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Iran Launches Missile Attack on Israel. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 01, 2024 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:01]

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's actually an old enemy. And that's Iran.

So will Israel now attempt to counter these attacks with another group of attacks? It's a very unfriendly neighborhood for Israel. That's an understatement. But when you're talking about a four-front war for a force that's the size of Israel, this is going to be very challenging.

So, all along, the attempts by the Biden administration has been to tamp down the potential for a regional war. I think we're seeing the potential now for that to increase significantly. And that's really unfortunate.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: I think that's what we're seeing right now, General Hertling. Thank you.

Don't go anywhere, because I want to bring in Christiane Amanpour, who joins us now.

And, Christiane, full well that the biggest -- one of the biggest concerns aside from Hamas and Hezbollah inside Israel, maybe a bigger concern, has been the kind of thing we're seeing right now, which is Iran, which has a very, very, very deep bench of very strong artillery and missiles.

And it appears that they are using them right now.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Indeed, and it's incredibly important to be absolutely precise about what's going on.

So far, there is no evidence that anything has landed, that it is being intercepted, according to our correspondents on the ground. And also the United States and Israel said that they assessed that the targets would be three Israeli air bases and an intelligence base, again, as our correspondents have said.

That's very important to keep in mind. The second thing is that I have been speaking to foreign ministers from the region just today, the Lebanese foreign minister, who is currently in Washington, speaking with the Biden administration and trying to get them, as he told me, to really use all their diplomacy and their influence with Israel and with whoever else they had influence with to stop this escalating. And what the Lebanese foreign minister told me, and this is really

extraordinary, and I had not heard it before, that just before the Israeli targeting of the Hezbollah headquarters that assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, that there had been a cease-fire, which the U.S. announced.

But what the Lebanese prime minister said to me was that they had got Hezbollah to agree to that cease-fire. And, apparently, they thought that Netanyahu would agree too, anyway, as you saw what happened on Friday night, which has led to this escalation.

As for Iran, and now the Lebanese prime minister is very concerned that there will somehow be an attempt, whether it's to come to the rescue of Israel or whether Israel tries to get the U.S. in, but that the U.S. may end up joining this escalation in the Middle East, the foreign minister said.

Now, the Iranian foreign minister told me in New York during the United Nations that they were showing -- and this is, again, before Friday's assassination -- that they were showing restraint, and that Hezbollah was showing restraint as well, and that it wanted to de- escalate all of this.

That was the word also from the podium at the United Nations by the Iranian president. And they were saying that they are being entrapped and they're trying to resist the notion of being trapped into this war.

So, then comes the assassination of their client Hassan Nasrallah. Now, Hezbollah is not there -- Iran is not there to protect Hezbollah. It's the opposite. Hezbollah is meant to be the front-line troops of Iran. So this response from Iran is more likely because it feels it has been left no choice, as Zarif said to me in New York, that they may be pushed into this kind of response.

Because everyone is asking, hang on a second, what are you going to do now that your best friend has been assassinated in Lebanon? And, certainly, the so-called supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, was very close to Hassan Nasrallah, and there's been a lot of internal divisions inside Iran about how best to respond to what happened with the assassination of Nasrallah.

So that is essentially what seems to be going on right now in terms of the big picture. Nobody, nobody, not the Lebanese, nor the Iranians, want this to escalate even further. Iran does not want an Israeli or a U.S. war against it. It is unlikely to be able to resist that. It does not want it.

So we are going to see whether this is targeted and how much actual damage beyond what Israel believes are the targets is actually done. And I think that is what's going to determine potentially the next steps, like it did last time, if you remember.

BASH: Yes. AMANPOUR: A whole coalition of the United States, Israel, other Arab countries, European countries, stopped those 300 missiles and drones and crews that came in and they did almost no damage.

[13:05:01]

And Israel responded in a much more limited way than it might have done. So we will see. As President Biden said to them last time, take the win. We will see what happens this time.

BASH: Yes. Yes, and -- exactly. I mean, we don't know.

As you said, Jim Sciutto was reporting that he saw with his own eyes some actual missiles hitting the ground and hitting targets in Israel.

AMANPOUR: I think he said intercepts, didn't he?

BASH: But...

AMANPOUR: I think we need to be super clear about this. What did he say?

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: He said he saw some intercepts and others he saw made contact.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

BASH: But I think the point that you're making is really important, which is, it's going on right now. We don't know and we won't know until this is over.

But the CNN teams in Israel and Jerusalem have counted dozens of missiles flying above them. Several have been intercepted. It is unclear how many.

And also, Christiane, what you say about the idea of Iran doing this because they don't feel that Hezbollah is able to anymore right now is very, very noteworthy.

