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IDF Striking What It Calls "Terror Targets In Lebanon"; IDF: Airstrikes Come After It Identified Hezbollah "Preparing To Fire Missiles And Rockets Toward Israeli Territory". IDF: Israel Launches Preemptive Strikes In Lebanon As Hezbollah Is Seen Preparing Missile And Rocket Attack; IDF: Airstrikes Come After It Identified Hezbollah "Preparing To Fire Missiles And Rockets Toward Israeli Territory"; Israel's Preemptive Strike At Hezbollah Comes On The Eve Of High-Level Gaza Ceasefire Talks. Aired 10:40p-12a ET

Aired August 24, 2024 - 22:40   ET

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

[22:40:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And the Israelis had evidence, apparently, that they were about to start firing some of those missile and rockets. So, they now launched officially, publicly, according to the IDF spokesman --

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right.

BLITZER: -- this preemptive strike.

SCIUTTO: That's right. And the IDF spokesman, Daniel Hagari, described what they believe Hezbollah was preparing for as an extensive attack. And I'm told by an IDF spokesperson as well that that, they believe, was to be a bigger attack than the daily ones we have seen up north over the last several days and weeks, the cross-border fire, missiles, rockets, drones, at times, coming from southern Lebanon, fired by Hezbollah towards northern Israel. That has been a daily event.

We were up there along the border just in the last several days. But, the extensive attack that Hagari was describing that Israeli forces are now carrying out a preemptive strike against, they believe, was a larger one. And as you can see there, these were images just a few moments ago from northern Israel, as you see, the air defenses there, it appears, carrying out. So, you can see some of that fire underway.

In addition to that, we learned just a few minutes ago that all passenger flights out of Tel Aviv have been suspended as a security precaution, understandable, given you're going to have a lot of air activity. You can reliably say that Israeli air assets are taking part in this. And just a short time ago, we heard the sound of what appeared to be fighter jets flying over Tel Aviv. So, passenger flights now suspended out of Tel Aviv International Airport. Israel carrying out what it describes as preventive strikes and against an attack more extensive, larger than we'd seen in what has become daily crossfire along the northern Israel-Lebanon border.

And we should keep in mind as well, and you're well aware of this, Wolf, that because of those daily attacks that really go back to October 7, a large portion of northern Israel has been evacuated. More than 60,000 Israelis forced to flee south, and they have been so for 10 months because of the threat of that daily fire. But, the IDF acting tonight because they believe that something larger was in the work, and now they're carrying out preemptive strikes inside southern Lebanon.

BLITZER: Yeah, very significant that they at least for now until tomorrow morning sometime. Let's see what happens. At least for now, they've shut down Ben Gurion Airport completely to all incoming and outgoing --

SCIUTTO: Right.

BLITZER: -- flights. Ben Gurion Airport, outside of Tel Aviv, is clearly, Jim, within a range of Hezbollah rockets and missiles that could be launched towards Israel from south Lebanon.

Let me read a part of the statement that the Israeli military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, just released, and I'm quoting now, "A short while ago, the IDF identified the Hezbollah terrorist organization preparing to fire missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory. In a self-defense act to remove these threats, the IDF is striking terror targets in Lebanon, from which Hezbollah was planning to launch their attacks on Israeli civilians."

Those of us who have reported on Israeli military action over the years, like you and I have, Jim, the Israelis, when they suspect that an enemy is about to launch a strike, they almost always think about a preemptive strike to try to prevent any damage inside Israel. So, we shouldn't be all that surprised if they had evidence that Hezbollah was planning a major aerial assault against targets in Israel, and they have very sophisticated weapons. This is an Iranian-backed organization, Hezbollah. We shouldn't be all that surprised that Israel would launch a preemptive strike. Right?

SCIUTTO: No. We should not -- to be clear, Israel has been carrying out a number of strikes inside southern Lebanon over the last several days and weeks. In fact, just in the last week, there was quite a major strike on what Israeli officials said appeared to be a weapons cache, a weapons storage site for Hezbollah. And as we saw video of that strike, you saw secondary explosions, which would indicate that they had indeed struck a weapons site. So, these have been, if not daily events, quite frequent events for the IDF to carry out strikes inside Lebanon on what is described as Hezbollah positions, firing positions, but also weapons storage sites.

It is -- what is significant about what is taking place now is the scale of it, the scale of these Israeli preemptive strikes, as they call them, but also the scale of the threat, because again, fire has been coming from Lebanon in the form of rockets, artillery, drones, missiles for some time every day, but the IDF made an assessment that something bigger was planned by Hezbollah, a significant, a more extensive attack, and therefore they are acting now.

BLITZER: And before I let you go, I know it's going to be a long night for all of us, and it's almost morning over there, where you are in Tel Aviv.

[22:45:00]

Jim, do we know if any of the Hezbollah rockets or missiles or weapons actually reached Israeli targets so far tonight?

SCIUTTO: Well, again, you see the live picture we have there from the northern border. That appears to be air defense missiles going up into the air. We get very regular updates when those are Israeli missiles, just been confirmed to me, the air defense is going up, which would indicate that there is some incoming fire, we get very quick updates when those missiles strike. In fact, there was a deadly strike from a Hezbollah attack just a number of days ago in northern Israel, and sometimes they hit their target. Even though the civilian population has moved south, there is a military presence up there. So, still dangerous for many on the ground. Not clear yet if any Hezbollah missiles, rockets, drones, etcetera, have struck Israeli territory tonight. But, we typically get those updates very quickly as they happen.

BLITZER: Yeah. We're watching all of this very, very closely, potentially a very, very dangerous moment in the Middle East right now. Jim, standby.

I want to go to CNN's Ben Wedeman. He is joining us live from Beirut right now. What are you learning, Ben?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is very little information coming out at the moment from south Lebanon, other than there appeared to have been a series of strikes across the southern part of the country. Significantly, however, they're only in the southern part of the country. Until now, from October 8, what we've seen is that Hezbollah has struck targets within Israel and vice versa, but they've been restricted, by and large, though, not exclusively, to the strip of towns and villages along the Lebanese side of that border. Nothing here in Beirut at the moment. So, it's hard to say.

