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The Amanpour Hour

Hezbollah Confirms Hassan Nasrallah Killed in Israeli Strike; Russia Condemns Killing of Hezbollah Leader. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired September 28, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:24]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Jim Sciutto live in Tel Aviv. Our breaking news this hour.

The head of one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East is dead. Hezbollah has confirmed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday.

Nasrallah, one of the founders of the Iran-backed militant group, which has been a major antagonist of Israel for decades, behind many deadly terror attacks as well.

A short time ago, I asked a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces if he believes that Nasrallah's death has somehow weakened Iran's power in the region.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. DORON SPIELMAN, IDF SPOKESPERSON: You know, I think we'd be very cautious before saying that Iran has been weakened.

Again, rockets went off just a few minutes ago, just over my home on our way here. There was a rocket that was intercepted and I had to deal with my children who were very, very scared.

We're not going to, you know, wage that Iran, which is the largest supporter of terrorism in the entire world is weakened. What they do know is that they've been hiding for years behind their proxies, being able to destroy and attack Israel, terrorize Israeli civilians without paying a price.

What they see now is their proxy Hezbollah, which has forced their people out of their home and tortured their own people and hid all their weaponry behind Lebanese civilians is now paying a very serious price.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: For its part Hezbollah is vowing to continue fighting despite this enormous blow to its leadership. It launched rockets in the northern Israel right before announcing Nasrallah's death.

Israel certainly not letting up its military activities. It launched further strikes into southern Beirut today, targeting what the IDF says were weapons, storage facilities for Hezbollah.

Those strikes along with the confirmation of Nasrallah's death, have sent shockwaves through the region, a fair amount of fear as well, regarding a possible retaliatory response.

Iran's Supreme Leader said today that quote, "all regional resistance forces are standing with Hezbollah". And the country's state media is just reporting that a senior Iranian commander was among those killed in this Israeli strike targeting Nasrallah.

Nasrallah's death marks a major escalation in a decades-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman has more or on Nasrallah's rise to power.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hassan Nasrallah was hailed as a resistance fighter by his admirers and a terrorist by his adversaries.

He became secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992 after Israel assassinated his predecessor.

In his early 30s at the time, he went on to lead his group to become a formidable military force and a major player in Lebanese and regional politics.

A decade earlier Nasrallah attended a theological seminary in Najaf, Iraq. And returned to his native Lebanon where during the 1982 Israeli invasion, he urged his supporters to take up arms against the invaders.

The beginnings of what became Hezbollah -- literally meaning the Party of God. The group was backed by Iran and led by local clerics to harass the Israeli occupiers. The group is believed to have been behind a series of terrorist attacks in Lebanon and abroad. And during the 1980s, took dozens of westerners in Lebanon hostage.

The growth of Hezbollah coincided with the emergence of the previously downtrodden and neglected Shia community in Lebanon as a major force in the country.

Nasrallah emerged as an adept guerilla commander, leading an unrelenting campaign against Israeli forces during which his eldest son was killed in action.

The United States designated the group a terrorist organization in 1997.

Hezbollah' struggle against Israeli forces on Lebanese soil continued until 2000 when in perhaps his proudest moment, Israeli troops withdrew unconditionally from southern Lebanon.

"Israel which has nuclear weapons and the best air force in the region, I swear to God," he said", it is weaker than a spider's web."

[11:04:51]

WEDEMAN: But in 2006, Israel and Lebanon were again at war, the month- long conflict left at least 1,000 Lebanese civilians dead and devastated much of the country's infrastructure.

Israel tried and failed to destroy Hezbollah, which came out stronger than ever before.

After the war, his focus turned inward on his homeland, Lebanon where Hezbollah increasingly became a key player in the country's complicated politics and expanded its network of social services.

When war broke out in neighboring Syria in 2011, Nasrallah deployed Hezbollah fighters to shore up President Bashar al Assad's regime and also provided support to Iraq during its war against ISIS.

