and these would be the more the targets that would be more high value to the air force to knock down plus it's almost like an air to air engagement because those cruise missiles do take on a flight pattern of a lear jet or a smaller jet, whereas the drones for moving about the speed of, as i said before, a cessna aircraft. so you would have aircraft intercepting some of those cruise missiles. it's certainly could be a cruise missile that's entered into israeli airspace. >> all right, general mark hertling, everyone else. i want you to please stand by. we have much more coming up are special life i've coverage of this breaking news in israel continues right now >> cnn breaking news >> wolf blitzer in washington, we're following the major breaking news at this hour in the middle east fears of a one

>> wider regional war are heightened once again, and one of the biggest escalations we've seen since the israel-hamas war began 100. it's a very, very delicate moment, very, very dangerous indeed. and reportedly waves of ballistic missiles from iran are heading towards israel as well. they are more deadly and they fly much faster. both israel and the united states say they will aim to intercept as many of these drones because and missiles as they possibly can. but this much is already certain. these attacks directly from inside iran. and indeed the suspected attack from israel to which arrived says it's responding that these two nations, both with a lot of military power, as close to all out roar as we've seen in recent memory and that could have far-reaching implications within the region. and

certainly well beyond the region, are reporters and our analysts are standing by. they've been covering this from all over the world and concluding our nic robertson in jerusalem, clarissa ward in tel aviv, ben wedeman in beirut, and both retired colonel cedric leighton and david sanger here with us here in washington. let's start with our chief international correspondent clarissa ward clarissa some dramatic scenes in israel tonight. what are you seeing >> well, here in tel aviv, we haven't heard the sirens. we have heard distant booms of intercepts in the distance you heard from our nic robertson seeing some of those intercepts lighting up the night sky. i do think it's very important to emphasize that so far, we do not have any indication that there have been any impacts. we are hearing from the idf. they have told people across the nation to be very the jilan. they have told people in certain areas to stay close to

protective shelter, to go immediately to the shelter if they hear the sirens to wait at least ten minutes and they have focused primarily on the areas of the golan heights, dimona, a lot. >> never team. these are strategically relevant. an important sites. they are the home to the nba team airbase, which is where the f35 fighter jets are based dimona, of course, where there is a nuclear reactor and everyone essentially really holding their breath now alex and waiting to see what the 9th, we'll bring, we expect there to be weird aves and waves as this attack could go on for many hours, we in this hotel went down to the lobby. we saw a number of people had brought their pillows down to the lobby. they wanted to know where the shelter was. the people in the hotel told him that wasn't necessary at this stage, we saw people who were coming back from the airport because the israelis have closed is really airspace. and

there is a sense most importantly, as wolf just touched upon, that this is an unprecedented moment in this conflict. it is one that many had desperately hoped to avoid the iranians have telegraphed that it is now over in their eyes but it remains to be seen how the israelis will take that claim, what their response will be, whether there will be some kind of a retaliation, whether that is a direct attack or an attempt to deter further attacks. a lot of moving parts and a lot of anxiety about what could take place next. >> clarissa ward. thank you very much, clarissa. words in tel aviv for us, i want to go to jerusalem, write down nic robertson is on the scene for us. meghan, we all heard the sirens going off in jerusalem is someone who's covered these kinds of situations in israel over the years. it's pretty unusual for the sirens to be blasting over jerusalem normally when arab countries are various proxy groups launched rockets and missiles towards israel, they aim

towards tel aviv or haifa, but not necessarily jerusalem, given that it's a holy city for muslims and a lot of aerobes live in jerusalem as well. so it's pretty unusual that the sirens are now first going off over jerusalem as opposed to, let's say tel aviv >> it is wolfe again, i'll restate it. i don't think anyone was expecting that for exactly the reasons that you say reemphasizing again, of course, that we're not aware of any impacts on the ground here at any casualties in jerusalem, but it does up here yeah, those weapons systems that were being intercepted, those iranian missiles that weren't, and drones or whatever they were. again, we don't have details on what they were that were intercepted in the skies above us here this evening that they perhaps were not intended to target. here the likely policy civil target here could be obviously the knesset. but again, that is the