But, it does appear that this is a preemptive Israeli strike. We've heard certainly within the last 12 hours or so, statements, or rather rumors, coming out from D.C. as well as Israel that something was going to happen in terms of Hezbollah striking Israel, but this appears to be a preemptive Israeli strike in anticipation of some sort of larger strike from Hezbollah.

But, as Jim was mentioning, certainly, what we've seen in the last few days is an intensification of cross-border strikes yesterday, of course, yesterday being Saturday. Now, it is Sunday morning here at Beirut. There were 12 Hezbollah strikes on targets in Israel, 15 the day before. The day before, we also saw the largest single daily death toll among Hezbollah fighters. That was eight in one single day. So, certainly, the temperature has been rising.

But, regarding the strikes over the last few hours, it doesn't seem to be anything beyond the border area. So, perhaps Israel is hoping that the response by Hezbollah to this morning's strikes will be sort of within that -- those geographical limits. Wolf.

BLITZER: We shall see. All right. Ben Wedeman, we will stay in very close touch with you. Ben Wedeman is in Beirut. Stay safe over there.

I want to go to CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst, Barak Ravid. He has been doing some very serious reporting on all of this. It seems to me, Barak, and correct me if I'm wrong, this represents a new chapter, a new moment right now, because over these past several days and weeks, there have been almost daily exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah in south Lebanon. But, this seems a lot more serious, and this is really preemptive strike, as the IDF is calling it. It seems like a brand new development that potentially who knows what's going to result in this definitely.

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST, & AXIOS POLITICAL & FOREIGN POLICY REPORTER: Definitely, Wolf. We are in a new phase of this war that started on October 7. Until now, for 10 months, there were skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah along the border that slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly escalated. And what we're seeing tonight is something that has the risk, a very serious risk, of escalating into a much, much broader war in the region.

What I can tell you for now, what I hear from Israeli officials, is that the Israeli Air Force attacked several dozen launchers of long- range missiles that were prepared to launch their missiles into central Israel. Those launches did not take place because the launches were destroyed in the strikes. This preemptive strike was approved several hours ago by Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant.

[22:50:00]

And what I hear from Israeli officials that the U.S. was informed in advance of this preemptive strike.

BLITZER: Yeah. That's what I'm hearing as well. It's a very significant development. And just to give our viewers here in the United States and indeed around the world some perspective, Barak, Hezbollah, thanks to Iran, has an enormous amount of weapons, missiles, rockets, drones that are based in south Lebanon, that are potentially capable of doing enormous damage, not only to northern Israel, but to further -- to Israel throughout the country, indeed, given the technical capabilities of what they've attained.

RAVID: Definitely, and many of those rockets and missiles are not even in southern Lebanon. They're in central Lebanon. Some of them in northern Lebanon. Actually, Hezbollah, I think, is one of the armed groups with the biggest firepower in the world, more than many Western militaries, with an arsenal of more than 150,000 missiles and rockets and thousands of more attack drones. And many of those missiles are missiles that have precision guidance and can hit any target in Israel, from Metula in the north to Eilat in the south, with several feet of accuracy.

BLITZER: Yeah. It's a real threat. There is no doubt about that, and that's why, presumably, the Israeli government, now the Israeli Prime Minister, the Defense Minister, have authorized this preemptive strike that is ongoing right now. Barak, I want you to standby.

Aaron David Miller is joining us right now. Big picture analysis. Aaron, you used to be one of the top Middle East negotiators at the State Department. Give us your sense of what's going on right now from a big picture and from the U.S. perspective.

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR, & SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: I think -- Wolf, thanks. I think that, and Barak Ravid reported this, that at least over the last 48 hours, both Israeli and U.S. intelligence had picked up the fact that the Hezbollah was about to launch an attack using their longer-range missiles, and clearly the Israelis preempted. Remember, Wolf, they've had 18 years to prepare since the last -- since the summer of 2006. Then Hezbollah only had 15,000 high trajectory weapons. And during the course of that 34 days, they launched about 3,000 missiles. Hezbollah now has the capacity with their high-trajectory weapons to launch 3,000 missiles a day.

So, I guess the real question here, Wolf, is whether or not the Israeli preemption will, in fact, trigger a massive response. And again, we talked about this before, it is Hezbollah that can do the real damage to Israel, not Iran, 12 minutes for an Iranian cruise missile to reach Israeli airspace, 90 seconds for any of their high trajectory weapons, particularly the precision-guided missiles. They have hundreds of those, and those can be lethal and devastating.

So, again, I hope what we all fear, does not come to pass, because a regional war would begin with a -- either a massive Israeli preemption and Hezbollah response, or an Israeli response, and it could quickly spread as pro-Iranian malicious attack U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria. The Houthis perhaps launch their own missiles, which they have capacity. And the main event, an Iranian strike at Israel could easily take place, which could easily, Wolf, draw (ph) in the United States, and we could face what the Middle East has never faced before, a multi-front regional confrontation. And the impact on the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, I think that Yahya Sinwar has been waiting, hoping, praying that Iran or Hezbollah would respond and trip and trigger the region into regional war.

So, I think the prospects of that, any sort of ceasefire right now, particularly if this escalates, is gone.

BLITZER: Aaron, I want you to standby. This is obviously a huge moment right now in the Middle East, the Israeli military launching a preemptive strike against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon right now, and this could dramatically escalate, depending on what Iran decides to do in the coming hours as well.

Everybody standby. Our special breaking news coverage will continue right after this.

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[22:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And we're approaching the top of the hour. I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

We're following major breaking news out of the Middle East right now. In a preemptive move, tonight, the Israeli military says it is striking targets in Lebanon after it identified Hezbollah, quote, "preparing to fire missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory." close quote. We have a team of our reporters and analysts that are standing by. Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv for us.