AMANPOUR: And,. also, it's a question of deterrence. Everybody's trying to prove their deterrent ability.

BASH: Yes.

AMANPOUR: So this is what's going on. And I think also not to be forgotten, when Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the Iranian people the other day and said that they stayed close by them and supported them, in Iran, in some quarters, it was interpreted as a warning shot about regime change in Iran.

So all of this is also happening in this entire military political situation.

BASH: Christiane, thank you so much. Thank you for being with us.

Don't go anywhere. CNN's breaking news coverage continues straight ahead with Kaitlan Collins.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: And we do begin with breaking news this hour, as Iran has launched a major missile attack on Israel.

I'm Kaitlan Collins in New York. We'd like to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world as we are following this breaking news from every angle.

CNN's Jim Sciutto is live in Tel Aviv.

Jim, you were right there watching as you were seeing explosions happen in the Tel Aviv sky. Tell me what you're seeing right now. Jim, I don't know if you can hear me.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Are we in break?

COLLINS: I know we have had some issues with communications.

Jim Sciutto, you are live on the air.

If you can tell us what you're seeing in Tel Aviv as of this moment, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Guys, what's happening?

COLLINS: We will work to establish Jim Sciutto's connection. He's right there in Tel Aviv. He had to evacuate briefly as we were trying to see what he is seeing in Tel Aviv as this missile attack is happening right now over the skies of Israel.

We have got CNN's Nic Robertson also on the ground following this story for us.

Nic Robertson, I believe we can hear you and we can see your shot. Can you tell us what you're seeing on the ground right now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: In this part of Northern Israel, it's relatively calm. It is where Jim Sciutto is, Tel Aviv, in the center of Israel that seems to have borne the brunt of these two salvos, about 15 minutes apart of missiles, appear to be ballistic missiles, fired by Iran towards Israel.

Iran had previously stated it was understood that they were targeting air bases, several air bases, and the Mossad intelligence headquarters just outside of Tel Aviv. It's not clear if any of those locations were hit.

When Iran targeted Israel back in April, it fired a salvo of over 300 drones, missiles, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles. Only three out of those 300 got through, but Israel had more time to prepare back then. That is not the case now.

This has happened very quickly. Israel does have strong defenses, but I think we're yet to get an assessment from the Israeli government about what has been hit. And, of course, back then, it took Israel several days before it responded in a limited way to Iran.

Right now, the expectation will be clearly that Israel will be preparing to respond. And this is something it appears, it appears, and I say that right now, is threatening to Israel, do not respond.

COLLINS: And thank you, Nic Robertson. Stand by. We will come back to check in with you.

I want to go back to Jim Sciutto, who is in Tel Aviv, where you are able to hear the explosions happening in the sky, obviously, the Iron Dome defense system being put to work.

Jim Sciutto, what can you tell us about what you're hearing?

SCIUTTO: Well, not just hear, but see. We saw multiple intercepts over us here in Tel Aviv.

And I saw impacts as well, impact just along the shoreline here and another one off beyond, if you see those blinking lights on the smokestack, just beyond that, where I saw quite a large explosion as it hit (AUDIO GAP)

[13:10:08]

Now, it's unclear whether those were the missiles themselves striking, fragments of missiles that had been intercepted, or perhaps some of the interceptor missiles themselves coming down. But I will say the speed and the trajectory was quite forceful.

We don't know the extent of this conflict right now, but I will tell you, Kaitlan, that this is what a war sounds and feels and looks like, given the size of this barrage, these two barrages that we witnessed here now.

You did also get a sense in the midst of it of just the extent of Israel's missile defenses, which are multilayered, we should be clear. You have the Iron Dome. That's the most familiar one, but there are several layers at different altitudes to take out missiles and rockets of various ranges and speeds, et cetera.

The ballistic missiles, they're the fastest and they're the ones that come in at the highest altitude. So it may be that what we were seeing were some of the higher-altitude missile defenses, such as one of which is known as David's Sling.

But I will tell you, as I was -- as my team and I -- and, to be clear, there are several of us here. As we were in the midst of this, the extent of the intercepts over Tel Aviv, which is -- it's a big city, extended from the southern end all through the central area here to the northern end, multiple firing points of those interceptors going up and meeting in the sky above us.

And you could see the explosions as they hit, presumably, their targets of these incoming missiles. COLLINS: And Jim, I should note that we are getting a statement in

from Iran now, saying what was plainly obvious, but still confirming, that this is in direct response and retaliation for what Israel has been conducting over the last several days and weeks, which is the killing of these top leaders of Hezbollah, of course, Hassan Nasrallah, and other top leaders that they have targeted in recent days.

