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Connect the World
CNN International: Investigating Soldiers for Throwing Bodies Off Roof; Republican Nominee for North Carolina Governor Mark Robinson Called Himself a "Black Nazi" Defended Slavery in Online Comments; Studying the Consequences of "Doomsday Glacier"; IDF: Israel Conducts "Targeted Strike" on Beirut; Video Emerging from Site of Israeli Strike on Southern Beirut. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired September 20, 2024 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: This is the Beirut skyline as Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire across the Lebanese border. It is 04:00
p.m. in Beirut, it is 05:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Eleni Giokos. I'm in for Becky Anderson. This is "Connect the World".
Also happening over the next two hours, torrential rain dropped by Storm Boris causes heavy flooding across Central Europe. The Republican
controlled election board in Georgia meets today to discuss controversial plans to change voting rules just weeks before the state votes for a
president. Plus, a CNN exclusive, we'll reveal a history of deeply disturbing comments posted on a pornography forum by the Republican running
for governor of North Carolina.
All right, the stock markets in New York opens in around 30 minutes from now. Let's check in on how the futures are fairing -- remember, was a big
week for markets, as we saw that fed dropping interest rates by 50 basis points. As you can see, DOW is up slightly, everything else in the red.
We'll check in on those numbers in about 15 minutes from now.
Well, tensions are ratcheting up further along the border between Israel and Lebanon, where there's been an intense new exchange of fire. Israel
launched more strikes into Southern Lebanon earlier Friday, a day after carrying out one of the heaviest rounds of attacks this year. The Israeli
military says it hit about 100 Hezbollah rockets launches late Thursday. More than half of those strikes reportedly carried out in a single hour.
And the IDF says 130 rockets were fired from Southern Lebanon in the past hours. Now, the cross-border strikes come despite calls for calm after
those attacks on Hezbollah electronic devices. CNN's Ben Wedeman is standing by in Beirut for us. We've also got Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv for
the latest on what's happening on the ground.
Jeremy, I want to start off with you. Look, we know this week, Israel clearly said that this is a new era in the war. Is pretty evidence this
week with exploding devices. We also saw one of the heavier strikes overnight as well over the past year. So, give us a sense of what we're
seeing today, given this tension, this intensity over the past few days?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there's no question that there is extraordinary tension at this very moment, and we are continuing
to see a ramp up in the cross-border attacks. As last night, the Israeli military carried out one of its most intensive bombardments of Southern
Lebanon, carrying out strikes on about 100 rocket launcher facilities of Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon.
They say that they took out some 1000 barrels that would be used to launch rockets towards Israel. And today, we saw a number of Hezbollah strikes
being carried out in Northern Israel. 120 projectiles were identified by the Israeli military crossing into Israeli territory in areas across
Northern Israel, from the western portion of Northern Israel all the way to the Golan Heights.
There are no reports of injuries at this time from those strikes, but there are fires that were sparked across Northern Israel as a result of that. And
we are already getting now very early reports from the Israeli military saying that they have now conducted a quote targeted strike in Beirut.
There are no additional details at this time from that, but that is just coming in now from the Israeli military's own spokesman's account.
GIOKOS: Yeah, important Jeremy, you mentioned that news just coming into CNN. IDF reporting carrying out what it calls a targeted strike. In Beirut
Ben Wedeman is standing by for us Ben, what more can you tell us about the strike?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Eleni. Just about more than ten minutes ago, we saw smoke coming from the suburbs --
southern suburbs of Beirut, and already, rather promptly, the Israeli military came out and said they had conducted a strike in Beirut. That
seems to be it.
Now we're seeing pictures on social media of a lot of smoke in that area and people in the streets next to a damaged building. Now the smoke seems
to have dissipated at this point, but certainly about 10 minutes ago, it was quite clear.
[09:05:00]
Now, this is the first time that Beirut has been struck by the Israelis since the 30th of July, when Fuad Shukr that senior Hezbollah Military
Commander, was killed in a drone strike. And this is since last October, the third strike on Beirut.
Now, if, by the looks of it, it appears that it is perhaps a targeted hit, a targeted assassination, perhaps along the lines of what we saw with Faud
Shukr. Obviously, it's very early at this point. We don't know who the target was. Not much information coming through at this point regarding the
details.