Jim, let's start with where you are right now. I understand there have been sirens going off in northern Israel, anticipating, what, rockets and missiles and drones coming in from Lebanon?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's right. What we're hearing of sirens sounded in Acre, this is just north of Haifa in northern Israel, about 20 miles south of the Lebanon border here. Other steps being taken right now, as we noted in the last half hour, all flights into and out of David Ben Gurion Airport here in Tel Aviv, all passenger flights have been suspended. This, as a cautionary message.

And the IDF announcing significant military operations inside southern Lebanon, airstrikes to head off what the IDF spokesperson said was a planned extensive attack by Hezbollah. This is notable because there have been daily attacks across the border into northern Israel by Hezbollah, rockets, missiles, drones, etcetera. There has been a low- grade conflict up there, going back really to October 7. But, the IDF is saying they detected planning for a more extensive attack, and that is what has led to these, what they call preemptive strikes inside Lebanon tonight.

The video you're seeing there on our screen from moments ago, that's from northern Israel. What you're seeing there are Israeli air defenses going up into the air, and I'm told by the IDF to take out incoming fire from Hezbollah. Another measure of the level of alert in this country right now, the IDF has confirmed that the Israeli Chief of Staff and the higher command, they are in the military headquarters here in Tel Aviv right now, and have been there all night. This is something, Wolf, that folks here in Israel, certainly my contacts in the U.S., have been on alert for for some time, and that is at least a potential escalation by Hezbollah of fire into Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes inside Lebanon that took out senior Hezbollah leaders.

They've been on alert for such an attack for some time. It is not clear at this point how big this presumed, this assessed Hezbollah attack was going to be. But, as you heard from the IDF spokesperson, their assessment was this was more extensive than ones we have seen here on a daily basis, and that led to this preemptive strike. It's important to note, of course, it's early morning here. It's Sunday in Tel Aviv, in the Middle East. Today meant to be a day when the parties were to meet in Cairo to discuss the possibility of a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal in Gaza. You have Israeli negotiators present there, Hamas negotiators as well, as well as U.S. and Egyptian officials. Unclear what effect this might have on those negotiations.

But, again, extremely sensitive environment from a security perspective, but also a very sensitive environment from a diplomatic perspective. And we have to keep in mind the potential effects of the action we're seeing take place right now on those ongoing negotiations.

BLITZER: And Jim, as you and I well know, Israel has a very sophisticated air defense system. U.S.-supplied --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BLITZER: -- Patriot air defense missiles, for example, and Israel's own Iron Dome air defense system, which has been --

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

BLITZER: -- very effective in dealing with these kinds of incoming threats to Israel. Can we anticipate, can we assume that the Israeli Iron Dome system has now been activated in northern Israel?

SCIUTTO: I would expect very much so. And as you know well, there are multiple layers of that air defense, Iron Dome, David Sling, going right up to the upper atmosphere to take out each grade of weapons system from Hezbollah, whether it be rockets right up to ballistic missiles. There are layers of air defense over the central part of this country. And given the degree of the alert right now and the assessment, as the IDF has described, of a more extensive attack planned by Hezbollah, I would expect that those systems are very much active right now.

The other point I would make is that Israel has been covering -- carrying out a number of airstrikes in Lebanon over the course of recent days and weeks to take out weapons caches and what they -- and reacting to firing positions as Hezbollah has continued to fire inside Israel. In fact, in the last week, there was a quite significant strike inside Lebanese territory, which I've been told took out a significant Hezbollah weapons depot, weapons storage site. But again, the pace of what we're seeing tonight seems to be larger, and that is because the IDF assesses that the -- that a potential attack from Hezbollah, they believe, was to be larger as well.

And I just, as I'm speaking to you, Wolf, I'm hearing the sounds of jet engines above us over Tel Aviv. And given that the airport is closed to civilian traffic, I would expect that that could be and we heard these earlier fighter jets that would be part of the Israeli response here.

BLITZER: Yeah. And Hezbollah, in Lebanon with their rockets and missiles, certainly has the range of hitting where you are in Tel Aviv, as well as --

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

BLITZER: -- Ben Gurion Airport outside of Tel Aviv. Do we know -- has the IDF told us what kind of weapons they're using in this preemptive strike? Are they missiles, or are they fighter jets that are going in?

[23:05:00]

SCIUTTO: They have not specified what weapons they're using. We are expecting an additional statement from the IDF in a short time. I'm also reading another update just right now, no reports of casualties have been received at this time so far. This following red alert sirens that sounded across northern Israel just in the last hour, as we reported. We do expect more details from the IDF on the nature of their response, but we do know that they have used aircraft, Israeli aircraft, to carry out strikes in southern Lebanon just in the last several days.

BLITZER: Yeah. They have -- the Israelis have a very impressive arsenal of U.S.-supplied fighter jets, F-15s, F-16s, F-18s. So, they have that capability if they -- we don't know if they're using it in this preemptive strike, but we will find out very soon. Jim, standby.

I want to go to Beirut, Lebanon, right now. Ben Wedeman is on the ground for us. You're getting new information, Ben. What else are you learning?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we have at this point, Wolf, is simply that there has been a series of Israeli -- early morning Israeli strikes on various villages and towns along the border in south Lebanon. Beyond that, I'm just taking a scanning. For instance, Hezbollah has a local television station, Al-Manar, and other pro-Hezbollah media seem to indicate that, yes, that's about it. There is a lot of reporting on sirens going off in northern Israel.

But, I think it's significant that until now it appears to be -- the Israeli strikes appear to be limited to towns and villages and other areas along the border with Israel. Hezbollah's longer-range rockets, for instance, if they were being targeted by the Israelis, are not in the area of the border. They're kept well back, many of them, it's widely believed, for instance, in the Bekaa Valley, which is further north from the border. So, it appears that there is this something that's known as the rules of engagement between Israel and Hezbollah, where the targets are limited, largely, not exclusively, to just a few kilometers inside the border of each country.