They are now saying in a statement, the IRGC, that this is in response to that. Jim, obviously, what was so critical in April was the heads- up that Israel had about what Iran was planning and also the assistance of the United States in that situation.

What do we know about how the U.S. has been coordinating with Israel as far as giving them a heads-up about the intelligence they had that they did believe Iran was planning to launch a ballistic missile attack?

SCIUTTO: Well, we do know, because it was just a couple of hours ago, when U.S. officials made that warning public, that Iran was making preparations for a ballistic missile attack on Israel.

And it's our understanding that they, of course, gave that warning prior, several hours prior, to Israeli officials so that they could prepare for exactly that kind of attack.

I was also told that it was a U.S. intel view that among the targets were Israeli airfields, but also -- and this is crucial -- the headquarters of Mossad, the international intelligence service of Israel, which is inside Tel Aviv. It's in the northern part of Tel Aviv, but it's in the city. It's in a densely populated area.

And, of course, the concern is if you're firing, even though Iran might consider that a military target, it is in a densely populated city with civilians around it. And that's just one more layer of escalation as we see this exchange of fire now.

The other thing I will note, Kaitlan, I was told by U.S. officials prior to this attack that the U.S. would take part, coordinate with Israel in air and missile defense, including shooting down those missiles. It's not clear yet, I haven't been told if the U.S. managed to shoot down any of these with their forces in the region, but they were prepared to do just that.

And we know from our experience in April that not just did Israeli missile positions, missile defense positions, take down missiles, but also U.S. forces did, and, crucially, other allies in the region, including Jordan. Jordan's geographical position is important because it's between, between Iran and Israel.

Not clear if Jordan took part in today. But I will tell you, Kaitlan, that, listen, I have been coming here for 20-some-odd years. I have never seen an attack like this in Tel Aviv. It brings back echoes of Shock and Awe, right, going back to the Iraq invasion in 2003, not that scale, given it was two barrages of several minutes.

But in terms of the threat to this city and the escalation from what we have seen prior, it's significant.

COLLINS: Yes.

And I should note, Jim, I just -- while you're reporting, I heard from an Israeli source who said that the Israeli Security Cabinet is inside that emergency bunker that they have in Jerusalem as they're watching all of this play out not far from where you are in Tel Aviv.

[13:15:00]

But, Jim, to hear you say that in your 20 years of reporting, you have never seen an attack like this on Tel Aviv, what is it that makes it different?

SCIUTTO: It's the volume, right?

It's the volume and the munition, because the ballistic missile, it's fast, it's supersonic, takes a number of minutes to get from Iran to Israel, about 12 minutes to cover hundreds of miles of territory. It's very high altitude. And because of all those things, it's threatening.

And when you fire ballistic missiles in number, the intent is to attempt to overwhelm the missile defenses. You hope, Iran, that you might be able to get some through because they can only track so many targets in any given time.

And, Kaitlan, that's not dissimilar from what we have seen Russia do in Ukraine, fire several missiles, sometimes of different categories, at the same time to attempt to overwhelm those missile defenses. And, of course, we have seen in a place like Ukraine how you can do so with such a devastating effect.

It is not clear here yet -- and we're seeking out reports for damage inside Tel Aviv. I don't see anything visibly burning right now. We have heard some sirens, but I will say, as I said earlier, one of those strikes that I saw maybe a couple miles just to the north of us here, there was an explosion that followed, and I have to imagine there's damage on the ground there, hopefully not casualties.

It's a nervous city, no question, and understandably so.

COLLINS: Absolutely understandably so.

And, obviously, Jim, first I should say, if you need to go inside, please let us know at any point. Obviously, you're right there in Tel Aviv, where we're seeing so much of this action happening. And I should note we're waiting on briefings from the IDF, from the Pentagon, from the State Department.

We have a lot of officials that we're waiting to hear from as everyone is watching this play out to see what the impact is. But, Jim, before I let you go, I just I do want to ask you, when this attack happened in April and Iran sent some 300 missiles towards Israel, many of them crashed or did not ultimately make their destination, which helped play a part in that not having as big of an impact as what we're seeing right now. SCIUTTO: Yes.

COLLINS: What are Israeli officials hoping or counting on that being a factor in this attack?

SCIUTTO: It's a good point, because there was some speculation in the April attack that perhaps that was deliberate, that there was some telegraphing, right, and that the collection of munitions, some of which were ballistic missiles, but others were drones, which fly much slower and cruise missiles as well, which fly much slower than ballistic missiles, that might have been part of a calibration the part of Iran not to escalate further.

