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Nearly 200 Killed In Israeli Strikes In Lebanon; Letter Unveiled In Apparent Trump Assassination Attempt; Thousands Of Robo-Call Sent In Lebanon Urging Evacuation. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired September 23, 2024 - 10:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[10:00:28]
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi. This is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome to what is the second hour of this show. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi where the time is 6:00
in the evening. This hour, a bloody day in Lebanon. The bloodiest since the cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah began almost a year ago.
The Lebanese health ministry reporting close to 200 killed and more than 700 injured in Israeli airstrikes in the South of Lebanon. Many, many
residents today feeling echoes of Gaza.
Well, it's 10:00 a.m. in New York and the U.N. General Assembly getting set to meet for the 76th time, but with devastation and war dominating the
conversations of late. Has the U.N.'s role in world affairs become useless? We will explore that.
And prosecutors say the man suspected of the second apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump wrote a letter detailing his plans. Ryan Routh
is due to appear in court next hour.
Well, the Lebanese health ministry says more than 180 people have been killed and more than 700 wounded in the latest barrage of Israeli
airstrikes. Staggering numbers said to include women, children and medics. Israel pounding what it says are Hezbollah targets. This is the deadliest
day of Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the two sides were at war in 2006. Hezbollah is hitting, backfiring rockets into northern Israel.
And in a move that we saw in Gaza, Israel is said to be warning people in parts of Lebanon to evacuate. You can see long lines of cars trying to do
exactly that. Let's bring back CNN's Ben Wedeman who is in Beirut for you. We have Jeremy Diamond who is in northern Israel where Hezbollah have
reached that area. Ben, let's start with you. The deadliest day for Lebanon since the crossfire attacks began on October the 8th.
It does feel like echoes of 2006 all over again. Just give us a sense of what is happening in the south right now.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTENATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the entire south of Lebanon has been under intense Israeli bombardment. And -- I mean,
they're talking about several hours ago, the Israelis said at least 300 strikes, but I think at this point that number is much higher. The video
we've been seeing come -- we've seen coming out of the south shows intense Israeli bombardment on towns and villages.
And it's worth noting that those casualty figures you were talking about before, from the Lebanese Ministry of Health. 182 dead. That's a
preliminary figure. We expect that number to grow much higher. And according to the Ministry of Health, that number includes women, children
and paramedics. In addition to more than 700 people injured. And it's important -- it's important to keep in mind, like Gaza, many, large --
proportion of the population of Lebanon are young, their children.
Many people, by more than 100,000 since October, have fled north. But many hundreds of 1000s others have not. But of course, they are fleeing now, as
you mentioned, the roads going from the South to the North are jam packed with cars both sides of the highway. Now, most recently, we hear that the
Israelis are starting to strike the Beqaa Valley. Now, two hours ago, an Israeli military spokesman put out a notice.
A warning with a map showing a red area covering the Beqaa Valley in the eastern part of the country, which is a very large part of Lebanon, warning
anybody who lives in a house or near a building where they suspect Hezbollah is keeping weapons to leave it immediately. He basically gave
people a two-hour warning and he warned them to go at least 1000 meters away from those buildings and -- or take refuge in schools.
But of course, people, having seen what is going on in the south are unlikely to simply be satisfied with going 1000 meters away. We expect
large numbers of people to leave the Beqaa Valley all together. That's a very large part of Lebanon.
[10:05:02]
Already, schools in Beirut are being set aside to host families that have come from the south. This is almost identical to what I saw here in Beirut
and in the south of Lebanon in 2006. Now, the Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called on the U.N. and what he called influential countries to
use their leverage to convince the Israelis to change course because he fears that Lebanese towns and villages will be destroyed.
But as you mentioned, the U.N. and also the -- sort of the Western nations, among them, the United States, don't seem to be particularly eager or
willing to actually take decisive action to head off what looks like is quickly becoming another Lebanon-Israel war. People fear that what's going
on in the south which -- with this intense bombing and orders to people to leave as their homes and flee elsewhere, it looks like the beginning of the
gasification of parts of Lebanon. Becky?
