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Barrage Of Iranian Missiles Shot Down Over Israel. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired April 13, 2024 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We're following major breaking news over the skies of Israel.
A wide-scale aerial assault is going on right now with waves and waves of drones and missile streaming in from Iran, directly from Iran.
Our team on the ground in Jerusalem has been hearing explosions with sirens have been going off over these past several moments as U.S. and Israeli forces have reported intercepting multiple Iranian attacks. But we still do not know what the ultimate impact of this latest Iranian barrage will be, not the immediate damage inside Israel nor the response that it might bring next from the Israeli military.
Our reporters and analysts are covering all of this. And we have reporters everywhere watching all of this unfold.
I want to go right to our chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward. She's joining us from Tel Aviv.
Clarissa, we heard the sirens going off. We saw the rockets a being intercepted by the Iron Dome over Jerusalem. What are you seeing over Tel Aviv, the largest city in Israel?
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have been hearing, Wolf, a lot of jets in the sky. It is quieter now, people are bracing themselves for ongoing waves of drones and missiles and intercepts potentially going throughout the night a lot of concern as to what this portends people really, I think just taking in these extraordinary images that we're seeing particularly over Jerusalem of those intercepts over the Al-Aqsa Mosque itself, one of the holiest sites in Islam and trying to grapple with what this portends for the region more broadly.
We are expecting to hear from the IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, any moment now, Israel has closed its airspace. It has advised residents throughout the country, but particularly in several key areas. And here another jet now in the distance to remain close to a shelter, to be vigilant to stake close to their phones, to make sure that they're following updates. Schools have been closed, universities have been closed. And everyone really just bracing themselves for what comes next,
because as we have discussed previously, Iran is now declaring this a fait accompli. They have achieved what they set out to do and it's now over, but really until we see the scale and scope of the damage or destruction that may or may not come as a result of this unprecedented aerial assault. It is far too soon to say that this is over and done with, not by any stretch of the imagination.
So certainly tensions here, very high and across the region as people wait to see what these future waves could bring, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yeah, a lot of nervousness going on right now. So just to be precise, I take it that Ben-Gurion Airport International flights in and out of Ben-Gurion Airport outside of Tel Aviv is now shut down. Is that right?
WARD: We have seen people in this hotel coming with their suitcases. They had tried to go to the airport. They were told don't even bother going because as long as you have cruise missiles, ballistic missiles drones in the skies of course they are not going to be allowing civilian aircraft to land or take off. We also saw a lot of people in our hotel gathering in the lobby carrying their pillows asking where the shelter was. A lot of nervousness, as I said, hotel staff telling them that wasn't necessary at this stage.
And again, just to underscore, Wolf, we haven't heard of direct impacts yet. We don't have a sense of any significant casualties yet though there is a report of one 10-year-old girl in the Negev area who was seriously injured. And so at this stage, the intercepts do appear to be remarkably effective, but that does nothing to detract. I would argue, Wolf, from the seriousness of the moment in terms of how this could quickly now escalate into that regional conflagration that everyone had been fearing and had been helping to try to avert.
BLITZER: Clarissa Ward in Tel Aviv for us, so Clarissa, stay safe over there. We'll be in close touch with you.
I want to go to Jerusalem right now. Nic Robertson, of course, is on the scene for us.
Nic, for viewers who may just be tuning in right now, tell us what has been going on the last hour or two over the skies of Jerusalem, a city that's holy to Muslims, Christians and Jews.
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What's been going on over Jerusalem?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Wolf, they were fighter jets flying in the skies and all number of red traces of what appeared to be incoming Iranian missiles being shot down in the skies, the intercepts were coming from multiple different directions. There were -- there were perhaps we saw 30 to 40 intercepts. You could hear the detonations. You can hear detonations coming from other parts of the city. You could see at times what appeared to be missiles flying low and
steady through the air and then being intercepted. It appeared that fighter jets were doing much of intercepts there were ongoing, but they sound like the detonations of Iron Dome type intercepts going on in the background. I'm hearing jets above, but there were some very loud detonations and of course the sound of sirens and you could hear on the streets as well, the sound of people panicking when all of this was happening.