And you're hearing a siren there. Not clear if it's related. Well, it looks like it's a police car, as opposed to an ambulance, thankfully. So there was speculation that attack was calibrated so as not to spark a massive retaliation by Israel against Iran.

And you may remember, in April, the Israeli retaliation was one missile, one missile deftly placed, in that it went after a missile defense battery around one of the Iranian nuclear installations, but it was not a massive Israeli missile barrage in response.

But given the size of this, two barrages, 15 minutes apart or so, enough that it was certainly keeping the air defenses here busy. And, again, I'm not clear if the missiles got -- that we saw fall here got through those defenses, or if those were pieces of missiles falling.

But it was certainly bigger than that attack in terms of its effect on Tel Aviv. So, listen, in the dangerous game that is played in this part of the world or in any conflict, you have an attack, and then you have retaliation. And then you have retaliation and retaliation.

Sometimes, you have an effort to calibrate those retaliations so that it's proportionate. Other times, one is bigger than the other. And, invariably, when you're -- what one side defines as proportionate may not be proportionate in the other side's view.

And I think that, given the size of what we saw tonight, we certainly have to at least be prepared for a quite sizable Israeli response.

COLLINS: Yes. And, of course, we heard from Prime Minister Netanyahu defending them going after the leader of Hezbollah by pointing to what Hezbollah was doing on October 8, firing at Israel one day after the worst day, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

All of this is kind of what people have been bracing for since nearly a year ago, when that horrible day happened, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. That's true.

COLLINS: And I should note right now we're hearing from the Iranian mission to the United Nations. They're saying that this response from Iran, and I'm quoting them now, has been duly carried out.

Jim Sciutto, stand by. We're going to check back in with you in Tel Aviv to what you're seeing in the skies.

[13:20:00]

We have also got Nic Robertson, who is in Haifa.

And, Nic, obviously, when you heard from Israel last night, the IDF confirmed they were sending ground forces into -- across the northern border into Lebanon. They were describing it as limited targeted raids.

They have been bracing for a response, though, since Netanyahu was here in New York, and we were first hearing that Hassan Nasrallah had been killed in that strike. They obviously knew something was going to happen. There is a big question now of how Israel is going to respond to this attack.

ROBERTSON: Israel has made very, very clear.

The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, made it clear at the U.N. General Assembly that Israel has a long reach, and if it's attacked, it can reach its enemies. It had a long range, in fact, its second longest-range combat mission over the weekend, to target Houthis in Yemen. And that -- part of that was not just to target Houthi infrastructure, but also to send a message to Iran.

And that was the message that was given by the defense minister, the chief of staff, the prime minister again that same evening. So it does seem, in the context of Israel and the way that Israel projects itself and creates that sense of deterrence, that Israel will be compelled, because that's the way it sees it needs to operate in a region where it sees it is surrounded by enemies, that it will be compelled to try to keep that sense of deterrence, which means it will be compelled to respond.

The scale of that response might be moderated by the pressure of allies like the United States. It's not clear. It will be up to Israel to look at the damage and assess the damage and assess the success that Iran may or may not have had.

And, to that point, looking at that, what appeared to be an impact to the north of Tel Aviv that Jim was describing, I can't say what that location was, but I absolutely know that area was in the vicinity of one of the stated targets of Iran.

Did they get through? But what we have seen and what I can weigh some experience of being there in Baghdad in the Gulf or in 1991 and during Shock and Awe in 2003, when they were looking over the Green Zone, multiple, multiple, multiple impacts from U.S. cruise missiles that were fired into Baghdad, when those missiles come down, you have multiple huge impacts and multiple huge explosions when there's nothing there to stop them.

But I think what we have witnessed this evening, as far as I can see from the video that I have seen so far, is that Israel has managed to stop a lot of those missiles coming down. However, the only view that we have had of it is from Tel Aviv, and we know that Iran said that they were targeting other locations inside of Israel.

We don't have eyes on that. We haven't seen video from there. We can't make a full assessment of the picture yet. But at least, as far as Tel Aviv is concerned, where Israel has been fending off both ballistic missiles from Hezbollah in the past week and several ballistic missiles from the Houthis in Yemen in the past two weeks, that Israel has very strong defenses, both the lower-level Iron Dome, the mid- range David's Sling, the high-range Arrow intercepts to get those ballistic missiles when they're very high in the sky.

It has a range of defenses and has had them clearly around Tel Aviv. And the first impression created for me tonight is that Israel has had a relatively successful day of defending itself. However, we are yet to get any information from Israeli officials and they have yet to make their calculations based on that how they should respond.

COLLINS: Nic Robertson, thank you for that.

