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One World with Zain Asher
IDF: Israel Military Struck Hezbollah's Headquarters In Beirut; Major Conflicts Confront Worlds AS Leaders Meet AT U.N.; Large Explosions Rock Lebanese Capital Beirut; Israeli Official: Nasrallah Was target Of Beirut Strike; Major Israeli Airstrikes On Lebanon's Capital Beirut; Admiral Daniel Hagari Coming On A Last-Minute Press Briefing To Announce That The Israeli Military Has Targeted Hezbollah's Central Headquarters; Aired 12:00-1:00p ET
Aired September 27, 2024 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:37]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Live from New York, I'm Bianna Golodryga. Zain is off today. You are watching ONE WORLD.
We begin with breaking news out of Lebanon. The densely populated capital of Beirut has just been rocked by several large explosions. Huge plumes of
smoke were seen rising through Southern Lebanon and its suburbs there.
Israel says that its military was targeting Hezbollah's central headquarters in Beirut.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL HAGARI, SPOKESPERSON, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: Moments ago, the Israel Defense Forces carried out a precise strike on the central headquarter of
the Hezbollah terror organization that served as an epicenter of Hezbollah's terror.
Hezbollah's central headquarter was intentionally built under residential buildings in the heart of the Dahieh in Beirut as part of Hezbollah's
strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields.
On October 8, Hezbollah started attacking Israel. After almost a year of Hezbollah firing rockets, missiles, and suicide drones at Israeli
civilians, after almost a year of Israel warning the world and telling them that Hezbollah must be stopped, Israel is doing what every sovereign state
in the world would do if they had a terror organization that seeks their destruction on their border, taking the necessary action.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Let's go straight to Jeremy Diamond who is in Tel Aviv for us.
And, Jeremy, we are getting now reports about these blasts as we saw Daniel Hagari there, the IDF spokesperson, making that statement but taking no
questions. A senior Israeli security official telling me that they have made enormous investments to warn the Lebanese civilians using every
platform available and that their goal is clear. They want 600 -- they want 60,000 Israelis to go home and not just go home, but be safe. What more are
you hearing about the potential target of these strikes?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli military's top spokesman, Admiral Daniel Hagari, coming on a very last-minute press
briefing to announce that the Israeli military has targeted what he described as Hezbollah's central headquarters, which he said was beneath a
residential neighborhood in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
And when you look at the pictures that we are seeing of this strike, the enormous plume of smoke that is emerging, the enormous blast that our team
on the ground in Beirut actually heard and the fact that Admiral Hagari was emphasizing the fact that he believes Hezbollah was using the civilians in
that neighborhood as human shields, this all points us to a few key things.
Number one, it points us to the use of very heavy munitions to reach an underground bunker up beneath residential buildings. And it also indicates
the likelihood of heavy casualties, heavy civilian casualties most likely as this was targeting a residential neighborhood under which the Israeli
military is claiming that Hezbollah's central headquarters were located.
This appears to be, Bianna, the most significant strike that the Israeli military has carried out in the Lebanese capital of Beirut since this
latest conflict began nearly a year ago. And it is only the latest escalatory move being carried out by the Israeli military, as we have seen
over the course of the last week, beginning with those pager attacks, which I reported were attributed to the Israeli military and Israel's
intelligence service, the Mossad, going up the ladder of escalation there to several strikes in Beirut to the very significant round of more than
1,500 targets that were struck from the air by the Israeli Air Force earlier this week.
We are watching as the Israeli military is engaging in this very clear strategy of escalating the situation with Hezbollah because they say that
they believe that is the way to get Hezbollah to stop firing rockets on Northern Israel.
Of course, what we have seen, as a result so far, is that it has only escalated this situation in the immediate term, in terms of not only the
Israeli attacks in Lebanon, but also, of course, Hezbollah's response.
[12:05:59]
This week, we saw Hezbollah fire the first ballistic missile targeted at Tel Aviv in Central Israel. We also have seen now two barrages of rockets
fired at Haifa, the city where I'm coming to you live from, right now this week.
And so it's very clear that, right now, this is pushing the Israel and Hezbollah, but also potentially this entire region, on the brink of all-out
war. And this strike appears to be a very, very significant piece of that puzzle.
The main next questions will be, who was actually targeted, who was actually killed in these strikes, whether any names of senior Hezbollah
officials or commanders will be released by the Israeli military? We are not there yet.