Now, there had been no indications we've had so far that despite all those intercepts above this densely populated city that has both Jewish populations, Arab here as well. There were no casualties that we're aware of so far. Of course, the IDF spokesman will be bringing an update on that, but I think one thing that I'm reflecting on now, Wolf, of course, we've all been here. Were spoken over the many months now since Hamas's horrendous and horrific October the 7th attacks and how shocked Israelis are, and how traumatized many of them still are, that their security could be so impacted and the security dynamic that they felt, the security pact with the government that they felt they had, that people in Israel would be safe from attack, from outside.
Hamas blew that apart on October 7. But Iran is doing that again tonight. It is another level of attack, taking perhaps that precariousness, that concern that Israelis have about an outside power being able to bring death and destruction to them that is going to reach another level tonight, it seems, again, were taught about the crossing of a Rubicon. We've talked about the dynamic of Iran now targeting directly into Israel.
But when you think about that in human terms, about the way people living here are going to feel about this new level of threat and how they already were impacted by Hamas, an October 7th, I have to reflect that this is, of course, now are going to be part of what weighs on the mind of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he considers his next move and how to respond to Iran -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Yeah, I'm sure there will be some sort of Israeli response. So it's unclear what that will be. But this situation could clearly escalate dramatically in the coming hours. There's no doubt about that.
Nic, stand by. Be safe over there in Jerusalem. I hate to have to say be safe in Jerusalem, but we see what's going on in Jerusalem right now.
I want to go to Oren Liebermann. He's over at the Pentagon for us.
I understand, Oren, you're getting some new reporting on what the U.S. military is up to?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Some new information here we know and we've reported over the course of the past couple of hours that U.S. forces have intercepted drones that were fired towards Israel by Iran. It's unclear at this point where those were intercepted. So potentially, Iraq, Syria, maybe even Jordan, and then the assets used. The military hasn't gotten that far to say that yet. It could be
fighter jets that had been up over the region in all likelihood, because we saw an aerial refueling platform --
BLITZER: Oren, hold on for a moment, I hate to interrupt you, but the IDF spokesman is speaking in English right now, giving a briefing. Let's listen in.
DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESPERSON: Our planes are in the air. Tonight, wide-scale attack by Iran is a major escalation. Together with our allies and partners, we are operating at if it -- we're operating at full force to defend the state of Israel and the people of Israel. We will continue to fulfill this mission.
Questions, please?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: CNN is asking what type and how many projectiles have been fired toward Israel tonight so far. And how many drones and missiles have been intercepted? And can you specify by region?
HAGARI: The event is still occurring but until now, over 200 different kinds have been fired to Israel, killer drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles.
We have already intercepted a vast majority of the threats by Israeli systems. And with assistance from our partners, we are still in the event, our planes are still in the air, intercepting targets and we are ready for any threat that will come to Israel. We will do everything we need, everything to defend the state of Israel.
Thank you very much.
BLITZER: All right. So there you heard Admiral Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for the IDF, saying Israel will be ready for any threat. But he did say over 200 killer drones, missiles, cruise missiles have been fired by Iran towards Israel but he says, the Israeli air defense missile system has been very effective in shooting so many of them down, intercepting them as he pointed out.
Nic Robertson, let me get your thoughts on what we just heard from Admiral Hagari.
ROBERTSON: Yeah. He said we're still in the moment at this, there are still fighter jets in the skies. We're still working at maximum capacity. He said, we're working with our allies, ballistic missiles as well, he mentioned there, as well as the drones as well as the cruise missiles. So a full range of miss house has been fired.
It does feel as if were in something of a lull from that first wave at the moment but he makes it very clear that this is an ongoing situation that they're still working he did not give details about how precisely Israel is working in with its allies and partners. We know that the United States has been involved in shooting down some of those missiles coming inbound to Israel.
But earlier in this evening, we were told about dozens of drones. Then it was over 100 drones. And now we know its, it's 200 or more, multiple different types of missiles.
Let's break it down for a second here. The drones are the slowest. They can take, perhaps as long as nine hours to get here from Iran. Then you have the cruise missiles that are faster fly, fly low, but could take as long as two hours to get here from Iran. And then the estimated time that it takes for a ballistic this missile to get here from Iran is 12 minutes and we've been seeing a lot of video popping up on social media. And of course, we were verifying it and checking it. But it does appear to me that it is the ballistic missiles seem to be the ones that are connecting with a ground and having the large explosions.
Of course, Iran will have planned precisely how it was going to try and overwhelm Israel's air defense system. Now, Daniel Hagari, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesperson, did not say that the system was overwhelmed. He said that its been working at maximum capacity with the allies, but he did not give us that I heard yet a battle damage assessment of what has been hit.
