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CNN International: Special Counsel: Trump Allegedly Said "So what?" When Informed Pence was Taken to a Secure Location on Jan 6th; Trump: I Would Revoke Protected Status for Haitian Migrants in OH; Harris and Cheney to Campaign Together in Wisconsin; New Israeli Airstrikes Target Southern Beirut. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired October 03, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Hello. Welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London. This is CNN Newsroom. Just ahead, an Israeli air strike rocks central Beirut, sending terrified residents into the streets. We'll have a live report on the latest from the region.
Deranged Jack Smith Donald Trump responds to a new exclusive court filing just unsealed in his January criminal case. A no power, all running water U.S. officials say Hurricane Helene's recovery and cleanup could take months.
Well, Israel's UN Ambassador says retaliation for Tehran's missile attack will come soon and be very strong. U.S. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, is urging Israel to make sure its response is proportional this as Israel bombs the Lebanese capital. Live pictures here, plumes of smoke in the sky after Israel struck the heart of Beirut, that was for the first time in nearly two decades.
At least nine people were killed, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Israel is also issuing evacuation orders for another 25 villages in Southern Lebanon, signaling a broadening of its ground incursion. The Lebanese Foreign Minister made some rather startling remarks about that temporary ceasefire called for by President Biden and others.
Abdallah Bou Habib says Hezbollah's Leader had agreed to the 21 days pause in the fighting just days before he was killed by Israel. Listen to what he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Are you saying Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a ceasefire just moments before he was assassinated?
ABDALLAH BOU HABIB, LEBANESE FOREIGN MINISTER: He agreed. He agreed. Yes, yes. We agreed completely. Lebanon agreed a ceasefire, but consulting with Hezbollah, the Speaker -- consulted with Hezbollah, and we informed the Americans and the French that what happened.
AMANPOUR: So --
HABIB: And they told us that Mr. Netanyahu also agreed on the statement that was issued by both presidents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: CNN reporters are covering the story from all angles for you. Nic Robertson is in Tel Aviv. But first, let's begin with Jomana Karadsheh in Beirut in Lebanon, where we saw those attacks, didn't we?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONENT: Well, you know, Max, in the last half hour or so, we heard at least three blasts that shook Beirut, and then we saw smoke rising. You can still see that smoke over my shoulder from the southern suburbs of Beirut. That, of course, has been the focus of the Israeli military's strikes in recent weeks, and we have seen them ramp up those strikes over the last 24 hours or so.
We are -- we haven't heard yet from the IDF what the target of that strike was, but we are hearing from the Hezbollah media office saying that their office was hit in those strikes. And you know, it's worth mentioning here that we did not see a warning from the Israeli military for civilians to evacuate this area before they carried out the strikes.
And you know, this comes after a long and terrifying night for the people of Beirut. Last night, the southern suburbs, again, this is was seen as the seat of power for Hezbollah. You have seen the focused strikes there, and we saw multiple strikes, more than a dozen late last night, some of them came with a warning.
But the initial strikes, there was no warning for people in those areas. And another strike very, very rare in the center of Beirut, in the heart of the capital, a strike that, according to Lebanese authorities, hit a building that houses the office of a health authority affiliated with Hezbollah. At least nine people were killed in that strike. Most of them, according to that health authority, are medics.
Now -- you know that strike has really added to the sense of anxiety, fear and apprehension in the city, because this is the first time where you are seeing the heart of Beirut being hit. We saw a strike earlier this week within city limits, but this was different. This was in the middle of the city, in the middle of the night, and again, with no warning, in the middle of a residential area Max.
You know, we spent the past few hours out on the streets of Beirut, speaking to people we were outside the American University of Beirut in a cultural and commercial part of the city.
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And speaking to people there, you sense how terrified they are of what is happening and their fear of what might be coming next. People saying that they feel that the war is widening, that these strikes are getting closer, and even in these areas that are supposed to be safe, people say they no longer feel safe.
I mean, we're speaking right now, and I can still hear the Israeli drones buzzing overhead, and for many people, that's a reminder that strikes will be coming Max.
FOSTER: Jomana, thank you. Nic, what's the latest thinking on what type of retaliation there might be from Israel, because a lot of concern, obviously around the world, that nuclear facilities might be involved?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: And certainly, President Biden has expressed his concern and disapproval if Israel chose those as their targets. As you said a few minutes ago, the Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations said it will be a strong and painful response.