And, of course, we will be looking to see how significant the casualties are on the ground, how many residential buildings were destroyed as part of
this strike. All of this information just only now beginning to come into us. But it will be critical not only for the human toll, but also, of
course, for this region at large.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And we've seen, over the course of the last few weeks, as the fighting has intensified, Israel has been taking out and assassinating
a number of Hezbollah's top commanders there, given the severity of this strike, given the location of this strike, the central headquarters of
Hezbollah, its command center there.
Do we have any indication right now, Jeremy, as to where Hassan Nasrallah himself is?
DIAMOND: We don't at this time. I'm just checking my phone to make sure no additional information has come in.
But at this hour, we have no indication of whether or not Hassan Nasrallah was the target of this strike, whether he was present at the central
headquarters. Without a doubt, that is a major question that we will be asking and looking to get answers to.
And I do think that there are several indications that this was obviously a very significant strike. Netanyahu apparently rushed out of a meeting as we
saw reports of a strike in Beirut. Admiral Hagari coming out very quickly on television to talk about it.
So there is clearly something very significant about this strike, whether it is just the fact that it is this central headquarters in a densely
populated area or something else. We will find out soon.
Jeremy Diamond, live for us in Haifa. Thank you so much.
Let's get some perspective from former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, who's also served as the national security advisor under President
Donald Trump.
Mr. Ambassador, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. You're the perfect person to talk to on this specific issue because you played an
integral role in the ceasefire that was ultimately laid out in 2006, that brought an end to the last major war between Israel and Hezbollah.
As your ambassador to the United Nations, we're seeing reports of the United States and France, once again, proposing a ceasefire outline for the
Israelis. No word yet on whether Israel is ready to accept this.
Now, you have the reporting of this massive explosion said to be at the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Your reaction and the
possibility as to who perhaps this target was.
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Well, I think the resolution we negotiated in 2006, Security Council Resolution 1701, was
not implemented. That was designed to prevent the resupply of Hezbollah and give the government of Lebanon real control over the country. That
obviously didn't happen.
And it says something about what it's like to go through that kind of negotiation and find 10 or 15 years later that it meant essentially
absolutely nothing.
I think it's certainly the conversation in Israel right now is that this was an effort to destroy the top command and control of Hezbollah's
military capabilities. And that Hassan Nasrallah was in fact the target.
Now, whether he's met his maker or not, we don't know. But I think that this is -- this is the inevitable consequence of Iran unleashing the ring
of fire strategy against Israel back on October the 7th. The only surprise that it's taken this long to get to this point.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. CNN affiliates are reporting that indeed, per Israeli officials, Hassan Nasrallah was the target of this strike. If in fact that
is the case, and if either Hassan Nasrallah himself or those around him, the top deputies of his war assassinated, where do you think this leads the
-- is it further escalation? Do you think this is obviously a significant way for Hezbollah to end the fighting, at least, as of now?
BOLTON: You know, very hard to predict. I would say from the U.S. point of view, though, this is revenge, finally, at long last, for what happened in
1983 when elements that eventually Iran formed into Hezbollah, attacked the American embassy in Beirut, killing a number of American and Lebanese
civilians present, and bombed the French and American barracks in West Beirut shortly after that.
[12:10:14]
This is a terrorist group. It has an incredibly large arsenal of missiles, public estimates, even the CIA says as many as 100 and 150,000 that
constitutes a real threat to Israel and others in the region.
And I'm sure that in addition to Nasrallah and the top leadership, it's that missile arsenal that principally concerns Israel at the moment.
GOLODRYGA: And let me ask you, just given the magnitude of this strike and what is likely to be a significant casualty number and civilian casualties
among them, coming at a time when the Biden administration is hoping to put a ceasefire plan into place, how do you expect the administration to
respond to this news?
BOLTON: You know, the administration has been chasing a ceasefire plan in Gaza for six months. I think it's been a fool's errand. The issue is
whether these terrorists are going to continue to threaten Israel or whether Israel acting in self-defense will be able to eliminate the threat.
And the source of this problem is the regime in Tehran. And until the Biden administration owns up to that, and suggest a counter-strategy that deals
with Iran and not just the manifestations of the Iranian threat in Hamas and Hezbollah, their efforts will be doomed to the failure we've seen for
pretty much the last year.