Iran was quick to reward Nasrallah with money, weapons, and logistical support. But critics say his alliance with Tehran inflamed sectarian tensions. And weakened his credibility as a self-styled defender of the Palestinian people.

When the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Hezbollah's ally, attacked Israel on the 7th of October 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 others, Hezbollah began firing into Israel, opening what it called a day support front for Gaza.

For more than 11 months, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire across the border. Nasrallah said this would only stop once the war in Gaza came to an end.

Instead, more fighting and death followed in the form of covert operations by Israel, which detonated Hezbollah's wireless communications devices in broad daylight for two days in a row.

A weakened Nasrallah called it an unprecedented blow.

Then Israels bombing campaign killed hundreds across Lebanon. Yet until the very end, Hassan Nasrallah remained defiant.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: CNN correspondent Jomana Karadsheh is live now in Beirut and she joins us. Jomana, I understand you've been hearing explosions behind you there.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Jim, in the last few minutes, we had a massive airstrike that appears to have hit, and I'm going to have our cameraman Charbel (ph) here pan over. You can still see plumes of smoke rising from that area.

This is on the edge of Beirut's southern suburbs that's predominantly Shia area of Beirut where you have a presence -- a big presence of Hezbollah and it's also close to one of the Christian areas of Beirut.

We are going to try and get more information on this, but this really Jim has been the scene here across the southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh.

The airstrikes have been very much constant since last night you had that massive strike that now we know killed the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah. And a few hours after that, the Israeli military said that it was going to begin targeting what they said are Hezbollah facilities and store -- weapons storage facilities. And they have been pounding the southern suburbs of Beirut since last night.

And what we have seen as a result of that, Jim, we have seen a mass exodus of people you have the Israeli military initially in a post on X last night telling the people of certain neighborhoods to evacuate those areas of the southern suburbs for their safety they said.

But what we saw is not only people in those areas, but many other parts of the southern suburbs, this is one of the most densely populated parts of the country, begin to leave that area late last night.

I mean, we were driving around on the streets at 3:00 in the morning and we saw thousands of people who were out sleeping on the streets -- families, women carrying their children, people carrying whatever they could grab in this rush to get out and try and search for safety.

So yes, this has been the scene here now for nearly 24 hours, Jim. And everyone is bracing for what comes next. Shock and apprehension here in Beirut today.

[11:09:44]

SCIUTTO: Jomana I wonder what reaction you and the team has seen there to Nasrallah's death I know that to his supporters, he was a resistance leader.

But there were others in Lebanon who did not think very highly of him or of Hezbollah. Have you seen both protests and celebrations.

KARADSHEH: Well, what we have seen, Jim, let me tell you just a few minutes before we got that statement from Hezbollah confirming that Nasrallah was killed. We were speaking to supporters of Hezbollah and they were -- they really believed that he was still alive.

It was them telling us just wait and see. He will appear and he will come back with surprises, meaning that there will be more attacks.

And, you know, a few minutes later we got that statement announcing and confirming that he was indeed killed by that massive Israeli strike yesterday.

And what happened in immediately after that? You had an outburst of celebratory gunfire across different parts of the city. And this is in celebration of his martyrdom. And this is something that many within his support base, many Muslims believe that this martyrdom should be celebrated. So you've had that.

We also have had scenes of people on the street. Women wailing, women fainting, supporters chanting their support for Hassan Nasrallah in the lobby of my hotel where we are staying.

A woman was standing there crying and she broke down. She had to sit down and she's crying just repeating, oh God, oh Lord.

People are in shock. For many of his supporters, for his loyal base this was an unfathomable scenario. Now, they are seeing this playing out and everyone is just wondering, Jim, what comes next, because Hezbollah put out that statement saying they will continue fighting.

The question is, are they in in a position to continue fighting? We know that they are continuing their attacks on Israel, but how much of an escalation could we be potentially seeing and is it going to involve other Iranian-backed proxies in the region.

