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(GAZA and LONDON) — Emotional scenes continued to play out in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as families and friends reunited for the first time in over 15 months, after the Israeli military allowed Gazans who had been trapped in the south of the strip to return to their homes in the north.

A sea of people swept along the shoreline on Monday, trudging on foot through the sandy remains of the coastal highway, passing along the way a Palestinian flag fluttering in the wind above them.

Hundreds of thousands were on the march, making their way home, according to Gazan authorities. The young, elderly and wounded were among them, carrying whatever they could.

“It feels like we’re reborn!” Om Wael, a grandmother from Gaza City, told ABC News as she carried her granddaughter in her arms with a look of joyful determination on her face.

“Even if our home is flattened, we’re so happy to return to our city, to our homes, unharmed. Thank God,” she said.

In the early stages of the war after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack, the Israeli military divided Gaza in two, funneling those from the north to the south through a series of evacuation orders. They set up an impassable buffer zone, called the Netzarim Corridor, and prevented anyone from the south from crossing into the north. As part of this month’s ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Gazans would now be allowed to travel to the north, and Monday’s opening of that buffer zone gave more than 1 million people the opportunity to return home for the first time in months.

About 300,000 made the journey on Monday with an estimated 1 million expected to travel over the coming days, according to the Gaza Government Office.

“I held my young son Samir and my daughter Farah and walked along the coast,” Jawaher Muharab, 44, from Gaza City, told ABC News. “They were in pain from walking because of the long distance. There are no taxis. The city is destroyed, but I felt safe when I arrived in the city, my house was largely destroyed and unfit for living, but I will put my tent next to it.”

As the mass migration continued Tuesday, Gazan authorities said they need at least 135,000 tents to house the displaced that are returning to the north — a part of Gaza that suffered enormous destruction due to Israeli bombardment and has seen some of the most fierce fighting between Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF has said it’s only targeting Hamas and other militants in Gaza and alleges that Hamas deliberately shelters behind civilians, which the group denies.

While pedestrians made the long walk along the coast, many of those traveling into northern Gaza by car were stuck in traffic on the inland road allocated to them. As part of the ceasefire agreement, this route has checkpoints manned by American security contractors who inspect each vehicle. The line of cars on Tuesday stretched for over 5 km, or about 3 miles, with people reporting potential waits of up to 30 hours to reach the checkpoints and complete inspection.

But along the coastal road, there were joyful scenes as Gazans reunited while they walked. Videos posted online showed some of those moving moments. Among the most poignant was that of twin brothers hugging, close to knocking each other over. They had been separated for more than a year.

One girl is seen on social media asking her father, “Papa, why are you crying?” as he hugs her and her sister. The man is Muhammad Shahin, a freelance journalist who had stayed in northern Gaza to cover the war and had not seen his family in well over a year.

“When the army announced yesterday evening that Monday morning would be the day for the displaced to return, I did not sleep for a moment,” Mirvat Ajur, 29, from the Daraj neighborhood in central Gaza City, told ABC News.

This anticipation for north Gazans to return home had been mounting ever since a ceasefire came into place on Jan. 14, temporarily ending 15 months of fighting that’s ravaged the Gaza Strip, the intense Israeli bombardment reducing much of it to rubble. Under phase one of the agreement, 33 hostages are expected to be released, with seven Israeli hostages having already been released by Hamas. The hostages released so far are Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, Doron Steinbrecher, Daniella Gilboa, Liri Albag, Naama Levy and Karina Ariev. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel are also expected to be released in exchange for the hostages.

This has been the deadliest conflict ever between Hamas and Israel. It began when Hamas terrorists stormed Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping some 250. The Israeli response has led to the death of more than 47,000 Palestinians, most of whom were women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, and the almost total destruction of Gazan infrastructure. The United Nations estimates that nine out of 10 homes in Gaza have been destroyed and 90% of its population of 2.3 million people have been displaced.

“I know that my home is damaged and burned, but I want to return to it. I want to live in those burned and destroyed rooms. I am like a fish dying far from the sea,” 55-year-old Samira Halas, from Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood, told ABC News.

