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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Damage In Tel Aviv After Iranian Missile Attack; Trump Claims "Productive" Talks With Iran But Tehran Denies Contact; Investigation Underway After Plane Slams Into Fire-Rescue Truck While Landing At LaGuardia; Israel Expands Strikes On Bridges, Homes In Southern Lebanon. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired March 24, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. Rahel Solomon live this morning in New York.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I'm Becky Anderson live from our Middle East programming headquarters here in Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

And we're following the latest wave of Iranian strikes on Israel. You're looking at live footage of the aftermath of a missile attack on Tel Aviv. Israeli officials say there are at least four impact sites and six people wounded so far.

Police say search and rescue teams are on the ground as well as bomb disposal experts. The Israeli military had warned earlier this morning of missile launches from Iran. Let's bring in CNN's Paula Hancocks live from Dubai, who is monitoring what is going on there and the Israeli attacks on Iran. Paula, what do we know at this point?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, this is just the latest impact in Tel Aviv of a number of waves of Iranian missiles and projectiles that have been fired overnight. This particular one we're just getting an update from the police spokesperson saying that a few people were just lightly injured.

But what we do see is material damage in the streets of Tel Aviv. You can see earlier that there was a fire that was brought under control. Some buildings have been damaged as well. It's unclear at this point whether this was a direct hit from a projectile or whether this is damage from debris which has fallen after a successful interception. Earlier overnight, we did see a number of interceptions in the night sky over Israel.

We did hear from Tehran on Monday evening. This was from the semi- official Fars News agency saying that they were going to prepare plans for targeting Tel Aviv. They said they had what they called something special planned and also for some of the regional allies of the United States. Now, we have been seeing a number of impacts in Israel and this

follows what we saw just a couple of days ago when there were more than 150 people injured in two different sites, Iraq and Dimona in Israel, where the interception did not take out the projectiles coming in. So Tehran still managing to make an impact in Israel.

Now when it comes to the other way, we have heard from Israel that they say they have struck more than 50 targets overnight. We are seeing the death toll of civilians as well rising across Iran. Now Israel saying that it targeted the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard headquarters, that there were military buildings around that particular area that they had targeted as well.

But as I say, we are seeing the death toll rising. Well over 2,000 have been killed at this point, according to one U.S. human rights group. They say that they believe that there are some 1,400 civilians that have been killed, more than 200 of them children.

So once again, civilians being caught up in this war that is continuing. And it comes after we did hear the U.S. President Donald Trump saying that there are talks between the U.S. and Iran, saying that potentially this could be over if they agree to a deal. It's been pushed back by Tehran itself saying there are no direct talks.

But we know that there are ongoing initiatives, is the way that Tehran described it, by the regional allies, by regional countries trying to bring this to an end. But what we are seeing at this point is absolutely no let up in the fire between Israel and Tehran across the Gulf as well. There was also Iranian retaliation that impacted Kuwait, bringing some power lines down.

ANDERSON: Yes.

HANCOCKS: Also impacted Bahrain as well. Becky.

ANDERSON: Paula, good to have you. Thank you very much indeed. OK, so you're up to date on what is going on as far as these attacks are concerned overnight.

My next guest writes, it is likely that the war has entered into a dangerous phase of escalation.

[04:05:0]

Yet the governments now living with these risks were among those that most tried to prevent the conflict, encouraging negotiations in recent months and warning about the dangers of escalation. Joining me now is Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House. Good to have you.

We are getting conflicting signals on talks or the prospect of talks about ending this war. What do you believe is actually going on here? And do you believe the argument that some are posing, which suggests that there is some deliberate confusion here?

SANAM VAKIL, DIRECTOR OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA PROGRAM, CHATHAM HOUSE: Morning, Becky. Well, I think there are a few things going on. I think President Trump, with that tweet he made giving Iran 48 hours before he would start striking the energy grid, he realized it was a very dangerous decision.

So I think he's walking back from that while trying to perhaps calm the markets and also testing the waters for what a negotiation might look like. But I don't think we're near the end of this war. We might be in the middle of this war. And the Iranians are very clearly denying that their negotiations taking place.