But it certainly does represent yet another step in this escalatory cycle that began on Tuesday with the blasts of pagers, and then Wednesday the
walkie talkies, and now this so certainly Israel seems determined to escalate the situation.
Hezbollah has yet to respond in a quantitative way comparable to what Israel is doing at the moment. The Israelis have said that somewhere more
than 130 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel today. But certainly, if you take into account the death toll since Tuesday, the
number of injured, thousands injured, and now this the third strike since October on Beirut. It definitely would indicate that Israel is doing all it
can, perhaps, to provoke a response from Hezbollah Eline.
GIOKOS: And it seems so. I mean, frankly, Ben, when you and I were on air yesterday during Hassan Nasrallah speech, you heard jets flying overhead,
and this is definitely an indication of the messaging that Israel is sending, not only to Hezbollah, but also to the wider question about
whether this is going to be a fully-fledged war?
What we can anticipate until Hezbollah decides what retaliation would look like? Tell me what the mood is like on the ground right now? And what
you're hearing about the possibility of what is to come next?
WEDEMAN: Well, certainly since Tuesday, Beirut and all of Lebanon really has been severely rattled by these, the first of all, the electronic device
blasts, and now this another air strike on Beirut. Now, I've been here through for many months, since last October, and I've been through many
cycles of escalation and de-escalation, but this certainly, this cycle seems to be just going straight up in this instance.
There doesn't seem to be much will on the part of the international community, led by the United States, to do anything to prevent this. And
all indications are coming from Israel that they are preparing to seriously ramp up their offensive actions against Lebanon.
We know that the 98th division of the Israeli army has been shifted away from the Gaza front to the Northern Command. As far as Hezbollah's response
yesterday, Secretary General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah indicated that a response would come to the pager and walkie talkie strikes.
He didn't -- he specifically did not get into the details. And certainly, given the blow that the group has suffered this week, it's difficult to say
when and how they could respond in a meaningful way against an Israel that clearly has no restraints at this point from its principal allies, Eleni.
GIOKOS: All right. Ben Wedeman, thank you so much for that update. Jeremy, I'd like for you to stay with us, because I want to lay out a disturbing
story out of the West Bank. So, a warning to viewers that the video we are about to show you is graphic. It shows Israeli soldiers on a rooftop where
they can be seen pushing, throwing and kicking bodies over the edge of the building on Thursday.
Now, the Palestinian government says it happened during an IDF incursion that left seven dead. Jeremy, I want you to give me an update on this very
disturbing video that we're looking at right now, and the response from the IDF.
DIAMOND: Yeah, it is extremely disturbing footage. You can see three soldiers on the rooftop of the building in the area of Jenin in the
Northern West Bank, which has been the site of very heavy Israeli military operations in that area for the last several weeks now.
And you can see the soldiers taking one body after the next and pushing them off of that rooftop in this one lengthy video of the incident you can
see at least three bodies being pushed off of that rooftop by those soldiers in an incident that the Israeli military is now saying is under
review.
[09:10:00]
They say that this is a, quote, serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values and the expectations from IDF soldiers. The incident is
under review. That's a statement from the Israeli military.
But we know, of course, that this is not necessarily an isolated incident in terms of issues with conduct by Israeli troops and potential violations
of international law. We should note that bodies are meant to -- should not be mutilated or defamed in any way by enemy combatants, by the opposing
force, under international law those bodies are meant to be treated with a degree of respect.
And certainly, this appears to be a fairly clean-cut violation of international law by those Israeli soldiers in this instance. And we have
seen, of course, many other instances of potential violations of international law by Israeli soldiers in both the West Bank, but
especially, of course, in Gaza, where we have seen acts of vandalism by Israeli troops.
We have seen much of it being posted on social media. And of course, we have seen much more serious incidents, including the shooting of
individuals carrying white flags, all of which the Israeli military has repeatedly said that they would look into, that they would investigate.
But ultimately, what we have found is that while there are some investigations being carried out by the Israeli military's advocate general
into incidences of misconduct, we have ultimately seen, by and large, a severe lack of accountability Eleni.
GIOKOS: Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for that update. Of course, staying across the story as well as the news just in IDF strike in Beirut.