ANDERSON: Yes. I'm hearing that term being used as I talk to sources around the region. Let me bring in Jeremy. Israel's military ordering Lebanese in
the south, as Ben has been reporting, Jeremy to leave. Many referring to this move as the gasification of Lebanon. What is Israel's strategy here
and what do they hope to achieve? Is it clear at this point?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, what Israel has decided to do is to continue escalating the situation with Lebanon to
continue increasing the number of air strikes, to continue hitting more and more targets in southern Lebanon, and now also expanding that heavy air
strike campaign that we have seen today to the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.
And as Ben said, if we've already heard reports of at least 300 airstrikes, now add this new intense campaign that appears to be beginning right now as
we speak in eastern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has many of the weapons and munitions that they bring in from Iran via Syria and then into Lebanon,
those are the main targets for the Israeli military at this moment. And as the Israeli military began to conduct those strikes and started to prepare
for those strikes, as you said, they have begun to order civilians to leave those areas.
Here's the Israeli Military Spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL HAGARI, SPOKESPERSON, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES (through translator): I warn Lebanese residents in the villages of Beqaa, this is a targeted
warning for the villages in the Beqaa. The residents near buildings or inside houses where missiles or weapons are stored, move away immediately.
Move away for your safety and security. We can see the operations we are currently conducting in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah intends to launch weapons towards Israeli territory and we will not allow it. Stay away for your own protection.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAMOND: And we should note that this is new in the history of this nearly yearlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. We haven't seen the Israeli
military issuing many civilian warnings to people in Lebanon and that signals just how much more intense this latest wave of air strikes actually
is now. And of course, as we saw in Gaza where the Israeli military also issued some warnings to civilians, sometimes there's a lot more bang to the
-- to the announcement of them than there is actual effect on the ground.
As giving people a couple of hours to evacuate a large area is often difficult and sometimes impractical, but certainly it is a sign of what the
Israeli military intends to do there. This as we were hearing from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today saying that he has
promised to change the security balance, the balance of power in the north, and he says that is exactly what we are doing.
For much of the last year, we have seen the Israeli military and Hezbollah kind of trading a tit for tat of rocket fire and air strikes, and now
clearly the Israeli government has made a decision that it is no longer about retaliatory actions. This is about trying to change the equation
altogether by escalating quite severely and doing so very much at the potential risk of an all-out war with Hezbollah, which seems to be a risk
that the Israeli military and the Israeli government are willing to accept at this point.
The question is, will they do so on their own? What will it take in terms of Hezbollah response for Israel to decide to send troops into Lebanon or
is that a decision that perhaps the Israeli government will make on its own? For now, we don't have any signals of that, but I can tell you that
over the course of the last couple of hours, we have been hearing the roar of Israeli jets overhead as we're about 10 miles away from the Lebanese
border. And that is going to continue into the evening and overnight, I expect as well. Becky?
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ANDERSON: Is there any evidence at this point that Hezbollah is storing weapons among civilians? When you listen to Hagari as we both just did and
for the benefit of our viewers, again, he said this is a targeted warning for the villages in the Beqaa. The residents near buildings or inside
houses where missiles or weapons are stored move away immediately?
DIAMOND: Well, we have seen evidence in the past of Hezbollah storing some of its rocket launchers, for example, within civilian homes. The question
is, do all of the residents of these areas actually know that there are weapons there? And so, when Hagari is telling people if there are weapons
in the home where you are or in the neighborhood where you are, you should move away.
That's not necessarily something that the civilians in that area are going to know, but there's no question that Hezbollah has used this tactic for
years now of storing weaponry and munitions in and around civilian buildings in addition to their own separate facilities. And certainly, that
puts the people of Lebanon at risk. But as we know, it does not, of course, remove the responsibility of the Israeli military to take precautions to
avoid civilian casualties as well.
And we're saying that, of course, as we are already watching this be the deadliest day so far in Lebanon of this conflict and as we are likely to
see that death toll continue to rise.
ANDERSON: Good to have you, Jeremy. Thank you very much indeed.