SCIUTTO: Yes. the question of course, is what level of attacks they're capable over this point, particularly as where you are, the parts of Beirut still under Israeli attack.

Jomana Karadsheh in Beirut, shanks so much.

Let's get more analysis -- military analysis on these developments. Cedric Leighton, CNN military analyst retired U.S. Air Force colonel.

I wonder as you look, not just at this attack that has taken out the leader of Hezbollah who really defined the group for some three decades, but the latest in a series of attacks that have targeted other Hezbollah leaders, weapons, storage sites, and crucially, those pager attacks that struck many thousands of Hezbollah fighters and operatives. Is it deeply, deeply wounded as a militant and as a terrorist group in terms of what it could carry out?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think it is Jim. Now that doesn't mean that this is a permanent -- this is permanent damage to Hezbollah. There are ways that groups like this have the possibility of morphing into something else. They have a way of surviving a lot of this.

But in this particular case at this particular moment in time, the Israelis have basically done several things. They've carried out a decapitation strike against the top leadership of Hezbollah. They also took out a lot of the middle tier of leadership.

And that makes it very difficult for an organization to exercise what we call command-and-control in a military sense. So itis going to be very hard for them to group together to provide not only the support, but also the means for a coordinated strike against Israel.

It doesn't mean they can't do it, but it is definitely a much more difficult endeavor for them to do something like that.

Then you couple that with the leadership strikes, you know, encompassing all the things you mentioned with the targeting in a geographic sense, where you're going after entities in -- along the border between Syria and Lebanon. You're looking at the Beqaa Valley.

You're, of course, looking at southern Lebanon where Hezbollah has a large concentration of launch sites. All of those have been struck repeatedly by the IDF, particularly by the Israeli air force, as well as artillery.

And all of that is speaks to a very coordinated campaign on the Israeli side to not only decapitate Hezbollah but eliminated in a way that makes it very difficult for it to operate.

[11:14:50]

SCIUTTO: Is it possible that Hezbollah's capabilities were somewhat exaggerated, that its proving to be something of a paper tiger. And I don't want to underestimate those capabilities.

And by the way, it has -- it has been able to force the evacuation of some 60,000 Israelis from northern Israel due to its missile and rocket barrages there.

But of course, the fear had been that it could strike deep into Israel, including where I'm standing right now in Tel Aviv with effect. And you have these series of strikes now, is it possible that it is less powerful than was imagined.

LEIGHTON: Yes absolutely. We've seen this several times. Times where we look at an adversary of force and we think that they are much stronger than they actually are.

One of the key things about Hezbollah was not only the fact that it was a terrorist or is a terrorist organization but it also, of course, has this vast arsenal of rockets and missiles.

When you throw around numbers like 150,000 rockets and missiles which Hezbollah is purported to have, that really means a lot of firepower.

So you're worried about the firepower if you're on the other side of this. You're worried about the firepower. You're worried about their ability to exercise that power to use those instruments, those weapons against you.

And in this particular case, what you're really looking at is the fact that in this case, I think with the command-and-control links destroyed it becomes much more of I was going to say paper tiger, it's not quite true because they are still extremely dangerous. But it's much less of a lethal threat to Israel than it was. Save the day before yesterday.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you then, perhaps a similar question about Iran. What are Iran's military capabilities today to strike Israel. In April, we had what was then an unprecedented attack in its scale. Many dozens of missiles and drones fired at Israel, but few, if any reaching their target. Israels missile defenses, proving not just Israel's, we should note a regional network of defenses that included U.S. forces, but also allies in Jordan, for instance, proving capable of neutralizing that threat. Might Iran be facing that same question today? What could it credibly do to strike Israel in terms of retaliation.

LEIGHTON: Yes. absolutely.

