Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Israel launches Intense Strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon; Global Leaders to Address U.N. Assembly Amid Conflicts; New Details Emerge on Case Against Suspect in Trump Assassination Attempt; Haitian Children React to Baseless Claims About Migrants in Springfield, Ohio. Israel Launches Intense Strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired September 24, 2024 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:00]
LZ GRANDERSON, VISITING SCHOLAR, WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY: You know, we saw that happened with Morgan Wallen, the country singer, soon after he was soon after he saw on video using the N word. You know, his album sales actually spiked despite the fact that he's using that racial slur and some people were using it as a way of pushing back against the system.
And so, you know, I do think there may be some elements of that when it comes to the streaming, but I would like to think most people who are doing it are doing it from the nostalgic reasons because Diddy was a beloved figure for a long time.
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: LZ Granderson, thank you so much for joining. Great to hear your insight.
GRANDERSON: Thank you for having me, Laura.
COATES: And I thank you all for watching. "ANDERSON COOPER 360" starts right now.
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Lynda Kinkade live in Atlanta.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, Hezbollah hits back, firing rockets into northern Israel in response to strikes which killed nearly 500 people inside Lebanon. Plus more than 1,000 days in space. A Russian cosmonaut is finally back on planet earth after breaking an all-time record in orbit. And coming soon to a smartphone near you, a closer look at a new round of emojis.
ANNOUNCER: Live in Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Lynda Kinkade.
KINKADE: We begin with an escalation of attacks across the Israeli- Lebanese border. The top Israeli military chief says forces are, quote, "preparing for the next phase" after Israel launched the most intense wave of strikes against Hezbollah in nearly 20 years. The Lebanese Health Ministry says nearly 500 people, including dozens of women and children, were killed, marking the deadliest day of Israeli strikes in Lebanon since 2006. The Israel Defense Forces say it hit 1600 Hezbollah targets in what
the defense minister calls an impressive operation. But for the displaced civilians, there is nothing but fear and despair as they flee their homes in southern Lebanon and seek safety. Some finding it at schools turned into shelters.
Israel's prime minister says the Lebanese people are not their target.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I have a message for the people of Lebanon. Israel's war is not with you. It's with Hezbollah. For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields. Don't let Hezbollah endanger your lives and the lives of your loved ones. Don't let Hezbollah endanger Lebanon. Please get out of harm's way now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: The Iranian-backed militant group says it fired multiple rocket barrages into northern Israel overnight following Israel's airstrikes on Monday. A member of the Lebanese parliament addressed world leaders in New York ahead of the U.N. General Assembly and described the turmoil caused by those strikes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAHIA EL HARIRI, LEBANESE PARLIAMENT MEMBER (through translator): We are seeing a wave of exodus and the targeting of residential areas. The people of Lebanon are in serious danger after the destruction of large areas of agricultural land and the targeting of residential buildings. This has damaged the economy of our country and threatened our social order.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Well, CNN's Ivan Watson is following developments and joins us live.
Good to have you with us, Ivan. So for almost a year we have seen this exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel, but certainly over the past week and Monday, this situation changed dramatically. Monday of course now the deadliest day in almost two decades.
Talk to us about the latest on the ground in Lebanon.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure. I mean, the Israeli government, the Israeli defense minister, announced last week that there was going to be a new era in this war, a new phase of this war. And we're definitely seeing it. The Israeli military says it carried out strikes against 1600 targets in Lebanon on Monday. So if you want to get a sense of the scale of this, this is a NASA heat map that we can show you that shows fires and areas where the temperature has increased over a 24-hour period.
We've got the banner that maybe needs to be dropped so that you can see that. So that just gives you a sense, not every one of those is a strike, but it gives you a sense of how broad the area that was impacted by this intense Israeli bombardment. Now, the Israeli military says it was targeting Hezbollah targets, and it said that it issued warnings for people to leave areas. But let's look at the just staggering death toll. According to Lebanon's Ministry of Health, at least 492 people killed, among them 35 children and 58 women. So close to 100 women and children killed in a single day.