And I should note those Israeli officials, at least the Security Cabinet, is inside an emergency bunker right now in Jerusalem watching this attack play out.

We just got an update from the White House. President Biden and Vice President Harris are also in the situation room watching this attack unfold. And according to a White House official telling CNN, President Biden has directed the U.S. military to aid Israel's defense against Iranian attacks and shoot down missiles that are targeting Israel.

For those who are just joining us, we are watching as Iran has launched an attack on Israel with missiles, ballistic missiles, we believe is what they are, according to U.S. intelligence and what they had communicated to Israel in the early hours this morning here on the East Coast.

It's about 8:00 p.m. in Israel. I want to show you the moment that we first began to see these explosions happening over the skies of Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: This is a major attack.

Jim Sciutto, this is obviously...

SCIUTTO: It's a major attack. There's no question.

[13:25:02]

BASH: What you are seeing, what we are all seeing with our own eyes is a major attack from Iran.

SCIUTTO: It's a major attack, Dana. And it's an escalation of this war beyond what we saw, I think potentially beyond what we saw in April, when Iran launched dozens of missiles and drones. This attack, according to U.S. intelligence, principally or perhaps entirely ballistic missiles, which are the fastest by far and the most dangerous.

And now what we are seeing in addition to those intercepts is we are seeing fragments falling to the ground.

BASH: Yes.

SCIUTTO: It's like a deadly fireworks display over Tel Aviv.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: And you are talking about Tel Aviv, Jim. We are looking at pictures right now. We are looking at pictures of Tel Aviv, what you are describing.

SCIUTTO: Oh, Jesus. Oh, God.

BASH: Oh.

SCIUTTO: OK, guys, we got to get off the roof. Things are coming down right next to us here.

BASH: Please do, Jim. Please do.

SCIUTTO: They're coming down, one just about -- we got to go inside.

BASH: Jim, please take cover.

We are listening and we are watching.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: You are just watching the beginning moments as Iran launched a major missile attack against Israel, which it has now said is in response for Israel killing top Hezbollah leaders in recent days.

We are covering all of this from breaking news with our reporters live on the ground in Israel and in Beirut and along the border there as well.

I want to bring in CNN's Wolf Blitzer who is here with me.

Wolf, obviously, this is a moment that Israel has been bracing for what the response to the killing of Hassan Nasrallah was going to look like. And the question, of course, is whether or not this is a moment that only plunges this region into further conflict than what it already had been since October 7.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Yes, I think it's a fair question indeed.

And, in my opinion, based on all the years I have been covering this story, it is almost certainly going to happen. Israel is going to retaliate. It is going to respond directly at Iran in one way or another. We certainly don't know what exactly the Israelis will do.

But this situation is clearly going to escalate. When you see those ballistic missiles flying over Tel Aviv, what a lot of people don't realize, even though Israel has a truly excellent air defense missile system, the Iron Dome and David's Sling, and all sorts of other Patriot air defense missile systems that the Israelis have, some created in Israel, some created in the United States and elsewhere, what people do not necessarily realize -- and I have been there when these rockets and missiles have come in and the Iron Dome has exploded them in the air.

All of a sudden, the shrapnel will start falling to the ground. And that is extremely dangerous, because if you are on the ground and some of that shrapnel -- and thousands of pieces explode as a result of that missile being destroyed -- all of a sudden, you could be in grave, grave danger and you have to run into a shelter immediately, as soon as those sirens go off in Tel Aviv.

I have been in Israel when those sirens have gone off. And, immediately, you run into a shelter. And you can hear the explosions coming in. That sounds like the Iron Dome breaking up a missile, but then all of a sudden all the metal from that missile is going to fall to the ground and potentially kill people who may be in the way.

So that is why you have to get into a shelter as quickly as possible once the alert goes off. And Israel has a very sophisticated alert system to notify people, get inside and get to a shelter as quickly as possible.

Kaitlan, this is an extremely dangerous moment in the Middle East right now, because the situation almost certainly is going to intensify and explode. Israel is going to retaliate against Iran. And, remember, these are not missiles and rockets and drones coming in from Hezbollah in the north or Houthis from Yemen in the south.

This is Iran launching these strikes against Israel.

I want to bring in Ben Wedeman. He is joining us from Beirut right now.

Ben, it's been, I take it relatively, relatively, key word, quiet in Beirut, but what is the latest where you are?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we have seen as these rockets and missiles were firing over Tel Aviv was that there was a celebratory gunfire and fireworks being let off over the southern suburbs of Beirut, so, people here, at least in those parts of Beirut, clearly taking some solace in the fact that Israel is being hit.