densely populated area. but we don't know that. we don't know what's being targeted. so they may simply have been flying through to somewhere else, but just to fly them over a city like this with so many hundreds thousands of people dangerous in itself, then i think one of the things that i'm reflecting on what we've seen here this evening. i'm trying to understand what we've witnessed. these intercepts we were seeing them come from multiple different directions. so it was hard to track triangulate what was incoming missile or drone and what was intercept. but the white, one of the large incoming missile systems that appeared to glow weight, that was something much bigger, much more different than what we've seen, than what we've seen coming. let's say, from gaza. and again to reemphasize that these missile systems flying over this city and around israel tonight much more dangerous, much much more

explosives on board and have specific targets programmed into them. this makes them incredibly dangerous. but again, this is potentially because it's going i'm quiet here now, the first wave that we've witnessed and the idf has said they expect there potentially to be more waves. but to your point that these came in over, this city is quite staggering wolf. >> it certainly is. it's quite dramatic that all of a sudden the sirens showing off in jerusalem, which means if, if people who earn jerusalem, whether they're israelis, are aerobes or whoever they are, that's a warning to them, go into a bomb shelter, are safe room where you're staying right now because you don't know where those missiles are going to be landing, what they're going to be doing, even if there's an interception, the iron dome blood hey, if they intercept these incoming rockets or missiles, once they're exploded in the skies, they come down

and i've been there when i've seen the shrapnel, the metal that comes down and that's that could be extremely dangerous to anybody who was outside, who happens to be on the ground. so i want you to be very careful over there. nick will get back to you, are leaving terminus, joining us right now. he's getting some new information on these iranian drones that are being intercepted by the united states. what do we know on wolf? it is an >> ongoing effort >> by us forces in >> the region in iraq, syria, and perhaps elsewhere to continue to try to intercept these drones. this has been a process that has played out over the course of at least a couple of hours here since the first reports of iranian drones being launched came into us, we reported in the last hour, according to two us officials that us forces had intercepted a number of these drones. and now we know that process is ongoing. we've got a short statement from a defense official, just a short time ago. i want to read this to you here. it says in accordance with our ironclad commitment israel security, us forces in the region continue to shoot down iranian launch drones targeting israel are forces

remained postured to provide additional defensive support and to protect us forces operating in the region. now, what's not clear at this point is what types of us forces and military assets have been used to shoot down this drone there was a tanker, an aerial refueling platform that we saw on flight tracking websites sometime ago. that's indicative of us fighters up an active in the region. of course, a tanker wouldn't simply be flying around and certainly not under these current circumstances. so it's possible that these were intercepted by us ariel fighter jets or as possible that there were ground-based aerial defense systems that intercepted these drones or both. that's the type of information we're still looking for at this point. but crucially that effort to continue to intercept these drones that have been coming in for some time now. and we see the interceptions over israel. that effort is ongoing, but us forces in the middle east will the israelis are clearly, clearly relying a lot on the united states to help intercept a lot of those incoming drones

with rockets and missiles on board, as well as those cruise missiles that may be coming in as well. this is a joint project from the united states and israel and it's significant oren, the head of the us military central command was just in israel coordinating with the israeli military. tell us about that >> he's in israel. it has been fairly often since the beginning of the war, some 6 months ago, but this trip, this latest trip, was moved up. he remains in the region, but crucially, he was in israel for a couple of days meeting with senior israeli military leader here's the minister of defense, the idf chief of staff to coordinate a response and to make sure that the israeli and us military's are on the same page here that they're communicating, that they know what options they have available in terms of defense, there's obviously farther out the us assets and you'll hear there the sirens, warning of incoming fire. there are obviously the us assets in iraq, syria, and elsewhere. then there's israel's own layered aerial defense, the arrow three, which is primarily

but not only a ballistic missile defense system the david slim, which is more of a medium range aerial defense system, very similar to the us fat and missile defense system that we've seen positioned around the world. and then of course, the short range is the iron dome wolf. you and i nic robertson and so many others have seen that. but the question is how best to layer that had a coordinate the us and israeli response to make sure you catch as much of this as possible. it very much looks like iran was trying to overwhelm the quality of israel's aerial defense systems and us ariel defense systems with quantity simply overwhelming these systems. and we've seen that happen in the past, the us and israel, it seems trying to coordinate the response to make sure the intercept as much of this as possible before it gets to israeli aerospace. and then of course, if needed, intersect i think over israeli airspace as well is drilled. israel's air defense system. as you and i well know, is very, very intense, very sophisticated between the iron dome, the