He has said, and is saying, what other officials, the prime minister, the minister of defense here, have all said, is that Iran knows that Israel's reach is long. It can reach its enemies and targets across the whole of the Middle East, so the signaling is there.
And I think if you talk to people in Israel with a military background when they're trying to calculate what their enemies are going to do next in response, their assessment is always, well, the sort of -- the bigger the gap as you sort of wait for a response. Therefore, the stronger, more sophisticated, more complicated, the response may be.
So I think that's the assessment at the moment, that all the planning and discussions that are going on right now about what may or may not be the targets, could it just be Iran's commercial interests, oil facilities, for example, that are on the coast of Iran, that would be in relative terms, relatively easy to strike compared to trying to reach deep inside Iran, overfly their territory, risk surface to air missiles, et cetera, that Israel might just consider economic targets, such as oil facilities.
It really isn't clear, strong and painful, speaks to Israel's desire to have a deterrence and maintain the sort of visibility in the region of maximum deterrence. This isn't just a message to Iran. It's a message to Israel's other enemies as well. But precisely what the targets are going to be, I think perhaps the best understanding is that one that the military would apply that the longer the planning, therefore the more sophisticated, complex and potentially wide ranging the strike could be.
FOSTER: Nic, thank you also to Jomana. Americans now getting the fullest picture yet of the special counsel's election subversion case, meanwhile against Donald Trump, following the Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling. In the nearly 200 pages filing -- page filing, Jack Smith lays out what he calls Trump's increasingly desperate efforts to undermine the 2020, presidential vote.
And why he believes the former president was acting as an office seeker, not an office holder. Zachary Cohen joins me live in Washington. What's different about what we're seeing here Zachary? ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, Max Special Counsel Jack Smith, really laying out why he believes his case can clear that threshold and that hurdle that was set by the U.S. Supreme Court when it decided that Donald Trump is immune for prosecution for actions only that he took while acting in his official capacity as president.
Jack Smith, sort of responding to that ruling in this 165-page filing saying that Donald Trump was acting as a private individual, as a political candidate, not as president, when he tried to overturn the 2020 election results, obviously an election that he lost.
And look, he states very clearly in this filing that Donald Trump, quote, resorted to crimes to try to stay in office, and as part of this case that he details, really, as you said, in the most complete and comprehensive way we've seen so far. He does unseal new evidence that we had not seen before in this case.
That includes actions and conversations that Donald Trump had with people around him, with these private campaign advisers, with political advisers and with Republican legislators as he was trying to push them to help him overturn the election results.
It also details some of his conversations with then Vice President Mike Pence, really alleging that Donald Trump was personally engaged in a pressure campaign to try to get Mike Pence to overturn the election results on January 6th, 2021. One of those remarkable details in this filing is actually what prosecutors say they've uncovered about Donald Trump's actions on January 6th itself.
They say that they have evidence that Donald Trump personally sent that tweet on January 6th saying that Mike Pence, quote, didn't have the courage to do what was necessary, insinuating that Mike Pence didn't have the courage to overturn the election results.
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They allege that that was an effort to intentionally stoke animus towards Mike Pence ultimately firing up the mob that was already outside the U.S. Capitol. And they were kind of conversation from a witness that testified that when the mob was breaching the Capitol and Mike Pence was being evacuated that day, Donald Trump was warned, and his reaction was, quote, so what?
So really, a roadmap here from Jack Smith as to how this prosecution, why this prosecution should continue? But also laying out for the American voters just a little over 30 days before the 2024 election, what he has found over the course of his entire investigation? Why Donald Trump should face criminal charges?
FOSTER: OK. Zachary, thank you. Turning now to the massive devastation Hurricane Helene left behind in the U.S. The death toll now rising to more than 190 people. In the coming hours, President Joe Biden will continue his tour of the hard-hit areas in the southeast. He's expected to survey the damage in Florida and Georgia. Yesterday, the president flew over North Carolina to get the scope of
the extensive destruction. Biden has approved more federal funding for those affected, and has deployed active-duty troops to help provide critical aid. CNN's Kevin Liptak joins us from the White House with more. And every day we're learning how widespread and hidden a lot of this impact was?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And I think the issue for the federal government in particular is that so many of these places that have been impacted are essentially cut off from the rest of the world. The roads that go into these towns are littered with debris. They're washed out, and it's making it very difficult for the assistance to get in.