Well, the Lebanese telecoms company Ogero has detected tens of thousands of automated calls on its network asking people to evacuate.
Imad Kreidieh is the head of Ogero and he joins me now live from Beirut. So, we're talking about tens of thousands of what? Automated calls from the
Israeli army to the residents of what southern Lebanon telling them to move away. What's the extent of this warning? Is it clear?
IMAD KREIDIEH, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, OGERGO: Yes, it was pretty clear. Actually, Pgero received -- detected 80,000 call attempts this morning and
those calls were generated through a international carrier, masking the number, the origin -- the origination country of those schools and making
them look like as being generated from friendly countries. That's why they went through to many Lebanese citizens across the geography of Lebanon.
So, 80,000 represents -- just to put things into perspective, 10 percent of the living subscribers on the (INAUDIBLE)
ANDERSON: Well -- so 10 percent of subscribers to your telecoms network receive an automated message telling them to evacuate their homes. So
where? Where -- so far as geography is concerned, where in Lebanon were most of these calls targeted?
KREIDIEH: They have been randomly scattered over the -- over the Lebanon. Most of them were in the southern part of the country. Nevertheless, many
calls were received as well in the north, in the Beqaa Valley as well as in Beirut itself.
ANDERSON: Did anybody in Beirut receive these calls out of interest?
KREIDIEH: Oh, yes, numerous subscribers received the messages in Beirut. Actually, few ministers as well got the -- got the voice recording through
their mobile phone.
ANDERSON: And their response was what, sir? Just out of interest.
KREIDIEH: Actually, you know, I mean, it's not a new technique that has been employed by the Israeli army. They did it before in 2006. So many
citizens are quite used about this technique, and we're -- usually that's the type of messages we receive through our fixed telephone.
ANDERSON: Residents also reporting Wi-Fi and 4G cutting in and out. What's the status of the telecoms system in the country right now?
KREIDIEH: No, this is not -- this is not quite accurate. Actually, the broadband network is working still very fine and both companies, mobile
companies in Lebanon did not -- did not declare or did not report any service interruption during the whole day.
[10:15:07]
As a matter of fact, you have a crisis cell and we communicate on this and nothing of such has been reported to us.
ANDERSON: What are you most concerned about at this point?
KREIDIEH: Actually, we are -- Lebanon is obviously in a state of war and everything could happen. Our concerns is that Lebanon become isolated from
the rest of the world, and we lose our opportunities just to be able to communicate what is going on in the country.
ANDERSON: Do you share the acting Prime Minister's concerns that this is an effort to dislocate Lebanon as a state at this point? His appeal is to
those of influence, one assumes, around the region and internationally, to get involved at this point, to deescalate what is going on? Do you share
his concerns?
KREIDIEH: Oh, absolutely, I do. It is absolutely necessary that international efforts are being brought together in order to stop this
madness. You know, Lebanon, with actual economic crisis and social divisions is requiring lots of support in order to make it happen. So, I
totally vouch for the statement of the Prime Minister.
ANDERSON: It's good to have you on set. Just personally you are there. You are in Lebanon. You have a family there as well. I mean, just for our
viewers purposes, just explain, you know, what you are going through personally in Lebanon today.
KREIDIEH: Actually, like most of the Lebanese citizens, we are going under, you know, lots of stress, wondering how to conduct our day-to-day business,
keeping trying to keep the country together, trying to keep our employees, specifically at Ogero are on the grounds most of the time responding to
service interruptions. We are very concerned about the safety of those people. Lebanon needs to keep -- to keep going and we are again appealing
for the international community to quickly intervene in order to alleviate the burden on the Lebanese people as soon as possible.
ANDERSON: It's good to have you, sir. We wish you the best and safety safekeeping for you and your family, of course, and we will continue to
report on the story. Thank you very much indeed for joining us. With more detail from the point of view of the biggest telecoms operator in Lebanon,
as residents there who are subscribed to some 10 percent of those who subscribe to the biggest telecoms provider in the country receiving
automated messages and telling them to evacuate their homes, mostly in the south.