arrow, david's sling. they've got a lot of major capabilities. and when they're backed up by the united states, which has significant military capabilities anti-aircraft capabilities in the region right now, it's a very, very impressive, a little impressive. but when those sirens go off in jerusalem and the folks over there, hundreds of thousands of people here though sirens, they, their immediate instinct is to rush off into a bomb shelter, protect their kids, protect their families and stick it out inside those bob bomb shelters, which are in every major building in israel right now, we'll watch that unfold or in lieberman's at the pentagon, i want to go to the white house right now. are corresponding mj lee has been monitoring what's going on. i take it president biden has been huddled in the white house situation room in the west wing of the white house with his top national security advisers give us the latest what are you learning? mj >> well, if initially this was supposed to be acquired or weekend here at the white house, president biden was supposed to spend most of the weekend in rehoboth beach, but

he ended up cutting that trip short and return to the white house earlier this afternoon. and i am told by a white house official that he remains in the situation room, right now with his top national security advisers to assess the situation. and of course, figure out what comes next. you know, the white house has been preparing for this very possibility for a number of days now, in the aftermath of those israeli strike in damascus that took out a number of top iranian commanders. and you'll notice that in the white house statement that we got earlier tonight, it said and reiterated the us support for israel security is ironclad. and to that end, as oren was just reporting on, that is why we are seeing of course, the us is involvement here and working to intercept some of these weapons that have been launched by iran. and it is a part of why, of course, we saw in recent days, a us moving extra forces into the region

and getting them in position in preparation for exactly this kind of scenario. and i think it is also just worth i underscoring that this state on-state conflict between a and israel was exactly the kind of scenario that us officials had very much hope to avoid given the real volatility and unpredictability that this could potentially usher in. >> and i think that is why one thing that we should be watching out for very closely in the coming hours is any indication of what us officials are advising israeli officials to do in response to these attacks that iran has launched, you know, at the same time that we are hearing from the white house. and it is being reiterated he did that the us's commitment to israel's security is ironclad at the same time, the us also wants to situation in the region to very much be contained. so again,

those conversations that have been going on over the last few hours, the last several days, certainly worth keeping a very close eye on mj. yeah. stay standby at the white house, said, we'll check back with you often. obviously, the president meeting with his top national security advisers, right now, they've been meeting for hours and hours. this crisis is continuing and it looks like it's about to get even worse. we'll see what happens. but mj standby to bring in fred pleitgen hey, he's are correspondent who recently was in iran. you've done, you've done a lot of reporting from inside are run over the years. fred give us a little sense of the uranium mindset right now why this is happening? >> well, i think it's a very calibrated response from the iranians and certainly something that seems to have been in the works for a couple of days. we've heard the iranians essentially telegraph this with a lot of the phone conversations that the iranian foreign minister, hossein amir-abdollahian has had with some of his european counterparts, but also of course with some middle eastern

counterparts. well and if you recall both in 2020 when the us assassinated the top iranian general qassem soleimani, we heard something very similar from the iranian back then as well. actually, it in iran then and that was called in to the supreme leader's military adviser. and he said to me, look, the americans killed one of our top generals. we are going to respond and and it's then up to the us whether or not it concludes there and certainly if we're looking at the statement now that we saw from the iranian representative to the united nations, it seems very similar when we keep that hearing that sentence that we've repeated a couple of times on the air here as well. the iranian saying the matter can be deemed concluded that doesn't mean that there retaliation is over yet, but essentially with the iranians are seeing here is look, you attacked our embassy, you killed a lot of our top military officials inside that embassy. we are going to retaliate and then it's up to you whether the matter has concluded or not. so certainly, what the iranian seem to be saying here is that the ball is

