World

(LONDON and JERUSALEM) — Palestinian Academy Award-winning filmmaker Hamdan Ballal was released from Israeli custody on Tuesday, friend and fellow filmmaker Yuval Abraham said, after Ballal was detained by Israeli security forces on Monday.

The co-director of “No Other Land” was detained by the Israel Police following a confrontation with Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Basel Adra — who shared the recent Oscar win — told ABC News that Ballal is believed to have been injured in what activists said was an attack by settlers on local Palestinian families.

Ballal was released on Tuesday, Abraham wrote on X. The filmmaker “is now free and is about to go home to his family,” he said.

Israel Police confirmed to ABC News that Ballal was among three people released “on conditions that include not contacting other people involved and providing a personal guarantee. The investigation is ongoing and additional arrests are expected.”

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said of Monday’s incident, “Several terrorists hurled rocks at Israeli citizens, damaging their vehicles” near Susiya, a village located to the south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

“Following this, a violent confrontation broke out, involving mutual rock-hurling between Palestinians and Israelis at the scene,” the IDF said. “IDF and Israeli Police forces arrived to disperse the confrontation, at this point, several terrorists began hurling rocks at the security forces.”

“In response, the forces apprehended three Palestinians suspected of hurling rocks at them, as well as an Israeli civilian involved in the violent confrontation. The detainees were taken for further questioning by the Israel Police. An Israeli citizen was injured in the incident and was evacuated to receive medical treatment.”

Israel Police confirmed to ABC News in a statement that Ballal was arrested and taken to Kiryat Arba police station. The force said Ballal was under investigation.

“No Other Land,” which won best documentary at this year’s Oscars, details the efforts of the residents of Masafer Yatta to stop the demolition of their villages by the IDF and harassment by Israeli settlers. Both Ballal and Adra are residents of Masafar Yatta.

Nasser Nawaja, a field researcher working for B’Tselem — a human rights organization based in Jerusalem — told ABC News on Monday that he was with Ballal before the filmmaker was arrested.

“For the past month, there have been attacks every single day,” Nawaja said. “The settlers are trying to pressure us to leave Susiya.”

Settler attacks began on Monday morning at around 7:30 a.m. local time, Nawaja said. “We called the Israeli police. When they arrived, they told us, ‘The settlers are allowed to graze here.’ But it’s our private land. It’s our homes.”

At around 6 p.m., Nawaja said the settlers “attacked” local families, throwing stones at a house and trying to “shoot the family’s sheep.”

Activist Anna Lippman told ABC News that she and a group of fellow activists were also attacked by stone-throwing Israeli settlers outside the village of Susiya on Monday evening after they arrived to come to the aid of Ballal.

The incident started at the house of Ballal’s neighbor, Lippman said, before moving on to Ballal’s house.

Adra said he saw two settlers with guns and that most of the attackers were masked.

“Hamdan was just standing there when the settlers came at him too,” Nawaja said. “They destroyed the water tanks. And not long after that, the soldiers arrested him. We haven’t heard anything about him since.”

“Hamdan ran home,” Nawaja added. “He got his wife and children inside, and stood in the doorway to protect them. That’s when the soldiers arrested him. I got close enough to film it. He was blindfolded, handcuffed, and taken away in a military vehicle — along with two other Palestinians.”

“Later, I spoke with Hamdan’s wife,” Nawaja said. “She told me he was beaten. But she’s too afraid to speak to journalists. Another journalist tried, and she said no.”

“He spent years documenting what was happening to us,” Nawaja said. “And now it’s happening to him. And we don’t even know where he is.”

The Israeli military designated Masafer Yatta as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s and ordered residents to be expelled, prompting a 20-year legal battle.

Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the expulsion order in 2022, though approximately 1,000 residents remain in place. Israeli forces regularly move in to demolish homes and other structures. Locals say Israeli settlers have also set up several outposts nearby since the court’s 2022 decision.

