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Israel Conducts Targeted Strike on Southern Beirut; Republican Nominee for North California Governor Made Graphic Comments on Porn Site from 2008. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired September 20, 2024 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:46]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome to the second hour of CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi.
I want to get straight to our breaking news this hour amidst growing fears Israel and the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah are spiraling towards war.
The Israeli military says it has launched a rare strike on the Lebanese capital. And you can see smoke over the Beirut skyline, just over an hour
ago.
Now extensive damage and chaos in the streets afterwards. It's the latest of hundreds of strikes between the two sides over the past 24 hours.
Reports say the strike targeted a top Hezbollah official, pushing the region further on edge. Hezbollah's leader is vowing to respond after the
attacks on pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to his group.
What you're seeing right now is the aftermath of that IDF strike in southern Beirut. And we're bringing you an update from Beirut, as well as
from Tel Aviv. We've got Ben Wedeman standing by, as well as Jeremy Diamond.
Welcome to both of you.
Ben, I want to start with you. We're seeing these initial images coming through of the aftermath. You can see the chaos and of course the rush.
Give me a sense of what we're learning right now. What more do we know?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we understand that this strike took place about an hour and 15 minutes ago in the Jamus
neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut, an area where Hezbollah has very strong presence. Now according to the official news agency here, an F-
35 fired two rockets on a residential building.
Now from video coming out of that area shows that there seems to be a lot of destruction. There is some confusion about the death toll. So far the
Ministry of Health is talking about three people dead as a preliminary toll. One of our colleagues, CNN colleagues at the scene is saying that she
saw one on the bag being carried away as well as two injured. Now, we heard over the last hour lots of ambulances heading in that direction.
Now, as far as the target goes Lebanese security source tells us that the target was a senior Hezbollah official. Out of Israel there are reports
coming that it was Ibrahim Aqil, who was a senior military official in Hezbollah, somebody who has been active in the military wing of the group
since its early days, in the early 1980s. The U.S. Treasury Department has a $7 million reward out for his arrest.
However, so far there's been no confirmation either from the Lebanese government or Hezbollah regarding who the object of this Israeli strike
maybe. Now, what was interesting is that the Israeli military almost immediately within the first minute or two of the attack actually came out
and acknowledged that they had conducted a strike on southern Beirut. This is the third strike on the Lebanese capital since the beginning of the
year.
Most significantly on 30th July an Israeli drone strike also hit a residential building, killing Fuad Shukr, who was the senior official in
Hezbollah's military organization. Now, yesterday we heard Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, saying that the -- with the
pager and walkie-talkie attacks of Tuesday and Wednesday, that Israel had crossed a red line. Clearly it's crossed yet another red line.
He did vowed to retaliate yesterday in his speech, but until now we've seen an increase in the number of rockets being fired from southern Lebanon into
Israel but nothing that specifically is in retaliation for those attacks. So we're really just braced to see what happens next. This is a week that
is, starting Tuesday, began with increased intense tension and it's really just gotten worse.
[10:05:00]
You know, you're talking about on the brink of war, I think it's fair to say that Lebanon and Hezbollah, rather Israel and Hezbollah are already in
a war. At the moment it's somewhat limited, but those limits seem to be falling by the wayside -- Eleni.
GIOKOS: All right. Jeremy, I want to come to you. I hear that you're -- we're getting a bit more information about the actual targets. What can you
tell us?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. I can now confirm according to sources familiar with the matter that Ibrahima Aqil,
that senior Hezbollah commander that Ben was just talking about, was indeed the target of this Israeli strike in Beirut just in the last hour or so.
Aqil is a senior Hezbollah military commander and if indeed he was killed, which we have not yet confirmed, he would be the senior most Hezbollah
figure to be killed since Fuad Shukr was assassinated in that late July strike that was also carried out by the Israeli military and also carried
out in that Beirut suburb of Dahiya.
This is of course a very significant moment, not only because of the seniority of the target that Israel appears to have at least attempted to
take out. We don't yet know whether or not that strike was successful, but also of course because it happened in Beirut, in the Lebanese capital. And
then additionally, we are also getting these reports of casualties as a result of this strike. At least three people killed and I believe that the
latest count is 17 others who appear to have been injured in this Israeli strike so far.