But as the as our last guest has pointed out, these coming all over Lebanon, not least in Beirut, and not least to the phones of a number of
ministers. Well, a reminder that Hezbollah has said, if the war on Gaza stops, it will stop firing on Israel, but a ceasefire in Gaza seems more
elusive than ever. Gaza's Civil Defense says eight Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes in central Gaza early on Monday.
And over the weekend, the Gaza health ministry reported at least 40 people killed in a span of 24 hours as result military operations by Israel,
including 22 who died in a strike on a school that was being used as a shelter. Israel says it was targeting a Hamas command center embedded in
that building.
Well, we have learned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a new drastic strategy to isolate Hamas in Gaza and force the
return of the remaining hostages from the Strip. It would involve forcing all Palestinian civilians out of Northern Gaza. Hemming Hamas fighters in
without food or water. Now, this idea comes from a group of retired Israeli generals, but it's unclear how effective it would be if at all, with
Palestinians increasingly reluctant to follow evacuation orders.
Well, in the next hour, the suspect in the assassination attempt on Donald Trump is due back in court. We will be live in Florida with more on that
case.
And wrongfully held for eight years in a notorious Iranian prison.
[10:20:04]
CNN exclusively hears from former hostage Siamak Namazi one year on -- from his release. More on that after this.
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ANDERSON: Next hour, the suspect in the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump will be back in court. Now, prosecutors are looking at whether
Ryan Routh should continue to be held before his trial. They are likely to argue that he is a continued danger to the community as well as a flight
risk. Routh has been charged with two-gun crimes and has not yet entered a plea.
Randi Kaye is in West Palm Beach in Florida close to where Routh was apprehended at the Trump International Golf Course. What do we know at this
point, Randi?
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, there was a new court filing just a short time ago from prosecutors, which contains a whole bunch of
evidence they say that could argue that he's a danger to society and should remain behind bars leading up to his trial. There was a letter in that
court filing from prosecutors addressed to the world from Ryan Routh and here's just a part of it.
It says this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up
to you now to finish the job, and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job. That is a letter from Ryan Routh. Prosecutors say also
they have information from a witness who says that Routh dropped a box at his home just a few months ago which contained letters like that one,
including other ammunition, a metal pipe, tools and four phones.
Also, in this filing this morning, there are gun photos, new gun photos of the weapon that was apparently used at the scene of the crime. It's a
colored picture of the gun, also pictures of 11 bullets and the scope that was on that gun. But Becky, as they tried to prove their case that he's a
danger, they also found information that they listed in this filing/ After searching Routh's car, they found that he had done a Google search.
They found cell phones in there and one of them included a Google search on the cell phone from how to get from Palm Beach, county where this incident
occurred to Mexico. They also found information placing Ryan Routh around Mar-a-Lago and around Trump International Golf Club where the shooting
occurred in the weeks before this incident, starting from August 18th to September 15th. They say that he visited that area multiple times.
And finally, there was a list of dates, a handwritten list of dates and venues where Donald Trump had been and where he was going to be leading up
to Election Day. So certainly, a lot of concern from prosecutors about this. And finally, one other note, Routh's position was also key in this
filing. They said that he was directly in line with the sixth hole on that golf course. As you may recall, Donald Trump was on the fifth hole when
this happened.
[10:25:01]
And Secret Service was ahead of him, one hole doing a search, making sure it was safe, ahead of the former president, and that's where they saw that
rifle sticking out of the fence at that sixth hole. So now they are saying in this filing, Becky, that there -- he was directly in line with that
sixth hole.
ANDERSON: Good to have you, Randi. Always a pleasure. Thank you very much indeed. Randi Kaye is in Florida. On the sidelines of the United Nations
General Assembly, CNN sat down for an exclusive T.V. interview with an American wrongly jailed in Iran for eight years. Siamak Namazi was arrested
in 2015 and imprisoned on spying charges which the U.S. said were baseless.