We'll bring you an update on those stories as they happen. Now, turning to a deeply disturbing new development in the 2024 U.S. election.
CNN's K-File investigative unit has uncovered shocking details about the Republican candidate running for governor of North Carolina the state's
current Lieutenant Governor, Mark Robinson. The investigation shows Robinson posted on a porn site starting in 2008. He described himself as a
quote black Nazi, and wrote posts expressing support for reinstating slavery.
There were also distressing remarks about rape as well as homophobic and transphobic slows. Robinson denies making those comments. Now we've got
Dianne Gallagher, who's following the story for us, an exclusive story in North Carolina. Dianne, I want to -- I want to start off with just
understanding here that North Carolina is an important state, and we've got the lid lifted off Mark Robinson's disturbing online comments. The question
is, how might this affect the race?
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Eleni, with that still to be determined, at this point, we are seeing Republicans scramble
to try and either distance themselves from Mark Robinson, who, of course, is the current Lieutenant Governor of the state and is running to be the
executive of the state, the governor.
Or Republicans are standing behind him and saying, look, he has denied that he made these posts and were going to stick with him. They don't really
have a choice at this point, because he is their candidate. But I will tell you that, starting yesterday morning, I began receiving very panicked phone
calls from Republicans in North Carolina before the story even published, asking me if I could tell them any details about this.
How bad it was going to be because of this deadline coming up for him to withdraw as the candidate. Again, this was before the story was even
published. Mark Robinson has been behind his opponent, the current Attorney General, Josh Stein, in the polls here in North Carolina, and he has been
slipping.
And some of this Eleni is because, look, he -- this is, unfortunately for many people who support him, not necessarily all the way out of character.
It is much more grotesque and graphic in the language. But Robinson has a series of controversies that have followed him around for years. He is seen
as sort of this conservative firebrand who rose to prominence back in 2018 after a very intense speech at a city council meeting about gun control
after the Parkland shooting.
This is a politician who has called the survivors of school shootings prostitutes. He's called Beyonce the anti-Christ, and he has said many
different things about the LGBTQ Plus community. And so, for some Republicans, they say, look, just wait it out. We think that we can survive
this.
But others are worried about the down ballot effect for other offices here in the state, as well as potential effect on the up ballot with Former
President Donald Trump. Right now, he and Vice President Kamala Harris are polling neck and neck in North Carolina.
[09:15:00]
This is a state that Donald Trump won by his slimmest margin back in 2020 and a state that he needs all of these electoral votes here to win again in
2024.
GIOKOS: All right, Diane Gallagher, thank you so much for that update. Good to see you. Now to the U.S. Presidential Race and the Republican controlled
election board in Georgia is meeting today to consider controversial rule changes less than a month before early voting starts.
The proposed changes include hand counting of ballots from every ballot box, changing the forms of absentee, provisional and emergency ballots that
have already been printed for November's election, and publicly posting lists of registered voters.
Georgia, one of the key battleground-states you can see in recent CNN polling, it's a virtual dead heat between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Marshall Cohen joins us now to give us an update. Good to see you, Marshall. How could this change the election with mail ballots being sent
out soon, early voting starting on October 15th, and frankly, Election Day less than 50 days away?
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Eleni. You know, this could have a big impact, and some officials are saying it's just too late to make these
changes that the Republican dominated state election board is trying to do today. Their meeting just kicked off in Atlanta. We are keeping a close eye
on that.
But zooming out here, this is a controversial board. It's dominated by Republican activists and supporters of Former President Donald Trump.
Earlier this summer, they rammed through some changes that over the objections, strenuous objections of democratic officials, Republican
election officials and the nonpartisan professionals who are literally tasked with running our elections.
It's a complicated process, and they are saying it's just too late to make these changes. Listen to this. This is Secretary of State, Brad
Raffensperger. He's a Republican. He's not a part of this board. In fact, Trump supporters in the state legislature kicked him off this board because
he had the guts to uphold the results of the 2020 election, which Trump lost. Our colleague, Sarah Murray, caught up with Brad Raffensperger
yesterday, and this is what he had to say about the latest changes that the boat -- the board is thinking about approving today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: We're too close to the election. We're 50 days out before we have our election. In fact, we're
really just three weeks before we start early voting, and it's just too late in the cycle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Three weeks before early voting Eleni, but the actual very first ballots in Georgia to those overseas voters and military voters. Those will
be mailed out tomorrow. So, imagine that a board of election officials today are trying to ram through some changes for an election that in some
ways, begins tomorrow.