[00:05:01]
To give you some added context here, in 2006 Israel and Hezbollah fought a ferocious month-long war, about 1100 people died on the Lebanese side of the border in that monthlong conflict. Israeli airstrikes have killed nearly half that number of people in just a single day. And the Israeli government is indicating that there will be more of this violence to come. The Israeli prime minister saying that the government is trying to change the balance of power to the north of Israel -- Lynda.
KINKADE: And certainly, Ivan, we are hearing from several countries in the region like Qatar and Egypt who've criticized Israel and warned about the risks of a regional war. We also heard from a U.S. State Department official who questioned Israel's strategy here.
What can be done right now to de-escalate the situation?
WATSON: Well, look, there have been condemnations that have come in from Egypt, from Qatar. We've heard the French -- condemnations of what they are saying is Israel's escalation of this conflict. The French government has called for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to discuss this, and try to find ways to avoid further escalation. As the former CIA director and defense secretary of the U.S. has called it, this is basically turning into a regional war.
From the Biden administration, we've been hearing basically kind of chastising of Israel saying this isn't going to help the situation, but no signs that Israel's most important ally is making any change or any pressure to stop what has been a dramatic escalation in just the last week alone.
Now let's get back to the situation on the ground for ordinary people, Lynda. So what we saw as the Israeli warplanes were bombarding large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon was an exodus of terrified people fleeing as their villages and towns were being hit by the Israeli munitions. Take a listen to one woman and what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They struck right next to our house and our building was shaking. We got very stressed. This is why we had to leave and we came here. We were told it's safe here. The situation is very tragic. The strikes were right next to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: And full disclosure here, Lynda, my own family are part of the people who have now been displaced by the Israeli aerial attacks on Lebanon. On Friday there was an airstrike on a nine-story building in the southern suburbs of Beirut. It collapsed a nine-story building. It killed some senior Hezbollah commanders and up to 41 people in all including women and children.
My mother-in-law was a block and a half from the building that was hit. She was visiting her -- my wife's grandmother's house and they were trapped in that neighborhood. That neighborhood was bombed again last night by Israeli warplanes, and now my own in-laws are part of this exodus of civilians who are sheltering in an apartment for generations in a single apartment with a one-week old newborn baby, praying that their neighborhood will not be bombed next.
So this is the reality, and I can speak from my own family, they are not Hezbollah supporters. So when the Israeli military says it is striking more than 1,000 Hezbollah targets, there are civilian people, teachers, retirees, my wife's grandmother, who was a paralyzed stroke victim, who are in the immediate vicinity of these deadly bombardments -- Lynda.
KINKADE: Wow. I'm so sorry having to hear that your family is caught up in this horrific attack. We will speak again soon.
Ivan Watson, appreciate you. Thank you.
Well, for more, I want to go to Beirut, Timour Azhari is the Iraq bureau chief for Reuters and reports on all issues from Baghdad to Beirut.
Appreciate your time as well. Thank you for joining us.
TIMOUR AZHARI, IRAQ BUREAU CHIEF, REUTERS: Thanks for having me.
KINKADE: So, Monday, of course, marked the deadliest day in Lebanon since 2006. Both sides appear to be edging closer to a war but neither are calling this a war.
How concerned are people in Lebanon right now about that possibility?
AZHARI: People are very concerned. I mean, yesterday sure felt like a war. You have to remember it was just a week ago that we had that incredible pager attack across Lebanon. You know, thousands of members of Hezbollah sort of almost spontaneously combusted in this attack that really has sort of, you know, made the whole world, you know, sort of look at this moment and say, what's happened here?