So, even though this seems to be out of -- not within the pattern of the normal Israeli strikes in south Lebanon, which are usually scattered, often reactive to what's coming out of Hezbollah, in this case, it appears to be a concerted, series of attacks on targets in the south of the country. But, for instance, here in Beirut, we have yet to hear any planes flying overhead or the sound barrier being broken so far. So, perhaps Israel is keeping its preemptive strikes within those limits, perhaps in the hope that Hezbollah does not respond in a larger way. Wolf.

BLITZER: Yeah. When I was in Israel recently, I was told by Israeli military officials that they have very, very good intelligence where Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed organization in Lebanon, is keeping all of their rockets and missiles in sophisticated weaponry. So, they -- if they were going to launch a preemptive strike, they would know where to hit those specific targets. We shall see how all of this unfolds.

Ben Wedeman, we'll get back to you, in Beirut.

I want to go to CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst, Barak Ravid. Barak, you have really good sources. What else are you learning?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST, & AXIOS POLITICAL & FOREIGN POLICY REPORTER: Several updates, Wolf. First, as we discussed earlier, the U.S. was informed by Israel in advance of this preemptive strike, but the senior Israeli official told me just few minutes ago, he told me that Israel is acting alone against Hezbollah, at least the offensive part. But, everything was totally coordinated with the Biden administration, and the Israel informed the Biden administration quite some time before the preemptive strike. This was not a last-minute notification, this Israeli official told me.

Another interesting update, at least at the moment, it seems what I hear from Israeli and U.S. officials that there is not going to be a round of hostage talks in Cairo. This round of talks was planned for today with the Director of CIA, with the head of Mossad, with the Prime Minister of Qatar, with the head of Egyptian intelligence. For now, this is on hold. It doesn't seem that it's going to take place today.

BLITZER: That's going to be a source of great disappointment to all those hostage families who are hoping that their loved ones might be coming home soon. It looks like those negotiations are going to be paused, at least for the time being. Is that right, Barak?

RAVID: At least at the moment, from what I hear from Israeli and U.S. official, it seems that it is not going to take place today.

[23:10:00]

BLITZER: Yeah. That's going to be a very disappointing development to the hostage families who were hoping for a breakthrough in these negotiations. They were supposed to resume in Cairo. The United States, Egypt, and Qatar had been working on that. Hamas was now going to be participating. Israel had sent a senior delegation to Cairo as well. But, it looks like that's going to be paused, at least for the time being. We shall see.

Everyone, standby. We're getting new information that's coming in. This is a major story we're watching right now, Israel launching a preemptive strike against the Iranian-backed organization Hezbollah in Lebanon. Much more right after this.

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BLITZER: We're continuing to follow the major breaking news out of the Middle East right now. In a preemptive move, the Israeli military tonight says it is striking targets in Lebanon after it identified Hezbollah preparing to fire missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory, a direct quote.

We have a team of our reporters and analysts who are standing by. Let me go to Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel Leighton, I don't think all of us who have covered Israel over the years should be all that surprised that Israel has now launched this preemptive strike. But, what's your reaction?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST, & U.S. AIR FORCE: Well, Wolf, like you, I'm not surprised at all that this is what's going on right now. One of the things that we have to look out for is what else is happening in the region. The Reuters is reporting that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General CQ Brown, is in the Middle East right now, first visiting Jordan, then Egypt, and then he was supposed to go to Israel. The idea of that visit was to tune down the temperature. But, with this going on right now, it seems to me that the tensions are already at a very high level. So, any effort to basically cool things down is going to be very, very hard indeed to accomplish.

[23:15:00]

So, it's going to, I think, require a lot of diplomatic finesse plus military posturing to cool the temperature down at this particular point. I suspect that what is going to happen, Wolf, is that Hezbollah will try to mount some attacks against Israel. Israel will try to knock those down. It appears that their preemptive attacks have, at least at the moment, been fairly successful.

BLITZER: Could we assume, Colonel Leighton, that if Hezbollah was in fact planning on a major strike against Israel, which the Israelis say they've decided to deal within this preemptive strike, that Hezbollah would only do that if they received a green light from Iran, their major supporter?

LEIGHTON: Well, normally, one would expect that that would be the case. However, we've also noted that at some -- in some cases, Hezbollah has actually acted somewhat alone, somewhat independent of Iran. But, I think in this case, there was some coordination between the Iranians and Hezbollah and that it is going to, I think, be interesting to see how the new Iranian government handles this particular situation, because the new President is supposed to be a moderate by Iranian standards, at least, and if that's the case, whether or not they'll seek a diplomatic off-ramp before this gets too far.

BLITZER: Our Middle East Analyst Aaron David Miller is with us as well. And Aaron, give us your sense right now how this situation that's unfolding between Israel and Hezbollah, this preemptive Israeli strike, could impact the supposed negotiations that were supposed to be resuming in Cairo to deal with a potential ceasefire in Gaza, and to deal with the release of more Israeli hostages.

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR, & SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: Yeah. I'm sorry to say, well, those negotiations, at least seem to me, to be ways away from being completed, in large part because the two principal decision-makers, Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, had very little urgency in trying to close this negotiation for any number of reasons. But, Sinwar, clearly has been hoping as he had hoped in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attack that the region would somehow find itself into an escalating regional war.

And I think now, Sinwar has no stake, frankly, in closing these negotiations until it becomes clear to him exactly how massive they -- his fullest response will be to the Israeli preemptive strike and whether the Iranians will get involved. I think it's safe to say that these negotiations, I think on life support, are going to have a hard time getting ramped up. It just seems to me, Wolf, the Israel's preempted, and Barak Ravid is clearly reporting, that this was coordinated in the sense that U.S. intelligence had fed reports to the Israelis that Hezbollah was -- might try to respond with their longer- range missiles, and that the U.S. was informed perhaps days in advance that the Israelis might preempt.

It seems to me that right now, the -- we haven't seen anything from the administration, any statements from the administration, I'm sure those will be forthcoming, but the degree of coordination between the U.S. and Israel on this, it'll be fascinating to see, because the level of frustration on the part of the Biden administration, I suspect, with Prime Minister Netanyahu, was rising and it's going to require -- if this ends up escalating, it really will require a large degree of cooperation with the United States.