So very significant. And then another reason I think that I would add to the significance of all this is just the pace. I mean, just think about the
number of things that have happened in the last few days alone in terms of this Hezbollah-Israel conflict that has been, you know, simmering at a
fairly lower temperature for much of the last year with rockets being fired by Hezbollah into northern Israel, strikes being carried out by the Israeli
military, largely in southern Lebanon.
But now this week we have seen a series of actions, in particular from the Israeli side that have really ratcheted up the temperature. We saw those
thousands of pagers that exploded just a few days ago. We confirmed indeed that that was a joint Israeli military and Mossad operation. The following
day we saw walkie-talkies exploding. And in the wake of that, Hezbollah earlier this morning carried out a fairly significant rocket barrage attack
on northern Israel.
Some 120 projectiles were identified crossing into northern Israel according to the Israeli military, although those did not result in any
casualties. Fires, however, have been set ablaze as a result of those strikes. And last night, I should add, we also saw the Israeli military
carrying out one of the most intense bombardments of southern Lebanon that we have seen in some time.
Certainly maybe the last time we saw something slightly more intense was as Israel launched that preemptive strike as Hezbollah was retaliating for the
killing of Fuad Shukr a few weeks ago. But now it really does seem like we are at much, much higher level of intensity and there's no question that
today's strike carried out in the Lebanese capital, the suburb of Dahiya of Beirut, that this is really ratcheting things up and putting even more
pressure now on Hezbollah internally certainly to retaliate because now, not only are they going to be poised to retaliate for the explosions of
those pagers and walkie-talkies, but there is also now it appears this strike targeting a senior Hezbollah commander, Ibrahim Aqil, to account for
as well.
GIOKOS: So -- and really good points there. I mean, catching Hezbollah off- guard Tuesday, Wednesday with those exploding electronic devices and now we're sitting today with heightened tensions.
I just want to repeat the numbers we have right now, 17 injured as well as three people killed. That is the latest we have from the Lebanese Health
Ministry.
Ben, I want to come to you. How big of much of a blow is this for Hezbollah? Ibrahim Aqil was the target.
WEDEMAN: If he was indeed killed in this strike, and we haven't confirmed that yet, it's yet another blow. You take the 30th of July killing of Fuad
Shukr, the actual senior, the most senior military official in Hezbollah, and then the pager blasts and the walkie-talkie blasts, and now this. This
is just one real body blow after another, and three serious ones in just one week.
[10:10:04]
This is -- Hezbollah as an organization, and I know it well going back to the early 1990s, it's an organization that has very tight security. They're
not into publicity. Their leaders don't sort of willy-nilly give interviews, access to Hezbollah is very controlled, and it's an
organization that depends very much upon personal relations between its members. So they're very careful about any suspicious individuals becoming
involved, and basically their entire security been compromised.
But what we can see now is it's clearly been massively compromise. The fact that, and yet again, we don't know if Ibrahim Aqil was actually killed, but
the fact that the middle of the day at, you know, just the middle of the afternoon, that an Israeli plane can come and fired two missiles onto a
building and hit its target is quite phenomenal, and it really represents for Hezbollah a profound crisis, a crisis of confidence that it isn't as
strong and capable as it was thought to be.
And, you know, there's an important thing to keep in mind. Hezbollah began firing on Israel on the 8th of October last year, and it made it clear
every time it reports a strike on Israel, it's always within the context of supporting the people of Gaza in their war against Israel. That this is a
support front. This is not the front in the war. Clearly Israel has decided that it's going to now focus on Lebanon, on Hezbollah, and try perhaps to
destroy it.
But Hezbollah is the jewel in the crown of the so-called axis of resistance led by Iran. It's always been its insurance policy against Israel or the
United States attacking Iran, in which case they could unleash Hezbollah on Israel. But now that Hezbollah is clearly in the crosshairs of the Israelis
that insurance policy is suddenly in doubt. So we're not just talking about Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah and Israel, there's a geopolitical angle
here.
That means that, you know, when Israel really goes after the very heart of Hezbollah, in the heart of the Lebanese capital, it is challenging, not
just Hezbollah, it is challenging Iran as well -- Eleni.