And of course, this will be closely guarded and controlled information because it is -- it is not in Israel's interests to tell Iran what has been hit, but we do know that some of those, some of those missiles were not intercepted from the videos we've seen, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yeah. We'll get their full assessment in the hours and maybe even days ahead. We'll see what exactly happened, but it was significantly said over 200 of these rockets and missiles from Iranian drones, these cruise missiles, others have now been fired towards Israel and he said the Israel air defense system is working well, to intercept all those missiles and rockets.
Well, stand by. We'll get some more information. Nic, we'll get back to you in a minute.
But I want to go back to the Pentagon.
Oren Liebermann, I interrupted you to hear what Admiral Hagari was saying, but give us a sense of some of the new reporting you're getting now about the U.S. military's involvement in what's going on between Israel and Iran.
LIEBERMANN: The U.S. -- U.S. forces have intercepted a number of drones. We don't have a total number of that yet, even Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari wouldn't go into specifics yet because this is ongoing.
I will point out two things here very quickly for you, Wolf. First, a guard was specific in his boarding. He said, the interceptions have been done by Israeli systems and partners. He didn't specified by the U.S. We know the U.S. is involved. Very possible here, he's leaving the opening here for other countries being involved as well.
Of course, if you're firing from Iran heading west towards Israel, you almost certainly have to overfly Jordan. There is good military cooperation between Israel and Jordan. So that's a possibility for partnerships involved as well to intercept these launches here, as well as some other countries with which Israel has relations and with which there can be some very deep military cooperation.
It's also worth pointing out that we've spoken to two us officials here who say that at least as of right now, the launches they have seen over the past several hours, U.S. forces in the region have not been targeted and they have not suffered any injuries or casualties.
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That's a significant statement. It tells you where Iran is aiming here. Iran has not activated its proxies in Iraq or Syria to target U.S. forces, at least to this point, according to the officials, we saw them launch more than 100 attacks on U.S. forces before February 4th. Those fell off very quickly especially after the attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan. And at least as of right now in this massive barrage, were seeing launch from Iran towards Israel U.S. forces have not been the target.
Wolf, of course, I will update you if there's any change on that.
BLITZER: Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon.
And, Oren, I think you're absolutely right. When Admiral Hagari spoke about the partners who were helping Israel, he didn't mention who those partners were, but we all know the United States is deeply involved in this.
He also said something I thought was significant in describing the drones. He called them killer drones. Is that something Pentagon officials are talking about as well? These killer drones, as he said, coming into Israel directly from Iran.
LIEBERMANN: They haven't described them here as killer drones, but the Pentagon is, of course, very well aware. And so as General Erik Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command in Iran's essentially expertise in drones, whether its the Shahed drones that we have seen Russia use in Ukraine, or a number of other types of drones. They had.
This is one of Iran's key capabilities effectively and asymmetric capability, you can use these fairly inexpensive drones launched them, control them over long distances and if they can hit their target, they can have deadly, devastating effects.
And the U.S. has been watching the development of these drones very closely and the launch on this evening of those drones. Israel as well knows how effective these drones can be. We've seen them play out firsthand the Houthis use very similar types of drones acquiring the technology very often going from Iran. And we've seen the devastating effect those drones have had.
So, the U.S. is very well aware that these can be killer drones, even if that's not the common vernacular they use to describe these.
BLITZER: Yeah, that's where the Admiral Hagari was calling them killer drones. I thought that was significant.
Oren Liebermann, standby. I want to bring in the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, who is joining us right now.
Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us.
What's your assessment right now on this current situation? Is it about to calm down or is it about to explode?
MICHAEL OREN, FORMER ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: And, I don't think anybody has the answers that right now, there are several factors here, Wolf.
One is the degree of damage and death that will be brought on. Israel by the drones, killer drones, they explode, that makes them killer drones are and the cruise missiles. Cruise missiles, of course, are much greater threat.
Israeli and the United States have developed a very sophisticated anti-drone and anti-cruise missile system known as David's Sling and has been proven in combat in certain cases, but not in this massive scale. The question is whether the degree of these missiles, the amount of them coming at Israel from different directions will overwhelm that David's Sling system and there'll be significant damage and death in the state of Israel, which case Israel will have to respond.