BLITZER: A large degree indeed. Standby.

I want to go back to Jim Sciutto. He is joining us from Tel Aviv right now. I know you're getting some new information, Jim. What are you learning?

SCIUTTO: That's right, Wolf. We're learning that just since 05:30 a.m. local time, so, just over the course of about the last 50 minutes, there have been approximately 150 launches from Lebanon towards Israel. There were interceptions of some of those launches. That coincides with the picture we're showing there on our screen now. Those flares you see going up, those rockets going up, those are Israeli air defenses. So, 150 launches. There were some hits, we're told, but no casualties reported as of yet.

Just for a sense of context here, 150 in less than an hour is quite an uptick in the pace of fire from Lebanon into Israel. I was just talking with my team here that the busiest 24-hour period in the last week or so was about 100 launches.

[23:20:00]

So, to see 150 in the span of less than an hour is a significant uptick, and that might speak to what the IDF spokesperson was describing, when he said Israel assessed a more extensive attack was planned by Hezbollah and that then led them to carry out these preemptive strikes that the Israel -- that the Israeli military is carrying out right now. So, 150 strikes, launches, rather, from Lebanon into northern Israel in quite a short timeframe. You can reasonably say this is at a minimum an uptick in the pace of border -- fire across the Israel-Lebanon border that we're seeing take place this morning here. BLITZER: And I think it's significant, as our Barak Ravid has been

reporting, Jim, that the Israelis notified the United States officially before launching this preemptive strike, to give the us a heads up about what it's going to do. That's significant in and of itself. And as --

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

BLITZER: -- we know and you can update our viewers, Jim, you know more about this than I do, in recent weeks, the U.S. has moved a lot of military hardware, very sophisticated --

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

BLITZER: -- systems, aircraft carrier, battle groups, submarines, nuclear-powered submarines, a lot of planes, a lot of aircraft to the region, a lot of troops as well. So, the U.S. has an enormous military capability right now if it's needed to help Israel.

SCIUTTO: No question, an enormous one, ranging from the aircraft carrier groups you're describing there to submarines, to putting U.S. ground forces in the region on alert for the possibility of any attacks by Iranian proxies, as we've seen quite frequently in recent months inside Iraq and Syria, an enormous military presence with a purpose, Wolf, a show of force, not just to Hezbollah, but to Iran as well, which has promised or threatened, at least, its own strikes on Israel in retaliation for the killing of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran a number of weeks ago. That military presence here intended to deter to show that the U.S. is prepared to defend Israel in the event of major strikes on Israel.

We should note that tonight, the U.S. did not take part and is not taking part in Israeli preemptive strikes inside Lebanon, though they did, as you said, get a heads up from the Israeli military before it began to carry out its preemptive strikes. And I will say again, Wolf, I said this a number of times, but as we've been standing here on the roof over the last hour, we did hear the sound of jet engines flying overhead. And again, given that passenger jet flights have been suspended outside of Tel Aviv, you can expect that those are the jet engines of the Israeli Air Force, as it carry out the -- as it carries out these strikes.

BLITZER: Am I hearing sirens going off overhead where you are in Tel Aviv right now?

SCIUTTO: You are -- that -- but that is not -- that's not an air raid siren. That's a -- it's a -- from what I can tell here, it looks like an ambulance. It looks like an ambulance here. So, that may very well be unrelated to the military action underway on the northern border. If you or I were standing, though, in northern Israel right now, we would certainly hear those sirens, and we've been learning that steps are being taken. Roads are being closed up north. Public shelters are open now. And as we've shown on video, those Israeli air defenses, including the Iron Dome we were discussing a short time ago, are very active tonight, and they are taking out, according to the IDF, incoming fire. BLITZER: Yeah. That's very significant indeed.

Colonel Leighton, let me get your thoughts from -- you are a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel. Give me your thoughts right now on the capability that Israel's air defense system has in dealing with rockets and missiles potentially coming towards Israel, not just in the northern part of Israel, but central Israel, even further south, southern Israel, in dealing with this potential threat.

LEIGHTON: Yeah. Wolf, the basic concept of the Israeli Air Defense System is to have a multi-layered approach, as Jim was mentioning earlier. So, the basic one is the Iron Dome system, and that handles the lower altitude threats that Israel gets. And that's the system that you saw operational in the pictures from northern Israel that we were running earlier.

Now, the next step is a system known as David Sling. That handles the mid-altitude-type systems, and that's the one where some of the rockets that -- and missiles that Hezbollah would have in central Lebanon and possibly even northern Lebanon, they would be tracked by that particular system. And then the other system, the Arrow system, is the one that handles ballistic missiles, incoming ballistic missiles, usually projected from Iran.

[23:25:00]

But, Hezbollah could also potentially have access to some of those weapons systems that the Iranians have put together for them, and that multi-tiered approach would be the kind of system that really would protect Israel. So, the Israelis, back in April 13th, when Israel was threatened by an Iranian missile attack, those systems that -- were all used for that, but they were augmented by U.S. systems that were put in place along with other allied systems, and that was how Israel was able to protect itself during that particular moment in time.

Now, in this particular situation, this preemptive strike, as Jim mentioned, the U.S. had no part in that, but the Israelis, of course, were using that system, those systems in order to actually protect themselves, get them ready and -- but the preemptive strike was carried out by Israeli, probably F-15s, possibly F-35s and F-16s as well. So, those would be the kinds of weapons that they used today. But, the air defense systems are, of course, being used to protect them from the missiles that have already been launched.

BLITZER: I assume, Colonel Leighton, that the Israelis also are worried about Iran doing what they did in April, namely, beginning to launch rockets and missiles and drones from Iran, from Iranian territory, towards Israel, and Israel and the U.S. and maybe others in the region are getting prepared to deal with that potential threat, as they did in April, when they basically destroyed about, what, almost 300 Iranian missiles and rockets coming towards Israel. It was a huge embarrassment for the Iranian military.