now in israel's cord, whether or not it's going to strike back and then possibly obviously the situation getting even worse. i think one of the other things though wolf that we're also seeing and which certainly i've seen over the past couple of years as i've been reporting from iran, is that a lot of ron's, especially missile systems, but their drones as well are a lot more capable than many people in the west thing. i mean, one of the things that we have seen over the past couple of years is the iranians capable of shooting down a us reconnaissance drone over the strait of hormuz. but i'll also, if we look at this drone and missile strike now some of those images that nic robertson has been bringing up with those drones and possibly also cruise missiles as well making it all the way into israeli airspace. and clearly also putting israel's air defense under pressure, at least as well. we heard from oren, of course, that the us is also apparently involved in trying to shoot some of those projectiles down. that certainly does seemed to show

that the iranians have a personal, a pretty large arsenal that they can fire at the israelis and at anybody else. but also that the accuracy that the iranians seem to be achieving appears to be considerable as well. if there's several areas in israel that are under threat of being targeted. so certainly the iranians, on the one hand, showing that they can retaliate, but also showing that they are very capable of hitting targets very accurately over a long distance, which is of course something wolf, as we've been reporting. and as you know very well, the iranians have been developing for quite a while i'll, that missile program that they have and the drone program that they have, those are really the cornerstones of their moderate military with which they say they can put the us in the middle east under pressure and clearly israel as well, wolfe fred very quickly before i let you go in that statement that the iranian permanent mission to the united nations since release, there was a pretty lengthy statement, very

detailed. one thing jumped out at me. i want to give your assessment of what the iranians are threatening right now. they said in the statement at the end, it is a conflict between iran and the rogue israeli regime from which the us must stay away. that's an all caps. us must stay away so what is one of the uranium threat to the us if the us continues to intercept incoming drones, and missiles, or ballistic missiles or other iranian targets coming towards israel. what are the iranians gonna do attack the united states? >> i don't think they're gonna attack the united states, but one of the things that the iranians have been telling me over the past couple of years. and this comes from people in the revolutionary guard, but also in the iranian military is that they've been saying, look, the us needs to understand with all of their assets in the middle east, that next to almost every american outpost, next to almost america every american base, or at least in the vicinity, there is a militia out there that is loyal to iran or at the very least has ties to iran. so the

iranian certainly believe that they can put the us under pressure in the middle east. we saw that after qassem soleimani was assassinated in 2020, when the iranians hired back at an airbase in iraq, the al-assad airbase. we're also they gave ample warning before they did that, but they were able to target that fairly easy from iranian territory. so of course, the us has assets in various places in the middle east and the iranians are saying those assets could be under threat if the us continues to assist israel now of course, the us is not going to stop assisting israel. and i think that the iranians are very much aware of that as well, but i think as far as this strike here is concerned, the iranians are saying, well, if they don't want the us to get involved, at least as far as some sort of retaliatory strike, if the israelis chose to do that, i think some of the messaging that we've seen tonight the iranians has been pretty remarkable where they've come out and said that any country, if the israelis now want to strike back any country that allows, that opens their

airspace for that or their ground space for that would be under threat from iran as well. so certainly the iranians are messaging that they are extremely serious about this. well, at the same time i'm saying that they're giving israel an off-ramp and saying, look, these are the strikes and retaliation for the hit on the embassy. it's up to israel now whether or not it ends here, wolf. >> all right, stand by, we're going to get back to your fred pleitgen with his expertise and what's going on in iran right now, i want to go back to jerusalem and nic robertson is on the scene for a son, nick understand something pretty extraordinary. you're seeing fighter jets circling overhead jerusalem. is that right >> high in the sky? well, few can just take them out and the dark up there waiting, loitering, flaying loops and the night sky above jerusalem. it appears so they're waiting for the possibility of more intercepts to come. >> we're not >> hearing any more sirens were not hearing any more intercepts. but the fact that those fighter jet, fighter jets

flying in the sky of a jerusalem at this time is unusual and is clearly related to what's happening here right now. the intercept so we saw before general hurtling suggested that he believed that they were being some of the intercepts we are witnessing. were intercepts by fighter jets. the fact that we're seeing the fighter jets up there now, certainly, certainly brings additional credibility to his already very credible words. but i think that's what we're witnessing here tonight. multiple layers and levels of israeli air defense systems. but again, the fact that these missiles, these iranian missiles, could reach the city a relatively long way inside of israel, even with the united states aircraft in the giving additional no support and potentially we may learn more in the coming hours about additional support from friends and neighbors in the region, about how their space may have been used to defend this row.