GOLODRYGA: John Bolton, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it in this breaking news.
Let's bring in Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv and Jomana Karadsheh in Beirut. Jomana, let me start with you.
Again, Israeli media reporting that the target here was Hassan Nasrallah. Any more information that you're able to provide us with?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, we have to be very careful about this. Israeli media in the past have reported the targets of
airstrikes that have taken place in Beirut, and those have turned out to be not, they turn out to be wrong. So we have to wait and see and hear
officially from the Israeli military who or what the target was.
What we do know right now from the Israeli military, as they said, that this is Hezbollah, as they say, their main central headquarters in Beirut.
They say that it was underneath a residential building.
I can tell you we were here on our roof and this -- the blast that we heard were so massive that Lebanese colleagues here say that there's been no
Israeli strike like this since 2006. And we have seen Israeli strikes targeting Beirut in recent days, targeting these southern suburbs of
Beirut, but nothing like what we saw in the last hour. That was a huge explosions that shook the entire capital pretty much, Bianna.
And, you know, keeping in mind, this is taking place in the southern suburbs of Beirut. You have Hezbollah presence there. There are leadership
and senior commanders known to have been based there in the past. In recent days, you have had Israeli strikes that have... killed some senior
Hezbollah commanders, but this also is a densely populated area. This is one of the most densely populated areas in all of Lebanon.
So when you consider the explosion that we witnessed here, when you consider that the Israeli military is saying that this was an underground
headquarter underneath a residential building, you would expect that large munitions were used in this strike and almost certainly that we are going
to be seeing a high casualty toll.
Still no information coming in from Lebanese authorities on that. But, you know, yesterday, I spoke with a country's health minister who said that it
is the civilians in this country who are the ones who are bearing the brunt of this confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah. And they accused the
Israelis of indiscriminate attacks, he said, on women and children, denying accusations that we have heard from the Israeli military that Hezbollah is
using the civilian population here as human shields, saying that this is the same excuses, in the words of the minister that we have heard in Gaza,
that are being repeated now here, Bianna.
[12:15:02]
Jomana Karadsheh, thank you so much. Please keep us posted on any additional information you may be getting.
Let's go to Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv. You just look at the magnitude of that explosion and the huge plumes, obviously, in the pictures that we're
showing our viewers. And then you hear from the IDF and Admiral Hagari describing this as a precise strike targeting the central headquarters of
the Hezbollah terror organization, which is said to be underground residential buildings.
Nic, what more are you hearing there in Israel in terms of the timing of this and perhaps who the targets were?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. The timing of this comes right after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his speech. And I
think it would be a natural assumption for a lot of people that key Hezbollah figures would be watching and listening to Prime Minister
Netanyahu, not that they were probably expecting to hear him talk about peace, but just for themselves to gauge where he was on all of this.
They may not -- of course, they may just shrug it off and not be interested at all. And the reason that I say that is because if they're watching, that
provides an opportunity for, you know, for very clever surveillance systems to potentially be able to make an assessment of who and what may be in a
building.
Look, I mean, frankly here, the IDF is making very clear that there's a potential for huge civilian casualties when we've seen the IDF make these
specific targetings in Beirut over the past week. They've gone after specific leaders. Those specific leaders that they've named have been
killed in those buildings, so too have civilians. What happens here, there may very likely be large civilian casualties.
I've seen some photographs that appear to be and purport to be from the location from ground zero where those explosions are. There is utter
devastation. One source I was talking to in Beirut, when he sent me one of the photographs, he said that no one could possibly have survived that, you
know, huge crater burning fires, debris, burnt wreckage all over the place.
So I think there's -- there would be a natural assumption at this stage to say that whomever was in what the IDF has described as Hezbollah's command
and control center had very, very little chance of survival.
I think we can say that at this stage, but we don't know. The rescue teams have to get in. They have to do their work. They have to try to find anyone
who may be trapped in an air pocket, there maybe it had been separate, even more secure parts of this command and control center that's there.
The speculation, of course, goes to the targeting of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. We have no evidence, no information at this time to
support that.
However, this level of strikes that we've seen be used against the number two in Hezbollah recently, other very senior commanders in Hezbollah
recently, has not been the size and scale and scope of this type of munition.