And that's the challenge I think President Biden is confronting as he heralds this federal response to this storm. You know, it's actually pretty rare for an American President to spend two days in a row touring some of the damage from the exact same storm, and I think it gives you a sense not only of the magnitude of this hurricane, but also a window into the efforts by President Biden, but also the Vice President Kamala Harris, to blunt any criticism that they're somehow absent from this crisis.
And so that began yesterday, the president getting that 10,000-foot view of the damage in Western North Carolina. It continues today, and what he's really doing is zooming closer in, going onto the ground, talking to some of the people who have been directly impacted by this storm. Where he is visiting in Florida is where the storm actually came ashore, and one estimate says that the town that he will be in, Keeton Beach, has seen 90 percent of the homes wiped out.
From there, he'll go on to Georgia, where flooding has been a serious issue, and certainly he will want to hear from folks what their needs are, and those needs are pretty dire. People wanting to hear more about what the federal government is doing to allay their concerns and to help them rebuild their lives.
Yesterday, President Biden announced that he was deploying 1000 active-duty troops to help with the recovery, to help with the cleanup. But of course, this is all going to cost a lot of money. President Biden yesterday putting the estimate in the billions, and we heard from the Homeland Security Secretary, who said that the FEMA, the American Emergency Agency, is essentially going to run out of money if another storm hits this year.
Of course, we know that these storms are getting wetter. They're getting faster, they're getting stronger because of climate change. President Biden addressed that directly yesterday as well, saying that anyone who denies that fact was, in his words, brain dead. But at the same time, he's also saying that this is not a time for politics.
He says that in situations like these, there are no Republicans, no Democrats. And he did meet yesterday with the Republican Governor of South Carolina, the Democratic Governor of North Carolina, and certainly he wants to continue that bipartisan effort as these recovery efforts continue Max. FOSTER: OK. Thank you. Kevin. Still to come, Donald Trump doubles down on Haitian migrants in the City of Springfield, Ohio. Ahead the threat he made during an interview on Wednesday against those who are legally living in the U.S. Plus, Kamala Harris hoping to sway Republican voters with the appearance of a surprise special guest on the campaign trail. More on this just ahead.
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FOSTER: Donald Trump is vowing to deport thousands of legal Haitian migrants from Ohio if he's elected in November. He made the threat during an interview with News Nation on Wednesday. During that conversation, Trump said the City of Springfield had been, quote, overrun, and the migrants must be removed.
In recent weeks, Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have spread baseless conspiracy theories about Haitian migrants abducting and eating pets in Springfield. Alayna Treene joins us now live in Washington. And a lot of people will be surprised. He's doubling down on this because, you know, on social media, he was mocked for some of the comments about pets, for example, but it clearly speaks to one of the themes he wants to drive home.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: No, you're exactly right Max. I mean, this is an issue that, despite all of the controversy around it and a lot of criticism being lobbed at Donald Trump, as well as his running mate, J.D. Vance, for making these claims about Haitian migrants eating pets, claims that we know are debunked and just not true.
They have not moved away from this talking point, and the reason I told is because they've argued, and they've said this publicly, that even if the rumors are debunked, it's shining and spotlight on an issue that they want to talk about, which is immigration.
Now, Donald Trump, for the first time, really said that he would revoke their temporary protected status and try to send these migrants back home. I want to be very clear that they are living in Springfield legally, but take a listen to exactly what he said.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country. They are, in my opinion, it's not legal. They have to be removed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, you would revoke the temporary protected status?
TRUMP: Absolutely, I'd revoke it and I'd bring them back to their country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What if they won't receive them -- they're not?
TRUMP: Well, they're going to receive them. They'll receive them. If I bring them back, they're going to receive them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: Now Max, I mean, this is the first time we've heard Donald Trump be so explicit about his plans if he were elected regarding that community. But we had been moving toward this point for a while. But I do want to be very clear. I know I said this before.
But the migrants living in Springfield are here legally in 2023. We know that the Biden Administration had created new pathways and new status for several nationalities, that included the Haitian migrants who are living here, given them parole status. Had vetted them.
And many of these migrants living in Springfield said they chose to live there because one the city and the county overall has a relatively low cost of living, but also, they knew that they could find work here. We have heard from several local officials on the ground, including many Republican officials, that these people, these migrants, are there to just work hard and are trying to live their lives.
And so, this has really disrupted that entire community. But to go back to the politics on this -- you know, again, this is an issue where Republicans and Donald Trump specifically believes that it's a good talking point for them ahead of November, particularly in communities where they have seen really a spike in immigration.