GIOKOS: Brilliantly put, Ben. And such important context as we've seen deadly week for Hezbollah, and importantly after the messaging from Hassan
Nasrallah yesterday saying that Hezbollah's structure is still very much intact and we see this kind of strike in southern Lebanon. We know the
target. We don't have more details about whether Ibrahim Aqil has been killed, but important week and whether this is the precipice and a prelude
to something wider.
Ben Wedeman, we are going to catch up with you soon. You're currently updating us on the latest coming through in Beirut. Southern Beirut was the
target.
I want to now shift to Maya Yahya who is the head of the Carnegie Middle East Center joining us now from Beirut.
Maya, great to have you with us. Thank you so much for taking the time. From your perspective, what are you hearing right now? We're seeing some of
the aftermath of this targeted strike by the IDF. We're hearing a little bit about the injuries and death toll right now as the news evolves.
MAHA YAHYA, DIRECTOR, CARNEGIE MIDDLE EAST CENTER: Hi, thank you for having me. What we're hearing is that there are quite a few children among those
injured and killed. The images that are coming out are quite shocking. It's again, I mean, it's a half residential building that seems just to have
been taken out, and there's significant damage in the neighborhood.
We've heard about who is targeted, but apparently it's not just Ibrahim Aqil, but that there was some meeting for military between Palestinian and
Hezbollah, Palestinian factions and Hezbollah leadership. So we're not sure who else was in that room with Ibrahim Aqil if indeed he was there and if
indeed he has been killed.
GIOKOS: Yes, we are still waiting to get more information on that. But what we do know is just the chaos and the panic on the ground and the aftermath
of this.
YAHYA: Indeed.
GIOKOS: This comes after days of just incredible, you know, tensions rising, frankly, from what we saw on Tuesday, where last night being one of
the heaviest days of strikes towards Lebanon and of course Hezbollah responding as well.
Give me a sense of what this could ultimately mean in terms of being on the precipice of a full-out war?
[10:15:07]
YAHYA: The Lebanese are reeling. I mean, we haven't even processed the pager attack. You know, thousands of pagers exploding in people's faces a
few days ago, plus everything you've described since then. So there's a sense of shock, the sense of inability to process. And there's a lot of
concern that Hezbollah is really being pushed to a point, even though they may be disoriented because of the disruption in their communication,
internal communication, they still obviously still retained the capacity to respond.
And there's increasing concern that they're really being pushed into a position where they have no option but to respond in some way or the other.
That response should it be a, you know, living up to the initial equation of you hit Beirut, we hit Tel Aviv if they do something like this, this
will then immediately flair into a much bigger conflict than we've seen so far, and it will wreck, you know, death and destruction certainly on
Lebanon, but also on Israel.
The Israeli government is gambling now and they see it as an opportunity to continue pushing the envelope and pushing Hezbollah to see how far they can
go. They've certainly caused a lot of damage over the past year, but I think particularly over the last three or four days.
GIOKOS: So what's your take? I mean, this is really important to kind of understand as Israel is saying, that, you know, heading into a new era of
war. We know Hezbollah has ultimately basically said that it doesn't want to get dragged into a war. We've seen the skirmishes between, you know,
Israel as well as Hezbollah on the southern border of Lebanon.
Does Israel, does it seem to you that Israel wants to get into a full out war? As Ben Wedeman said, this isn't just a Lebanese issue. This is a
geopolitical angle that's playing out that Israel looks like it's challenging Iran directly.
YAHYA: It is challenging Iran directly. I think Israel is counting on the fact that for the past year, neither Iran nor Hezbollah have wanted to get
into an all-out conflict. From Iran's perspective, it has no need to get into an all-out conflict and have assets. It's spent the last four decades
building up completely destroyed and a conflict it really cannot win in.
But if getting to the point where what we're seeing now is a war of attrition where Hezbollah's capacities are being systematically degraded,
its top leadership is being taken out, it's lost upwards of 450 members between commanders and foot soldiers, along with increasing pressure within
Lebanon because of the displacement, the exhaustion, et cetera, then the equation might flip. And we don't know what that flip will be.