So if you use a bigger munition, are you going after a bigger target? Are you going after a larger number of people? Are you going to a very deep and
presumably previously secure location with heavy explosives? Yes.
So there -- there's some analysis that you can do here that it does seem that there was either a very senior collection of Hezbollah figures or a
very senior Hezbollah figure there. So that's as far as we can go at the moment.
And having talked to officials this week about their bombing strategy, they talked about it being strategic. They talked about if there was a ballistic
missile that they saw on a launch pad, immediately, they would try to take it out. If there were targets of opportunity that they got intelligence on
that were important that were on their target list, they would take out those targets.
And what we've seen them do is when they figure out they know where a senior figure is, they direct to strike on them. But they've been spending
a lot of time, the IDF and the Air Force here, have been spending a lot of time targeting ammunition -- Hezbollah's ammunition stores, their command
and control, their ability to resupply and bring in weapons from Iran via Syria, all of that.
And it's all been intended to make sure that Israel is safe in the short term, that as Israel escalates the situation here, that Hezbollah cannot
respond in a big and overwhelming, overwhelming way.
One ballistic missile fired a couple of days ago targeted the Mossad, the intelligence headquarters. Mossad's intelligence headquarters not far from
Tel Aviv. That was just one missile. It was an escalation because it was a bigger, faster missile, bigger payload on it.
[12:20:12]
But there hasn't been an overwhelming use of force. And the IDF would believe that that's because they have been hitting the right targets.
They've kept Hezbollah on the back foot.
I think really this analysis is about as far as we can go until we get more information. But it certainly does appear that whatever was at this
location was for Israel -- for Israel and obviously not for the Lebanese and not for the civilians who've died in their hundreds already this week,
the collateral would have been worth the target and that's what Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari was signaling when he spoke half an hour or so ago.
GOLODRYGA: No questions after his statement, Admiral Hagari. Obviously, this will take perhaps a few hours, if not longer, to confirm who in fact
that target was.
Nic Robertson, thank you so much. I know you'll stay on top of this for us. And we'll be right back with more on this breaking news from Beirut.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GOLODRYGA: More now on our breaking news out of Lebanon where a massive blast hit the densely populated capital, Beirut. You see huge plumes of
smoke were seen rising from the southern suburbs. Israel says that its military was targeting Hezbollah's central headquarters in Beirut.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAGARI: Moments ago, the Israel Defense Forces carried out a precise strike on the central headquarter of the Hezbollah terror organization that served
as an epicenter of Hezbollah's terror. Hezbollah's central headquarter was intentionally built under residential buildings in the heart of the Dahieh
in Beirut, as part of Hezbollah's strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: I want to get back to Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv. And, Nic, we've been talking about the fact that as of now, we have no confirmation. CNN
cannot confirm who the target was. But as you noted, a strike of this size, a strike in which you have the IDF spokesperson immediately step out and
make a statement like that, the fact that you have reports of Prime Minister Netanyahu here in New York immediately leaving a briefing with
reporters upon news of this strike, tells you that this was something large.
[12:25:12]
It does. And I'm just -- you probably noticed me glancing down at my phone here just to see what the latest information is that we have here at CNN.
And my colleague Jeremy Diamond does understand that Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the strike per an Israeli security official.
The Israeli military is working to verify whether or not he was killed. So we understand at this stage that Nasrallah was, in fact, the target. This
explains a lot, explains the munitions, explains why the IDF came out very quickly and warned of -- essentially warning that there would be a high --
of a potential for a high civilian death toll, they say, because Hezbollah hides its command and control headquarters underneath civilian buildings.
But the question at the moment is, of course, he Nasrallah was the target, it appears. But what of him? Has he survived? And the picture that I was
sent by a contact in Beirut of the ground around where that impact took place, his assessment of that and this is somebody who lives in Beirut and
has seen a lot of this. He didn't think somebody could survive that. And my assessment looking at the picture is, that would be very, very difficult
for somebody to survive such a massive blast.
However, clearly, the rescue workers will be in there and will be trying to save as many people as possible. And it will be their work on the ground
there to discover whether or not Hassan Nasrallah was actually in the building and whether or not he survived.
I don't think -- if this is the case that Nasrallah was the target, I don't think we will expect Hezbollah to be rushing to put out a statement about
this.