And we saw that as you mentioned in April, Jim that was an effort by Iran in some ways to showcase their capabilities and to see if they could overwhelm the Israeli missile and their defenses. But the fact that Israel not only had those -- has those missile and air defenses but that they were connected to allied air defenses and missile defenses that made it really difficult for the uranium systems to penetrate that shield.

And this same thing holds true today. The Iranians can throw a lot of stuff against Israel, but the likelihood of it succeeding is really quite low given the fact that the U.S. is in a position to help as are other allied nations and Israel, of course, is prime for just such an eventuality.

SCIUTTO: Col. Cedric Leighton, thanks so much.

And still ahead this hour on CNN NEWSROOM, we are continuing to, of course, follow developments here in the Middle East, concerns growing still about the possibility of an expanding war.

What we're hearing now from the White House, we'll have a live report, and that's next.

[11:18:25]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: We are now awaiting reaction from U.S. officials after Hezbollah confirmed today its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, died in Israel's strike on Beirut on Friday.

CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak joins me now with the latest.

Kevin, have you heard reaction from the Biden administration to this killing?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, not officially and I think that in and of itself is pretty telling, Jim. it gives you a sense of just how precarious this moment is for President Biden, for the White House, for the entire administration.

Of course, President Biden has been trying, in his words to de- escalate the situation in the Middle East and certainly this is the opposite of that.

Now, that's not to say that American officials aren't welcoming this news, at least unofficially. Behind the scenes, we've heard officials say that certainly no one in the White House is mourning Hassan Nasrallah. They say of course, that he has American blood on his hands, but I think the timing of all of this is going to raise some questions certainly about how the United States is influencing Israel in all of this.

Because remember, president Biden and top White House officials had been trying to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. They've been working on that on the sidelines of the U.N. all of this week.

They were furious on Thursday morning when Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, came out and appeared to reject that ceasefire because they thought that they had gotten agreement from Israel to sign onto it.

The U.S. and top officials, including Biden himself, were very quick to say yesterday that they had no involvement in this strike in Beirut, that they weren't given a heads up.

[11:24:48]

LIPTAK: And it all just sort of speaks to the fact that the U.S. sees this moment as a very precarious one and one of certainly high risk of a wider regional war. And they think that that could have devastating consequences.

And we heard that directly yesterday from the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: An all-out war between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel would be devastating for both Lebanon and Israel. And again we anticipate that we'd see a number of people displaced casualties that, you know, people or exceed what we've seen in Gaza.

Of course, we are a planning organization. We plan for all contingencies and we'll be ready for any contingencies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now, Lloyd Austin had two phone calls yesterday with his counterpart in Israel, Yoav Gallant.

American officials have been talking to their counterparts to try and get more information about this.

Two people who have not spoken are President Biden and the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They haven't spoken in more than a month, according to readouts from the White House. And I think that gives you a sense of just how much influence President Biden thinks he has on his counterpart at this moment --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

LIPTAK: -- which doesn't seem like a lot. SCIUTTO: This is the second major ceasefire effort led by the U.S. that the U.S. believes the Israeli prime minister at a minimum was not sufficiently interested in.

I wonder regarding this most recent attempt, do White House officials acknowledge that its attempted a ceasefire along the northern border is done?

LIPTAK: Well, they don't think it's done yet. They say there's still trying to work through it, but I do think that they feel at a minimum misled in some part by the Israelis because they were talking to them as they were working to reach this agreement over the course of the beginning of this week.

And in fact, when we heard from the White House on Wednesday evening, they made it clear that they thought that Israel was going to sign on. The next morning Netanyahu said that he hadn't signed on and then went on to deliver a very fiery speech from the rostrum of the U.N.

So at a minimum, I think they may feel misled, but certainly they aren't going to give up. They're never going to say that they're giving up on the ceasefire efforts, but it is difficult to see how they will proceed now.

SCIUTTO: Well, you might say that this strike speaks volumes about Netanyahu's actual position on the ceasefire.

Kevin Liptak, thanks so much well.

Well, a potential blow to Iran as well. And the danger of further escalation in the region.