Have seen a surge in immigrants in their communities, and they think that this is something that will resonate with many American voters. But again, there's no truth to the claims that they are in here legally, and this is a very controversial statement from Donald Trump.
FOSTER: Absolutely. Kamala Harris -- thank you very -- talking about Kamala Harris next. Thank you so much for joining us. Kamala Harris is getting a little help when it comes to bringing Republican votes. The U.S. Vice President has been endorsed by Former Republic Congresswoman Liz Cheney. Liz is daughter of Former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney. The pair are expected to campaign together in the battleground State of Wisconsin, and that is in the coming hours.
CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins us from Washington with more. The big question is, could this tip the balance of some undecided voters, I guess?
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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's certainly what the Harris campaign wants. This is part of their broader strategy to show that they can appeal to a broad swath of voters and attempt to move those undecided voters away from former President Donald Trump.
Now, Liz Cheney did endorse the vice president last month when she was in North Carolina. And this is going to mark the first time that the two will be campaigning together since that endorsement. And it is also notable where they're going to be. They're going to be in Ripon, Wisconsin, which is the birthplace of the Republican Party. So clearly the signal here is that the vice president wants to and believes she can appeal to Republicans. Remember that during the Democratic National Convention, there was a whole part of that program dedicated to Republican endorsements behind the vice president.
Now I will also note that campaign says that what she's going to say is very focused on her commitment, the vice president's commitment to uphold the rule of law, to uphold the Constitution, and that it should be country over party. She'll also nod to something that Liz Cheney has said before, that she does have policy differences with the vice president.
But the Former President Donald Trump poses such a risk that she believes it is better, in this case, to put her vote behind Vice President Kamala Harris. Also, notable that this comes on the heels of that special counsel filing yesterday over the subversion of the 2020 election, because Liz Cheney has been such a vocal voice about January 6th as well, in her opposition to the former president within that context.
So, this will certainly be an interesting campaign event to monitor. And it will happen as I mentioned at the birthplace of the Republican Party within the State of Wisconsin, which is a battleground state, it's one where the vice president holds a slight edge over Former President Donald Trump.
Polls show 49 percent for Harris versus 46 percent for Trump. So still very close. The Vice President trying to keep that edge and gain some ground again by doing this visit and more of this is going to happen over the next several weeks.
We anticipate, according to the campaign, that she will be doing much of the same type of event appealing to Republican voters in the battleground States of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, among others. So certainly, this is the clearest indication of the beginnings of this strategy, and something that they will be doubling down on in the home stretch of this election Max.
FOSTER: OK, thank you so much for that. More on our breaking news out, Lebanon ahead with new Israeli airstrikes hitting the southern part of that city. These are images coming into us now.
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FOSTER: Back to our breaking news. Lebanon says three Israeli airstrikes hit Southern Beirut just a short while ago.
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Fawaz Gerges is Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics. He is also Director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. We're looking at these images. I don't know if you can see them Fawaz, but there are scenes of -- you know destruction that we haven't seen in Beirut for many, many years. What do you make of it? FAWAZ GERGES, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, LSE: Well, I mean,
I think Israel has been bombing in the heart of Beirut, not just Southern Beirut, the heart of the city. It's bombing in multiple areas of Lebanon Max. It's bombing on the Sea in Lebanese borders. It's bombing in Syria. Literally, it's all-out war.
Just to give your viewers what I mean by that. In the past two weeks, more than 100 Lebanese have been killed, including many, many children and women. More than 2000 have been injured. You have now in Lebanon in the past two weeks. Just imagine two weeks, 1.2 million displaced people. I mean, this is a bigger crisis than Gaza.
In fact, the Lebanese Prime Minister called it the greatest displacement crisis in the country's history. Hospitals are overwhelmed, literally. People are sleeping on the street, in parks, in car parks, everywhere. And also at the same time, Israel has invaded the south. I mean, it's launched a limited, quote, unquote, military invasion.
What do you call this? I mean, this is all out war. This is really the beginning of all our war. My fear, I hope I am wrong as the United -- as the General Secretary of the United Nation said last week that he fears, and the international community fears Lebanon becoming another Gaza. That's how bad the situation is today in Lebanon.
FOSTER: How degraded is Hezbollah right now? Because the fight back seems limited based on what we're seeing, certainly compared with the Israelis.
GERGES: Well, I think first of all, Hezbollah has suffered some very severe blows. I mean, its top leadership has been killed, including Hassan Nasrallah, the towering, charismatic leader who built, who turned Hezbollah from really a small organization into one of the most important non state actors.