They have really been dealt many blows in the past week by the Israeli military. They have really been on the back foot since the pages started
exploding last week. Their morale is low, according to the IDF. Their command and control has been severely disrupted according to the IDF, not
disrupted so far that they can't fire missiles into Israel and then indeed big missiles like the ballistic missile just a couple of days ago.
But Hezbollah, by this, if it's what we understand, and if -- and if Nasrallah was indeed killed, it would one would expect it to -- one would
expect to take a little while for Hezbollah to figure out how they're going to respond and how they're going to deal with this.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And CNN is now reporting, per Israeli officials, that Nasrallah, Hassan Nasrallah, was indeed the target of this strike. And no
word yet and no reporting that CNN can confirm as to whether or not Nasrallah was in fact assassinated or hit or even there at the time of this
strike.
Let's bring in H.A. Hellyer, a Mideast scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He joins us from Athens, Greece. Thank you so much
for joining us.
So a lot we still can't confirm, but we can confirm that the target of this strike was Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. That tells you what
in terms of the direction, this fighting has taken, as we've seen escalate over the course of the last few weeks rapidly, beginning on October 8th
when Hezbollah began launching rockets into Israel.
H.A. HELLYER, MIDEAST SCHOLAR, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: Thank you for having me on your program.
So Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, was at the U.N. As he began his speech, scores of delegations just walked out. I'm not sure
there's been such a vigorous isolation of any country in many decades, quite frankly.
And I think that isolation is set to continue and deepen the images that we're seeing from Beirut right now are frankly horrifying. A 2,000-pound
bunker buster bombs in a residential area which flattened six entire buildings in Beirut.
Beirut the city where more than 100,000 people have fled the south of Lebanon from Israeli strikes to what they thought was going to be safety in
Beirut. And now we see this.
I don't think that this represents anything like a de-escalation that the Biden administration was calling for, like the French government was
calling for, like frankly, most of the international community at this point.
And it's deeply concerning to see the spiraling situation go on any further. But unfortunately, without a change of direction from the Israeli
government, I suspect we're going to see more of this and probably more devastation.
[12:30:15]
GOLODRYGA: One could also argue there has been no change in direction from Hezbollah over the course of the last year. As we noted, they began
launching this unprompted on October 8th, launching rockets into Israel.
Israel says that they've been trying to go down the diplomatic path with the aid from the United States, and its envoy to de-escalate. Israel says
that that hasn't been successful, and thus, we've seen the ratcheting up, fighting over the course of the last two weeks. Israel's saying it's
escalating to de-escalate to avoid another ground invasion.
What is your response to the fact that Hezbollah itself has not been deescalating over the last year?
HELLYER: So I think we need to frame this a little bit more accurately. When it comes to Israel's acts over the past year, you've seen tens of
thousands of civilians being killed in Gaza, which is the impetus behind Hezbollah's strike.
GOLODRYGA: Right. But October 8, the IDF was not in Gaza yet.
HELLYER: I'm sorry if you'll allow me -- I'm sorry if you'll allow me to continue. Of course, Hezbollah is a militant group. They can speak for
themselves. I certainly wouldn't be interested in defending Hezbollah, particularly after what they've done in many instances around the region.
But the fact of the matter is that the United States has been calling on the Israelis to de-escalate over the past six -- actually 6 to 12 months.
The Israelis have sent messages saying, yes, we will. And then they crossed that line. And even in the past couple of days, as you and your viewers
will know, the United States and France announced the ceasefire proposal just for Lebanon. They weren't even talking about Gaza. And Netanyahu's
government said that they were supportive of it and then changed their minds almost in mid-flight.
I don't think that this is a two sides situation. If you're talking about the number of strikes that have gone across the border, then multitudes
more have come from the Israeli side into Lebanon. It's not comparable to the other side.
I do think that we have to move towards de-escalation here and de- escalation particularly when it comes to the use of this sort of weaponry.
I mean, the sort of weapons that Hezbollah has been using do not remotely even compare to any of this.
GOLODRYGA: So if --
HELLYER: And Hezbollah is not an ally of the United States or of the West, whereas Israel is. And I think ought to be held to a certain standard.
GOLODRYGA: So if the goal is to see the return of tens of thousands of residents, not only Israeli residents there in the north, but Lebanese
residents in the south.
HELLYER: Also Lebanese residents in the south. Absolutely.