Then there's the broader question. You know, we for many years have been playing by Iran's rules. Iran has these proxy shooting us, whether it's Hamas or Hezbollah or Palestine Islamic Jihad, the pro- Iranian militias in Iraq and we shoot back at the proxies and you know, is you back the proxies, proxies hide behind civilian populations and we get branded as war criminals.
In each round of fighting, Israel -- Israel gets condemned, but Iran gets away scot-free. So Israel, as long tried to change the rules of those games and have holds Iran responsible for what its proxies are doing. I'm sure the attack attributed to Israel last week against the consular section in Damascus was part of that effort to change the rules goals of the game because Hezbollah now is out firing Hamas in terms of rockets aimed at the north. There are 60,000 to 80,000 Israelis who can't go back to their homes the entire northern part of the country is uninhabitable. You got to change the rules of the game.
So, yes, we don't know what this wave of rockets and drones is going to do to set a visual degree to which we and our allies can defend against it. But at the end of the day, we're still left with the Iranian game, which is to use proxies to destroy us. And frankly also attack American interests and international interests in the Middle East. I think those rules have to be changed.
BLITZER: Do you think Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, which is a clear proxy of the Iranians, will get involved. They have thousands of rockets and missiles in their inventory over there that could cause enormous damage, and many of those rockets and those missiles, they not only can reach northern Israel, Haifa, for example, but they can reach Tel Aviv, even further south all the way towards Eilat, we're told.
OREN: They can. It's between 150,000, 170,000 rockets there, longer- range, more accurate. In many cases, heavier rockets that are those in the possession of Hamas, a serious -- Hamas, I always said, is a tactical threat to the state of Israel.
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They committed horrible atrocities on October 7, but they didn't really threaten the existence of the state of Israel the way that Hezbollah can. But that's an intolerable situation for any sovereign country to face that type of threat on its northern border new and I are old enough to remember the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. And Kennedy was going to go to a world war to prevent missiles being put off the coast of Florida in Cuba.
Intolerable situation for any sovereign country and to have that literally that sword of Damocles over our head constantly and not people not being able to go back to their homes and the galley. That's a situation that has to change preferably, not by military means, by diplomatic means, but at the end of days, we have to defend ourselves.
BLITZER: How would you assess the U.S.-Israeli relationship right now? You're the former Israeli ambassador to the United States. You know Washington well. We heard the statement that the president, President Biden, put out meeting with his national security team in the White House Situation Room, that the commitment to Israel as ironclad, but give us your sense of how ironclad this commitment is.
OREN: That did not surprise me at all. I expected that to happen. I'll never forget what the President Obama said in the Oval Office and my last day in Washington. He said that, you know, if Israel, is ever attack by Iran, by Hezbollah, facing thousands of rockets every day, United States would always come to Israel's aid because that's what the American people expect. And I think the American people still expect that.
The question is, would America go on to the offensive? And that I kind of, I would rather doubt. I think America will help defend Israel skies and we have agreements to that effect. United States, you know, I've mentioned this, David's Sling system. America has other anti- missile systems, THAAD system, Aegis system, the Patriot system. These are very effective and they can help guard Israel cities.
The decision whether Israel is going to mount a counterstrike, what that counter-strike might look like and to what extent what would be the volume, what would be the scope of the strike would be Israel's decision, not to that of the United States.
BLITZER: Do you anticipate there will be a counterstrike by Israel?
OREN: Again, it's going to depend largely on the extent of the damage done by this first wave of Iranian drones and cruise missiles. In any case, we are in the Middle East and impressions and deterrence count for an awful lot here. I don't think Israel can be struck in this way on such a massive scale and not respond in a significant way. BLITZER: Mike Oren, and the former Israeli ambassador to the United
States, Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us. We'll continue this conversation down the road to be sure.
OREN: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thank you.
I want to go back to Alex Marquardt or national security correspondent.
Alex, it's notable that the Biden administration is making it very clear. It is standing by Israel in a very strong way.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Foundationally, Wolf, the Biden administration is not going to walk away from Israel. It is still the closest ally in the Middle East. And I think President Biden has every intention of continuing what they've been calling ironclad support for Israel.
I think it was interesting what you just heard there from Ambassador Michael Oren, who talked about the possibility of Israel striking back against Iran. That is certainly something that the United States does not want to see happen. They don't want to see Israel taking the fight to Iran because obviously that could significantly expand this conflict.