He was eventually released last year, along with four other Americans after a major deal between Washington and Tehran. Namazi told Christian Amanpour
that, first and foremost, he is grateful to the Biden administration for getting him out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIAMAK NAMAZI, RELEASED AFTER EIGHT YEARS IN IRANIAN PRISON: The most dominant feeling that I have is gratitude. I owe a huge debt of gratitude
to many people, particularly President Biden who made a very difficult choice and struck the deal. I'm sure it was a very difficult deal for him
to strike that brought us home. It took many more years than I hoped that it would. I was there eight years.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The longest held.
NAMAZI: The longest held. But the truth is, when you get out of a dungeon after eight years, you don't just return to a normal life. It's overly
optimistic, you don't just kind of shake it off. It's eight-year earthquake that hits your life and it leaves a lot of destruction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, Namazi spent eight years in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. He told Christiane about some of the indignities that he faced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAMAZI: I assumed that because I'm a hostage and I have value, they will not harm me.
Unfortunately, that assumption was proven wrong.
AMANPOUR: What did they do?
NAMAZI: You know, I got to tell you that the physical part of what they do isn't, you know, it's not like they're pulling your nail, but you're
blindfolded. And unfortunately, the thugs are as bad as their job as everyone else in that rocking system. I believe they don't mean to harm you
as much as they do but they don't understand simple things like when you toss a person who is blindfolded, I won't -- I don't know that's a wall in
front of me and I'm going to go face first into it or, I don't know, there is a staircase and I'm going to go rolling down. So, I --
(CROSSTALK)
AMANPOUR: Did that happen?
NAMAZI: I did, yes. Both of those things happened. There were -- that part still you could endure, but not day after day after day nonstop. There was
a lot of humiliation that I'm not comfortable talking about. And I mean, unutterable, because it had a profound effect on me.
It's just -- I still haven't even gotten to talking about it fully in therapy. It's just -- they humiliate you. And they always do this while
you're blindfolded.
You know, they, you know, it's that -- they're that cowardly. The guy beating you up won't even -- you see -- I saw my interrogators, but the
thugs were of a different -- of a different nature.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, Namazi spoke about how the U.S. can deal with hostage diplomacy in the future, saying that Washington needs to stop playing,
"political chess" and put the lives of Americans first.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAMAZI: Oh, people will say, oh, you should never deal with the regime in any way, form or fashion.
AMANPOUR: What is your answer to that?
NAMAZI: Christiane, I will answer that as a former hostage and tell you, we have a duty to get out our people from foreign dungeons when they have done
nothing, and the only reason they're in there is because they carry a blue passport and their only way out is through a deal. Unfortunately, we have
to make distasteful deals to get out our people. But I'll tell you something, no one is as angry, no one is as disgusted as the fact -- at the
fact that the Islamic republic, that these -- this horrible regime profited from blighting my life than me and the other hostages in our families.
I spent 2989 days in their dungeon. They took my father. They have done things that I'm not able to tell my therapist yet, and I still -- I can't
even speak about it. I am upset that they profited from this. But what other choice is there? Are you just going to let an American rot? But we
have two obligations. Get our people out, even if it means holding our nose and doing these distasteful deals.
[10:30:07]
The second part is, we have to deter hostage taking to begin with. And I think as grateful as I am and I can't -- I would really love to shake
President Biden's hand one day, I really would. As grateful as I am for this, I have a polarity of emotions going on. We have to do something to
stop this, and we don't. There is zero. There is absolutely zero deterrence for hostage taking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: And you can watch Christiane's full interview with Siamak Namazi right here on CNN. That is 6:00 p.m. if you're in London, 9:00 p.m. if you
are watching here in Abu Dhabi. We can take a very short break. Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Welcome back. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson. Time on Abu Dhabi is just after half past 6:00 in the evening,
just after half past 10:00 of course, in Washington.
Israel's Prime Minister warns his country is "changing the balance of power on its Northern Front."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL (through translator): Let me shout out to those who didn't understand, I would like to clarify Israel's
policy. We are not waiting for a threat. We are ahead of it, everywhere, in every arena, anytime. We are eliminating seniors, eliminating commanders,
eliminating rockets and counting. Those who try to hurt us, we will hurt them gravely.