GOLODRYGA: If I can finish, yes, Lebanese residents in the south, how would you propose the best solution to getting there is at this point? Do you
think it's the ceasefire that's being on the table, being offered by the U.S. and French right now?
HELLYER: There have been diplomatic proposals offered by the Americans and the French multiple times over the past six months. Those diplomatic
proposals were rebuffed by the Israelis, incidentally very similar to what has been happening with regards to Gaza, where the ceasefire negotiations
that were calling for at least even a pause in hostilities were being sabotaged by the Israeli government as incidentally has been mentioned many
times in Israeli media blaming from within the Israeli negotiation team Benjamin Netanyahu's own office.
So I do think that the framing here is very important. We have destroyed Gaza. We have Beirut being bombed with huge tolls for civilian casualties.
And I think that at this moment in time, you see the international community, as you've seen in the -- at the U.N. over the past week, call
for de-escalation, call for a ceasefire, call for an end to this spiral.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. I believe that, as you note, the framing's very important. I don't believe Hezbollah had accepted a ceasefire yet, either. So as we
are going to be learning more on who this exact target.
Well, we know who the target was, but whether Israel was able -- was able to assassinate Haniyeh or anyone around him, we don't yet know that. We do
know that the civilian death toll will likely be very high. And we will --
HELLYER: I don't think you meant Haniyeh. They already -- they already assassinated Haniyeh.
GOLODRYGA: Oh, I'm sorry, Hassan Nasrallah. You're right, Hassan Nasrallah, yes. Yes.
HELLYER: But also -- but also the cost of civilians in such a target. As you well know, collateral damage shouldn't entail hundreds or thousands of
people for a single target. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the first time that we've seen huge civilian casualties for a single target.
[12:35:09]
GOLODRYGA: Yes. We will --
HELLYER: At the hands of the IDF.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And we will likely see a significant civilian death toll from this target. Again, CNN confirming, per Israeli officials, that Hassan
Nasrallah was indeed the target of this strike.
H.A. Hellyer, thank you so much for your time.
HELLYER: Thank you.
GOLODRYGA: And we'll be right back with more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.
GOLODRYGA: And welcome back to ONE WORLD. I'm Bianna Golodryga.
An Israeli official says Hezbollah's leader in Lebanon was the target of a massive strike on the capital Beirut. Israeli military is working to verify
if Hassan Nasrallah was killed, according to that official. Kevin Liptak is at the White House with more.
And, Kevin, as we're learning more about who this target was, we know that Prime Minister Netanyahu was meeting with reporters here. As soon as this
headline crossed, he left the room quickly.
What do we know about any U.S. response at this moment, and whether or not, the administration was given any sort of heads up before this strike?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I can tell you, Bianna, that American officials are trying to learn more about exactly what
happened on the ground in Beirut. We are getting some sort of conflicting information about how much the U.S. knew ahead of time.
Certainly, they would have looked for some kind of indication from their Israeli counterparts that something like this, a major targeting operation
was underway. But it's not clear whether American officials knew specifically that Israel would be targeting the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan
Nasrallah. So that's something that American officials are still working to figure out.
And, of course, the backdrop to this action is this 21-day ceasefire that President Biden, along with the French President Emmanuel Macron, had been
trying to urge Israel to accept.
[12:40:09]
There had been some deep, deep frustrations within the White House that Netanyahu came out so immediately after that statement was released on
Wednesday evening, essentially trying to reject it.
And we did hear from American officials that there were a series of very tough meetings between American officials and Ron Dermer, he's the close
confidant of Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, yesterday, trying to remedy that situation.
And what we have heard is that the American secretary of state, Antony Blinken, essentially told Dermer that Netanyahu and the Israeli government
would have to release a statement saying at least that they were open to this proposal and were still looking into it and trying to decide whether
they would accept it.
But I do think that this operation in Beirut that is happening today just gives you probably the best indication of where Israel ultimately came down
on that ceasefire proposal.
So American officials still trying to learn more about what exactly happened and who exactly was being targeted. But certainly, the context of
this is the wider war that the Biden administration has been trying to avoid.
The de-escalation attempts that they have been hurriedly trying to put together in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. just this week, but
certainly a lot more information still to be learned from the White House.
GOLODRYGA: All right. Kevin Liptak, thank you. Let's go back to Jeremy Diamond in Haifa.