It may not necessarily mean that Iran will immediately get involved in the conflict. However, also, I mean, there's been a lot of talk about the
possibility of a ground invasion by Israel. Wat Israel has shown over the past few days, it actually does not need to do a ground invasion and that,
you know, it can continue with this war of attrition. If we're going to look at the conflict from a 20th century perspective, you know, it's two
armies hitting each other. It's place specific.
In this context, what we're looking at is, yes, there are bombings going back and forth but we're not looking at kind of the, you know, kind of
combat that we've seen in Gaza, for example. We're looking at a very sophisticated, multi-hybrid kind of warfare. The kinds of which we have not
seen before at least in this particular context.
GIOKOS: Well, Maya, thank you so much for your insights, joining us there from Beirut as we continue to cover this breaking news story after an IDF,
what they call targeted strike in southern Beirut.
We'll be bringing you an update on the story as it plays out. We're going to a short break. Stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:21:37]
GIOKOS: More now on our top story, breaking news out of the Middle East. Sources tell CNN an Israeli strike on southern Beirut targeted a top
Hezbollah official. Three people were killed and 17 injured. That's according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It's only the third strike this
year targeting the Lebanese capital. It came amidst an increase of volleys between Israel and Hezbollah militants and fears the region could be
spiraling into war.
What you're seeing right now is the aftermath of that strike. Those images just into CNN as we're getting more information on what transpired about an
hour ago,
I want to bring in now H.A. Hellyer, Middle East studies scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, for an update.
H.A., what a week it's been for Lebanon and importantly what we've seen in the impact on Hezbollah. We've seen this strike now in the last hour, the
target specifically from what we understand, Ibrahim Aqil, what is your reaction to this?
H.A. HELLYER, SCHOLAR, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: Eleni, thank you very much for having me on your program. I think it's been very
clear throughout the last year that Washington has been urging the Israelis not to escalate, not to bring the region into a more risky situation where
they would be all-out war across the area. And unfortunately, Israel seems to have crossed these red lines again and again and again.
And of course, because there wasn't any accountability from Washington whenever these red lines were crossed, I think Israel feels that it's been
empowered and enabled to take more steps of an escalatory fashion. And I think what we've seen over the last few days is an indication that the war
in Gaza will wind down. It will not end. It will wind down in my opinion. So there will be continued violence there.
The Israelis will maintain a military presence inside of Gaza, not just around it, and reduce the territory and so on, but it will wind down in
terms of intensity and redirect that intensity to southern Lebanon. And I think the aim there is to forcefully push out Hezbollah from the south of
Lebanon. The south of Lebanon was described by the Israelis just yesterday as a war zone and I don't think that was rhetorical.
I think that's sending a very particular message which is, we don't regard this as an area that is sacrosanct. We're not interested in Lebanese
sovereignty when it comes to strikes in this particular area. On the contrary, to push out Hezbollah from this area.
GIOKOS: So I've just got an update now as well from John Kirby telling reporters, the White House spokesman, saying that the White House was not
aware of any advanced notice from Israelis to the U.S. of the strikes targeting the senior Hezbollah official. And there are going to allow the
IDF to speak to their operations.
I mean, we've actually seen this playing out a few times where, from what we understand that the U.S. has always -- that has not always been up to
speed of what Israel's moves and plans are militarily.
[10:25:02]
HELLYER: That's true, and I want to be very clear here. There are some cases where the United States will, you know, sort of fudge the issue and
saying we had no role, or we didn't play any part in the operation without answering directly, whether or not they knew about it. But very often they
don't know about it. And I think that's very telling that the Israelis feel that they can embark on these sorts of operations and missions without
informing and getting the consent of their closest ally, which isn't just like closest ally, but is the main source of its military hardware,
financial aid, political support at the U.N. and so on.
But again, this is down to the pattern that has been shown over the past year. D.C. laid down some very clear red lines throughout the last year,
whether it was about Rafah, whether it's about escalation in different areas, and the Israelis ignored those red lines. And there were no
consequences for crossing those red lines. So it's not surprising if the Israelis become more and more reckless as time goes on.
GIOKOS: All right. H.A. Hellyer, thank you so much for joining us. Much appreciated.
We continue to monitor this story after the IDF strike in southern Beirut.