I promise to change the security balance, the balance of power in the north, this is exactly what we're doing. We're dismantling thousands of
rockets and missiles aimed at Israeli cities and citizens. Complex days are ahead of us. I ask two things of you, citizens of Israel. First, adhere to
the Home Front Command guidelines their life saving. And secondly, to stand together with determination, responsibility and, of course, with
resilience.
Together, we will stand firmly. Together we will fight and with God's help, together --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, this after Lebanon says more than 180 people were killed in Monday's wave of Israeli air strikes said to be targeting Hezbollah. Well,
there's no indication that de-escalation is coming anytime soon, although that's certainly what the U.S. has been prescribing here.
My next guest knows the ins and outs of Lebanese affairs. He wrote recently "There is much talk of Israel wanting an all-out war in Lebanon.
[10:35:05]
In fact, what we are seeing today was long expected for when Israel redeployed its troops to the north. We are in an escalation to the effect
the outcome of negotiations not to provoke an all-out wall."
Michael Young is a former columnist and opinion editor at The Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon. Is now a senior editor for the Carnegie endowments
Middle East Center in Beirut, and he joins us now live. It's good to have you, sir. I just, if you will, just further explain the conceit of your
argument here. What you see is what is you say ultimately expected by Israel at this point. You do not expect an all-out war which would
obviously mean, you know, a ground incursion by the Israelis. What evidence do you have? What are you basing that conjecture on?
MICHAEL YOUNG, SENIOR EDITOR, CARNEGIE MIDDLE EAST CENTER: Well, I'm basing it on my reading of the fact that the Israelis don't feel that they need to
engage in a ground war. They've been escalating in the last two weeks, significantly the attacks against Hezbollah beginning with the pager
explosions and the walkie-talkie explosions ending with the assassination of Rahim Hail and several commanders of the Radwan force.
Now what they've done is they've responded to Hezbollah's effort to match what the Israelis did last week. Yesterday, Hezbollah bombed several parts
of northern Israel to try to create, essentially the displacement of the population. So today, the Israelis have come back and said, If you want to
play this game, we will displace a large part of the population of southern Lebanon.
It's a very nasty game, and the Israelis are actually targeting civilian areas, but this is where we are, unfortunately.
(CROSSTALK)
YOUNG: And in other words --
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON: -- automated calls to subscribers of the Lebanese telecoms company. Today
Israel urging people to evacuate their homes in the South and in the Beqaa Valley. The psychological effect here must be very, very tough. I mean, you
are yourself in Lebanon, not necessarily as I understand it in Beirut. Can you just describe the impact on the Lebanese population of what is going on
at present?
YOUNG: Yes, of course. This war is very much a psychological war on both sides. And by essentially using some of these automated calls, for example,
to warn ministries that they would be bombed. And the ministries are located in the very center of Beirut. They're trying to create a panic
amongst the Lebanese population. And we're seeing the same thing in the Beqaa Valley now and in the in other parts of the South.
Essentially, what they're doing is they're hitting all over. And I I'm very skeptical that this is just to hit Hezbollah targets. There has been --
there have been -- there's been plenty of footage today showing the Israelis hitting civilian quarters near tire for example. They are
essentially creating a humanitarian problem and saying to Hezbollah, you have to -- you will have to resolve this problem. That's all they're doing.
And it's very cruel.
ANDERSON: While you and I have been talking, Lebanon's Health Ministry has just announced 274 now killed in the Israeli strikes on Lebanon. We had
been quoting a number of 180 up until this point. So, the numbers are increasing. Sadly, these are deadly strikes. The Israelis
argument is that they are striking Hezbollah buildings, storing weapons amongst civilians and they will suggest that some of the videos that are
being seen of their strikes show secondary explosions, indicating that missiles are stored underneath residential buildings.
What do you make of the very targeted warnings from the Israelis and their argument as to why they are attacking Lebanon at present?
YOUNG: Well, I mean, they have -- I've seen those that footage. It's true. They have hit what looks to be armed storage facilities. But honestly, I --
we have to move beyond this. This is, as I said, this is a war. This is to reach a political objective. The Israelis, of course, have killed nearly
300 people but they want a political objective here. It's to force Hezbollah to retreat from the border north of the of the Litani River.