The non-partisans and the professionals say it would be just, frankly, the wrong thing to do, but we will see what happens as this meeting goes it's
expected to last all day in Atlanta.
GIOKOS: All right. Marshall Cohen, thank you so much. We'll keep tabs on that story. All right, Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Georgia
later today, speaking about women's reproductive rights. The Democratic Nominee has made that one of the key issues of her campaign, hammering home
the message that Donald Trump's three Supreme Court appointees all voted to overturn Roe V Wade decision that legalized abortion in the U.S.
Now, Georgia's Republican controlled legislature and its governor later proved one of the strictest abortion laws in the United States. The topic
was front and center when Harris sat down with Oprah Winfrey Thursday a star-studded live stream event in Battleground Michigan. They heard from
the family of Amber Nicole Thurman, a Georgia woman who died from what was deemed a treatable infection due to delays in medical care stemming from
the Georgia law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CJ THURMAN, AMBER THURMAN'S SISTER: We trusted them to take care of her, you know, and they just let her die because of some stupid abortion ban.
They treated her like she was just another number.
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: What do you want to say, Madam, Vice President?
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm just so sorry. And the courage that you all have shown is extraordinary,
because also you just learned about how it is that she died.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, Donald Trump may not -- meanwhile made some notable remarks about Jewish voters at an event billed as opposing anti-Semitism. He said
Jewish people will be partially responsible if he loses the election.
[09:20:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With all I have done for Israel, I received only 24 percent of the Jewish
vote. Now, think of this. I really haven't been treated very well, but that's the story of my life. I'm not going to call this as a prediction,
but in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I'm at 40 percent.
If I'm at for 40, think of it, that means 60 percent are voting for Kamala, who in particular, is a bad Democrat. The Democrats are bad to Israel. I
say all the time that any Jewish person that votes for her, especially now her or the Democrat Party, should have their head examined.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, the head of the Jewish Council for public affairs accused Trump of using a speech about antisemitism to embrace antisemitic tropes.
As well to come some of the worst flooding in decades in parts of Central Europe, including Hungary, where the Danube is overflowing its banks.
Plus, scientists studying what's dubbed the Doomsday Glacier in Antarctica. Update is its impact on ocean levels. And we'll bring that story for you
right after this. Stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Welcome back. That is the parliament building in Budapest as Hungary experiences its worst flooding in a decade. Now, officials are
telling us we're seeing recent torrential rain from storm boroughs causing heavy flooding across all parts of Central Europe.
Though the heavy rains have now ended, rivers such as the Danube are not expected to crest until the weekend, with red alerts remaining in several
countries. Now parts of Italy are also experiencing devastating flooding. This is drone footage showing the aftermath of storm Boris.
Northern Italy took the brunt of the bad weather. Authorities evacuated some 1000 people. Reports say that some people had to climb onto their
roofs to escape rising water. Scientists say the extreme weather in Central Europe right now is a direct result of global warming.
Let's turn to another area where climate change is taking its toll. Now, scientists have only been studying the effects on ice melts in Antarctica
for a relatively short period, but what they found inside the Doomsday Glacier could spell potential disaster for the planets.
Our Chief Climate Correspondent, Bill Weir joins us now to give us what seems like the bad news. I wish I could get you on air at some point to
give us some good news about where we're going with climate change, but now we're talking about the Doomsday Glacier in Antarctica.
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Right.
[09:25:00]
GIOKOS: And what that means for us. So, break it down.
WEIR: Sure, this is the Thwaites Glacier. It's a chunk of ice the size of Florida, and if it were to go into the ocean and melt, it would raise sea
levels by two feet, over 60 centimeters around the world. But it also is like a giant cork holding back all the inland ice in Antarctica there.