Both Ballal and Adra are residents of Masafar Yatta. The film also has two Israeli directors — Abraham and Rachel Szor.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Ellie Kaufman, Chris Looft and Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — Following separate talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia this week, Russia and Ukraine have agreed to “eliminate the use of force” in the Black Sea, according to readouts from the White House.

Russia and Ukraine “have agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea,” according to the readouts.

They both also agreed to “develop measures to implement the agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine,” according to the readouts.

All parties are working toward “achieving a durable and lasting peace,” they noted.

The White House made a specific agreement with Ukraine over the exchange of prisoners of war, according to a readout on the Ukrainian talks in Riyadh.

“The United States and Ukraine agreed that the United States remains committed to helping achieve the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children,” the readout stated.

The White House also made a specific agreement with Russia, focused on agriculture and maritime costs, according to a readout on the Russian talks in Riyadh.

“The United States will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transaction,” the readout stated.

Monday’s closed-door talks with Russia in Riyadh lasted for 12 hours, a source told Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.

Grigory Karasin, the chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, who took part in the talks in Riyadh, told Tass that “the dialogue was detailed and complex but quite useful for us and for the Americans.” Karasin added, “We discussed numerous issues.”

A source told the RIA Novosti state media agency that a joint statement on the negotiations was to be issued on Tuesday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov subsequently said the details of talks between would not be made public.

The talks were expected to include discussions on a potential ceasefire in the Black Sea, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. That proposal, Peskov said, came from President Donald Trump and was agreed to by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A proposed pause in long-range attacks on energy and other critical infrastructure targets was also expected to be part of the discussions. Though Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy both agreed to the proposal in principle last week, cross-border strikes had continued.

The U.S.-Russia meeting on Monday came on the heels of a meeting between the American and Ukrainian teams in Riyadh on Sunday. U.S. and Ukrainian representatives also held talks after the American meeting with the Russian team concluded, a source familiar with the discussions told ABC News.

On Monday, responding to another round of Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, Zelenskyy wrote on social media that “the war was brought from Russia and it is to Russia that the war must be pushed back. They must be the ones forced into peace. They are the ones who must be pressured to ensure security.”

On Monday night into Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched one missile and 139 drones into the country, of which 78 drones were shot down and 34 lost in flight without causing damage.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down five Ukrainian drones over occupied Crimea.

ABC News’ Anna Sergeeva, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Will Gretsky, Ellie Kaufman and Guy Davies contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg joined ABC News Live to discuss the moment he realized he had been added to a Signal group chat with top government officials discussing a U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen.

“My reaction was, I think I’ve discovered a massive security breach in the United States national security system,” Goldberg told Prime’s Linsey Davis on Monday.

This comes after the White House confirmed on Monday that the Signal group chat that inadvertently included Goldberg “appears to be authentic.”

“It’s almost automatically true that if the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic is being given access to this kind of information, weapon systems and packages and timing and weather in Yemen and all kinds of information about sequencing of particular events, then obviously there’s a security breach,” Goldberg told Davis.

Goldberg said he initially thought it might have been a “spoof” or “hoax,” but that “it became sort of overwhelmingly clear to me that this was a real group” once the attack occurred.

He said he removed himself from the chat and is “no longer privy to what, if anything, is going on in the chat.”

“I watched this Yemen operation go from beginning to apparent end, and that was enough for me to learn that there’s something wrong in the system here that would allow this information to come so dangerously close to the open, to the wild,” he said.

White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes shared with ABC News the statement he provided to The Atlantic confirming the veracity of a Signal group chat, which Goldberg said appeared to include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others.

“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain. The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security,” Hughes said in the statement.

Hegseth denied how the story was characterized, saying, “nobody was texting war plans.”

“I’ve heard how it was characterized. Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth told reporters on Monday.

In the wake of the Signal chat’s surfacing, top Democrats have called for an investigation into the incident.