[00:10:12]
And since last Tuesday, we've sort of seen a blow after blow. I mean, you know, there was another attack on Wednesday. There was heavy bombardment Thursday. Friday there was that strike that your previous guest was just speaking about that flattened the tower in the southern suburbs. And it sort of feels like we've been spiraling to the point where yesterday we have this death toll that's sort of, you know, it's incredible. I mean, you know, half the number of the entire 2006 war. So I think
the Lebanese are sort of left reeling by everything that's happened here. And, you know, events are really outpacing any kind of analysis that you can really do of what's happened.
KINKADE: Yes. And we can only imagine the horror of people who are having to flee just can't seem to escape fast enough. I understand more than 80 temporary shelters have been established in schools. Israel right now is talking about the next phase of this so-called operation. Is there a concern that that could be a ground operation?
AZHARI: I think there definitely is a concern of that. You know, if you look at the international movements around this, everybody has been the warning from the U.S. to France that they don't want to see this war expand. But, you know, we have heard these kinds of statements for many months. And I think there's really a question of, you know, whether anybody can stop us at this point. You know, Lebanon, of course, is a country that doesn't really want this war.
It's gone through a massive economic crisis five years ago. You had that port blast, you know, and things have sort of gradually gotten worse since then. But we do have to remember that, you know, Lebanon at this point is also a country that does not have a lot of goodwill internationally. Many of its former partners in the West and the Gulf kind of look at Lebanon as, you know, this place that's been on a continual decline, a place that comes and asks them for help, asks them for money, but has actually done very little to help itself.
Hezbollah also has grown its power in Lebanon massively since the 2006 war. And many of Lebanon's traditional partners do not like that. So I think there's a question here of, you know, who is actually able to stop this? Who is able to, you know, take this conflict down the escalation ladder. And it's hard to see actually any side that is able to do that at this moment.
KINKADE: And certainly we've heard criticism of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about his motivations, even within Israel when it comes to ending the war in Gaza and bringing hostages home. Some say he wants to continue the war because it means politically he survives.
How is that narrative playing out there?
AZHARI: I mean, many people do question the intentions of, you know, of the Israeli government. But, you know, but in another sense, I mean, it has seen for a long time like a new conflict with Israel has been inevitable. These are arch foes staring each other down, you know, across the border. There was a brief moment, a couple of years ago where they did a small deal to do with their maritime boundaries and a lot of people at that moment thought, hey, maybe we're seeing something new here.
But, you know, the Hamas October 7th attack, the aftermath of that, and Hezbollah sort of opening a new front the day after, that kind of has I think pushed away any sort of ideas of a detente in Lebanon. And I think we really are looking at the beginning of what could be a new situation here. I mean, we have to remember Hezbollah is, you know, the most -- the jewel in the crown of Iran's, you know, foreign defense capabilities, the projection of Iranian power.
If we see Hezbollah starting to be beat back in Lebanon, you know, it has regional implications. And in fact implications for the whole world. So I think we're at the beginning here of something. We don't really know where it's going to go. But as we saw yesterday, this is a massive development. These kinds of numbers in Lebanon of dead and wounded are unprecedented since the civil war, you know, decades ago. It feels like we are at the beginning of a war here even if it's not called that.
KINKADE: Yes, it certainly does seem that way.
Timour Azhari, in Beirut, take care. Stay safe. Thanks for your time.
AZHARI: Thank you.
KINKADE: Well, France's foreign minister is requesting an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to address those strikes in Lebanon. The group already has one meeting on the books for Tuesday with Ukraine's president as a featured speaker.
CNN's Richard Roth previews what else to expect over the coming days.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Once again, it's a general assembly high-level meeting overshadowed by wars and crises around the globe. Take Gaza and southern Lebanon, Israel involved in both. The Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, defended his country's attacks on Hezbollah.