And if that releases, we're talking 10 feet, you know, 30 meters of sea level rise. And it's just three meters of sea level rise rather. And so,
the idea of this thing not being part of a stable Earth is given at the Doomsday Glacier, very grim sort of moniker. And after six years of
studying this thing, a team of international scientists, including the British Antarctic Survey.
They've been using these torpedo shaped robots called Icefin to go down to the grounding line, that's where the bottom of the glacier meets the sea
floor. And they've discovered really alarming trends, like warm ocean waters from the Southern Ocean creeping underneath this glacier and then up
into it, like in a staircase formation, weakening it further and further.
They expect it to accelerate the ice loss in coming years. There's no scenario really where it's going to do a big cannonball and immediately sea
levels. This is a gradual, chronic problem, and you're seeing it in places like Miami, where sunny day king tide flooding is increasing.
Very vulnerable coastal cities around the world are just going to have to deal with this one way or another, and it just comes down to the speed of
the melt down there. It's so hard for us, I think, to connect ourselves with a place that's so far away, Eleni, bottom of the world, most people
will never go there. But what happens there truly affects almost 8 billion people.
GIOKOS: Yeah, that's such a good point, because, as you say, it's really hard to fathom what happens with glaciers melting and how that affects us
on a daily basis. But this is the reality. It's a real story, and whether we like it or not, it's going to really define our future. Bill Weir really
good to have you with us. Thank you so much.
Well, up next. Voter surveys tell us it's a neck and neck race for the White House, but with American CEOs, it's not even close. We'll tell you
which candidate 8 out of 10 picked to win the presidency. Stay with CNN.
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[09:30:00]
GIOKOS: I want to update you on the breaking news that we're following right now. A targeted strike, that's what Israel says, directed at the
Lebanese capital of Beirut. We are hearing of extensive destruction on at least one street of high-rise apartment buildings that is happening right
now.
We do not have detail at this point on the intended target, all the casualties or the overall destruction, and it comes amid escalated cross
border fire between Israel and Hezbollah will be monitoring Beirut as the story happens. And we'll bring you an update on this story in just a
moment.
In the meantime, I want to turn now to business. Markets in the U.S. have just started trading, and of course, importantly, they are coming off
record highs from Thursday the DOW ending about 42,000 for the first time. And as you can see right now, we're slightly in the red taking off a little
bit of that excitement that we saw earlier this week after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points.
You can see the DOW slightly softer, as you can see below that 42,000 level after hitting record highs. NASDAQ and S&P also slightly muted today, last
trading day of the week. Now the economy is top of mind for American voters as they solidify their choice for the next presidents.
The country as a whole appears fairly evenly split between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, but a new survey of U.S. business leaders show CEOs are
betting on Harris. CNN's Matt Egan has that story for us.
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, Eleni, these CEOs are bullish on Kamala Harris, and it's not even close. 80 percent of CEOs in a new straw poll
from Yale professor Jeff Sonnenfeld find that they think Harris will beat Trump. Just 20 percent think that Trump is going to win.
Now to be clear, this is not who they want to win. This is who they expect to win. And this is not representative of all CEOs. It is representative,
though, of these 60 or so business leaders that are put in a room and pulled anonymously by Sonnenfeld, who is known as the CEO Whisperer.
And what's telling here is that even though only a third of them identify as Democrats, and undoubtedly some of them do not like part of Harris'
campaign and her agenda, they do think that she's ultimately going to win. And as far as why, what's interesting here is the CEOs were also asked who
is a threat to democracy?
And again, overwhelmingly, 73 percent say that they fear that Trump is a threat to Democracy. Only 4 percent say that. For Harris, 8 percent think
both of them are and 15 percent say neither. Now Jeff Sonnenfeld, he told me that the CEOs that he's in touch with are, quote, horrified by Trump's
leadership model.
He said, they depend upon the rule of law, and they want a president who respects that law. Now I did ask the Trump campaign about these findings,
and the press secretary said to me, does anyone think a straw poll of business leaders from Yale represents the views of the country.
And I think the answer there clearly is no, but that's not the point. The point is that despite these polls that show this race is really, really
close, an overwhelming majority of these captains of industry, they believe it will be Harris in the Oval Office next year, not Trump.
GIOKOS: Right, Matt Egan, thank you so much for that update. Good to see you.