“The leak of sensitive national security information by the Trump administration on a non-classified system is completely outrageous and shocks the conscience,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — The details of talks between the U.S. and Russia that took place in Saudi Arabia on Monday will not be made public, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

“After all, this is about technical talks,” Peskov said, as quoted by Russia’s state-run Tass news agency. The discussions, he added, went “into details so, certainly, the content of these talks will not be made public for sure. This is something that should not be expected.”

“Currently, the reports made [by the delegations] to their capitals are being analyzed, and only later it will be possible to speak of any understanding,” Peskov added.

Monday’s closed-door talks in Riyadh lasted for 12 hours, a source told Tass. A source told the RIA Novosti state media agency that a joint statement on the negotiations was to be issued on Tuesday.

Grigory Karasin, the chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, who took part in the talks in Riyadh, told Tass that “the dialogue was detailed and complex but quite useful for us and for the Americans.” Karasin added, “We discussed numerous issues.”

The talks were expected to include discussions on a potential ceasefire in the Black Sea, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. That proposal, Peskov said, came from President Donald Trump and was agreed to by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A proposed pause in long-range attacks on energy and other critical infrastructure targets was also expected to be part of discussions. Though Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy both agreed to the proposal in principle last week, cross-border strikes have continued.

U.S. and Ukrainian representatives held talks after the American meeting with the Russian team concluded, a source familiar with the discussions told ABC News.

On Monday, responding to another round of Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, Zelenskyy wrote on social media that “the war was brought from Russia and it is to Russia that the war must be pushed back. They must be the ones forced into peace. They are the ones who must be pressured to ensure security.”

On Monday night into Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched one missile and 139 drones into the country, of which 78 drones were shot down and 34 lost in flight without causing damage.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down five Ukrainian drones over occupied Crimea.

ABC News’ Anna Sergeeva, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Will Gretsky, Ellie Kaufman and Guy Davies contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — Dozens were injured, including children, in a Russian strike on Ukraine, officials said Monday, as American and Russian negotiators meet again in Saudi Arabia in the White House’s continued push for a ceasefire and eventual peace deal to end Moscow’s three-year-old war on Ukraine.

A proposed pause on strikes targeting energy infrastructure is expected to be among the topics of discussion, with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy having already indicated their support — at least in principle — for the plan.

Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported that the American and Russian teams began the behind-closed-doors talks in Riyadh on Monday morning. After more than eight hours, they were still ongoing, Russian state media reported.

President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff — who has been central to talks with both Moscow and Kyiv — expressed hope for progress on Sunday, telling Fox News that the president’s “philosophy of peace through strength brings people to the table to clear up misconceptions and to get peace deals done.”

“I’m not sure how anyone would expect an end to a conflict when you’re not communicating,” Witkoff said.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, said this weekend that “there are difficult negotiations ahead.” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television, “We are only at the beginning of this path.”

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said proposals to ensure the safety of Black Sea shipping would be among the topics discussed in Saudi Arabia, suggesting the idea came from Trump and was agreed to by Putin.

The U.S.-Russia meeting on Monday comes on the heels of a meeting between the American and Ukrainian teams in Riyadh on Sunday. Zelenskyy said Sunday evening he had been briefed on the “quite useful” discussion by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who took part.

“But no matter what we’re discussing with our partners right now, Putin must be pushed to issue a real order to stop the strikes — because the one who brought this war must be the one to take it back,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Moscow’s continued missile and drone attacks across the country. Ukraine has also continued its own long-range drone strikes into Russia.

Witkoff remarks spark concern

Other remarks made by Witkoff over the weekend again piqued concerns in Ukraine and elsewhere that the Trump administration is aligning itself with false or misleading Russian narratives about its decades-long campaigns of meddling and aggression in Ukraine.

Discussing the Ukrainian regions partially occupied and claimed annexed by Russia since 2022 — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — plus Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, Witkoff told conservative media personality Tucker Carlson, “They are Russian-speaking, and there have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule.”