Now we're moving on to a CNN exclusive. CNN's KFile investigative unit has uncovered disturbing details about the Republican candidate running for
governor of North Carolina. The state's current lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson. Now the investigation shows Robinson posted on a porn site
starting in 2008 and made some truly shocking remarks. He described himself as a, quote, "black Nazi," and wrote posts expressing support for
reinstating slavery.
There were also homophobic and transphobic slurs, and what appears to be a joke about rape. Robinson denies making those comments.
Dianne Gallagher is following the story for us from North Carolina.
Dianne, good to see you. I guess the big question is, what does this mean for the Republicans? How they're reacting to this and what this could mean
for the ticket.
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So look, as of today, Mark Robinson remains the Republican nominee running for governor here in
this crucial state of North Carolina. The deadline for him to withdraw as the candidate has passed at midnight and there are absentee ballots that
have already been sent out now, today, to military and overseas citizens of North Carolina.
So he can no longer withdraw from the race, and his state party is standing by him publicly. They released a statement late last night that said in
part, the left is trying to demonize him via personal attacks.
I will tell you that privately, many Republicans have expressed deep concern about what this might do to their fellow party members who are
running against Democrats right now with the attacks that are already beginning trying to tie them to Robinson and to this story.
Now again, Robinson categorically denies that these are his posts. This is what he told CNN KFile Andrew Kaczynski about that denial and speculating
on where they may have come from.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK ROBINSON, NORTH CAROLINA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR AND REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR NOMINEE: I'm not going to get into the minutia of how some might have
manufactured these salacious tabloid lies. But I can tell you this. There's just been over $1 million spent on me through AI by a billionaire's son
who's bound and determined to destroy me. The things that people can do with the internet now was incredible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: Now, look, the KFile investigation used several investigative tools, including Web archives. These posts, which came between 2008 and
2012 on a pornographic site's message board, called "Nude Africa," were made under a username that CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching
with a litany of biographical information and details, as well as shared e- mail addresses across multiple platforms.
On that site Robinson listed his full name as well as an e-mail address that he has used across numerous sites online for decades. Now, some of
those posts you have already highlighted. The others are quite disturbing. He refers to himself as a perv. He also graphically described in great
detail becoming aroused by his own personal memories of peeping on women in public gym showers. As a 14-year-old, there was that apparent joke, if you
will, about a woman who had said she was raped during a discussion. He also included anti-Muslim, antisemitic, and homophobic slurs.
Look, Eleni, polling in North Carolina shows that this is a tight race at the top of the ticket between Vice President Kamala Harris and former
president Donald Trump. When it comes to Robinson, he has been falling behind his opponent, Democrat, the attorney general here, Josh Stein, for
weeks now. But Republicans are concerned about the drag on the ticket below Robinson at the state level.
[10:30:00]
There's also concern that perhaps this could impact Donald Trump in a state that, again, is virtually tied between those, and Trump needs to win in
November. North Carolina is the site of his slimmest victory in 2020.
GIOKOS: All right. Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much for that update.
We're going to a very short break. We'll be right back. Stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Welcome back to CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Eleni Giokos is Abu Dhabi.
Our breaking news this hour, to brief you on the latest, Israel's military says it has hit the Lebanese capital Beirut in what it's calling a targeted
strike. We are now hearing from a CNN team at the scene. The Israeli strike on southern Beirut destroyed an entire building. That is from our CNN team
on the ground. And sources tell CNN a senior Hezbollah official, Ibrahim Aqil, was the target. The Lebanese Health Ministry saying three people have
been killed and the national news agency says there are many children and women among the casualties.
Now videos from the target areas show scenes of chaos with extensive destruction to high-rise apartment buildings. It comes just two days after
waves of attacks causing thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies to explode across the country. We're also hearing from witnesses describing nearby
buildings shaking nearly half an hour after the strike, and police have cordoned off the area.
That is the latest from southern Beirut. Now Lebanese authorities say at least 37 people died in those blasts Tuesday, Wednesday, and nearly 3,000
were wounded.
And Lama Fakih joins us now live from Beirut.
Lama, great to have you with us. Thank you so much. I want to get a sense from you just the latest news of this IDF strike in southern Beirut. The
target was from what we understand, a senior Hezbollah official. But we're hearing about casualties and we're hearing about entire building destroyed.
What are you learning from Beirut right now?