The explosions, the communications Israel seems to have infiltrated the communication systems of Hezbollah, its command and control. But Hezbollah is not a spent force. Hezbollah is not dead, and I think many Israeli policy makers and analysts are celebrating the defeat of Hezbollah.
The war has not started from Hezbollah's point of view, as Israel discovered yesterday, the first incursion, Israeli incursion in Lebanon was a disaster for Israel. Almost 50 Israeli soldiers and officers were killed and injured. Israel has tens of thousands of very skilled and hardened fighters.
Once Israel really tries to move militarily in terms of ground, Israel will discover that Lebanon is a minefield, that Lebanon is not really a picnic. And I'm not -- I'm not just saying it for the sake of it, but the days ahead will show that even though it has basically killed a lot of Hezbollah leaders. The organization still very much intact.
Most of them are they have been there for decades. So, you can imagine, they know the terrain. It's their homes, it's their villages, it's their alleyways, it's their valleys and mountains. So really, we're talking about a long, long war. And sadly Max, I don't think Israel has learned the lessons of its wars in 1980s or 1990s and 2006.
Just final point on your question, even the United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world, could not defeat a committed insurgency in Afghanistan and Iraq. You cannot really defeat committed insurgencies. It doesn't matter how much firepower you have from the air. And the reality is, Hezbollah will use a symmetrical warfare to really get Israel bogged down in Lebanon's killing field, as it did in the 1990s and in 2006.
FOSTER: Just updating you Fawaz on what we know about what we're seeing right now. These are images coming from Beirut. Three Israeli airstrikes striking the southern suburbs of Beirut, one of which targeted the neighborhood of -- that's according to state media. Hezbollah announced shortly after these blasts that its media office was targeted.
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That was on a WhatsApp group they share with the reporters, and several large blasts were heard by CNN, who was -- they were in West Beirut, Fawaz, so, they heard it from that distance, and we've got these images. Is there any detail there about that you think is interesting, the fact that they may have targeted the media office, for example?
GERGES: Well, as you know, Max, I mean, finally, Hezbollah is really back on its feet. Hezbollah has repaired the damage to its command and control in the past few days. According to Hezbollah leaders, Hezbollah has been able to replace the killed officers and commanders.
And that's why you're seeing really a more agile, a nimbler, a more active Hezbollah in the past few days and its media, basically communication person took the media, including CNN, on a tour of the Dahieh, the Southern Lebanon. So, what Israel -- Southern Beirut. So, what Israel did today is to really destroy the communication center?
But most of the communications people and the Hezbollah office had left. They were preparing for this. But it tells you a great deal that Israel is chasing a moving target. It's hitting everyone. I mean, hundreds of attacks every day. It's carpet bombing because they control the skies.
But the reality is a lot of people have been killed, a lot of civilians yesterday, Max, according to Lebanese Health Authority, Israel attacked in West, in the heart of West Beirut, a medical center and killed seven medical workers, including an injured, you know, dozens. Israel said it was a targeted attack.
Today, Joseph Borrell, the Head of the European Union Foreign Policy, basically wrote a -- on his acts on communication said the attack on the medical center in Beirut violate international humanitarian law, which is a war crime. But well, you know, I'm sorry to basically reiterate and say commonsensical points.
Israel has devastated the medical I mean, sector in Gaza hospitals, medical workers. And I think what we're seeing now, really, Max, is a similar pattern. Israel is targeting the medical centers, medical workers, civilians, in order to terrorize the civilian community and the international community.
Now, I mean, what's different about Gaza and Lebanon in Beirut now you have tons of media, international media, including the CNN. So, they are bringing the making the international community aware of what the air bombings is doing to the civilians and the medical communities throughout Lebanon, not just Southern Lebanon.
FOSTER: Stay with us. Fawaz, I'm going to bring in Jomana, who's in Beirut. What did you see, Jomana?
KARADSHEH: Well, you know, Max, in the last hour or so, we heard three blasts, and we could see smoke rising. I think you can still see a bit of that smoke over my shoulder here, from the southern, rising from the southern suburbs of Beirut.
This has really been the focus of the Israeli air strikes, the southern suburbs where Hezbollah has had a heavy presence. And what we do understand from their media office, they say that that office was hit in those strikes. Now we haven't heard from the Israeli military, and we don't know if there are casualties.
This is happening in the middle of the day, and we are talking about a part of the city that was one of the most densely populated. There are still people there. They are -- the Israelis say they are going after Hezbollah targets there. They have killed senior leaders and the leader of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, in the southern suburbs.