[00:15:06]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANNY DANON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: We don't want to escalate the situation. We don't want a war today. All, if we will not have other choice, we will push back Hezbollah. It will be painful for the Lebanese people in southern Lebanon, but we don't see any other choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: Jordan and Egypt have requested a Security Council meeting on the latest fighting, but little is expected. There have already been dozens of meetings since the war began October 7th. Prime Minister Netanyahu is scheduled to be giving a speech here at the General Assembly Friday morning, but his appearance keeps getting delayed and there is still a possibility he may not appear at all due to developments back home.
Iran's new president lashed out at Israel asking for United Nations' help to stop Israel's aggression.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The end of occupation, the cessation of apartheid in Palestine, and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza are prerequisites for global development and peace.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to work with other countries to achieve common global goals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: President Zelenskyy of Ukraine is one of the speakers this week. He will meet with President Biden, Vice President Harris, and former president Trump, though not necessarily here in the building. President Zelenskyy addressed the U.N. Summit for the Future, which was agreed upon Sunday. However, it's not enforceable. For Zelenskyy, he has what he's called a victory plan that he's going to show President Biden in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I invite all leaders, nations to continue supporting our joint efforts for a just and peaceful future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: It will be President Biden's final General Assembly appearance. He's likely to stress unity once again. But the way these crises in Sudan, Gaza, and Ukraine are going, a lot more will be needed to make any progress.
Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.
KINKADE: Well, still to come, new details on the latest assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Prosecutors revealing what was known about the suspect's plans and just how close he came to the former U.S. president.
Plus, Haitian children in Springfield, Ohio, living in fear after Donald Trump falsely claimed that migrants there are eating pets.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINKADE: Well, two storm systems are developing this hour. Hurricane Jonah is intensifying rapidly and just made landfall off the southern coast of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center says the storm is now a category three hurricane and is expected to bring heavy rainfall, flash flooding, and mudslides to that region.
Well, an area of thunderstorms in the Caribbean is expected to develop into Hurricane Helen later this week. The National Hurricane Center says it is intensifying over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and potentially gain hurricane strength by Wednesday before slamming into the U.S. Gulf Coast later in the week.
[00:20:10] The man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump early this month had written a letter declaring his intentions and laying out his plans. That's according to a new filing by federal prosecutors who say they will now charge Ryan Routh with attempting to assassinate the former U.S. president.
CNN's Randi Kaye reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In court, we learned more about a letter that was provided from a witness who said Ryan Routh dropped a box at his home a while ago and that box was passed on to federal investigators. In it was a handwritten letter according to investigators that they believe Ryan Routh wrote. And that letter says, in part, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job. And then he went on to offer $150,000 to whomever could complete the job.
We also learned from the agents in court that the defendant, Ryan Routh, they believe was in a position that provided a clear line of fire to the sixth hole putting green. Now remember, Donald Trump was on the fifth hole putting green at the time this all occurred. That would have put him about 12 to 15 minutes away from the sixth hole putting green also. If he had gotten to the sixth whole putting green, he would have been about 100 feet investigators say from what they believe is Ryan Routh in that position in the bushes.
Also, new information regarding the scope that was attached to the weapon that was discovered at the scene. That we are told was attached to the weapon by electrical tape and investigators in court said that they -- there was a fingerprint that they believe belongs to Ryan Routh on that electrical tape. That is a preliminary finding. They are still looking into that.
We also know there was a letter now addressed to "The New York Times" that was found at the scene. They did test that letter for fingerprints and DNA. They have not found Ryan Routh's fingerprints or DNA on it just yet, but they did find a fingerprint belonging to someone else. The FBI agent who was testifying did not say who that person is, who that fingerprint belongs to, or what was in the letter.
Also, they did search Routh's car. They found a Hawaii driver's license and a passport in his name along with 12 pairs of gloves and six cell phones. One of those cell phones prosecutors say included a search, a Google search from how to get from Palm Beach County where this all happened to Mexico. Also, they found cell phone data that would have placed Ryan Routh in this area for about a month before this incident occurred.