LAMA FAKIH, MIDDLE EAST DIRECTOR, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Thank you for having me. And Israel has described this as a targeted attack, but it is an attack
that took place in a concentrated civilian area, an area populated with families. And the casualty count is currently unknown but I think, you
know, we'll continue to increase unfortunately, as more people are rescued from the building, which was entirely destroyed.
We have seen Israel use weaponry, large bombs in concentrated civilian areas in Gaza.
[10:35:07]
And what we're seeing today, of course, is drawing concern amongst the public that this may mean more to come at these types of attacks
GIOKOS: Yes. And we just don't know what that will mean. We've got new video coming in as well, just showing the sheer scale of the destruction of
that building. And of course, repeating three dead is what we have right now, and 17 injured.
Lama, I want to talk about what we saw Tuesday, Wednesday in Lebanon, Beirut and southern parts of the country as well, with these walkie-talkies
exploding as well as the pagers. How is Human Rights Watch characterizing this event?
FAKIH: So what we saw on Tuesday and Wednesday is really quite unprecedented. Simultaneous explosions, you know, thousands of devices
reportedly going off exactly the same time across the country, including, again, in many populated civilian areas. Some going off in homes, some in
supermarkets, someone on the street, some in vehicles in the middle of traffic. The rigging of these devices, you know, the beepers, and the
walkie-talkies effectively makes them booby traps, which is a prohibited use under international humanitarian law.
And we also know that by virtue of letting off all of these explosions without knowing where the devices were when they went off, it meant that
they could not be any way to distinguish between combatants and non- combatants which again makes this an unlawful attack.
GIOKOS: Yes, and it's really important to understand the international law about this, about the booby traps, right? And the fact that you can't
really distinguish between civilians and for example, in this case, Hezbollah members. So tell me about the potential legal action that could
be taken in this scenario and what you're anticipating?
FAKIH: We are urging that there be an impartial investigation so that the full extent of civilian harm is known and that people are in position where
they can seek justice. We and a number of other organizations have been pressing the Lebanese government to accede to the jurisdiction of the
International Criminal Court. That would allow the board to investigate war crimes and other suits. Crimes that have been perpetrated in the context of
the current hostilities that are taking place in Lebanon.
It would also allow the courts to investigate crimes, war crimes perpetrated from Lebanese soil. So this is a clear stuff that the Lebanese
government could take to ensure that their civilians have access to justice.
GIOKOS: And from the other end of the spectrum, and I want to talk about the Israeli side. You know, there have reiterated the fact that they say
that, you know, they have the right to defend themselves. How does -- I want to talk about distinguishing between the one and the other. So setting
up these booby traps, which of course are against international law, versus the right to defend.
I just -- I wonder how this is, you know, the arguments on either side are going to play out.
FAKIH: The bottom line is that atrocities do not excuse atrocities. The Israeli government is responsible for adhering to its obligations under
international law. And allies of the Israeli government, like the U.S. government, really should be using all of their influence to try to
pressure them to do so.
The consequences on civilians and for failing to do so is devastating. And that's the case in Lebanon and in Gaza and in Israel, when attacks are
perpetrated without compliance. It does mean that civilians pay the price.
GIOKOS: I also want to lay out a disturbing story that we've got from the West Bank and a warning to our viewers, we want to show you this video. It
is very graphic but important to see. It shows Israeli soldiers are on a rooftop where they can be seen pushing, throwing, and kicking bodies over
the edge of the building. And this happened Thursday. The Palestinian government says it happened during an IDF incursion that left seven dead.
Could you give me a sense of your reaction, firstly, Human Rights Watch? When you're looking at a video like this, how does international law apply
to what we're seeing?
FAKIH: So, clearly, you know, conducting an, you know, extrajudicial execution is unlawful. And throwing a corpse off of a building is also a
violation of international human rights law. It is a form of cruel and inhuman treatment. The Israeli military has said that they are conducting
an investigation, but they should suspend the soldiers that were involved in this incident.
[10:40:05]
It is imperative that there be accountability when there are violations of international law because failing to do that just sends the message that
these types of incidents can and, you know. should continue and as things are escalating in the West Bank, you know, there are concerns, of course,
that we are going to see escalation, not just levels of violence, but in levels of abuse. And again, I think here the U.S. government has a key role
to play in ensuring that Israel is adhering to its obligations under international law.