[10:40:07]
And they've -- in order to do so, what -- as I said, objective here it's to force Hezbollah to retreat from the border north of the of the Litani
River, and they've in order to do so what, as I said, they want to create a humanitarian problem for the for the party and particularly in the -- for
the Shia community. So, I mean, I would take with a grain of salt, not everything they've hit today was Hezbollah arms depot.
And the fact of the matter is, most citizens, when they tell them to leave an area, if you live near an arms depot, leave this area. But most Lebanese
don't know that they're sitting next to an arms depot or even if there is an arms depot in their neighborhood, of course. So, there is an element of
psychological warfare here. They want to panic. They want to create panic in the community and make people in Lebanon but particularly supporters of
Hezbollah, they want to create an element of panic and they want them to leave the south. And indeed, many have left the south today and have
streamed into other parts of Lebanon.
ANDERSON: And we've seen the images of thousands of people on the move. As we have seen similar images of people, of course, on the move for what is
it, nearly a year in Gaza, and I hear many people talking about the Garza vacation of Lebanon at this point, you have suggested, just in this
interview, that the strategy, as you say, is to -- is to create the sort of humanitarian sort of situation in Lebanon as well.
Just how far did the Israelis go at this point? There are, from some in government talk of rewriting the very lines of Lebanon as a country,
rewriting the borders. I mean, how far does this go, sir?
YOUNG: Well, I mean, at this stage in time, there doesn't seem to be an effort to redraw Lebanon's borders. On the contrary, I mean, my suspicion
is that the Israelis want to avoid a land incursion into Lebanon. They -- they're trying to get the message to Hezbollah it seems that they can
escalate short of an invasion because they know that an invasion would actually lead to all-out war in which Hezbollah would probably bring in its
larger precision missiles.
At this point, however, what they seem to be doing is it off -- they're offering Hezbollah the following equation. It's -- if you want to escalate
and lead to all-out war, then it's your responsibility and the backlash will be against you in Lebanon. But if you don't want to escalate and start
hitting Israeli cities and infrastructure using your large missiles, then you're going to have to accept that we will continue to escalate until you
accept our conditions on the border. This is the dilemma that they're trying to create for Hezbollah.
ANDERSON: It's fascinating. Michael, it's very, very good to have you. Thank you very much indeed for joining us today. And as you and I speak so,
Iran's foreign minister foreign minister -- foreign ministry spokesperson warning Israel of "dangerous consequences following the deadly airstrikes
in Lebanon." Warning Israel of dangerous consequences following the strikes on what Israel said where Hezbollah targets that killed, as we understand
it now, at least 270 over the past hours.
Good to have you on board. I'm Becky Anderson. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. 43 minutes past six here in the UAE from our Middle East
Broadcasting hub in Abu Dhabi.
Still to come. Israeli forces raid and shut down Al Jazeera's office in the occupied West Bank. We'll speak with the bureau chief who broadcast that
closure live on the air as it happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:46:11]
ANDERSON: Well, the news just coming into CNN, the Lebanese Health Ministry has just announced that more than 270 people were killed in today's
Monday's wave of Israeli airstrikes said to be targeting Hezbollah. The group Hezbollah. So, 270 plus now killed in today's air strikes by Israel.
The Israeli military says it is going after Hezbollah targets.
Well, meantime, we have our eye on other parts of the region.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: West Bank has just been raided by the Israeli military in the last few --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, this was the moment heavily armed Israeli soldiers raided the Al Jazeera office in Ramallah, forcing the T.V. network to shut down
for 45 days. The Israeli military accusing Al Jazeera of using the bureau to "support terrorist activities." Al Jazeera has condemned the move as a
criminal act and is vowing to continue its coverage of the war in Gaza.
Well, CNN found extensive damage to both the inside and the outside of the building where the bureau is located. The building also houses several
other offices and stores. CNN has also obtained video showing Israeli soldiers tearing down a poster of the Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu
Akleh who was killed by Israeli forces in 2022. Se was, at the time, covering an Israeli incursion in the occupied West Bank.
