teams there strongly denied.

"They were meant to die without incubators, without oxygen, without water, but they survived every single stage of this terrible reality," Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati, the former head of plastic surgery at Al Shifa Hospital, told ABC News.

Mokhallalati was one of the few doctors who remained at Al Shifa throughout the Israeli siege.

"Most of the doctors were surgeons, not even pediatricians, but we felt we had to do our best to keep these kids alive," he said. "We felt these kids were like our own babies. Every morning, we would go just to make sure they were still alive."

He said that the extreme danger of the situation forced some parents to abandon their babies.

"There were no parents because the hospital was bombed and people were forced to flee to save their other children," Mokhallalati said. "In the calculus of survival, mothers fled with the children who could run and left behind those who could not, making an impossible choice."

The premature babies were left fighting for their lives for days, with one doctor and six nurses caring for them in ever-worsening conditions, he said.

"We did not know their names, we did not know their parents. They had no one to take care of them. They were wearing only small wristbands, usually with their mothers' names, and that was the only thing we knew about them," Mokhallalati said.

Not all the babies survived those difficult days. Five died as the team struggled to keep them fed and warm, but Mokhallalati was amazed that so many of the babies made it.

"They were meant to die at many stages but they survived every single challenge," adding, "They were the only feeling of hope we had in all of this chaos and destruction."

On Nov. 19, 2023, they were rescued after the WHO and the Palestinian Red Crescent were given access to the hospital. They carried the precious cargo through a war zone to a hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza, before taking them across the border to Egypt, officials said.

"Twenty-eight were evacuated to Egypt, but seven more died there due to the difficult conditions, leaving 21 survivors. Of those, 11 have now returned on March 30, while four others came back earlier when Rafah crossing opened, and six remain in Egypt with their families," Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, the head of pediatrics and neonatal care at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, told ABC News.

Among those returning was 2-year-old Azzhar Kafarna. Her mother, Heba Saleh, described the ordeal of their separation to ABC News.

"For two and a half years, I felt something missing all the time," she said.

"I missed everything -- her first smile, her first steps, even the little things that any mother waits for. I used to imagine her ... how she looks now, how her voice sounds, and if she would recognize me when we finally meet," Saleh said.

She was nervous about their reunion, "When I saw her again, I didn't know what to feel. I just hugged her tightly. It felt like I was holding all the days we lost in that one moment."

Al-Farra examined all the toddlers when they returned to Gaza this week.

"All of the children are in generally good condition, with normal weight and growth, but many are facing complications linked to extreme prematurity," he said.

Al-Farra says many of them, "have vision problems and need glasses because their eye nerves were not fully developed," like Bissan, who wears a bright red pair of spectacles.

However, not all of them have come back to happy reunions.

"I don't think all of these children have parents to return to. Some of their families were likely killed during the war," Al-Farra said.

"In one case, there is real confusion over the child's identity, with more than one person claiming the baby. We are still trying to identify the family, but without access to DNA testing in Gaza, we cannot confirm who the child belongs to," he said.

Fear returning to Gaza

Both the mothers ABC News spoke with were nervous about their children returning to Gaza.

"As a mother, I feel everything at once. I'm happy she's finally with me ... but at the same time, I feel guilty, even though I had no choice. I keep thinking about all the moments I wasn't there for." Saled said.

"And of course, I'm worried about raising her in Gaza. I want her to feel safe, to live a normal life, but the situation here is not easy," Saled said.

That sentiment was echoed by al Kurd.

"I am also worried. My daughter has never heard the sound of bombing before. I am afraid of how she might react if she experiences it here in Gaza. This fear is always in my heart."

"I wish for my daughter to have a better future, a life that is safer and more stable than the one we are living now," al Kurd said.

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