but the fact that so many intercepts were necessary over, over jerusalem is a mark of just how many missiles iran has fired here. and the fact that we didn't hear any direct impacts that we're aware of yet indicates how successful israel's air defense systems have been so far this evening, it appears, but of course, idf very clear they are expecting more waves of attack overnight tonight it will and i take it the prime minister and his cabinet is work cabinet they are beating right now. they're dealing with this crisis coming up with potentially and israeli response. what are you learning on that front? >> they all meeting wolf and this of course will be a key factor that the prime minister will have to give all do consideration to clearly the iranians are trying to get ahead of it and say, look we struck you because you struck

us. but at the moment even if there was pre advanced coordination or messaging by the iranians to two us officials are sort of thing that was going on, prey or after the united states killed qasem soleimani in january 2020, even if that was going on, this is still going to be a very get very big and consequential political decision for the prime minister who has a propensity to want to project power, a war cabinet, or a, or a government governing cabinet that feels the need with military commanders who feel the need to project that power to convey continue to signal to iran that it cannot act in this way. and particularly viewed the threat of their big proxy to the north of here in lebanon as an ongoing threat. so this is going to be a very, very big decision facing the prime minister and he will be evaluating it in that room

right now as he watches and learns about how the idf and the other services here in israel are handling this very big threat from iran tonight, wealth, huge threat going on right now, we'll see what the israeli response is going to be in a assume it will be intense at some point. we'll get more on that. everybody stand by. our special live coverage of this situation in the middle east. and it's a horrible situation will continue, right after a quick there's debris in this guy >> parents, husbands and wives, sky, wish i could've done something differently. you can just make it better. those that follow space shuttle columbia, the final flight, two part finale tomorrow at nine on cnn. >> what does it mean to be out front >> it's going there. we are just about three miles from the gaza border. it's context and curiosity. >> so >> you can be out front let's

go out front. >> erin burnett, outfront week nights its seven on cnn >> the vietnam war. >> it's silver >> your job, schutzpass counterintelligence sounds intense >> what are you concealing >> what if i told you that i communist spy your sign. i see it through your calm this >> supervisor stream exclusively on macs to get the full story. be unafraid, the will to fight. >> our important is >> that see a true is israel in full control of its territory and go with a search for answers to anderson cooper 360 week today

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never even happened >> i'm elizabeth wagmeister in los angeles. >> and this is cnn >> this was only moments ago in jerusalem. in jerusalem when the sirens were going off as these missiles and these rockets from iran were flying overhead and israel's air defense system, the iron dome, among others, was going off to try to intercept as many as they can, but all the folks who live in jerusalem, we're hearing these sirens. and when you hear the sirens and israel, as i can testify, you go into a bomb shelter to try to protect yourself protect your family, your kids, and everyone else. this is just moments ago. we don't know if any of those rockets or missiles from iran, from the drones or the cruise missiles act actually landed and cause any significant

damage or injured people killed people. but we will be finding all that out very, very soon. we are told that this is moments ago, a very dramatic moment over the skies of jerusalem. ben wedeman is joining us right now. he's, he's joining us from beirut normally, ben, i would have anticipated that fifth iranians we're going to retaliate against israel for israel strike against those iranian generals in damascus, syria. i would assume that what are their proxy organizations like hezbollah, where you are in lebanon or the houthis in yemen, would have done the work for the arrhenius. this isn't really the first time that arise and i believe has launched strikes against israel from a territory themselves. but correct me if i'm wrong >> yeah that's correct. this is the first time this is certainly a turning point in the decades long hostility between israel and lebanon. now, but we do know, for instance did hezbollah made it

clear very soon after the april 1st israeli strike on the consulate in damascus that the response to that attack, we heard this from hassan nasrallah, the leader of hezbollah, as well as other sources close to hizballah that the response would be strictly iranian and that is what it has been so far now, this evening, we know that his bullet put out an announcement that they had fired what they said were tens of katyusha rockets at israeli air and missile defense position in the israeli occupied syrian golan heights and we also know from sources close to hizballah that the intention is that if it escalates beyond the immediate iran in response that we've been seen in the last few hours, that indeed iranian allies and proxies in the region would become involved would escalate. but at the moment, what we're hearing