And, Wolf, this -- this retaliation by Iran is coming at a really interesting time when the relationship between Israel and the United States is getting a lot frostier because of the war in Gaza. You've heard critiques by President Biden. Much stronger than they have been in recent months, just recently, he said that the way that Prime Minister Netanyahu is carrying out this war is a mistake. He called the attack on the World Central Kitchen staffers that killed seven people outrageous but at the same time when you started to get the sense that Iran was going to carry out tonight attack against Israel. You started to hear what we've heard from President Biden in the past that this relationship is ironclad and that they were ready to defend Israel as best they could help by moving assets into the region.
Iran, meanwhile, Wolf made it clear that this is just about Israel, and they essentially said to the United States, butt out of this. You're not part of this and you shouldn't get involved.
But the United States continued to say, we're going to support our enemies are -- excuse me, our allies. And that, that support is ironclad.
We are seeing that same messaging tonight. Again, Wolf, from the Iranians, from that mission to the U.N. saying that this was all about what they called the rogue Israeli regime and the United States must stay away.
So one question I have is in the Iranian mind, it does this count as the United States staying away.
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They had a very clear role in what were seeing tonight and helping take down those drones and supporting Israel to take down those missiles. So, will Iran see that U.S. involvement tonight as something that is proactive against them? Will Iran start up those attacks through its proxies to go after U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria?
And then another question, Wolf, is to what extent does this plan to the pressure on Israel to end this war? Because you can certainly imagine a situation in which the U.S. will say to Israel, hey, look, you guys are getting attacked by Iran now, this isn't Hamas anymore.
This is a much more significant series of attacks. And by the way, I think the pressure from the Israeli people is going to mount as well -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Yeah. I suspect you're absolutely right. Alex Marquardt, stand by. We'll get back to you. Everybody stand by.
Much more of our very special life coverage right after a quick break.
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BLITZER: That was moments ago in the Negev, in Israel, rockets coming in, missiles coming in from Iran. The IDF spokesman, Admiral Hagari, saying more than 200 have so far been fired in Israel any calls them killer drones, cruise missiles, and other rockets and missiles coming in.
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Israeli air defense said missile system backed by the United States, of course, is dealing with this enormous escalation in this situation between Israel and Iran. I want to discuss what's going on with a former Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata, who's joining us right now.
Eyal, thank you very much for joining us. Give us your assessment of what is happening right now and what is likely to happen in the hours and days ahead.
EYAL HULATA, FORMER ISRAELI NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Thank you, Wolf. Happy to be here.
Tonight, these are very grave circumstances, of course, to go live on, on your show. The amount of rockets that Iran has fired in Israel is unprecedented. The fact that it fired directly from Iran to Israel on such large amounts, and distributed areas, and also different weapon systems.
Nothing like this has ever happened before. This is Iran crossing all lines of things that are conceivable as we've seen before. Now, so far it seems that Israel's defense systems are capable of intercepting those rockets. And, of course, with the enormous aid by CentCom U.S. forces that are doing a lot intercept them even before they reach Israeli airspace.
I think it's important for the audience to understand just what would have happened if Israel did not have such different systems. All of those rockets that have been intercepted over the skies of Jerusalem, of Tel Aviv, of the Negev, of Haifa, of those would have hit civilian neighborhoods causing enormous amount of damage at least. So far, it seems that our weapons since the defense weapons systems are able to intercept them, and that's, of course, very important, but we should remember what could have happened if we didn't have all those systems, of course how.
BLITZER: How do you expect -- what do you expect, Eyal, if you can give us your assessment, how do you think Israel is going to respond to this?
HULATA: Well, I think we need to see how this night ends and how tomorrow and the day after continue before we know, it seems already, the cabinet is convening in the Kirya tonight, and the messaging coming out of that is that Israel will respond and I have to say I would be surprised if it wouldn't if -- I was national security adviser at the moment, I would strongly advise to respond.
The only reason, as I said before that we didn't have civilian damages as well, is because of our air defense, but Israel should not be punished twice. What Iran did is unacceptable. It's beyond any conceivable responses or attacks. And of course, Israel must respond.
In what way, in what manner, these are things that I'm sure will be very carefully deliberated, before decision is made. But, Wolf, I think it's important also to note that military response is not the only thing that needs to happen here.
You know, I sit in Washington as a fellow in the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, we talked a lot about what is necessary to do with Iran and the scope of international pressure. We need to recall that the sanctions on ballistic missiles have been lifted just a year ago, during 2023. Those are the same ballistic missiles that were fired and other missiles, of course, those sanctions were also against drones and cruise missiles. All of those are the answer on arsenal of the Iranians.