The demands on each side are so far apart. Iran asking for reparations and the removal of U.S. bases from the region, with the United States seeking to dismantle Iran's missile program, all suggests that we are far away from something that can be achieved by Friday. And the missiles and drone strikes are going back and forth flying across the region.

ANDERSON: How much of this do you believe is about influencing markets and perception rather than actual negotiations at this point?

VAKIL: I think that there is certainly a motivation to try to bring down the markets. This is a president and his team that didn't prepare for this war. The known unknowns were not taking into account the energy crisis is because they weren't prepared. They did not anticipate that the Strait of Hormuz would come into play. They did not anticipate how markets would react.

And so we do see every few days Scott Bessent or the president himself trying to bring down the temperature. And on Monday morning, yet just yesterday, markets in Asia opened and were very elevated and volatile.

ANDERSON: I quoted some of your article going into this interview in that you also write that the Gulf strategy going into the U.S.-Israel war with Iran rested on, quote, three pillars. Reliance on U.S. security guarantees, cautious outreach to Iran and expanding economic ties with Israel.

Now, which of these pillars do you believe has been most damaged by this war? And as you assess Gulf reaction today, somewhat 24, 25 days into this, what's changed?

VAKIL: Well, first of all, it's important to make clear that not all Gulf states were pursuing outreach to Israel in the same way. Particularly since the war in Gaza, there has been a tempering of outreach and normalization, as was oftentimes dangled out. There is not on the table. So that has really come to an end.

And the Gulf states don't have a unified approach to Iran or Israel. But I'll be quite honest, I think that the Gulf states feels wholly betrayed by Iran and the constant barrage of missiles and drones that keep raining across the sky where you are as well. And I don't see Iranian Gulf relations being able to snap back. This could cause generational damage.

But at the same time, what we are also hearing, and I think this is important to acknowledge, is people across the Gulf do blame Israel for this war. And Gulf states lobbied against this war. They implored President Trump to pursue diplomacy and they are paying the price for this war above anyone.

ANDERSON: Yes. And we are hearing a hardening of language, certainly from the UAE and Saudi towards Iran. I mean, the foreign minister who is also the deputy prime minister here, of course, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, describing the Iranian regime as terrorists and saying that the UAE will not or the Gulf will not be blackmailed by this regime.

We are seeing Hezbollah step up attacks, but the wider proxy forces, or axis of resistance as Iran describes them, don't appear to be fully mobilized at this point.

[04:10:00]

Why do you believe Iran's network is not acting in a coordinated way? And what does that tell you about its strength right now?

VAKIL: Well, the so called axis of resistance has gone through different phases. There was a phase, particularly post-October 7, where there was a bit more organization and mobilization across the various groups.

But what we have seen most recently is that the groups Hezbollah, the Houthis, are focused much more about on their internal power and posture. And I don't think that the Houthis are wading into this war or rushing to get into this war because they recognize there will be real risks for them. It will burn bridges that they have with the Saudi government. And their prospect for governance in Yemen is wholly contingent on their relationship with the Saudis.

And secondly, they know if they enter into this war that they will be subject to attack from the Israelis and from the Americans. And they -- the Houthi leader did pursue a ceasefire with Donald Trump himself. So there are some risks here.

ANDERSON: Sanam, it's good to have you. Thank you very much indeed for your analysis this Tuesday morning. It is in fact after midday here Tuesday in the UAE. And we will have a lot more from the Middle East coming up. But for now, let's get you back to Rahel, who is in New York. Rahel.

SOLOMON: All right, Becky, we'll check back with you in just a few moments. Thank you. Federal investigators are on the ground at New York's LaGuardia Airport after a deadly Runway collision late Sunday night. The National Transportation Safety Board that multiple teams are sifting through the wreckage and examining every angle of this accident as part of their investigation.

Authorities say that the pilot and co-pilot were killed when the landing Air Canada jet struck a Port Authority fire and rescue truck. The truck had been attempting to cross the Runway while responding to a separate incident.