They said that he arrived here as of August 14th. That's according to cellphone data pinging off the cell phone towers in the area. And finally, there was a hand-written list of dates and venues, prosecutors say, that was found in his car. Those includes dates where Donald Trump was expected to appear before election day. They believe that that handwritten list was written by Ryan Routh.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach County, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Meanwhile, on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, Trump appeared to make light of the fallout from those baseless rumors he's helped to spread about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. He said immigrants needed to be removed from the country prompting chants from the crowd. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do you think Springfield will ever be the same? I don't think -- the fact is, and I'll say it now, you have to get them the hell out. You have to get them out. I'm sorry. Get them out. Can't have it. Can't have it. They've destroyed it.
(CROWD CHANTING "SEND THEM BACK")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Well, those false claims have real-world impact, including bomb threats against migrants in Springfield. It's one thing to spread rumors from a position of power on a national platform, it's quite another for a child to process them.
CNN's Gary Tuchman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, Ohio, was less than a year old. The Sunday service is vibrant, a reflection of the Haitian community that has regarded Springfield as a great place to live. At the same time in another room, children ranging from toddlers to teens gathered to pray and play with a youth pastor who encourages the young people to talk about a tough subject.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How you feel about what happened in Springfield about what they say about immigrants?
TUCHMAN: And the common sentiment? These three words.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel bad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How you feel about --
TUCHMAN: Alicia (PH) is 10 years old. She's in sixth grade.
[00:25:01]
She was born in the United States. Her father is Gene (PH). He moved to the U.S. after the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake. They are both upset at what's been said. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It kind of made me feel a little bit sad. A
little bit of anger.
TRUMP: In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there.
TUCHMAN: There is no basis for what the former president said. And it's very upsetting and humiliating to many of the children here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most Haitians came here for a better life so I think they have to stay strong and don't let the things that Trump says get to them. Just stay strong.
TUCHMAN: Wood (PH) is 13 years old, in eighth grade. He was born in the U.S. but moved back to Haiti before his first birthday with his mom Baby (PH). They came back to America about four years ago. Wood says he likes living in Springfield.
And how does that make you feel that there are people who don't want you to stay in the country?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes me feel sad a little bit.
TUCHMAN: Tell me about that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because we ain't doing nothing, we just came here just to live a better life.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But now with bomb threats against the city of Springfield, many are frightened. Wood's mother.
(On-camera): Are you scared?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course yes.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Alicia's father.
Do you feel safe for your family in this community?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely not. Nobody knows what's going to happen later.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Wood is a confident young man. He wants to own a car dealership in the future. And he wants to protect his mom in the present.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want her to stay at home so not a lot of people can come up to us and make front of us, a lot of comments and eating cats and dogs.
TUCHMAN: The youth pastor at the church has some within the community have told her they are looking to get out.
PHILOMENE PHILOSTIN, YOUTH PASTOR: They're leaving Springfield because they feel insecure. They're scared. TUCHMAN: Alicia and her family are staying put. But the 10-year-old
who wants to be a doctor when she grows up did listen carefully when her father told us he's concerned about his family's safety.
How does that make you feel hearing your dad say that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know my dad will keep me safe somehow. No matter what happens.
TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Springfield, Ohio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, Israel steps up its attacks on Hezbollah with its deadliest airstrikes against the terrorist group in nearly two decades. How Israel is explaining the deaths of dozens of women and children. That's next on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:30:13]
KINKADE: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade.
In the deadliest day of Israeli strikes against Hezbollah since the 2006 war, the IDF says it struck 1,600 targets in Southern Lebanon Monday.
The Lebanese Health Ministry estimates that nearly 500 people have been killed so far, including dozens of women and children.
Thousands of people in Southern Lebanon have been forced to flee their homes, clogging highways to the North out of fear that Israel will escalate the attacks even further.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BANJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): To those who didn't understand, I would like to clarify Israel's policy. We're not waiting for a threat. We are ahead of it, everywhere in every arena, anytime.