“We walked for about five hours until we reached central Gaza. It was a difficult journey, but the people were very happy, singing, clapping and dancing in joy at returning to their homes,” Ajur, from the Daraj neighborhood, said after she had arrived home.

“I did not feel tired at all, because I knew that I would return to my home and sleep in my room,” she added.

Many Gazans have been living in difficult crowded conditions in tents with little access to basic necessities, crammed into a small area in the south of the strip. Many have said they feared they would never be allowed to return home. This return was made possible when the ceasefire that was agreed to on Jan. 14 held, and Hamas returned some of the Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The ceasefire is still in its first phase, but some who spoke to ABC News said they hope it could lead to a permanent end to the war.

“I entered and I inhaled the air of Gaza City,” Halas told ABC News by phone from her home.

“The closer I got to the area, the safer I felt,” she said. “Today, I felt that the war is over,” but her joy at being able to return home was tinged with sadness.

“I cannot describe the destruction we saw,” she said, “everything was destroyed.” As she approached her neighborhood, she said “it was like an earthquake had hit it.”

In the past few months, the Israeli military intensified its activity in northern Gaza, ordering evacuations for large parts of it as it battled Hamas fighters. While thousands followed the orders and left, hundreds of thousands stayed, enduring harsh conditions with little access to food, water or international aid.

“We found the people of the north waiting for us and cheering for our return. I hugged them as if they were my children and family. I felt that I had returned from abroad. Gaza has a great place in our hearts. No one knows our love for it,” Halas explained.

“Life here is difficult,” she said. “There is no water or electricity, but we will revive the area again.”

Videos on social media showed that attempts at reconstruction were already underway, with some residents of the north painting their walls bright colors to welcome family and friends home.

“I cannot describe to you how much I missed Gaza City,” Ajur told ABC News. “The soil of Gaza is priceless and we do not want anyone to force us to leave it again.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared likely to block a historic $10 billion lawsuit against U.S. gun makers as both conservative and liberal justices raised concerns about allowing the government of Mexico to hold firearm manufacturers liable for cartel violence south of the border.

Federal law grants broad immunity to the gun industry, in part to protect companies from costly litigation that could drive them out of business. Mexico alleges the law creates an exception for “aiding and abetting” the illicit sale and trafficking of guns, which the companies deny.

Mexico has only one gun store but is awash in millions of American-made weapons, most funneled into the country by straw purchasers in the United States. The country claims the companies, including Smith & Wesson, Glock, Beretta and Colt, knowingly distribute and market their guns to be trafficked.

By one estimate, at least 200,000 guns flow south of the border each year. The country is seeking $10 billion in damages and court-mandated safety requirements around the marketing and distribution of guns.

“The laws broken here are designed to keep guns out of criminals’ hands. Those violations put guns in criminals’ hands and those criminals harmed Mexico,” Cate Stetson, Mexico’s attorney, told the Supreme Court.

“These acts were foreseeable,” she added. “This court need not vouch for Mexico’s allegations, but it must assume they are true. … Mexico should be given a chance to prove its case.”

Many of the justices seemed unconvinced by Mexico’s case should be allowed to move forward.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested the alleged harms from cartel violence roiling Mexico are too far removed from the manufacturers’ decisions to distribute their products.

“We have repeatedly said mere knowledge is not enough [for liability],” Sotomayor said. “You have to aid and abet in some way. You have to intend and take affirmative action to … participate in what they’re doing.”

Justice Elena Kagan questioned what she perceived as a lack of specificity in Mexico’s allegations.

“There are lots of [gun] dealers. And you’re just saying [the gunmakers] know that some of them [engage in trafficking]. But which some of them? I mean, who are they aiding and abetting in this complaint?” Kagan said.

After Stetson alleged deliberate marketing of guns to cartels, Chief Justice John Roberts voiced skepticism of the claim.