GIOKOS: And importantly, Lama, you know, in terms of what we saw on these exploding devices, if allies were involved in this operation, for example,
what does that mean in terms of applying international law? And I'm speaking specifically about these exploding devices because then the net is
thrown a lot wider than just Israel.
FAKIH: Yes. So I should say, I mean, the U.S. government has said through its spokespeople that it did not have prior knowledge to the attack. If
there was cooperation from other governments, other governments could also be complicit in the abuse and could also be therefore held responsible. And
unfortunately, what we have seen in Lebanon is a legacy of impunity for serious crimes, including war crimes. And that only begets further reviews.
And this is why, again, we underlined the Lebanese government really has an opportunity to ensure that the most recent victims of these unlawful
attacks have a way to access justice and this is something that, you know, they took steps to do in April, but unfortunately, reversed course. And
this should just be a wake-up call that that was the wrong decision and that they should move forward and accept the jurisdiction of the
International Criminal Court.
GIOKOS: All right. Lama Fakih, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you weighing in on the story in what has been a very big week
and of course big fear that things could escalate further. Much appreciated for your time.
Now before we leave the Middle East, we want to show you the video that we were just discussing. We saw a different video and it's important that you
see this video that came out of the West Bank, and a warning to viewers that the video you are about to see 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. The Palestinian government says
it happened during an IDF incursion that left seven people dead.
All right. We're going to a very short break. More on our breaking news story right after this. We'll be bringing you an update out of southern
Beirut after that IDF strike. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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[10:45:05]
GIOKOS: All right. More now on breaking news we are following out of the Middle East. Authorities in Lebanon now say at least eight people were
killed in an Israeli strike on southern Beirut. The strike hit a building in Hezbollah stronghold. And sources tell CNN the target was a senior
Hezbollah military commander who is head of the group's special operations. The White House says it was not aware of the strike ahead of time.
CNN's Ben Wedeman is following the story on the ground from Beirut.
Ben, what more can you tell us? What's the latest?
WEDEMAN: Yes, Eleni, in addition to those eight dead reported by the Ministry of Health, they say that 50 to 59 people were injured and those
are the preliminary casualty figures. Now, we understand from a CNN crew on the scene that what was struck was a multistory residential --
GIOKOS: All right. We have lost audio with Ben. All right. So we just lost him? OK. We've got Ben back.
Ben, can you hear me?
WEDEMAN: You got me back. OK, yes, I can hear you. I can hear you.
GIOKOS: I got your back.
WEDEMAN: Yes. So, OK. Now, I was just about to say that, you know, a CNN crew on the scene says that the target was a multistory building that as a
result of the strike was completely flattened and the fear is that there are people still trapped under the rubble. So it appears that the main
effort at the moment is to try to dig into that rubble and try to find survivors. So these are preliminary numbers.
Now keep in mind, we described southern Beirut as a Hezbollah stronghold, but it's also a very densely populated neighborhood. And many of the people
there have nothing to do with Hezbollah. Now, this strike, just to sort of sum things up, it took place just about two hours ago in the Jamus
neighborhood of southern Beirut. According to the official Lebanese news agency, it was done by an F-35 Israeli warplane that fired two rockets on
that building.
Now in the immediate aftermath, we saw a lot of smoke and dust rising from that area with many ambulances rushing to the scene and the scene until now
is one of a lot of chaos as they tried to find if there are any survivors under the rubble, that the survivors of those who've been injured are
rushed to various hospitals in Beirut that are already full of the victims more than -- almost 3,000 actually from those pager and walkie-talkie
blasts that occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday, And the prime minister of Lebanon, the caretaker prime minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati, has
condemned this strike by Israel in a, as he described it, a densely populated civilian area.
Now, as far as the target goes, reports coming out of Israel is that it was Ibrahim Aqil, who's a senior military official in Hezbollah, somebody who
has been with the organization going back to its early days or nine in the early 1980s. Now according to some reports, he's the head of what's known
as the Radwan Force, which is essentially Hezbollah's elite force, that sort of commando group that operates mostly in the south of the country.