Witkoff did not acknowledge that the supposed referenda held in those territories — whether in 2014 in the case of Crimea or 2022 in the other regions — were widely dismissed by Western powers, human rights organizations and international bodies as fraudulent and illegitimate.

In September 2022, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. “does not, and will never, recognize any of the Kremlin’s claims to sovereignty over parts of Ukraine that it’s seized by force and now purports to incorporate into Russia.”

Witkoff also touted the apparent warm relationship between Trump and Putin, telling Carlson that the Russian leader claimed to have prayed for “his friend” Trump after the assassination attempt against the president in July 2024. Putin also gave Witkoff a portrait of Trump as a gift, he said.

“This is the kind of connection that we’ve been able to reestablish through a simple word called communication, which many people would say I shouldn’t have had because Putin is a bad guy,” Witkoff said. “I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy.”

Witkoff’s latest remarks have deepened concerns in Ukraine as to the Trump administration’s approach to the nascent peace process.

“What he has said is absolutely unacceptable,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News. “Listening to his interview I thought to myself: ‘Who is he? The American president’s envoy or Putin’s envoy?'”

Witkoff, Merezhko added, may have fallen for “Russian propaganda” or may be trying to win Putin’s support for Trump’s ceasefire proposal.

Regardless, Merezhko urged Trump to disavow what he called Witkoff’s “dangerous statements.”

Strikes continue

Meanwhile, deadly cross-border drone attacks continued through the weekend. On Sunday night into Monday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 99 drones into the country, of which 93 were either shot down or lost in flight without causing damage. Russian air defense shot down 28 drones fired into Russian territory by Ukraine, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Dozens of people, including 13 children, were injured in a Russian missile strike on Sumy, the city’s health department said Monday. A school building was partially destroyed in the strike, according to the Emergency Service of Ukraine.

“Moscow speaks of peace while carrying out brutal strikes on densely populated residential areas in major Ukrainian cities,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X.

“A few hours ago, another horrific Russian bombing of Sumy’s city center injured dozens [of] civilians, including many children,” Sybiha said. “Instead of making hollow statements about peace, Russia must stop bombing our cities and end its war on civilians.”

ABC News’ Yuriy Zaliznyak, Victoria Beaule, Anna Sergeeva and Guy Davies contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — A senior Hamas official was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a hospital in southern Gaza on Sunday, the terror group and the Israel Defense Forces said, as Israel expanded its renewed campaign into the Palestinian territory.

Ismail Barhoum, a senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, was killed in the strike on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Hamas confirmed, describing the attack as a “cowardly” assassination. Hamas said Barhoum was receiving medical treatment in the hospital when he was killed.

The IDF and Israeli Security Agency said in a joint statement that the attack targeted a “key terrorist in the Hamas terrorist organization” who was “operating inside” the hospital, which is the largest in southern Gaza.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said the Israeli strike targeted the hospital’s surgical wing and occurred when “many patients and wounded” were inside the hospital. Videos from the scene showed a fire inside the building following the strike.

The ministry said that “many others” — including medical personnel — were wounded in the strike, “with varying degrees of injuries.” The attack, it added, “also caused panic and forced the complete evacuation of the department after a large portion of it was destroyed.”

Nasser Hospital has been shelled several times by Israeli forces since war broke out in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, following Hamas’ surprise attack into southern Israel.

IDF forces raided the hospital in February 2024, when the IDF said it had intelligence that hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attack had been held there. Israel has repeatedly alleged that Hamas was using the facility as a “command-and-control center.” Hamas has denied using Nasser and other Gaza hospitals for military purposes.

Israel resumed its air and ground campaign in Gaza last week, ending the ceasefire agreed with Hamas in January.

At least 673 people have since been killed and 1,233 injured by Israeli strikes since the ceasefire ended, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The total death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, is now at 50,021, according to the ministry.

ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz, Will Gretsky and Victoria Beaule contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ROME) — Pope Francis will be discharged from the hospital on Sunday and return to his residence at the Vatican, his doctors announced at a press conference Saturday. The pope was in the hospital for 37 days.