“I mean, there are some people who want the experience of shooting a particular type of gun because they find it more enjoyable than using a BB gun,” he said. “And I just wonder exactly what the defendant, the manufacturer, is supposed to do in that situation. You say no, he shouldn’t be marketing a particular legal firearm because they’re going to go into Mexico at a higher percentage than others?”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh raised concern about the broader implications of a decision allowing Mexico’s suit to go forward.

“What do you do with the suggestion on the other side … that your theory of aiding and abetting liability would have destructive effects on the American economy in the sense that … lots of sellers and manufacturers of ordinary products know that they’re going to be misused by some subset of people?” he asked. “They know that to a certainty, that it’s going to be pharmaceuticals, cars, what — you can name lots of products. So that’s a real concern, I think.”

Stetson replied, “If you have a product manufacturer of a dangerous product that is alleged to have done all of the things knowing who they’re selling to and what is being done with that product, then and only then, I think, that product manufacturer … has a problem.”

More than 160,000 people in Mexico were killed by guns between 2015 and 2022, according to an analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety.

A large majority of guns involved in the shootings came from U.S. border states. More than 40% of illegal guns seized in Mexico over a five-year period came from Texas, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

In 2023 alone, more than 2,600 firearms were seized going south into Mexico, up 65% from the year before, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and 115,000 rounds of ammunition were captured headed the same direction, up 19% from 2022.

A federal district court dismissed Mexico’s case in 2022 citing immunity under federal law. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in early 2024, saying Mexico had made a plausible case for liability under the law’s exception.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide by the end of June whether or not a liability case can move forward.

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(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his leadership team spent much of 2024 cautiously courting both sides of America’s widening political divide — well aware that repelling Russia’s ongoing invasion relied, in large part, on U.S. largesse.

Kyiv appeared hopeful it could weather President Donald Trump’s dramatic return to the White House, assuring itself and the world that his campaign trail alignment with Russia’s narrative would be tempered by the geopolitical realities of the world’s most powerful office.

But the first month of Trump’s second term has already delivered a radical American pivot. The opening of U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia — intended to secure peace in Ukraine, but conducted without Kyiv’s involvement — and subsequent fraying of U.S.-Ukrainian ties, poses a new crisis for a nation that has grown used to living with existential peril.

Volodymyr Fesenko, a political scientist and the СEO of the Center for Political Studies “Penta” in Kyiv, told ABC News that recent developments represent “the most acute crisis in relations between the U.S. and Ukraine in their entire history.”

“In the worst case, this is a strategic turn of the U.S. towards Russia, rapprochement with Putin and weakening — or even the destruction — of previous partnership relations with Europe and Ukraine,” Fesenko said. “I am afraid that this is the scenario that will gradually be realized.”

“With Trump’s businesslike approach to bilateral relations, and with his interest in restoring relations with Russia, the previous special partnership relations between the U.S. and Ukraine will no longer exist,” Fesenko said.

Former President Joe Biden’s commitment to involving Kyiv in any talks to end the war was embodied by the “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” motto. That approach appears to have been replaced with Trumpian transactionalism.

The White House now appears to be strongarming Kyiv into economic, territorial and political concessions, with Trump himself berating Zelenskyy — celebrated by many Americans for his stoic wartime stewardship — as a “dictator without elections” who “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.”

Zelenskyy and his top officials have pushed back, noting that Ukraine is unable to hold new elections while under martial law. Kyiv has said it is happy to work with the new administration on mutually beneficial economic and security deals, while urging American partners to treat Moscow’s narrative with skepticism. Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday voted to affirm Zelenskyy’s legitimacy and agree that no elections can be held while the war continues.

The situation is “beyond disturbing” for Kyiv, a source close to the Ukrainian government told ABC News. “It’s hard to imagine that it can be pulled back.”

Ukraine’s leadership is trying to chart a course through the minefield of Trump’s second term, the source added.
“They feel that they’re striking this balance of not being impolite or disrespectful when it comes to countering some of the things that, again, at the end of the day, no Ukrainian leader can accept,” the source said.

“They feel that they’re managing it well, which doesn’t mean that they don’t have anxiety,” they added. “They do, because it is a fact that they rely on U.S. support, it is a fact that Europe cannot totally compensate for that support.”