But it's important to stress it, Hezbollah's military hierarchy is not sort of publicly known. These are people who keep a very low profile. They never
appear in the media. However, the U.S. Treasury Department has a $7 million reward for his -- information leading to his arrest. Now obviously tensions
are at an incredibly high level here in Beirut. Yesterday, we heard Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, saying that with the pager
and walkie-talkie blasts that Israel had crossed a red line.
Now clearly crossed another red line, the third strikes so far this year by Israel on the southern suburbs of Beirut. Now yesterday, Nasrallah did vow
that at some point in the future, he was very vague, Hezbollah would take its revenge upon Israel for these attacks, but until now, the question is,
with their military leaders being taken out, with their communication systems severely compromised, what can they do at this point if they
actually do want to take revenge on Israel -- Eleni.
[10:50:10]
GIOKOS: And that's the big question, Ben.
We're going to go to a very short break. You're staying with us for more updates out of Beirut. Don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Back to our breaking news this hour, Lebanon's Health Ministry says at least eight people have been killed in an Israeli strike on the Lebanese
capital Beirut. Sources tell CNN, a senior Hezbollah official, Ibrahim Aqil, was the target. Now we are told he is the head of Hezbollah's special
operations.
Now videos that we're getting in from the target area showing scenes of chaos, extensive destruction, two high-rise apartment buildings. The
national news agency saying there are many children and women among the casualties. The latest that we have right now is that people are trying to
rescue people from underneath the rubble. There's a frantic search right now for people that could be trapped under the rubble.
These are latest images that we're getting from that southern Beirut residential area. We've got Ben Wedeman back with us.
Ben, look, this was a big blow for Hezbollah this entire week. And after what we heard from Hassan Nasrallah yesterday, he was basically saying,
well, you know, Hezbollah is unscathed. But what does this attack, what does this strike today mean compounded with the impacts of what we've seen
this entire week?
WEDEMAN: Well, certainly what it means that Hezbollah is on the backfoot, that it is definitely been pushed into a corner as a result of the events
of this week in particular, but, you know, going back to 30th of July when an Israeli drone strike took out Fuad Shukr, the head of the Hezbollah's
military wing.
This really represented a serious compromising of its otherwise vaunted security system and so it's more vulnerable and compromised than it has
ever been before. It's really pushed into a corner. And the problem is, you know, when you push a fairly lethal organization like Hezbollah into a
corner, how is it going to respond? Yes, it's suffered severe injury as a result of the pager and walkie-talkie blasts, thousands of their men have
been injured, perhaps some of them permanently, and you have senior military officials also been killed.
Of course, we have yet to confirm that Ibrahim Aqil has actually been killed as a result of this strike. Now, it's important to keep in mind that
so far since the 8th of October when hostilities began between Israel and Hezbollah, the war has largely, largely been limited to the border area and
Hezbollah has by and large been using short range missiles and other weaponry against Israeli military and some civilian targets as well. It
does, however, have in its arsenal missiles and rockets.
GIOKOS: So, Ben, I just want to interject.
WEDEMAN: Yes.
GIOKOS: Yes. So, Ben, we've just got new pictures in of the residential building, the destruction that has just come in as well. And you can see
the sheer scale of this. And you can see the intensity of the strike as firstly the death toll has risen and so too have the number of injured as
we're hearing news that people are scrambling and trying to frantically save people that are trapped under the rubble.
[10:55:14]
What do we do not know right now if the target Ibrahim Aqil was actually killed in the strike. That is something we do not know as he has, Ben.
WEDEMAN: Yes. We don't know if he's been killed. This is what the reports coming out of Israel. They say that he was the target. Nobody as far as
I've been able to see has actually claimed that he was killed, but obviously he's a senior figure in the organization and somebody who clearly
was not only on the wanted list of the Israelis, but also the Americans as well, who had a $7 million bounty on his head -- Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yes. All right. Ben Wedeman, thank you so much for this update.
It is a story we'll continue to cover right here on CNN. Live pictures coming through from southern Beirut. These images coming through just in
the impact on that IDF strike, what they call a targeted strike on a senior Hezbollah official, Ibrahim Aqil. We'll bring you more details after the
break with CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Eleni Giokos. Thanks so much for joining us.
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END