The pope, 88, has been in stable condition for the past two weeks, according to the Vatican.

The pope will appear at 12 p.m. local time, 7 a.m. ET, from the window of the hospital on Sunday, to greet and bless the people before leaving the hospital, the Vatican said.

“Pope Francis intends to appear from the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli in Rome for a greeting and a blessing at the end of tomorrow’s Angelus [noontime prayer]. Papal text will be distributed in written form as in recent weeks,” the Vatican said.

The pope will be recovering for two months at his Vatican residence, according to a spokesperson for the Vatican.

Pope Francis will have to continue his physiotherapy from his residence.

“The pope is getting better so that in brief time he can resume his normal activities. He has always continued to work but we recommend that he takes the adequate time to rest and convalescence. So he cant meet large groups of people,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

It will take some time for the pope’s voice to return to normal as he continues to recover, Bruni said.

“When you have a bilateral pneumonia … and your lungs have been damaged, … muscles affected … one of the first thing that happens is you lose your voice and like for all patients, young and old … it will take some time for his voice to return to normal. We have already seen important improvements,” Bruni said.

The pope will need oxygen at his residence and the Vatican has 24-hour health support

On Friday, the Vatican said the pope’s condition remained stable as he continued to have small improvements in terms of breathing and motor skills.

“At night he no longer uses mechanical ventilation with a mask but high-flow oxygenation with nasal cannulas and during the day he uses less high-flow oxygenation,” the Vatican said Friday.

“The Pope’s days are spent doing physiotherapy, prayer and a little work,” the Vatican said Saturday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — London’s Heathrow Airport announced Saturday morning that it is “open and fully operational” and flights have resumed after a fire at an electrical substation knocked out power to Europe’s busiest hub.

“Flights have resumed at Heathrow, and we are open and fully operational,” Heathrow Airport said on X. “Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday’s outage at an off-airport power substation.”

The UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband announced Saturday that he is ordering an investigation into the substation fire and how it could lead to the complete closure of Heathrow airport.

The investigation will be led by National Energy System Operator “to understand any wider lessons to be learned on energy resilience for critical national infrastructure,” the secretary said in a statement.

“The loss of power to the Heathrow area has caused major disruption to thousands of people and many businesses. We are determined to properly understand what happened and what lessons need to be learned,” the secretary said.

Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said he welcomed the news of the investigation.

“We will support every effort to understand the causes and impacts of yesterday’s off-airport incident and we are committed to working closely with all stakeholders to ensure a thorough investigation to help strengthen the airport’s future resilience,” Woldbye said in a statement.

A Heathrow spokesperson said that hundreds of additional colleagues are on hand in their terminals on Saturday and that the airport has added flights to the schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers traveling through the airport.

“Power supplies have been restored to all customers connected to our North Hyde substation, including Heathrow, allowing operations to resume at the airport. We are now implementing measures to help further improve the resilience levels of our network,” read a statement from the U.K.’s National Grid.

“We are deeply sorry for the disruption caused and are continuing to work closely with the government, Heathrow and the police to understand the cause of the incident,” the statement continued.

An analysis said as many as 290,000 passengers were expected to be impacted by the closure Friday, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. There were 669 flights scheduled to depart to Heathrow on Friday, with 145,836 seats, according to Cirium. The fire could affect another 270,000 passengers on Saturday also, Cirium said.

The cause of the fire is still not known and currently under investigation but authorities have confirmed that they are not treating the blaze as suspicious.

“After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious, although enquiries do remain ongoing,” a statement from London’s Metropolitan Police said. Because of the location of the substation “and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure,” the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command was leading the investigation, authorities said.

ABC News’ Morgan Winsor and Mike Trew contributed to the report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza) — Former ABC News journalist Husam al-Titi was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Monday evening local time, the night the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended, according to al-Titi’s family.