We're eliminating seniors, eliminating commanders, eliminating rockets and counting. Those who he tried to hurt us, we will hurt them gravely.
I promise to change the security balance, the balance of power in the North. This is exactly what we're doing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman has more now from Beirut.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As dawn broke, Israel launched the first of a series of punishing airstrikes, starting in South Lebanon, pummeling what it claimed were Hezbollah targets.
Hitting, hitting, and hitting again. While Hezbollah, battered over the past week, struck back as it did early Sunday, its missiles reaching deep into Israel to Haifa and beyond. Many others intercepted.
Through text messages and by breaking into local radio broadcasts, Israel warned people to leave and stay away from buildings where Hezbollah might be operating.
But the bombing was enough to send thousands fleeing North: the roads packed. "Strikes, warplanes, destruction," says Ahmed. "No one is left there. Everyone has fled. We took our belongings and left."
Yet, even those fleeing vowed they will return. "We will be back, God- willing," shouts this man. "We will be back. Tell Netanyahu we will return."
When and how, and to what, unknown.
The death toll for one day reached into the hundreds. The wounded, well over a thousand. Coming after a week of pager and walkie-talkie blasts and a deadly strike on Southern Beirut that killed a senior Hezbollah commander but also many civilians.
All classes in schools and universities across Lebanon have been suspended with some schools being turned into shelters for the displaced.
Seventy-year-old Jena Ayyash (ph) fled her village at 5 a.m., taking shelter in a training institute in Beirut. "I buried my son a week ago under bombardment," she says. "My other son stayed behind. He didn't want to leave our home."
With Israel's air offensive intensifying, it may be some time before Jena (ph) sees her other son again, if at all.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Miri Eisin is a senior fellow at the International Institute for Counterterrorism at Reichman University and a colonel in the IDF reserves. She joins me now from Tel Aviv.
Thanks for joining us.
MIRI EISIN, SENIOR FELLOW, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR COUNTERTERRORISM AT REICHMAN UNIVERSITY: Good morning.
KINKADE: So, there's been this ongoing exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah since October last year. Why are we seeing this huge escalation right now?
EISIN: Hezbollah has been upping what it's been doing against Israel. I'm going to describe it in the way, Lynda, that Hezbollah is Hamas on steroids.
It has immense fire capability, weapon capability, and it's deployed as it lives throughout Southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley inside the city of Beirut. They've been using these capabilities.
And up North in Israel, we have over 70,000 Israelis who haven't been in their homes from October, as you said. Hezbollah has been firing at us from October 8th.
And what the Israeli government sought is to be able to enable the Israeli citizens to go back to their homes, we have to go on the initiative against this Hezbollah force.
KINKADE: We've had Israel claiming that it is escalating an order to de-escalate. A U.S. state official department, speaking to reporters at the U.N., said the U.S. can't recall a time when an escalation has led to profound stabilization.
What's your assessment of the reasoning here?
EISIN: Lynda, one of the things that I asked myself and I'm asking you and all of our viewers is what would you do with a terror entity that is part of Lebanon and is not the Lebanese government?
In all of Ben's amazing description of the horrifying aspects of war, he never mentioned the country Lebanon and what is that country doing? Hezbollah is there. What do we do with it?
[00:35:10]
If you don't touch it, it grows into something that feels that it can attack Israel from October 8 every single day, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis. That can't be acceptable.
There is no easy way to respond. I say it sadly. If you don't respond, it grows into something that nobody wants to see, nobody wants to have this kind of military terror army in any place in the world.
So, I think that the only way to destroy -- to do it right now, to try to destroy those military terror capabilities, sadly, is by force. It's never pretty. It's never easy.
KINKADE: Do you think a ceasefire in Gaza would have been enough to stop the attacks from Hezbollah across into Israel?
EISIN: So, think about it. The attacks themselves that Hezbollah started on October 8 are hand-in-hand, not just of rockets and cross- border UAVs, et cetera. Hezbollah had been training.