The FAA issued a temporary ground stop and closed the airport in the immediate aftermath of the fatal crash. FlightAware says that more than 600 flights at LaGuardia were canceled on Monday.

The airport has since reopened, but the Runway involved in the accident, well, that will remain closed as the investigation continues. CNN's Jason Carroll has more on the collision.

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JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This video shows the tragic moments when Air Canada Express Flight 8646 landed and then collided at more than 100 miles per hour with a firetruck at LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night.

In slow motion the devastating impact to the nose of the aircraft is more clear. More video captured the moments following the deadly accident. Passengers who frantically evacuated were directed away from the aircraft.

JACK CABOT, AIR CANADA PASSENGER: We went down for a regular landing. We came in pretty hard. We immediately hit something and it was just chaos in there. Somebody said, let's get the emergency exit and the door and let's all jump out. And that's exactly what we did.

CARROLL (voice-over): The regional jet inbound from Montreal carrying 72 passengers and four crew was cleared to land.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 646 number 2 clear to land 4.

CARROLL (voice-over): 11:36 p.m. also cleared on the LaGuardia's Runway 4 an airport fire truck that was responding to a separate incident.

UNIDENATIFIED MALE: Truck 1 and Company, LaGuardia Tower requesting to cross 4 at Delta.

CARROLL (voice-over): The realization they were on a collision course came too late.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop truck one. Stop truck one, stop. Jazz 646, I see you collide with vehicle. Laser pole position. I know you can't move. The vehicles are responding to you now.

CARROLL (voice-over): The nose of the aircraft destroyed. Both pilots, including Antoine Fore, were killed. One flight attendant strapped in her jump seat, ejected during the crash. She was among the 41 people injured and taken to area hospitals. Aviation experts say as bad as the accident was, it could have been much worse.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: That truck been 40 feet further or 40 feet back then that it would have struck against the wing, the fuel cells, the engines, and would have created a huge fire and would have had many, many fatalities.

CARROLL: It can take investigators a year or longer to determine the exact cause of these types of accidents, and they often involve multiple contributing factors. Eighteen minutes after the crash, an air traffic controller told a Frontier Airlines pilot saw the aftermath. He messed up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That wasn't good to watch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know. I was here. I tried to reach out to my stuff. We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.

UNIDENATIFIED MALE: No, man, you did the best you could.

CARROLL (voice-over): Investigators, including the National Transportation Safety Board, are on the ground and will conduct interviews with air traffic controllers to help determine exactly what happened.

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D) NEW YORK: Yes, it was an aviation disaster the likes of which we have not seen here in over three decades.

[04:15:04]

But is a deeply human story where two young pilots left their homes expecting to return to their families, and they will not.

CARROLL: The NTSB has 25 specialists out here on the ground, but they've made it very clear they haven't been able to have a real full day of being able to do what they need to do on the ground. In short, the NTSB chairwoman says it's going to take a while before they'll be able to come to any firm conclusions as to what exactly went wrong here. Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

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SOLOMON: At least 66 people were killed when a Colombian Air Force plane crashed shortly after takeoff with 125 people on board. A video geolocated by CNN shows the moments just before the C130 Hercules aircraft went down. A first responder says that the plane likely suffered an impact near the end of the Runway.

Video shows the wreckage engulfed in flames here. The plane went down in a rural field just two miles from the airport in Colombia's southern Amazon region. Almost everyone on the plane was army personnel, apart from two National Police officers and 11 Air Force members. Dozens of people were hurt. Several of them had to be transferred to nearby hospitals.

Columbia's defense minister says that authorities are looking into what caused the crash, adding that there is no indication of foul play.

After the break, southern Lebanon has been under heavy Israeli bombardment as the IDF targets Hezbollah supply network. Coming up, we'll take a closer look at the Lebanese people caught in the crossfire.