EGAN: Thanks Eleni.
GIOKOS: I want to now return to the breaking news that we're following right now, a targeted strike Israel says directed at the Lebanese capital.
CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Beirut. Ben, could you give us an update. We're trying to ascertain level of destruction the actual target. What more do we
know right now?
WEDEMAN: Well, a Lebanese security sources told CNN that indeed, a senior Hezbollah official was the target of this strike, which took place about 50
minutes ago in the Jamous neighborhood of Southern Beirut. That's an area where Hezbollah has a very strong presence.
Now, when it happened, we did see smoke rising from that area. We did not hear an actual blast, but the official news agency here says that an F-35,
an Israeli F-35 war plane fired two rockets at a residential building at that area. Now so far, they're reporting that five children have been
killed in this strike.
But the video we're seeing coming out of there would indicate there are many, many casualties. We heard ambulances rushing to the area.
[09:35:00]
Now the Israeli media is widely reporting that the target was Ibrahim Akil, who is a senior military official within Hezbollah, who has been involved
in the organization going back to its earliest days in the 1990s. The United States has a $7 million reward out for him. Now it's important to
keep in mind that Hezbollah, especially its military leaders, keep a very low profile.
So, this is not a name familiar to most Lebanese, in fact, but clearly this is the if this is -- if he indeed was the target. This is the second senior
military official with Hezbollah killed since the 30th of July assassination of Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli drone strike,
also in the Southern part of Beirut.
This is the third strike on Beirut since the beginning of the year. The first one was a Hamas official killed in early January. But this comes in a
week where tensions have been skyrocketing. On Tuesday, there were those hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pager blasts that killed at least 10
people, wounding more than 2000.
And then on Wednesday, there were the walkie-talkie blasts which killed 20 and killed and wounded more than 600. So, certainly this is not going to
help calm tensions at all, and it also comes after a 24-hour period where we've seen some of the most intense Israeli air strikes on Southern Lebanon
and Hezbollah firing back, according to the Israelis, more than 130 projectiles so far today, Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yeah, Ben, and we can see the smoke billowing in the background there. In terms of the destruction, we don't know as yet, but I know that
we've been hearing from local media that it is quite extensive to repeat either that a senior Lebanese official has told CNN that the target was a
Hezbollah Leader or some kind of Hezbollah official.
Could you give us a sense here of what this ultimately means, given that we heard from Hassan Nasrallah yesterday, talking about retaliation, talking
about Israel crossing a red line this week? And what this could mean, given the fact that the last 24 hours, we've seen tensions rising and clearly
escalatory moves?
WEDEMAN: There's a lot to say about this. For one thing, yet again, this is an indication that the security apparatus of Hezbollah has been
compromised, that one of their senior leaders has been taken out in what appears to be a single targeted strike on Southern Beirut, which is their
stronghold.
As far as Hezbollah's response, it's difficult to say, they've obviously, they've lost to these blasts many of their fighters, and now they've lost
within this space of a month and a half, two senior military leaders. Of course, we have yet to confirm that Akil was indeed killed in this attack.
But certainly, this is going to mean if Israel crossed red lines Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Nasrallah. It's yet again, going beyond those
red lines, and it's putting more and more pressure on Hezbollah, from its base, to somehow respond in a meaningful way to these Israeli attacks.
And what we saw, for instance, on the 25th of August, when Hezbollah responded to the assassination of Fuad Shukr that the Israelis were able to
blunt the more the attack by Hezbollah of more than 300 drones and projectiles fired into the heart of Israel.
The Israelis clearly have the technical capability to stop these attacks, and therefore Hezbollah is really pushed into a corner. What can it do aid
against a far more, better supplied and trained and whatnot military organization at a time when their own intelligence and security is
seriously compromised, Eleni.
GIOKOS: All right, Ben Wedeman will update everyone on the story. As it happens, we are following this Israeli targeted strike in Beirut. We will
be trying to get more information on the level of destruction the target as well and of course, any casualties. We'll be right back after the short
break. Stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00]
GIOKOS: Right. Welcome back. And an update on the breaking news out of Beirut, Lebanese security sources confirming to CNN that a senior Hezbollah
official was the target of an Israeli strike on the Lebanese capital, in fact, in the Southern suburbs of Beirut. Now, Lebanese media reporting an
Israeli war plane fired two rockets at a residential building in Southern Beirut, and children are reportedly among the dead.