from, for instance the permanent un the iranian permanent mission de united nations, that they consider that this is it, this is the conclusion of their risk fonts. now of course missiles and cruise missiles and drones are still perhaps on the way. >> but the >> iranians have made it clear that as far as they're concerned, that's over. but in the preceding days we have also heard the israelis basically saying if iran attacks from iran israel then israel will respond. and this is now the real question is, what comes next? will the israelis respond strongly as they have vowed to do if that's the case, then there is a real danger of a major region-wide escalation involving iran and all its many allies in the region. we'll meet a man in beirut for us ben standby. i know you've covered

this region for a long time. we'll get back to you. wanna go back to dick robertson in jerusalem. we've been showing our viewers, nick, the video from it's moments ago, the sirens going off over the, over jerusalem. you can see some of these rockets, these missiles flying overhead, some of israel's air defense system, the iron dome, among others, going off, intercepting some of these rockets and missiles, you're getting some new information. what else are you learning? what else are you seeing right now? >> yeah i'm hearing fighter jets off in this direction. i was just telling you a few minutes ago about fighter jets that was circling above us. but what we saw about a minute ago was a bright red light shooting off in that direction. and then you could hear the sound of a fighter jets sort of turning on its afterburners it appeared and zooming off towards the distant horizon. it gave the impression that the fighter jet had just got instructions. there's something out in that direction get out a meat it

fast and i'm hearing the sound of the jet again. so it could be that the jets that we're seeing here, are moving off to another area to where they're seeing another wave of drones coming in. but there are several jets i'm hearing circling here at the moment. this is a new situation for us to try to assess here. it's very clear that the fighter jets are involved in shooting down these slow moving drones and other missiles than are incoming has a very effective tool for the israeli air force to do that. and so the fact that we're hearing the jets again right now over jerusalem seems to indicate that there may be another wave on its way here at the moment. of course, if that happens, wolff, we can expect to hear the sirens. i'm not hearing a new siren alert go off at this time. it is very quiet here as you know, jerusalem very well. this is a city that often has a hubbub in

the background traffic, people talk in even, even late at night it even on tonight, on us on a saturday night, you would hear that it is very quiet tonight. very few cars out on the streets. and i think that's perhaps why we can hear so clearly the fighter jets are above a small all right, next them by, we're going to get back to you in the meantime, be safe over there. we heard those sirens going off. they're not going off right now, but moments ago, we were be showing our viewers the videotape, a very, very scary moment over the skies of jerusalem, right now, i want to go to alex marquardt, our national security correspondent. alex the president has been meeting with his advisors, his national security security advisers over in the situation where the white house, they released this picture. you just see this post from president biden. i just by national security team for an update on iranian attacks against israel, our commitment to israel's security against

threats from iran. and mr. proxies is ironclad and tell our viewers right now, alex what we know about the us military's involvement in trying to prevent these iranian drones and cruise missiles and other rockets from coming in over israel. what is the us exactly doing the us military? >> us military and the us intelligence community welfare in that photo, what you were seeing was the director of the cia, bill burns speaking with the president next to him was a real haines, the director of national intelligence and those are two people who have been focused for the past two weeks on trying to figure out what iran would do in retaliation for that israeli strike in damascus how would iran go seek revenge against israel? and it is arguably the most dramatic option that iran chose tonight of the various scenarios that could have played out or-awn tonight directly attacking israel from iranian soil in

anticipation of something like this, the us military had moved more assets to the middle east. we understand that they strengthened air defenses. of course, they're us troops and us air defenses all across the middle east. there are also a number of naval ships in the red sea and the gulf of aden in the eastern mediterranean, all in anticipation of what we saw tonight. but we have been talking to our sources for the past two weeks trying to figure out what iran would do. and it really only came into focus yesterday that iran could indeed carry out tonight's attack from iranian soil. cnn reported yesterday that a number of military assets, including drones and cruise missiles, around 100 cruise missiles were being moved in iran. that was certainly an indication of what we saw tonight. and i'm really struck by this the two facts wolf, that iran is claiming that this is over. that's according to their mission at the united nations. at the same time,