LEIGHTON: Yeah. That's exactly right. Those 300 or so missiles that were destroyed and rockets as well as drones from Iran, that showed the efficacy of this basically united net that each of these systems was able to provide Israel that type of defense system, and that particular thing that they did there is something that they're prepared to do at this particular moment as well. So, you can expect to see these air defense systems operational at this moment in time, I would say.

BLITZER: All right. Colonel Leighton, standby.

I want to go to Ben Wedeman, back in Beirut. I understand, Ben, you're getting a statement from Hezbollah. Is that right?

WEDEMAN: Hezbollah, and this is unusual, has put out a very early morning statement on its Telegram channel, saying that they have begun their response to the 30th of July assassination of Fuad Shukr, the senior military commander killed here in Beirut, and that they are beginning -- they've started it with a launch, extensive launch of drones towards Israeli targets, and they specifically mentioned a important military target, the details of which they will announce later.

So, it does appear that perhaps Israel preemptively struck, and then Hezbollah decided, OK, well, it's time to launch our much anticipated response to the assassination of Fuad Shukr, and they say that this is just the beginning of that response to the assassination. So, perhaps they have decided now is the time to act, after many people were wondering, when is this possibly going to happen? You will remember when Iran responded to the first of April Israeli strike on the Iranian diplomatic complex in Damascus, it was only 12 days until Iran responded. Now, we are almost an entire four weeks since the strike on Beirut.

Now, it's important to note that the Israelis have, it appears, limited their early morning strikes in Lebanon on the border area, and that's kind of within what's generally known as the rules of engagement, where both sides don't strike too far in sight. Now, it's happened that, for instance, Israel has struck targets well within sort of Lebanon, all the way to the very north. But, by and large, the ordinary day-to-day strikes that Israel conducts in Lebanon are restricted to that strip of towns and villages along the border. And in the same idea, Hezbollah normally only strikes targets within a few kilometers, largely restricted to military sites, but there have been many instances where civilian communities have been also targeted as well.

So, I think we're going to have to wait over the coming hours to see if this is it, or this is simply the beginning of an intensification of strikes and counterstrikes. I can tell you, here in Beirut, we have seen nor heard any Israeli war planes overhead. It's very clear, calm, quiet morning here.

[23:30:00]

Now, we understand -- there hasn't been anything coming out of the airport that they're closed down, for instance, as a precaution of possible Israeli strikes. But, I also note, I have a very broad view of the approaches to the airport. I haven't heard any airplanes coming in for at least the last hour. Wolf. BLITZER: And as you told me recently, Ben, in Beirut, unlike Tel Aviv or other major Israeli cities like Haifa, for example, there are no sirens that really go off to warn people in Beirut of a potential Israeli strike in and around Beirut. There have been over these past several weeks, occasionally. Israel has gone as far north as Beirut and hit various Hezbollah targets.

WEDEMAN: Yes. I mean, Israel hit back in January. They killed a senior Hamas official. And of course, as I said, on the 30th of July, they killed that Hezbollah commander. Those have been the only two strikes on Beirut since the eighth of October, when hostilities began between Hezbollah and Lebanon. But, of course, in the past week, we've seen two strikes in the central and northern part of the Bekaa Valley, well away from the border, which certainly, by the video, it's clear that these were significant weapons depots, just by the explosions that happened after the strike.

And so, yes, the Israelis seem to be reaching further into Lebanon, but Beirut itself, Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, has made it clear, Beirut is a red line. Now, the Israelis have crossed it twice, but twice in more -- in 10 and a half months certainly would indicate that the Israelis understand that if they carry out a concerted series of strikes on Beirut itself, then certainly all bets are off, and we certainly are on the way to a full- scale war. But, that has not happened yet.

Now, in the predawn hours that Israel struck these targets in the south of the country. Since then, it doesn't appear that there have been any significant strikes. But, as I said, the situation, very tense, and there is a very good possibility that this could continue throughout the day, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yeah. I suspect it probably will. It might only be just the beginning, but we shall see what is about to unfold. Ben Wedeman, stay safe over there in Beirut. We'll get back to you very soon.

Jim Sciutto is watching all of this. He is joining us from Tel Aviv right now. We're just getting some new video that's been obtained by CNN, Jim, of rocket interceptions over northern Israel, apparently Hezbollah some rockets into northern Israel, but Israel's air defense system is going up and destroying those incoming rockets and missiles. What else can you tell us?

SCIUTTO: Well, just in the few minutes since we last spoke, Wolf, we're hearing from the IDF that the number of rockets fired into northern Israel from Lebanon has jumped to 200. It was 150 just a few minutes ago. Now, it's 200. And again, that is far above the daily pace that we have witnessed here over the last several days and weeks, and that -- those interceptions you're seeing there speak to that. And we are told that there have been many successful interceptions, but that some of those rockets have gotten in. They've landed. They've hit targets in northern Israel. They have struck. But, to date, there are no reports of any casualties.

So, certainly an uptick in the rate of fire from Lebanon into northern Israel by Hezbollah that perhaps speaks to why Israel is carrying out what it calls preemptive action tonight, and again, that's been described by the IDF spokesperson as an extensive Hezbollah attack that they assessed was planned, which then led to these airstrikes that Israel has been carrying out.

To Ben's point, those strikes have taken place entirely in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah is positioned and has been carrying out these drone and missile and rocket attacks on northern Israel. They have not extended to other parts of Lebanon to date. But, of course, the worry as always, Wolf, when you have these exchanges of fire and when the exchanges of a fire increase in intensity, you might expect the other side to do the same. It is the cycle of violence we witness here so often. And that's what certainly this country is on alert for.

I should note that, again, just in the last several minutes here, Israel has declared what's known as a special situation for the country. In effect, it's a state of emergency. It allows the government to ban some outdoor gatherings, close sites, etc., as a precaution.

[23:35:00]

And this in addition to the other precautions we've already reported, including the suspension of all passenger flights in and out of the Tel Aviv airport just in the last several hours here. So, it is safe to say this is a country very much on alert, and it is a country that is right now taking quite significant military action inside southern Lebanon.