And, Jeremy, as in the past 15 minutes we've noted, CNN can confirm that per an Israeli official Hassan Nasrallah was indeed the target of this
strike in Beirut from the U.S. government. We just heard from our colleague there that no official statement. The U.S. is trying to confirm this as
well on their end. And as of now, we don't know if the Israelis gave the U.S. a heads up about this strike.
DIAMOND: Yes, that's exactly right. And, obviously, this is a very significant strike. I would argue it is the most significant strike carried
out by the Israeli military in Beirut, so far, over the course of this nearly year-long conflict now, both in terms of what is likely to be the
scale of destruction and the number of lives lost in one individual strike.
And then, of course, as well the reporting that I've just put out that according to an Israeli official, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah
was the target of this strike. This would mark the first time, over the course of the last year, that the Israeli military has actually at least
publicly acknowledged trying to, or at least that we are learning that the Israeli military has attempted to take out the leader of Hezbollah in a
strike.
The Israeli military, I'm told, is still working to verify whether or not Hassan Nasrallah was indeed killed or whether he escaped unscathed from
this strike. But it is, of course, very significant.
And it also indicates, very clearly, that even as there have been these ceasefire negotiations pushed by the United States, by France, over the
course of the last few days, that Israel not only is at this stage not signing on to that ceasefire proposal, but also choosing escalatory
military actions instead.
And we have watched, over the course of the last week, as the Israeli military has really taken this conflict one degree higher every single day,
beginning with the pager attacks, which I reported at the time was carried out by the Mossad as well as the Israeli military. Followed that up with
multiple other strikes in Beirut that week, those 1,500-plus strikes in Southern and Eastern Lebanon earlier this week.
The Israeli government, the Israeli military have clearly chosen, and they are also articulating this strategy of choosing to escalate this conflict
further and further. They say it's because they believe that this is the way to decouple the Gaza front from the Lebanon front, to convince
Hezbollah to back down from its rocket attacks on Northern Israel without that needing to be tied to a ceasefire in Gaza.
They believe this is the way to make Northern Israel safer. Of course, what we have seen, over the course of the last week, is that even as Hezbollah
has not carried out the kind of retaliatory strikes on Israel, that many Israeli officials had expected, with hundreds of rockets being fired
simultaneously, nonetheless, Hezbollah has shown that they are also willing to escalate things further, carrying out the first ballistic missile attack
on Tel Aviv, although unsuccessfully, and also firing the first barrages of the of rockets on Haifa, the city where I'm coming to you live from right
now.
[12:45:00]
And so the picture that we are getting right now is that a ceasefire appears very, very far from anyone's mind at the moment. And instead, what
appears far more likely is a continued escalation of the conflict at a moment when we have heard the Israeli military's top generals say that they
are preparing, they may not have decided yet, but they are preparing for the possibility of Israeli ground troops going into Lebanon in a very
significant incursion.
And so this is a very tense moments in this region, as you know, Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: And we'll be watching closely over the course of the next few hours in terms of whether or not we continue to hear from the IDF if
Admiral Hagari will be out with any more statements.
In the meantime, Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for joining us. Jeremy Diamond there in Haifa.
We'll have much more after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GOLODRYGA: All right. Breaking news this hour, major Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon's capital Beirut. Lebanese media reporting that several buildings
were destroyed in Beirut's southern suburbs. An Israeli official says Hezbollah's leader in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, was indeed the target of
this attack. The Israeli military is working to verify if the 64-year-old was killed, according to that official in the military.
I want to get back to Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv. It looks like we are looking at local images there of the rescue teams sifting through that
damage that we've seen from these massive strikes in Beirut, the largest that we have seen thus far.
And, Nic, before we know whether or not Hassan Nasrallah was indeed assassinated, it is pretty clear that this is quite an escalation. And the
question is, where do things go from here regardless of whether he survives or not?
ROBERTSON: Yes. Clearly, one place they don't go to right now is a ceasefire of one day or 21 days or anything like that at all. So I think
that's clearly removed way, way off any negotiating table. Not that I think there's a table left to negotiate on at this stage.
But, realistically, what does this mean? Well, it either means that Hezbollah will be searching for a new leader or their existing one has
survived and they will continue.
They will see this, as you rightly say, an escalation by Israel and they will very likely respond in some fashion that to them satisfies them.