But you also have civilians there, and what we have seen, although you have had this mass exodus, is some people do return during the day to try and collect their belongings. So, we'll have to wait and see if the if there were casualties in those strikes that happened with no prior warning by the Israeli military.
Now, if we go back to last night, Max, we saw more than a dozen strikes that hit the southern suburbs, some of them came with a warning from the IDF, but earlier in the evening, once those strikes started, there have been no warning. And another strike that is seen as a very terrifying development, dangerous development, for many people here in Beirut.
For the residents of this city is a strike in the heart of Beirut, happening in the middle of the city, in the middle of the night.
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And where we understand target of that strike was an office in a building. It was used by a health authority affiliated with Hezbollah. And the casualties from that strike, nine people who were killed according to that health authority. They say that the majority of them were medics, but I cannot tell you, Max, how terrifying this is for the people in this city.
This is the first time since 2006, since that war between Israel and Hezbollah, that you are seeing the heart of Beirut being hit. We've seen another strike within Beirut city limits a few days ago, but this in a residential area in the heart of the capital, really making people feel that this is escalating, that this is widening.
We were out on the streets of Beirut earlier today, speaking with people, and they say that they no longer feel safe. They feel that this is a war with no limits. We're speaking right now, and you can still hear the Israeli drones buzzing overhead, which usually is an indication of more strikes to come.
FOSTER: Followers. I'm just wondering you compared this to another Gaza, but Lebanon is not Gaza. You know what, universally recognized sovereign state, isn't it? It's much bigger. Do you foresee ground troops going into Beirut?
GERGES: No, I don't so far, but don't overlook, don't dismiss, any eventuality. There's something in military doctrine called mission creep. I mean, think of Gaza. It started in northern Gaza and then all the way to Rafah. The Americans said, no, no invasion of Rafah.
Israel said only a limited incursion into Rafah and Rafah now is destroyed. Everything is destroyed. Thousands of civilians have been killed in Rafah and other parts. So once the Israelis go into Southern Lebanon, as they are now, as we were talking, you and I, because Israel wants absolute security, and the reality is it doesn't matter.
They have to occupy the entirety of Lebanon to really have the absolute security. So even if they occupy Southern Lebanon, Hezbollah will be able to basically strike at the same area. It's striking today from outside the area. That means they have to go to the Beqaa Valley.
They go to the Beqaa Valley that Hezbollah will be able to strike from, you know, many areas in the mountains and on and on and on. The reality is, Max, Israel has come to recognize that it could have security, but its neighbors should have security as well.
Security for Israel, peace for Israel, but security and peace for its neighbors, the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Syrians. This is the way it is. And sadly, and tragically, the big point here, everything we're seeing now, is that, where is the United States? Where is American leadership?
What you have now is a vacuum of global leadership, there are no adults in the room. Where are the firefighters that could really somehow put out the fires in Gaza and Lebanon and the West Bank and what have you. In fact, all you have, Max, are arsonists, arsonists that really pull gasoline on this fire.
And the United States no longer really pretends to be a neutral observer or a broke it has fully joined the fight, and that's why Benjamin Netanyahu is feels empowered. He feels his winning. He could really win. He's sending his air force everywhere, because his reach is there is no place he could reach and there are no rail guards, because the Americans, even though they tell him to deescalate, but he escalates.
I mean, let's come back to Lebanon. We're talking about Lebanon. Now, we know from the Lebanese Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister that Hezbollah had agreed to a ceasefire just last week before Israel decided to escalate. And the Americans had fine, and the French and the Canadians and the British.
And even though there was a ceasefire on the proposal, which Hezbollah had agreed to, Benjamin Netanyahu arrived last Friday at the United Nation and said sorry. He gave orders to his army to assassinate Hezbollah and the top Hezbollah leadership, and decided to really, basically launch a ground attack.
Where's the United States now? Guess what the United States said? Israel has the right to defend itself, and it has the right to have a limited operation in Southern Lebanon to destroy the infrastructure of Hezbollah. So, what happened to the ceasefire proposal, which was basically organized by the United States and France and agreed to by Israel.
It tells you a great deal about where the United States is and the inability of the United States to play a leadership role. And that's why, if you ask me, Benjamin Netanyahu, will continue to escalate, because he really believes this is a golden opportunity for Israel to basically create a new order.