Next, we discuss what comes next.

[11:27:37]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage: the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The terrorist group confirming just a short time ago that their leader is dead. This followed an Israeli official saying earlier in the day that they believe their Israeli strike, their strike on southern Beirut yesterday had taken out Hezbollah leader.

President Biden has yet to comment. We do know his administration is deeply concerned over the potential for escalation following Nasrallah's killing as well as if, how and when Iran might respond.

A short time ago, I spoke with IDF Major Doron Spielman, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. We discussed how with the killing of Nasrallah, U.S. officials fear a wider conflict would break out even as efforts continue to get both sides to calm.

Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPIELMAN: Israel carried out this attack because as we've said from the beginning Hezbollah is what stands in the way of Israeli civilians moving north.

And peace in the entire northern part of the country.

Israel clearly felt that -- that Nasrallah is a major target. He's calling all the shots as a second command. We work very closely with the United States, our greatest ally.

But Israel at the end of the day has independence to try to fulfill its military objectives in order to protect its own people.

SCIUTTO: The truth is though that U.S. officials have been frustrated by their relationships. Certainly the White House with Benjamin Netanyahu.

And the perception is that the U.S. Has invested diplomatic and other capital and backed Israel certainly militarily since October 7the and prior to October 7.

But that Netanyahu isn't returning the favor as it were for instance in terms of getting a ceasefire and hostage release deal across the finish line, in Gaza. Is that a fair criticism?

SPIELMAN: Well, I could tell you, Jim, that you know, the last year there has been the greatest challenge in this history. We are threatened by seven different fronts. The Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in the north, Hamas in Gaza. And that's just to name a few.

This is the hour that Israel will look back and the world will look back and say who stands by Israel in this hour and the U.S. I'm not a politician, I'm here on behalf of the army has been the greatest friend and has supported Israel and understands our objectives.

Regarding a ceasefire, for an entire year Hezbollah has been firing rockets, over 9,000 rockets, missiles, and killer drones. And no one talks about a ceasefire.

Now that Israel's actually taking the assertion to try to protect its civilians, we're calling for a ceasefire.

[11:34:47]

SPIELMAN: As we've said and the Israeli army says, that we are open for anything as long as Israeli civilians can go back to their homes. And Hezbollah withdraws beyond the Litani.

What we know is that right now, Hezbollah, every one of those rockets and missiles is inside one of their own homes, their civilian homes, we've seen the pictures.

They don't care about their Lebanese civilians. They don't care about Israeli civilians and the world instead of demanding Israel that ceasefire, it should be demanding that Hezbollah pull out.

SCIUTTO: If Hezbollah does not withdraw to the Litani River, is Israel prepared to send in ground forces?

SPIELMAN: We have made preparations and we've said very clearly that all the options are on the table.

Our ground forces have been training over the last few days, the last few weeks. It's not something we want to do. We don't want to send our sons and daughters. I don't want to send my children into Lebanon to fight Hezbollah who's been hiding beneath the ground and is probably waiting for them.

It's the last thing I want to do, however, I just came from the north. It's a ghost town with rockets and missiles falling everywhere.

We just have no choice. I mean, what are we not going to bring our civilians back home? It's a terrible choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: With us now is Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst and host of "In the Room with Peter Bergen", a podcast.

Peter, you've covered this region for years, for decades. In fact I'm curious, big picture to begin here what is your reaction to this strike and what do you think follows? Is this the spark for a broader regional war?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, on the latter question, Jim, we've been talking about the possibility of a wider regional war for almost a year now. And it hasn't happened because many of the major players don't want to major regional war because it just loses all around.

And in Iran -- Iran has a dilemma which is it wants to respond, but after the Trump administration killed Soleimani, the head of the Iraqi Republican Guard their response was pretty muted. That was a big deal for Iran. It wasn't there wasn't just their proxy force and their response has been trying to kill President Trump and John Bolton, his national security advisor, who has 24/7 secret service protection now.