I think it's important not only to ask, what should Israel do at the moment in response, but what should the international community do when you run is allowing itself to do something, this unimaginable and to use so many missiles against civilian targets in Israel, maybe to restore those sanctions. Maybe this time to do something more serious at the Security Council, of course, with U.S. lead and all of the European partners involved in it.
BLITZER: After the Israelis life that strike against that Iranian consular building in Damascus, killing those top Iranian military commanders, we anticipated that there would be some Iranian retaliation. I like many others thought it would come from some of the Iranian proxies like Hezbollah in south Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen. Were you surprised at this Iranian military response has come directly
from Iran and these rockets, these missiles, these drones weren't launched from Syria or Iraq, or Lebanon, but were launched from Iran, from inside Iran? Did that come as a surprise to you, Eyal?
HULATA: I must admit that it does come as a surprise, also on the volume.
We need to recall, you know, Israel attacked IRGC officers while they're in the Damascus plotting how to continue and expand the attack of the proxies against Israel.
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This is what Israel did in Damascus. By the way, I don't think it was a consulate. I think it was -- it was a house that they were housing, but it doesn't matter. I mean, we -- Iran is usually attacking diplomatic sites in urgent time -- just happens to be that a few days ago, they concluded that Iran bombed the Israeli embassy in Argentina about 30 years ago.
But what Israel did was attack IRGC officers while they were plotting to expand the attacks on Israel. A retaliation like what Iran did or response like what Iran did on civilian targets in Israel is just beyond what is proportionate or conceivable.
Yes. I was surprised. I guess they did it because they thought that Israel is vulnerable and they can do it now. And maybe that Israel will not respond in a proper way. But I think what's more important just to remember that President Biden told the Iranians not to do it they did it anyway.
So I guess what you Iran was defying was not only Israel, but in fact, also the United States and the international community. And that's a big problem that we need to think about. And also, to see how we react to it, so this doesn't happen again.
BLITZER: Former Israeli national security adviser, Eyal Hulata, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it very much.
HULATA: Thank you.
BLITZER: A very, very dangerous time in the Middle East, right now.
I want to go back to the White House right now. MJ Lee, our correspondent is standing by.
MJ, I'm told you have some news out of the White House involving a phone call between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu.
MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Our understanding right now is that President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be speaking tonight of course, an incredibly crucial and important conversation, given that this is the U.S. and Israel talking as all of this is unfolding at the highest levels, and as the U.S. is trying to get a full picture of the scope of these attacks and then of course, very importantly get a sense of how Israel plans to respond.
You know, as we have been talking about so much in the last few hours, one crucial and overarching goal for President Biden in the coming hours, in the coming days is going to be an attempt at containment. This situation that we have seen unfold tonight is precisely the situation that U.S. officials had very much hoped to avoid and is something that actually U.S. officials had hoped to avoid even going back to the initial Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
The possibility of a wider regional conflict erupting had always been on the minds of us officials and they had been watching this space very carefully. Now, what we see the president, sort of trying to juggle now, of course, is his repeated at statement of support for Israel's defense and security. But again, trying to do what the U.S. can do to advise Israel to not take actions that might end up having a spillover effect.
Now, it's entirely unclear right now, as we tried to get a full assessment of this situation what containment might look like because we don't know what Israel's response might be in the coming hours and days.
Again, you know, as soon as we have a readout from the White House on President Biden's conversation with the Israeli prime minister, we will bring that to you. But it is hard to overstate, of course, the importance of that conversation given the gravity of the situation equation, right now, Wolf.
BLITZER: MJ, very quickly, earlier tonight, there were some speculations that maybe the president, President Biden, would go before cameras and address the American people on what's going on between Israel and Iran right now. I take it that has gone away, right?
LEE: That is not our understanding, at least right now, but, Wolf, I have to say the situation is certainly really fluid you know, the price president did meet with his national security team in the Situation Room for at least a few hours and when that meeting concluded a little while ago, White House official was quick to say, even though that meeting is over, that group could reconvene at later this evening, again, just stressing the fluidity of the situation.
But as you talk about and think about President Biden and whether or not he might, at some point find a way to address the nation, whether that's in a paper statement or at some point speaking before cameras, I think it is also just really important to keep in mind the politics that are at play for this president the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war, of course, has been an incredibly challenging issue for this president. And he has seen his support erode among some key constituencies as he has declined to call four a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, something many of his supporters would like to see him do.