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[04:21:03] ANDERSON: Israeli strikes are having a severe impact on civilians in southern Lebanon. The IDF has been ramping up attacks on homes and bridges along the Litani River, trying to sever Hezbollah supply lines. Displaced Lebanese who fled the bombardment are vowing to return to their villages despite roads being cut off.

Lebanese officials say more than a thousand people have been killed in the attacks and over a million have been displaced. UNICEF estimates 118 of those killed and 400,000 of those who were displaced are children. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh brings us a closer look at what the people in Lebanon are enduring.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): Something familiarly awful is happening here. Israel said leave to the town of Nabatieh two weeks ago. Now life is ground out of its streets.

WALSH: This extraordinary devastation just helps explain how the south is being emptied. Ultimately a strategic part of the Israeli campaign here. And those blasts distant.

WALSH (voice-over): Even higher up still no calm.

WALSH: They deal with the constant noise of jets around them here, but also just overnight intensification of airstrikes. And because they're up on the hill here, they feel and see everything. And of course the injured from it come into here as well.

DR. HASSAN WAZNI, GENERAL DIRECTOR, NABATIEH GOVERMENTAL HOSPITAL: All strike we hear here.

WALSH: You hear everything up.

WAZNI: Everything. Yeah, we hear everything. Like yesterday was horrible. Yesterday many, too many strikes.

WALSH (voice-over): There are fewer people below, so fewer patients than at the start.

HUSSEIN NADAR, NURSE, NABATIEH GOVERNMENTAL HOSPITAL: Once we've got nine children together have been injured. Three of them died and the rest lost their families. 18 people were killed in that strike. All civilians.

WALSH (voice-over): The burns unit treating a rescue worker who ran headlong into the carnage.

AHMEN AWADA, RESCUE WORKERL We moved towards it, the missile hadn't exploded yet. But the building was full, more than 30 or 40 people. We started evacuating them, and so on. Eventually, the missile went off.

WALSH (voice-over): And doctors, families have moved in as it's safer here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALEL Are you getting scared here? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don't get scared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She isn't getting scared. I stay strong for my kids so they don't feel fear. Everything changed for them.

They used to have playroom, they played in the garden, ride their bicycles. Here there's nothing.

WALSH (voice-over): To the south, near Tyre, where we also filmed with Hezbollah's permission, life too is being squeezed out. Sunday, Israel warned twice it would blow up all the bridges to the south, sparking panic. Which one would they hit first?

WALSH: And a shouting warning about the jets, which we've been hearing over the last half hour now, this one particularly low.

This, the force used. They would it hit it twice again later. Yet more isolated now in Tyre is the entire village of Majdal Zoun, who we met earlier, and fled their homes to this school.

YOUSSEF SHUHEIMI, MAYOR OF MAJDAL ZOUN, LEBANON: 50 family.

WALSH: 50 families.

SHUHEIMI: 51 family. About 240 person.

WALSH (voice-over): Five of the men dead, two girls here without fathers, who sleep with their grandmothers here, but are still girls.

[04:25:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to tell you a secret they were fighting but they made up.

WALSH (voice-over): Although Zainab (ph) keeps pushing Yasmin's arm away still.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We build a secret bakery her and me. We can show it to you. It was ruined by the cats.

WALSH (voice-over): A million are forced from their homes in Lebanon and into anger. Imagination where these girls hide from horror even in the mud.

Mohamed (ph) is 16 and worldly.

WALSH: Well, what do you think of Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not good.

WALSH: Not good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bad, very bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very, very not good. I have him. He's so bad. And we know that -- about the Epstein. WALSH: Yes. The Epstein files.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WALSH (voice-over): But no calm here either.

WALSH: So, they say that four days ago they got what must have been a fake warning, a telephone call to the people here to get out as quickly as possible. So, they say they ran out down here as fast as they could and hid down on the beach for five hours until the threat had passed.

WALSH (voice-over): The city's old ruins sit silent and powerless as it keeps getting new ones.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, South Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, President Trump claims U.S. and Tehran are making progress in talks to end this war. Still ahead, we're going to take a look at the impact those potential peace efforts are having on oil prices.

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