“They’re striking this balance of pushing back, but not in a way where they’re coming off as totally obstructionist and obstinate,” the source continued.

This month’s historic U.S.-Russia meeting in Riyadh laid bare the new administration’s approach to Moscow. The two sides agreed to normalize diplomatic relations and continue talks aimed at ending Russia’s war, all without Ukraine’s involvement.

Meanwhile, Trump’s bid to win access to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Ukrainian mineral resources further unsettled Kyiv. “We’re going to get our money back,” the president said of the would-be deal, the first draft of which Zelenskyy rejected, declaring, “I can’t sell our state.”

But after a week of intense negotiations, both sides now suggest they have all but reached a deal, with Trump saying Monday he expects to see Zelenskyy in Washington next week.

The reversal of the U.S. approach is striking. Where once Biden and his team refused to engage with Moscow outside of an unprecedented sanctions campaign, Trump and his top officials are now lauding a revival in bilateral ties.

Where Biden once led the “ironclad” commitment to defending Ukraine against Kremlin aggression “for as long as it takes,” Trump falsely suggested Ukraine “should have never started” the war.

The Biden administration’s steady flow of vital military and economic aid, meanwhile, has been replaced with Trump’s push to recoup what he sees as poorly invested American money. “I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up,” Trump told CPAC on Saturday.
The president has focused in on the value of American aid to Kyiv, which he claims is as high as $500 billion. Zelenskyy disputed the figure and said American aid was given as grants, not loans. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy — a research institute in Germany that tracks foreign aid to Ukraine — said the U.S. has contributed around $119 billion to Ukraine over three years of war. The majority — $67 billion — was in the form of military equipment.

America’s rising Ukraine-skepticism is being expressed on all fronts. In an extraordinary illustration of the re-alignment on Ukraine, the U.S. sided with Russia in a vote against a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Russia, which passed on Monday with the support of the U.S.’ traditional Western allies. The UN Security Council passed a U.S.-drafted resolution which called for an end to the conflict without criticizing Russia. France and the U.K. abstained on the UNSC vote.

Zelenskyy has said Ukraine will not agree to any peace deal that does not protect it against renewed Russian aggression. The Trump administration’s rapid policy shift has pushed European allies to mobilize to provide their own long-term support — and protection — of Ukraine. Britain, France and others are discussing deploying European troops to Ukraine to guard any peace deal.

Though financially and logistically dependent on foreign partners, Ukraine’s armed forces are among the world’s most potent and experienced. Zelenskyy said in January that 980,000 Ukrainians are now under arms, dwarfing any other European military.

Despite Trump’s unproven claims to the contrary, well-respected polling organizations in Ukraine have found that Zelenskyy retains the trust of the majority of Ukrainians. His compatriots want the war to end on what they consider fair terms, but a December survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll indicates that 57% are prepared to carry the conflict’s burden for as long as necessary, despite heavy casualties, ongoing attacks on infrastructure and severe economic strain.

There are more testing days to come. Moscow has said that the U.S. and Russian negotiating teams will meet for a second round of talks within the next two weeks.

“It should not look like Americans and Russians are trying to reach a deal about Ukraine’s fate behind our backs,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament representing Zelenskyy’s party, told ABC News.

“But what is really important for us is that such communication between Americans and Russians should not lead to the decisions concerning Ukraine,” said Merezhko, who is also the chair of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

“I hope that it might be a part of a political game on the part of Trump, who is trying to lure Putin into negotiations to demonstrate to his voters that he is at least trying to deliver on his promise,” Merezhko added.

“That’s why we need constant communication with Trump and his team — if there is a vacuum, it can be filled by pro-Russian narratives.”

Yuriy Boyechko, the founder and CEO of the Hope for Ukraine charity, told ABC News he believes Trump “is taking a side of the aggressor.”

“Ukrainians won’t sign a surrender,” he added. “We will keep on fighting to preserve a free and democratic Ukraine even if our top ally — the U.S. — walks away. We have no other choice.”

ABC News’ Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

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