So again, all of that sort of feeds to this overarching sort of goal and mission and hope that we were talking about before this administration, many U.S. officials certainly the president himself wanting to make sure that they can do what they can to try to keep this situation contained.
BLITZER: MJ Lee, our senior White House correspondent, MJ, I know you're going to be busy staying very close touch with you. Thank you very, very much.
Right now, I want to bring in Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz of Florida. He's a key member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Congressman, thank you very much for joining us. I know you're a strong supporter of Israel.
What's your reaction to what Iran has now decided to do to launch these killer drones as the Israeli military calls them, these cruise missiles, these other rockets directly from inside Iran towards Israel?
REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): Thanks. Well, thanks, Wolf. Thanks for having me. I'm literally at a bar mitzvah at the moment, which is what I ran is trying to destroy.
Make no mistake about it: this is an unprecedented attack from Iran direct into Israel proper. It is beyond -- beyond proportional based on their response, hundreds of missiles into Israel. And by the way, not -- not on a government or targeted site like Israel did, but on civilians and on holy sites. The images of Israel's defense systems, protecting the Temple Mount, just to show the irresponsibility of the Iranian regime.
And so, you know, obviously, we have to see how this all unfolds still, because it's still in real time. Hopefully, you know, there are no lives lost in Israel, it's clear that the allies, along with the Israel systems are doing their job. But this is what we all feared, Wolf, after October 7, that I ran would try to take advantage of the situation.
We know the Houthis and Hezbollah, their proxies have been doing that for months now, hundreds of missiles and rockets from the Houthis and from Hezbollah destabilizing the region. And we're going to need everyone, everyone at the table rallying around Israel, and figuring out now what to do with Iran.
BLITZER: Congressman, do anticipate that Israel will now respond to what Iran has done?
MOSKOWITZ: Well, I mean, one of the things we've seen Israel do in the past is when attacked, they go after the sites that attack them. So it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that they will attack missile silos and sites from where these things were launched, not Iranian citizens is what Iran is now doing to the state of Israel.
But that's still unclear, Wolf. I think we have to wait to see what damage Israel sustains. But this is, this is not a proportional, not even the realm of proportional. This is a clear provocation. This is Iran trying to draw Israel into a war.
But Israel need to do everything it can defend itself. It'll gather the intelligence, working with the Americans, working with its allies across the region. I think you're seeing a number of nations come together in real time as this attack is unfolding to help Israel in its time of need. And the United States, obviously being its number one ally.
And so the President Biden is doing a great job. He's been doing a job. His message has been clear that he will stand with Israel ironclad, period, no daylight. And so they'll make the best decisions on what the next steps are.
BLITZER: Yeah, this is a very, very sensitive, dangerous moment right now. We'll watch it together with you, Congressman Jared Moskowitz. Thank you so much for joining us. Go back to the bar mitzvah now and we'll continue this conversation down the road. Appreciate it very much.
MOSKOWITZ: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Everybody stand by. Were going to much more of our special live coverage right after this quick break.
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[20:48:01]
BLITZER: That was about an hour or so ago with the skies over Jerusalem, incoming drones and rockets were coming in towards Jerusalem. And the Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile system went up in intercepted those drones and those rockets coming in potentially could have caused a lot, a lot of damage.
We're watching all of this unfold.
Kimberly Dozier is with us right now.
Kimberly, you're a global affairs analyst. Give us your assessment of what we're seeing, we're hearing. What's going on?
KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: What is extraordinary is how many Rubicons have been crossed tonight. We didn't think Iran would fire directly onto Israeli territory, at least that was the common wisdom because it didn't want to trigger some sort of global response. We didn't think that Iran would launch over Jerusalem, where it risked one of those missiles getting knocked out of the sky and hitting the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is one of the holiest sites of Islam.
And it means that it calls into question everything else we thought about Iran and its potential actions possibly to arm itself with nuclear weapons, which it hasn't taken a separate -- hasn't taken yet.
At this point, we've got a few hours more to watch what is coming in because ballistic missiles arrived right away, the cruise missiles that got fired, take five to six hours. And then the drones swarms that they launched in waves that could be arriving up to midnight hour time. So we've got a few more hours to see where those things might kit. And that will determine the strength of Israel's response. But, of course, Israel's already promising to respond.