So there will be a response, but it's likely to be below the threshold of an absolute war.

And the larger -- the other question you asked, Jim I think that, you know, we tend to think that if you killed this leader, that leader it's sort of the group's going to fold.

Clearly a bunch of leaders have been killed in Hezbollah, and there've been many strikes against them. But you know, this is a 30,000-man army. They have 150,000 missiles. And they're not going to go out of business.

They have surely a succession plan, we'll probably find out who that leader is the new leader is and, you know, we've made the mistake before assuming that you take out the leadership that it's going to really damage the terrorist or insurgency group.

SCIUTTO: I remember it's just a few years ago when a series of Hamas leaders were taken out in Gaza by Israel. And of course, Hamas survived and over many years, strengthened.

So I wonder though, if we can then take a step back to strategic effect of this because when you look for instance at Gaza, Israel's goal going in their post-October 7 was to destroy, to eliminate Hamas. Hamas certainly has been depleted, but it has not been eliminated.

And I wonder if -- is the goal the same again here for Hezbollah in Lebanon? To eliminate certainly a much larger target in number occupying a much larger piece of land in Lebanon. What is the strategic goal as far as you can discern it?

BERGEN: Well, I guess, you know what you just outlined what maybe the goal which is to really -- you know, on every (INAUDIBLE) you can't eliminate Hamas. You can't eliminate Hezbollah, but certainly degrade them.

And I think Netanyahu must surely be cogent (ph) to the fact that the United States election is November 5. The United States is preoccupied with its own election.

I don't think it's any secret that he would prefer President Trump to become president. He met with him in Mar-a-Lago, amongst other things, he traveled here recently.

And you know -- so you know, I'm sure he thinks that time is on his side to do these kinds of things because U.S. attention is elsewhere. As you were discussing with somebody who was there during the ceasefire, negotiations are basically dead and had been dead for a long time I think unfortunately.

But you know, I think the big point here, you've heard people in Shin Bet say this a lot. I mean, you can win every battle and still lose the war. And I think that, you know, Israel is very adept at winning every battle.

But ultimately, the solution is well-known to everybody, which is you know, living in peace with its neighbors via two-state solution. Getting there, of course, is very hard.

SCIUTTO: Hard indeed. It is well-proven.

Peter Bergen, thanks so much as always.

And we will be right back after short break with more.

[11:39:35]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Back to our breaking news coverage. I'm Jim Sciutto live in Tel Aviv. Hezbollah has now confirmed that its leader Hassan Nasrallah was

killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday a significant development in an ongoing conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

I want to bring in CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.

And Nic, the concern now of course, is about Hezbollah retaliation. I'm curious what warnings, what footing has the Israeli government put the state of Israel and the Israeli people on tonight.

[11:44:47]

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: And the center of Israel that' put them on a level of alert that they haven't been at for, I'd say for maybe a month or so, but it's not a level of alert than they're used to.

This was an isolated incident recently. Now they've been told no gatherings outside of more than 1,000 people. And we think about, you know, normally on a night like tonight, a Saturday night, you'd have a big gathering of hostage families and supporters demanding that the prime minister either step down, step aside, prioritize getting the hostages released from Gaza.

Now this, of course, falls under the ambit of these new guidance by the home front command, which is, you can't have more than a thousand people there.

So that'll be interesting to see what happens there but more broadly speaking, that is the government preparing the people of the center of Israel for the potential tonight into tomorrow through to Monday this order runs to, that they're going to be under threat in a way that they hadn't been under threat previously from perhaps a volley of ballistic missiles that Hezbollah, of course, has. That question, can they get them out?

SCIUTTO: Hezbollah has them. So do the Houthi -- Houthis in Yemen and there was a presumed Houthi missile not long ago.

ROBERTSON: Within the last hour or so, I think the sirens were sounding. We could hear them from here, not in this district right on the coast in Tel Aviv, but in the east of the city and further all around the center of Israel.