Well, joining us now is Walid al-Omari. He is the bureau chief for Al Jazeera in Jerusalem, and Ramallah. So, it's good to have you. Thank you
very much indeed for making the time. And CNN saw what happened as it played out. Just describe what you and your staff were going through, what
you were doing when that raid took place.
WALID AL-OMARI, BUREAU CHIEF, ALCINDOR: JAZEERA JERUSALEM: For the fighting days, it was very tough yesterday when the Israeli information soldiers
broke into our offices in Ramallah. More than 17 soldiers were invaded and our offices and raid offices. And when they raid the offices in Ramallah
without a fair legal process is an aggression. I was there in the office when they came.
First of all, more than 20 Israeli military cars were invaded in Ramallah and the Manara Square, whereas our offices in the city's center building in
Srinagar Street. And then they surrounded the building, and they closed everything, and they broke into our offices. I was there where I went to
the door just to see the medal, and the commander said that we have order to close your office and you have to leave within 10 minutes as our
commander came and said, you have only two minutes to leave. You can only take your personal things and then they pushed us out. Yes.
ANDERSON: So, Israel's military alleging, without providing any evidence, as I understand it, your office was being used to incite terror. We saw you
in that clip reading the order. What more was in that order? And did they provide any details or evidence of those allegations?
AL-OMARI: This is, first of all, fake excuses from the Israeli authorities. They excuse us that this place in the order they wrote this place about our
office is -- they excuse us that this place in the order, they wrote this place about our office is incitement and supporting terror.
[10:50:13]
It's not true at all. They just looking after excuses and they came and the order was based in the emergency law, which was during the British Mandate
in 1945 and then they came.
They -- we went out with the soldiers by steps and -- from the eighth floor to the ground, and they pushed us out far from the building. When we went
back after they finished and withdrawal from there, we found that the main door -- that the main door of the office with rusty iron plates and they
fixed and things in that were -- with welding which mean -- and they have both there, the older in Hebrew, and the lists of the equipment that they
confiscated from the office. We don't know the situation inside the office. So, this excuse, it's not -- it's fake.
ANDERSON: Right, OK.
(CROSSTALK)
AL-OMARI: -- was since the first day of this war, we are covering both sides.
ANDERSON: So, Israel's foreign press association saying, "that it is deeply troubled by this escalation" which Israel's foreign press association says
threatens press freedom and urges the Israeli government to reconsider their actions. I just wonder, do you plan to contest this legally?
AL-OMARI: Of course, we have legal team who's working now and, you know this -- they extended their actions against Al Jazeera since the 5th of
October, the 5th of May, after they closed our office and done our work inside Israel until now and they extend that -- renew that every 45 days
all the time. So, we're trying our best to have legals and we have supporters from the foreign press association, from the organization of the
Israeli journalists and the others and human rights and the human citizens who are surprising us.
And we have the legals and all the lawyers of all these groups are working together now to see what we can do. But this action especially because who
gives the order was commander from the Israeli military and it was without any fair legal process. It's mean that this is aggression against the
journalists, not only the Jazeera. And as you know, 174 Palestinian journalists were killed since the first day of this war until now.
ANDERSON: Yes. And with that, we leave it there with what is a deeply disturbing statistic, and every one of those numbers, of course, is a
person with a family behind it. Thank you very much indeed, sir for joining us. Glad you're safe.
We are back after this quick break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:55:03]
ANDERSON: Well, before I'll let you go tonight. I know you love some space news. We will get this. An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts
are now back on the ground after a successful trip home from the International Space Station. This happened earlier. The Soyuz capsule
parachuting down to Kazakhstan just over 90 minutes ago. The two cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko were on the station for more than a year.
It was a six-month mission for the American Tracy Dyson. NASA says her experiments included controlling robots on Earth remotely from space and 3d
printing heart tissue. Amazing stuff as ever. That is it for CONNECT THE WORLD. Stay with CNN. NEWSROOM is up next.
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