Lynda, there's lots of footage that can be shown that we're training to do a ground attack in a similar way, but much larger than what Hamas did on October 7th. So, it isn't that I, as a military person, would tell friends, go back
home to your communities that are near the Lebanese border, because we hope that Hezbollah Radwan fighters won't attack you there in the horrific barbaric way that Hamas did on October 7th.
So, I don't think that it's connected, meaning that the Israeli citizens would not go back to their homes. And as such, there was no way you could continue without addressing what I'm going to call the horrific genocidal elephant in the room, Hezbollah's capabilities.
And I need to mention their benefactor, their patron, the one who supplies all of these weapons. The Islamic regime of Iran.
KINKADE: We heard from another U.S. State Department official today who said these Israeli attacks on Hezbollah has probably taken that militant group by 20 years backwards.
Is that the assessment in Israel?
EISIN: So, in 2006, I was the Israeli government's spokesperson, so I was on CNN, amongst others, a lot at that time. And that was before social media.
When we say 20 years backwards, the Islamic regime of Iran gets to sit there, and nobody touches them. And all of the capabilities that Hezbollah built over from 2006 -- that's 18 years ago -- were from the Islamic regime of Iran.
So yes, it most definitely has hurt them horrifically. And that's what we're trying to do.
But having said that, they have enormous capabilities, literally more than most sovereign countries in the world. And this is the military army inside the country called live in Lebanon. It's not the Lebanese army.
So, yes, we have hit them. We have hurt them, but they can rebuild. And they have the backing of the Islamic regime of Iran.
KINKADE: Miri Eisin in Tel Aviv, appreciate your time today. Thanks so much for joining us.
EISIN: Thank you.
KINKADE: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back in just a moment. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:40:19]
KINKADE: Well, now to a CNN exclusive, a conversation with an Iranian American man who spent eight years in a notorious Tehran prison.
A year after his release, Siamak Namazi sat down with our Christiane Amanpour for his first television interview. He spoke with Amanpour from inside the prison back in March of 2023.
Six months later, he was released, along with four other wrongfully detained prisoners. He shares his gratitude to be home and what it's been like readjusting to normal life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIAMAK NAMAZI, FREED FROM IRANIAN PRISON: The most dominant feeling that I have is gratitude. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to many people, particularly President Biden, who made a very difficult choice and struck the deal. I'm sure it was a very difficult deal for him to strike that brought us home.
It took many more years than I hoped that it would. I was there eight years.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The longest held.
NAMAZI: The longest held. But the truth is, when -- when you get out of a dungeon after eight years, you don't just return to a normal life.
It's -- it's overly optimistic. You don't just kind of shake it off. It's -- it's a eight-year earthquake that hits your life, and it leaves a lot of destruction.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: You can join us for our world exclusive interview with Siamak Namazi in the next hour on CNN. That is at 9:30 a.m. in Abu Dhabi, 1:30 p.m. in Hong Kong.
A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are safely back on. They touched down in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz capsule Monday after a parachute-assisted landing.
Oleg Kononenko holds the record, spending 1,100 days in space over five missions.
NASA astronaut Suni Williams is now in command on the International Space Station. She's due to return to Earth, along with Butch Wilmore, next year.
Well, if you rely on emojis to get your message across, it's a big day. Eight new ones are coming to your smartphone next year.
The most anticipated is an exhausted face with bags under its eyes. We might use that quite a few times on this shift.
Others include a fingerprint, a splat, a root vegetable, a harp, and a shovel. The leafless tree is meant to raise awareness about climate change.
New emojis don't just happen every day. It is a formal process led by the Unicorn Consortium, a non-profit which oversees global emoji standards. Well, there you go. I'm Lynda Kinkade. I'll be back at the top of the
hour with much more news for CNN NEWSROOM. But first, WORLD SPORT starts in just a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:45:48]
(WORLD SPORT)
[00:58:23]