Al-Titi was a sound engineer for ABC News for 20 years until 2014, when he left the company and became a teacher. He lived in Gaza City with his wife, daughter and three sons, but he was in Deir al Balah in a displacement camp when he was killed.

Al-Titi’s wife, daughter and three of his sons were taken to the hospital after the airstrike. Three of his sons remain hospitalized and one was seriously injured, al-Titi’s family told ABC News.

 

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — London’s Heathrow Airport is now “safely able to restart flights” after a fire at a nearby electrical substation closed one of the world’s busiest airports on Friday.

However, even as the airport says it can restart flights, officials advised people not to travel “unless your airline has advised you to do so.” The airport said it hopes to “run a full operation” on Saturday.

“Our teams have worked tirelessly since the incident to ensure a speedy recovery. We’re now safely able to restart flights, prioritising repatriation and relocation of aircraft,” Heathrow said in a statement.

Heathrow Airport said the fire at the substation, which supplies power to the airport, caused a “significant power outage” and the airport was expected to be closed until 11:59 p.m. local time on Friday night.

“We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens,” a spokesperson for Heathrow Airport said.

In total, 70 firefighters and 10 fire trucks responded to the blaze in west London when the London Fire Brigade brigade was first called at 11:23 p.m. local time. The fire was contained more than seven hours later at 6:28 a.m. on Friday morning, but was still burning at about 10% on Friday evening.

“This was a very visible and significant incident, and our firefighters worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” London Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said. “Thanks to their efforts and coordinated multi-agency response, we successfully contained the fire and prevented further spread. “We will maintain a presence at the scene throughout the day, assisting the National Grid as they assess the site.”

Firefighters safely evacuated 29 people from neighboring properties and, as a precaution, a 200-meter cordon was established with around 150 people evacuated.

“Due to the significant smoke, we strongly advise local residents to keep their windows and doors closed, as some smoke will remain for a number of hours today. Scientific advisors will also be on-site this morning to conduct further assessments and monitor the air quality,” Goulbourne continued. “Our Control Officers handled more than 200 emergency calls, providing guidance and reassurance to the public. As the morning progresses, disruption is expected to continue, and we urge people to avoid the area whenever possible.”

Counter-terror police were on the scene at the Hayes substation, London’s Met Police confirmed to ABC News, but they cautioned it’s only because they could get the investigation done faster.

“We are working with the London Fire Brigade to establish the cause of the fire which remains under investigation. While there is currently no indication of foul play we retain an open mind at this time,” Met Police said in a statement. “Given the location of the sub-station and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure, the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command is now leading enquiries.”

As many as 290,000 passengers could be impacted by the closure Friday, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. There were 665 flights scheduled to depart from Heathrow on Friday, with 145,094 seats. There were 669 flights scheduled to depart to Heathrow on Friday, with 145,836 seats, according to Cirium. The fire could affect another 270,000 passengers on Saturday, too, Cirium said.

“Accordingly, the impact of this incident can cascade over several days, as aircraft, crew, passengers are out of place, with limited spare aircraft and seats available to recover passengers,” Cirium said in a statement.

British Airways, which has a hub at Heathrow Airport, said it is advising travelers not to go to the airport and that they are working to notify passengers of their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, inbound flights to Heathrow are being redirected to other U.K. airports, officials said.

“Due to a power outage in the London Heathrow area, London Heathrow Airport is currently closed,” British Airways said. “As a result, customers due to travel from Heathrow on Friday are advised not to travel to the airport until further notice. This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers and we’re working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond.”

The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large numbers of homes and businesses and led to some evacuations, the fire brigade said. Firefighters led 29 people to safety from neighboring properties and, as a precaution, established a cordon around the area and evacuated about 150 people.

“This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” Pat Goulbourne, assistant commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said in a statement shortly before 2 a.m. local time.

The cause of the fire is not yet known, the fire brigade said.

ABC News’ Clara McMichael and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.