[08:40:00]
I mean, Israel is behaving now like an imperial power. It could really somehow remake the Middle East in its own image, and that's what, what I call hubris and the risks of a wider regional conflict, because there is no global leadership. And the United States has forfeited its leadership at this particular dangerous moment in the contemporary history of the Middle East.
FOSTER: Jomana, it's not an occupation. We've just had a relatively small number of troops going in on the ground, but a lot of people there saying it feels like an occupation.
KARADSHEH: This is what they fear, Max, no one you speak to here, believes that this is going to be a limited, targeted operation, as the Israelis are describing it. People would say, just look back at history, 1982 when it was the Israelis who launched this, what was meant to be a limited ground incursion into Southern Lebanon that turned into a full-scale invasion and years of a military occupation.
And people would tell you, look at Gaza. Look at what's happening there. You've heard that same sort of rhetoric when it comes to their operations in Southern Gaza that was not limited. And you know, a lot of people here see some parallels to Gaza. Lebanon is not Gaza yet, but a lot of people fear that you could see a repeat of that here.
I mean, when you look at the sheer numbers of civilians who have been impacted by this unfolding war. In a matter of days, Max, more than 1000 people are killed, many of them are women and children. When you look at the number of people who have been forced out of their homes. It's a number that is continuing to rise by the day, and so far, more than a million people, according to Lebanese authorities. And when we speak to people who have been displaced from Southern Lebanon, from the southern suburbs, from the eastern part of the country, people tell you they don't know when they will be able to go back to their homes, or if they will be able to go back to their homes, and what those homes you know if those homes will still be standing when they go back.
Everyone you speak to would tell you, seeing what has been unfolding in Gaza has left them with this real sense of dread and fear that they will see a repeat of this here. And as Fawaz was mentioning there, everyone you speak to would tell you they believe that the United States could do more, that it could have done more to stop this from happening.
We've heard this from Lebanese officials. We've heard this as well from people on the streets, the U.S., they say, has the leverage, and it could have used this leverage to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, put the pressure on the different parties there, Hamas, the Israelis, and reach a ceasefire agreement, because they believe this all could have been avoidable.
Especially as we hear from the Lebanese Government as well, saying that Hezbollah had agreed to that 21-day ceasefire proposal, Max.
FOSTER: Jomana, Fawaz, thank you both for now, as we look at these images of three strikes in central Lebanon, as we understand it, we haven't seen scenes like this in this area for many years, as Jomana was saying. We'll keep across it for you and bring you the reaction after the break.
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[08:45:00]
FOSTER: Live pictures on the right there of Beirut, three large strikes from the Israelis, obviously. And on the left, you can see the latest images we've got from the ground from the destruction that's been caused there over the last day or so. The southern suburbs of Beirut were hit there on the rise, several large blasts heard by CNN teams in West Beirut.
Some distance away, they saw these plumes of smoke rising from the city. Joining me now from Tel Aviv is CNN's Nic Robertson, what are the Israelis saying about this, Nic?
ROBERTSON: Yeah, no immediate details about this uptick in strikes in the southern suburbs and towards the center of Beirut. Very clearly, the IDF has been saying over the past number of days that they have specific targets that they've been targeting in Beirut.
They've given instructions to people on the ground, if people can get those instructions and get out of the way to evacuate certain buildings that they say they are targeting. Those instructions like that came out overnight for a few buildings in Beirut, typically, the IDF would strike those buildings fairly soon after, within a matter of hours. And it is not clear this morning, if any orders evacuation orders to the population the civilian, population in Lebanon to get out of harm's way from certain buildings in Beirut. It is unclear if any of those have been issued, it is not clear what the targets could be at the moment, but because the IDF is not being specific about it and not saying, what we can say from here is.
We have heard a lot of jet activity up and down the coastline here, and typically those aircraft are either going on missions towards the Southern Lebanon border, or typically, going deeper inside of Lebanon, perhaps the capital, perhaps other areas. So, from our perspective here, we can tell there's an uptick in military activity, but precisely what's being targeted and why there's an uptick this morning, why there's an increased number of strikes that just isn't clear, Max.
FOSTER: And in terms of the retaliation from Israel for the attack from Iran, is this separate? Or do you think it plays into that?
The thought that I might come to before that one would be perhaps Israel's response to the fact that they took eight deaths on the border. IDF troops going across the border into Lebanon, 47 injured. A very high and significant death toll and casualty toll, just as it was then the second day into the ground operations into Lebanon.
So, it could be part of that. But we also know that Israel, over a very, very long period of time, has been developing a target list of Hezbollah targets in and around Lebanon, and they say that they work through those methodically, strategically, that they will take out things that are an imminent threat.