And I think by my accounting from last Sunday, so a week now, that this is the third ballistic missile that's been fired from the Houthis, from Yemen, trying to get very close to Tel Aviv in the center of Israel and getting shot down each time.

Now it's a long distance for those missiles to come. But the home front command could be tested tonight. The Houthis could fire two from the south plank. And Hezbollah could fire seven from the north with variants like that. The Houthis could put up drones as well.

So it's that complex scenario that's going to test the defenses --

SCIUTTO: To overwhelm the Israel defenses. So well, another night to watch the skies over Tel Aviv --

ROBERTSON: Absolutely.

SCIUTTO: -- with some trepidation.

Nic Robertson, thanks so much.

Well, still to come today Russia is criticizing Israel, condemning the killing of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

What they're saying, and how Russia is getting involved in this conflict, and how its tactics in Ukraine could provide a blueprint for Hezbollah and its fight against Israel.

[11:42:14]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: I'm Jim Sciutto, live in Tel Aviv. We are continuing coverage of major developments here in the Middle East.

Hezbollah today has confirmed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah but was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday. Israel and Hezbollah continue to exchange rocket attacks across the northern border.

Today, president and the -- President Biden at the White House has yet to make an official public comment on Nasrallah's death.

With us now is Jill Dougherty. She's a CNN contributor, an adjunct professor at the University of Georgetown.

Jill, it's interesting. Russia is not involved in this conflict by name. But as you and I well know, Russia loves to throw fuel on the fire in conflicts in which the U.S. is involved.

And Russia is increasingly allied with Iran and therefore Hezbollah, Iran's proxy just to the north here.

What is Russia's interests in where this conflict goes from here and might it be attempting to push it in one direction or another?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: What Russia I think is after (ph) itself. So again when you ask, what are its interests, it wants to big picture increase its influence in the Middle East.

And then also I think as you mentioned, you know, when you have conflict, almost anywhere, but especially in the Middle East, I think Moscow calculates that it brings in the United States, or even deflect attention by the United States to other issues. Let's say Ukraine.

And then it gets pulled into the conflict and that makes things very difficult. It undermines the United States.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Listen, there are a lot of questions at any point that this conflict gets hotter as to the circumstances under which the U.S. might get dragged in to defend Israel. Or perhaps become a target, right of attacks by Iranian proxies around the region.

Are there any circumstances under which Russia would become directly involved.

DOUGHERTY: I think that's a great question. Actually, right now, I'm looking at some of these statements coming out of Russia and just reporting in general, their state-controlled media.

There are those who are saying that Russia would be on the side of Hezbollah. But you know, Jim, let's look at the history. Going back to 2015 when, when Russia had that military incursion into Syria you have Russian troops and Hezbollah coordinating, working together now and then you mentioned Iran funds Hezbollah and Iran is supplying weapons, right now for Russia to use in Ukraine.

In fact, you know, the Kremlin is accusing Russia -- or actually saying that there are Hezbollah fighters -- that's an accusation -- but Hezbollah fighters in Ukraine.

[11:54:49]

DOUGHERTY: And then I would also say they get political and financial paybacks in a way because they get more -- Russia, Moscow gets more influence in Lebanon.

And also these organizations -- let's say, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis -- many others who were invited to Moscow in February. By the way, for a meeting they help to bust sanctions that Russia is under.

So it's complex -- kind of a web as you, you know, phrased it, but this is what Russia is trying to do.

SCIUTTO: It's a great -- it's a great point. I remember shortly after October 7th, Russia via the Wagner group, sent a surface to air missile system to Hezbollah, showing quite direct involvement.

Jill Dougherty, always good to have your point of view. Thanks so much.

SCIUTTO: And thanks so much to all of you for watching. We continue to follow major developments here in the Middle East as they happen.

Our breaking news coverage continues with my colleague Wolf Blitzer right after a short break.

[11:55:58]

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