[12:50:06]
You know, what Hezbollah has been very careful to try not to do, and it's calibrated, even though its response earlier this week by escalating with a
single ballistic missile fired towards Tel Aviv, that was an escalation, but they didn't go even further and fire multiple ballistic missiles and
try to overwhelm the defensive systems here in Israel.
So part of what Hezbollah has tried to do is not get drawn into a massive all-out confrontation with Israel. And the fear in Israel would be, if they
did, then that potentially they could overwhelm defensive systems, and that could put many Israeli civilians in jeopardy.
And what the IDF has been doing, over the past week, is to try to mitigate against that and make sure it couldn't happen by hitting missile systems
that were ready to launch ones that they knew where they were to try to degrade the command and control. All of that they feel they've been
successful and nevertheless from the ashes, from the rubble of this. Hezbollah will recognize that there's no ceasefire coming, that Israel's on
an escalation and they will likely respond in some similar way.
So what it means is it appears that this conflict that has been stepping up and stepping up and stepping up is going to go up another notch. What does
the next level look like? We don't know. But this is now becoming very much a gloves-off scenario that with -- when you target the leader of the other
side, then clearly, that means you're only intending to go in one direction.
And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made that very clear in his speech at the UNGA today. So I think this clearly speaks to a coming escalation. To
what level, we won't know until -- we just won't know until we see how Hezbollah responds.
GOLODRYGA: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you so much.
Let's get some more perspective on this strike. We're joined by Firas Maksad. He is a senior fellow and senior director at the Middle East
Institute.
Firas, thank you so much for joining us. Again, we don't know whether or not Hassan Nasrallah was indeed killed in this strike. What we do know is
that he was the target, perhaps the commanders there working with him as well at the central headquarters, the command and control center there of
Hezbollah, underground there in civilian buildings.
What do you make of this? And where do you see this conflict going as a result?
FIRAS MAKSAD, SENIOR FELLOW AND SENIOR DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Yes, I mean, let's start with what we know. What we do know is that the
Israeli prime minister made that crucial call to target Hassan Nasrallah in the heart of the Beirut Southern Suburbs today on the feet of his speech at
the U.N. General Assembly and was scrambled back on the jet to head back to Israel.
So whether that strike was in fact successful or not, today, will prove to be an inflection point in this brewing Israel-Lebanon conflict.
No doubt, whether he's dead or not, whether Nasrallah is dead or not, this conflict just crossed the threshold of an all-out war, which is something
that all of us who've been watching this now for over 11 months have been waiting for, wondering whether that moment would come or not.
When you target with over 10 bunker buster, 2,000 pound bombs, a residential area in Beirut that flattens at least two high -- sorry, six
high-rise residential building, you're going to have a significant casualty and civilian death rate, irrespective of whether you succeeded in killing
Nasrallah or not. And I think that will cross most, not all the red lines, that Hezbollah had set out for this conflict. So I worry and I do believe
that there's going to be a significant coming escalation.
GOLODRYGA: And what do you think that would look like? Is it more rockets going, perhaps more ballistic missiles going towards Central Israel, like
we saw earlier this week against Tel Aviv?
MAKSAD: Well, that depends on the facts on the ground as they emerge and whether that strike was successful in killing Hassan Nasrallah.
But also, I have to say that, you know, early report sources I've been talking to, American sources that are in touch with knowledgeable Israelis,
say that it wasn't only just the secretary general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, but there were also -- there was also a senior Iranian commander
in that headquarters, in that bunker. The general in charge for Iranian operations, the IRGC for Lebanon and Syria.
And so if, again, this is early, unconfirmed reports, although from reliable sources, if that's true, we also have to be concerned about the
Iranian angle and whether Iran is going to feel compelled to be dragged into this bottom war.
[12:55:04]
So at this point, it's open to possibilities, which way the conflict goes from here, what scenarios, but clearly, an escalatory path.
GOLODRYGA: Firas Maksad, thank you so much for the time.
Again, this news just breaking, over the course of the last hour, Israeli officials confirming that Hassan Nasrallah was indeed the target of this
strike in Beirut, in a residential building there. We are working to confirm whether or not he was killed in this strike. We will continue to
follow this development for you.
Thank you so much for watching this hour of ONE WORLD. I'm Bianna Golodryga. Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back in just a few minutes with
"AMANPOUR."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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