We're trying to ascertain the level of destruction, casualties, injuries. Those are the still, the questions that we're still trying to get to, and
importantly, the exact target. So, from what we understand is that it could have been a target on a high-level Hezbollah member.
We've also got to remember, over the last few days, specifically on Tuesday and Wednesday, we saw not only pagers exploding, but as well as walkie
talkies, which of course, crippled Hezbollah. We saw over 3000 people injured, about 37 people losing their lives. Importantly as well, this
week, Israel has said that they are heading into the new era of the war.
We heard Hassan Nasrallah, the Leader of Hezbollah, yesterday, saying that Israel had crossed a red line, a big fear about escalation in the region.
We're now seeing this targeted strike in Southern Beirut, which of course, is going to create even more worry about what retaliation from the
Hezbollah side could look like, and what this means for the potential of an all-out war.
These are some of the questions that we're looking at. And also keeping in mind that overnight, we saw some of the heaviest strikes into Lebanon by
Israel, some of the heaviest that we've seen in over a year. Of course, Hezbollah retaliating as well. Tensions are very high.
These are images that are coming through from Beirut. And just a short while ago, we actually saw smoke billowing from certain areas there. The
big question is just the damage that was incurred, the people that could perhaps be caught up in this. We're still waiting to get more details as
the story develops.
These are live pictures from Beirut, Southern Lebanon was the targets. We'll be back right after the short break with more updates. Stay with us.
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[09:45:00]
GIOKOS: Now an update on the breaking news out of Beirut, Lebanese security sources confirming to CNN that a senior Hezbollah official was the target
of an Israeli strike on the Lebanese capital. Lebanese media reporting an Israeli war plane fired two rockets at a residential building in Southern
Beirut.
You can see the smoke billowing out of that area there, and what we're hearing is children are reportedly among the dead. We're still trying to
confirm some of those news lines. In the meantime, these are the latest pictures from on the ground. These images just in to CNN, showing some of
the aftermath. Let's just take a listen.
All right, as you can see, sheer pandemonium and panic after what the IDF says was a targeted strike in Southern Beirut. These are images of the
aftermath of the strike, from what we can tell, this was seems to be a residential building that was hit. You can see cars and vehicles damaged.
You can see buildings that are destroyed as well, and people rushing around. These are the first images we're getting into CNN of the aftermath
of this IDF strike in Southern Beirut, from what we understand, these are the sources on the ground that are telling us that a senior Hezbollah
member was the target of this strike.
We are also hearing from Lebanese media that children are among the dead. We also are hearing that the destruction on the ground, and we can see a
little bit of that in these images as well, that potentially some people could have been injured as well.
This, of course, is in a week of what has been absolutely deadly for Hezbollah, Tuesday, Wednesday, those were the two days where we saw the
pagers and the walkie talkies exploding, resulting in 3000 injuries and 37 dead, including some civilians in fact, we heard from Hezbollah Leader
Hassan Nasrallah yesterday saying that Israel had crossed a red line overnight.
[09:50:00]
We saw some of the heaviest strikes between Lebanon and Israel. It has been a very big week of escalation and tension. Ben Wedeman is on the ground.
Ben, we are seeing some of these initial images of the aftermath of this targeted strike, pandemonium on the ground, and you can see you get a sense
of some of the destruction. What more are you learning right now?
WEDEMAN: Yeah, we understand that it's a scene of chaos there in the Jamous neighborhood in the southern suburbs, where it's not clear how many people
have been killed so far, the minister of health just came out with a statement saying three people were killed.
The official national news agency is saying five children were killed, but clearly, many more were injured. We still don't know who the target of this
attack, which took place about just over an hour ago in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Now, according to the National News Agency, an Israeli
F-35 war plane fired two missiles on a residential neighborhood a building in that area.
Now keep in mind, at this time of day, there are lots of people in the street. There's lots of traffic, but it appears now a lot of the traffic is
cleared up. We've been hearing ambulances rushing to the scene of this strike. Obviously, this is something comes at a time when people were
already extremely tense about the situation in Lebanon, given Tuesday's pager blast, followed by the next day's walkie-talkie blast.