BLITZER: And I think it's fair to say, as you correctly point out, Jim, that as far as Hezbollah is concerned, that international airport outside of Tel Aviv, the Ben Gurion Airport, is a major potential target, and that's presumably why the Israelis have now, at least for the time being, shut down all incoming and outgoing flights from Ben Gurion Airport.

SCIUTTO: That's exactly right. The arsenal, you spoke about this briefly, Ben Wedeman as well, Hezbollah's missile and rocket arsenal is enormous. We're talking many tens of thousands of missiles, much of them stored underground in southern Lebanon. In fact, just in the last week, Hezbollah released a promotional video, you might call it, that showed some of these missile launchers, how they roll in and out of tunnels dug into the mountains there to fire without warning.

It's an enormous arsenal, much bigger than, for instance, Hezbollah had during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and with enormous range, range and accuracy to strike as far south as the central part of the country, where we are, in Tel Aviv, which is, of course, the major population center as well, many layers of Israeli missile defense. But, those missiles and the size of that arsenal is designed to, well, to attempt to overwhelm that missile defense. And that is the risk that certainly this part of the country faces.

BLITZER: And as the Israelis keep pointing out, Hezbollah has an enormous missile capability, a military capability that has been created over these years in Lebanon, mostly in south Lebanon. And a lot of people don't realize, and you can update our viewers, Jim, that tens of thousands of Israelis who lived in Kiryat Shmona, in other towns --

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

BLITZER: -- and villages in northern Israel and kibbutzim, they've been evacuated south because of the danger that's been anticipated from Hezbollah.

SCIUTTO: That's exactly right. More than 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated since going back to October 7 from northern Israel. In fact, my team and I were just up in northern Israel a couple of days ago, speaking to some of those people who have been evacuated. They've had to move entire schools, for instance, as we approach the start of the school year next week here south to accommodate those many tens of thousands of people who have been forced to evacuate.

We should note that Lebanese civilians have evacuated as well from the border areas of southern Lebanon, by CNN estimates, more than 90,000. So, you have, in effect, if you want to call it a buffer zone, or really a no-go zone extending across a large section of northern Israel and southern Lebanon, because there has already been, in effect, a low-grade war underway there for the last 10 months.

BLITZER: Yeah. Important developments. This is a very, very serious situation that's unfolding right now. We will have special live coverage, and our live coverage of the breaking news will continue right after a quick break with CNN International. We'll be right back.

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[23:40:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes in Atlanta. We continue with our breaking news coverage from the Middle East, and word of what Israel describes as preemptive strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

A short time ago, the Israeli military said it hit Hezbollah militants just as they were preparing to fire rockets and missiles into Israel. The militants and their main ally, Iran, have been threatening to retaliate over recent killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. On Saturday, Israel said that it was ready for any possible retaliation. It now appears they acted first. Officials say flights from Tel Aviv's airport are temporarily suspended, while residents of the Golan Heights have been told to stay in shelters right now.

All right. Now, Jim Sciutto is joining us now live from Tel Aviv. Jim, good to see you. What more are we learning about why Israel decided to act now? What evidence did they have that there was going to be some sort of major strike by Hezbollah? JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: According to the

IDF, they assessed that Hezbollah was in preparations for a more extensive strike against Israel, more extensive than we've seen in recent days and weeks and months, because there has been daily fire from southern Lebanon into Israel and from Israel into southern Lebanon, a low-grade conflict for some time, but Israel assessed that Hezbollah was planning something bigger in effect. And just a short time ago, Hezbollah released a statement, saying that it is revenge attack for the killing of a Hezbollah leader in July by Israel in Lebanon is now underway. So, Hezbollah seeming, it seems, to confirm that they had something planned or are attempting something, as we speak.

I'm told by the IDF that Israel's airstrikes inside southern Lebanon are still underway. To your point, Israel has taken a number of steps in response to this, not just closing Tel Aviv airport to incoming and outgoing passenger flights, but also closing some roads up north, issuing alerts, opening public shelters. And we have heard just in the last few minutes of the first injury from these strikes. That is one person injured in Acre in northern Israel. Acre, we should note, is about 20 miles from the Lebanon border. So, if that injury is the result of incoming fire, that would be decent depth inside this country, 20 miles inside this country from Hezbollah fire.

We've also been seeing Israeli air defenses' inaction in northern Israel, taking out some of this incoming fire, not all of it, because the IDF says that some targets have been hit, and that, Michael, is the first casualty that we've heard from this one person slightly injured in Acre in northern Israel. That is just north of Haifa in northern Israel.

[23:45:00]

HOLMES: All right. Jim, thanks so much. Jim Sciutto there in Tel Aviv for us.

Let's now go to Barak Ravid, CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst. First of all, why -- what are you hearing about why Israel carried out these attacks? They say that something was imminent, but by striking first, could Israel risk sparking what was, until now, a fear?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST, & AXIOS POLITICAL & FOREIGN POLICY REPORTER: Well, first, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has been going on for 10 months, from starting on October 8. But, what happened in the last 48 hours was that Israel and the U.S. obtained intelligence that showed that Hezbollah was actively preparing for a launch of an attack, a major attack against Israel using long-range missiles, most likely launching them at Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military had intelligence that this attack was supposed to be launched at 05:00 a.m. local time. Therefore, the preemptive strike took place 20 minutes before against long-range missiles that were prepared to be launched several minutes later. And this is why, until now, we haven't seen or we haven't heard sirens go off in central Israel, because the missiles that were supposed to be launched were destroyed. This is what I heard from two Israeli officials. And I think now the big question is, whether Hezbollah is planning

another attack to retaliate now against the preemptive Israeli strike, or it would say we did our part. We launched what we launched, and this is -- we're closing this page and we're moving on.

HOLMES: A very delicate time, of course, with the ceasefire and hostage release negotiations underway. What's likely to happen there?