Those go to the top of the list, but the others, they're working their way through. They have a lot of targets, they say, and I would anticipate that they are working their way through that target list. Again, why the uptick now not clear. Perhaps they strike one. See people move, strike another.
I know our colleagues, I know Jomana, there in Beirut has been able to hear Israeli drones flying overhead. They are clearly scrutinizing what they see on the ground at law and will follow up with additional strikes in real time. That's what they -- that's typically what they do.
Is it connected to Iran? I think that's probably a separate issue right now, that of course, is going through the planning stages. It appears here in Israel, no leaks from the government about what they what they may be targeting, or what they will target in Iran. But I think we're beginning to get a sense that could come over the next couple of days.
It may not be today, it may not be tonight, but let's say tomorrow or the day after. It could be a realistic time frame for Israel to put in place those plans for striking back at Iran. But I think this is separate, Max. I mean, this is what the Israeli officials continue to tell us here.
[08:50:00]
They are quite capable, they say. This is their message. Their enemies, they're quite capable to fight on multiple fronts and do many things. We've seen, for example, continued military action in Gaza, 90 people, more than 90 people killed there yesterday strikes. A new operation opened up in Khan Yunis, 51 people.
These numbers, according to health officials inside of Gaza, 51 people killed in Khan Younis as part of that operation yesterday, they were interdicting strikes coming into Tel Aviv here from the Houthis just late last night, about 14 hours ago, we watched it here from the roof. Those drones being taken down.
They continue to have the ground operations against the Hezbollah in the South of Lebanon, there are strikes in in Damascus, there are strikes been reported at a Russian military base reported that it was targeting an Iranian weapon storage facility deep inside of Syria. Israel says it doesn't comment on reports about strikes inside of Syria.
But I think the understanding would be in the region, and certainly this is what Syrian news agency would be reporting, that these are Israeli strikes inside of Syria. So, we're seeing Israel strike multiple fronts at multiple times. And the Iran part of that is in the process, I don't think necessarily directly connected to the heavy bombing raids in Beirut right now.
FOSTER: OK, Nic, thank you for joining us from Israel. We'll be back in Beirut after the break, to get the very latest from the scene that you're seeing play out live on your screens.
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FOSTER: I want to turn to our breaking news out of 11 and once again 3 Israeli airstrikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut. A short while ago, you can see these large plumes of smoke rising from the city -- in West Beirut also heard several large blasts earlier. Jomana was amongst them, Jomana.
KARADSHEH: Well, you know, Max, about an hour or so ago, we did hear those three large blasts, and then we could see the smoke rising from the southern suburbs of Beirut, and I believe you can still see a bit of that smoke right behind me. We understand from Hezbollah's press office or Media Relations office, that their office was hit in that strike.
Now we haven't heard yet from the Israeli military what the target of that strike is. There was no prior warning given by the IDF, but what we have seen is much of their strikes have been focused on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah's leadership have been based.
This is where they carried out those strikes that killed the Leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah and some of its top leadership, and they have continued since to carry out those strikes. I mean, in the past 24 hours, there have been more than a dozen strikes that started late last night, at about midnight local time.
there were several strikes in the southern suburbs. A short time after that, the IDF, Arabic language spokesperson posting on X, telling people that they needed to evacuate several neighborhoods in the southern suburbs. And then those strikes began.
[08:55:00]
But and it's unclear right now if there are casualties in these strikes. We're waiting to hear from Lebanese authorities. And as I mentioned, Hezbollah's press office saying that their office has been struck. What really was very worrying for people here, absolutely terrifying, really, when you speak to residents of Beirut was another strike, a very rare strike last night hitting central Beirut.
Because these air strikes, these strikes have been mostly focused on the southern suburbs. We've only seen this happen twice. Earlier this week, you had a strike within the Beirut city limits, but last night's strike in the middle of a residential neighborhood in the heart of the capital.
And what we understand the target of that strike was a Health Authority Office linked to Hezbollah, and we understand that at least nine people were killed, seven of them are medics, according to that health authority, but I can tell you, this has left people here really terrified of what might be coming as they see these strikes spreading beyond the southern suburbs of Beirut.
FOSTER: Jomana, we'll be hearing more from you in the next hour as those plumes of smoke rise above Beirut. Thanks for joining me here on CNN "Newsroom". I'm Max Foster. "Connect the World" with Eleni, is up next.
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