This is the third strike on the Lebanese capital. All three of those strikes, one in January, one at the end of July, and this one are in the
southern suburbs of Beirut, which is considered a Hezbollah stronghold, having said that, it's also where a lot of people live, a lot of people who
don't necessarily have anything to do with the organization.
It's a fairly working class, poor part of the town, so there are lots of people out and about at the time that the strike took place. Now, earlier
today, I did see the trails of two Israeli planes flying over the city, and what we've seen in the south of the country is a fairly busy 24 hours.
Yesterday evening, in the space of about 20 minutes, there were more than 50 Israeli air strikes on Southern Lebanon, and so far, today, according to
the Israeli military, Hezbollah has fired more than 130 projectiles in the direction of Israel, Eleni.
GIOKOS: All right. Ben Wedeman, thank you so much. Jim Sciutto standing by for us as well from Washington. Jim, tell us more about what you're hearing
right now. We're seeing some of the images of the aftermath of what seems to be quite a deadly strike targeting the senior Hezbollah leader. We're
still getting information, but what are you hearing?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF U.S. SECURITY ANALYST: Listen, we have all the ingredients now, sadly for an escalation on the northern border of Israel
between Israel and Hezbollah. You think about this strike inside Beirut, it's not the first time.
But I know that U.S. officials see, Israeli strikes in Southern Lebanon against Hezbollah targets as fundamentally different from strikes inside
Beirut itself, in part because it's such a heavily populated area. You add to that this unprecedented, wide ranging pager and walkie-talkie attack
from a couple of days ago, certainly an escalation.
And then if you look back just to two, three weeks to last month, when Hezbollah attempted an escalation of its own, a major rocket and missile
attack on Israel that was only thwarted about 30 minutes before supposed to happen, according to Israeli and U.S. officials, when Israel did a
preemptive strike. So, you have both sides raising the ante here in ways that make it difficult for the other side not to feel compelled to
retaliate.
Add to that, Israeli officials now speaking quite publicly about changing the focus from the war in the south in Gaza against Hamas to a war in the
north, or a more expanded military action, at least against Hezbollah in the north, which, Eleni, is not entirely new, going back to just in the
wake of October 7th, when I was in Northern Israel soldiers, citizens, Israeli officials, spoke then too about the need to deal with the northern
problem once Gaza is -- once operations in Gaza have ended, or at least tailed off.
And remember, you still have a large portion of the north of Israel that is uninhabitable, many tens of thousands of Israelis forced to flee south. So,
you throw all that together. And if I could have one more ingredient, it is the -- what seems to be the collapse of cease fire talks in Gaza, which had
been seen by all sides as a way to head off an expansion of military action in the north.
GIOKOS: Yeah.
[09:55:00]
SCIUTTO: That Hezbollah, Israel, the U.S. wanted to give some breathing room for those talks to proceed.
GIOKOS: And as you say, all the ingredients are there. I mean, the one thing we just don't know is how Hezbollah is going to respond, given that
it was a very humiliating week, a deadly week, and what we've seen today, of course, is going to infuriate Hezbollah a lot more. We don't know what
the response will be. What's your take?
SCIUTTO: Listen, you know you already heard from Nasrallah in the wake of the pager attack, promising some sort of response. Now you have this
additional attack, which CNN latest reporting, as I know you noted just a few minutes ago, is that it targeted a senior Hezbollah leader.
So, you can expect some sort of response. The question is, how big? And then, of course, how Israel responds. I mean, we're in a cycle here that is
so familiar. And of course, it even proceeds October 7th. But we've been in a tit for tat of gradually escalating and expanding strikes and retaliatory
strikes.
And there's been enormous effort to keep the lid on that back and forth, so it doesn't expand into an all-out war. But of course, as the strikes become
bigger, the chances of an expanded war become greater.
GIOKOS: And that is the fear that perhaps you know, the question is, are we on the precipice of something far bigger. Jim Sciutto, always good to have
you with us. Thank you so much, Jim, in New York for us. We're going to be back right after the short break, and of course, giving you an update on
this breaking news from Beirut Lebanon. Stay with CNN.
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