RAVID: Well, there was supposed to be a meeting today in Cairo between the Director of CIA, Bill Burns, and the Director of the Israeli Mossad and the Prime Minister of Qatar and the head of Egyptian intelligence to continue working on this hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza. First, technically, the international airport in Tel Aviv is closed now for -- until further notice. So, the Israeli negotiators cannot leave. But, what I hear from Israeli and U.S. officials that they do not expect that this round of negotiations were supposed to take place today, will take place today, because obviously, there are more urgent things to attend to as possibly or what can develop into a regional war, and this is something that everybody wants to try and see if they contain it and prevent it.

HOLMES: Yeah. That's the big fear. Barak Ravid, thanks so much, appreciate it, there for us.

OK. Let's continue our coverage with Ben Wedeman. He is joining us now live from Beirut. Good to see you, Ben. So, dozens of rockets fired now, apparently, from Lebanon towards Israel, some impacting. What are you hearing there, though? Was there about to be an attack from Hezbollah that required a preemptive strike by Israel, and will Hezbollah now respond to those strikes?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We weren't hearing anything specific, Michael. Certainly, everybody has been talking now for almost four weeks about Hezbollah's response to the 30 July assassination of Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah military commander here in Beirut. But, certainly, no. I mean, the indications we were getting in the hours before this Israeli preemptive strike was that the Israelis were preparing, getting ready, so forth, but no, there was no specific intelligence on that.

Now, what we've got this morning, Hezbollah has put out a statement on its Telegram channel, saying that it has begun its response to that 30 of July assassination by firing volleys of rockets and attack drones at Israeli positions, including specifically mentioned a qualitative military target, the details of which it's going to reveal later on. So, it says this is the beginning of their response, regardless of whether this was an Israeli preemptive strike or otherwise, and that this could go on for quite some time.

Now, it's worth noting that the real long-range precision, high- quality rockets, missiles and other weapons that Hezbollah has are not normally kept right there on the border. They don't need to be on the border. They're safer in other areas much further north.

[23:50:00] And what we've seen over the last week that twice Israel has struck what appeared to be weapons depots in the central and northern Bekaa Valley. Now, the indications are simply from the explosions that happened afterwards, is that that was what was happening. And therefore, certainly, this could be the beginning of a series of sort of counterstrikes and strikes between the two sides. And what we've been seeing, and certainly in the last few days, is a real intensification of fire from both sides. Yesterday, Hezbollah claimed, yesterday being Saturday for us, 12 strikes on Israeli targets, the day before, 15, and certainly, the Israelis have come back with a similar number of strikes on targets within Lebanon itself.

Now, it's worth noting that most of them limited to the border area, with the exception of, for instance, those strikes on the Bekaa Valley, and about 100,000 Lebanese have had to leave their towns and villages along the border. And when we've been down there, what we've seen is, especially the predominantly Shia villages along the border, essentially massive destruction, largely ghost towns. And so, I've re- established communications with you, Michael. I lost the line. But -- so, now you can ask me your question.

HOLMES: We're going to get back to you on that, Ben. I appreciate the offer. I'll take you up on it in the next hour. Ben Wedeman in Beirut, appreciate that.

And we will have more on our breaking news from the Middle East coming up.

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HOLMES: Israel says a barrage of some 200 rockets was being fired from across the border in Lebanon in the recent hours. Hezbollah saying it has been launching strikes towards Israel in response to the killing of a top commander and others last month.

[23:55:00]

Now, I'll show you that video there, which shows Israeli air defenses shooting down some of those rockets, the Iron Dome at work.

All right. Yaakov Katz is Senior Columnist at The Jerusalem Post, who joins me now from New York. Always good to see you. What do you make of this preemption and what it might spark, and what do you expect in the hours and perhaps days ahead?

YAAKOV KATZ, SENIOR COLUMNIST AT THE JERUSALEM POST, & AUTHOR,"SHADOW STRIKE": Well, it seems, Michael, that Israel got intelligence that Hezbollah's much anticipated retaliation to the killing last month of their senior military commander, Fuad Shukr, was coming early this morning in Israel time, at about 05:00 a.m., and therefore it took some action to deny Hezbollah that ability to launch those long-range rockets towards Tel Aviv.

I think what this could lead to is maybe a couple of days of some back and forth, more than what we've seen over the last 10 months since Hezbollah began launching rockets into Israel on October 8, the day after Hamas' attack on October 7, when it started to show its so- called solidarity with the Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza. And the real question, though, is Michael, when they attack Israel, Israel attacks back into Lebanon. There is always going to be the chance of miscalculation, hitting the wrong target, causing casualties on either side, and then prompting one or the other to do something that could lead to a larger conflict, and that has long been the fear on both sides of that border.

HOLMES: Tell us more about that risk of escalation. I mean, the war in Gaza now in its 10th month. I mean, does the IDF have the capacity for another major conflict on its northern border with all the resources and manpower that would entail, if it came to that?

KATZ: I mean, that's long been the main question, really, the fear in Israel. And back to October 7th, 10 months ago, there were some people within the Israeli defense establishment, including Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who, as we speak, is in the underground command center underneath IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, managing what's going on. But, he was actually pushing after Hamas' attack that Israel should actually retaliate against Hezbollah, the bigger, stronger enemy, the one with the larger rocket and missile arsenal that could threaten all of Israel. At the time, Israel decided not to go down that route and to focus on Hamas and Gaza, and for the last 10 months, that's what it did. It tried to contain Hezbollah and Lebanon, keep just focused on Gaza and on Hamas.

I think that at this point, Michael, though, after 10 months, Israel has, for the most part, degraded Hamas' capabilities, has killed many of its top commanders and operatives, has destroyed and broken the back of many of its battalions, conquered most of the Gaza Strip. And therefore, if pushed and compelled, and Israel had to do something bigger in the north, it would be able to just reallocate those forces from the south to the north and focus strictly on the north. That's something that could definitely happen. I wouldn't anticipate a two- front war, but just moving everyone to the north of Israel to fight Hezbollah.

HOLMES: All right. Fascinating. Yaakov Katz, thanks so much. We'll speak --

KATZ: Thank you.

HOLMES: -- to you again shortly.

Meanwhile, I'm Michael Holmes in Atlanta. Our breaking news coverage continues after a quick break.

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