BLITZER: You know, respond, but they want to see what kind of damage if Israelis have been injured or killed in the process. That will impact what the Israeli response is going to be.
DOZIER: Yeah. And so far, we've had pretty minor -- one minor injury reported to a child in the Negev, some damage reported by the Israeli defense forces at, at least one of their bases, but no major mass casualties.
[20:50:09]
We don't know if that's because the defense system was so good or the aim was so poor but you can bet what Iran is doing right now is watching everything that happens, the impact of this. So that next time and this makes it more likely that there will be a next time, they will know how to time it better to cause more destruction.
BLITZER: Let me bring retired Colonel Cedric Leighton, our military analysts into this conversation, Air Force colonel.
Let's talk a little bit about Iran's capabilities of aiming these drones, these missiles, these rockets towards Israel.
Do you think when they aim towards as Israel, they didn't necessarily realize that they were going to be going over Jerusalem, a holy city not just to Christians and Jews, but to Muslims as well?
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think they knew that, you know, in general where they would be going. Jerusalem is such an important area for you through them, not only for the Muslim religion, as you mentioned, but for all the monotheistic religions.
But the key thing is the precision of their aiming capability and, Wolf, if you look at how they do this, there are some weapons systems that they have. They can be pretty precise, including the fairly primitive drones with their fairly primitive engines that are basically like lawnmower engines.
But they are able to do certain things with them. They can guide them in a certain way in real time. And that does make a difference. There missile systems are, have improved quite a bit in terms of their ability to hit a specific targets. So they knew generally what they were doing.
I think what their main problem, Wolf, is that they didn't sequence things in the way that we would have expected them. To kind of Kim's point, there are so many aspects to mounting a campaign of this type that you would really need to sequence these things based on the timing of the weapon system, that capability of the weapon system the rapidity with which the weapon system can actually hit a target, and the distance that it can cover in a certain amount of time.
BLITZER: And, David Sanger, I know you're doing a lot of reporting on what's going on. What are you hearing from your sources? DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So the key
here is not just the capability as Cedric points out, or the timing, as we've heard from Kim, but the signaling. And if it turns out that most of this is over now that there are dribs and drabs coming in, but most of it is over. Then the statement that the Iranians turned out that said, this closes the matter is intended in fact, probably to close the matter.
BLITZER: They don't want to see Israel retaliate.
SANGER: They don't want -- they don't want to get into a direct conflict with Israel, or would the United States.
But as Kim has pointed out, they've really changed the game here by attacking directly from Iran. We haven't seen that in many, many decades, and certainly never in a time when Iran has had the kind of capability missile reach, precision or evenly since the invention of the drone. So, it's a big deal.
But the conversation that's been taking place so far between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Jake Sullivan and his counterpart, his national security adviser, Secretary Austin and others have all been a battle out to the Israelis. Look, you started this with an attack in Damascus that killed a number of IRGC members. You knew they were going to respond. Let's let the response sit.
And yet the pressure on the Israelis to escalate again is going to be pretty high. So yet again, we're going to be in one of these tests between President Biden's influence on the Israelis and whether the Israelis will take some American advice and wind it down.
BLITZER: So, the pressure from within Israel itself is going to be intense on Netanyahu to respond big time.
SANGER: And within his war cabinet with some, you know, incredible hardliners, there you can almost hear in that phone conversation, the presidents going to have with Netanyahu, you can bet and then you will say, well, I agree with you, sir, but I'm under great prefer politically to keep my own government together. So I'm going to have to go do something.
So the trick here is for the Iranians and for the Israelis, how do you satisfy your various constituencies at home? Because the Iranians are divided on this topic as well, while avoiding an escalation that turns the all-out war.
BLITZER: Do the Iranians know that if there is a full-scale war with Israel and the United States for that matter, they would lose big time?
SANGER: Well, they've got to know that the chances are that that could end the current regime there. The question is how big that goes?
On the other side of this gets to what Kim was describing before. So far, the Iranians had built up their nuclear capability in the past couple of years in reaction to President Trump's decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
[20:55:03]
Before he made that decision, they didn't have very much nuclear material around, certainly not enough to make a bomb.
They've now got enough for three. And they're trudging forward, but not as fast as they could. One thing they could do to escalate here is go full bore on the nuclear program.
BLITZER: Yeah. That worries me. I'm sure worries Colonel Leighton and Kimberly as well.
All right. Everybody, stand by. We're going to have much more of our special breaking news live coverage, right after this.
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