israel and the us and the support role of very, very much dealing with what is still incoming those drones. we believe they're also cruise and ballistic missiles. it remains to be seen whether iran is done firing everything that it intends to so far as our correspondence have noted he does not appear that anything has hit its target, no craters, no blast, no destruction, death that but this is, this is far from over despite those iranian claims, what you're hearing their, those sirens, those interception since israel is still very much in a defensive posture. so it also, we will see what israel decides to do in the coming hours in terms of a response, we will see whether iranian proxies decide decide to take up a supporting role with what iran is doing right now. but no question, wolff, we are turning a corner here. this is a new chapter, not just in this war, but in terms of the

animosity, the rivalry between israel and iran, wealthier, you're making a very, very important point. indeed, a new chapter in this entire situation should alex, before i let you go, we know the us military's involved in helping the israelis shoot down, destroy these incoming or rainy and drones and these cruise missiles, these rockets are, they do, is the us doing that outside of israel or the west bank for that matter, as they're coming in over jordan they're coming, in over a syria or iraq are us military capabilities going after these drones. and these other missiles and rockets over these territories as well, are waiting until they get closer and closer to israel. >> there >> is certainly an intention >> wolf to try to strike down whatever they can before it gets to israeli territory. there are us troops in iraq, in syria, in jordan. and then of course, in those various bodies of water that i mentioned. and so there is every intention to

use a huge variety of anti aircraft systems aircraft themselves to try to intercept the variety of ways i've been really that iran is sending at israel tonight those drones, however, slow moving, those are certainly among the easier things that can be taken down by the united states and israel, we got reports before those sirens went off, before we saw those interceptions and israel, that indeed the us had already helped to take down some of those drones beyond israeli airspace. it is not exactly clear what path those drones and those missiles are taking. but you do have these american assets or raid all across the middle east and all across the region to make every effort possible to tie, to strike down what they can before it gets to israel. >> well, and i assume that was a source of a great disk gushing that the commander of the us military central command had with the israeli military over these past few days, at what point with the us try to destroy incoming rockets and

missiles. at what point would the israeli air defense system over israel proper? would they take charge over that that mission, which is clearly a very, very sensitive the important mission as well, alex them by we're going to get back to you were told by the way that the president's meeting with his top national security advisors in the white house situation room has concluded, but we're also told it could reconvene later. they're watching all of this very closely. the stakes for the united states right now are enormous obviously the stakes for israel are enormous as well. i want to bring an aaron david miller right now, former state department middle east negotiator. you've been involved in this region for a long time. arun, give us a sense, a historic sense of what is going on right now. the fact that iran, with a huge military capability is launching rockets and against israel from a rainy and territory and they're not simply relying on their iranian proxies, whether hizballah are the houthis or others to do the

work they're doing it directly them, selves give us a sense of how significant this is. >> you know, not to trivialize. well, it's been, it reminds me and thanks for having drunk reminds me to line from wizard of oz one dorothy says to remove dog toto, we're not in kansas anymore. >> and >> frankly, i think this is quite extraordinary historic. >> israel in iran, as you know, little have been at each other in what these early describe as the campaign between the wars, shadow wars, israeli striking rhyley nuclear scientists cyber attacks, both against iran, against israel, tax on iranian shipping and strikes as we've seen in damascus on top, iranian revolution and corps commanders. but this a direct attack using drones, cruise missiles, the iranians claim ballistic missiles >> i don't >> know if that's accurate. you would have thought that cruise missiles would have preceded the drones and no reports about the kind of missiles that the

israelis and the americans are tracking >> so i >> think this is extraordinary, whether it's it's transformative. i think will depends right now on how the israelis are going to respond. >> i'm >> reminded of 1991 when the rockies, saddam hussein launch 43 scud missiles, that israel and then secretary state eagle, eagle burger. we sent by bush 41 to try to persuade these, or at least not to respond mere in what was an extraordinary act of restraint agree. on the assumption that the americans would take care of the rocket launchers, launch the scotch, which they did eventual this time, however wolf, i think it's going to be very difficult. this israeli government, because even if there are no casualties even if there's no damage, iranian has set a new precedent essentially. now from now on, if the israelis go after irgc members wherever they are lebanon, syria, iraq even if there on kourdi running

sovereign territory, iranian military installations or emphases now you have a precedent for the iranian striking israeli question is really, i think what, what the government is going to do. >> and >> then if in fact they do strike iran proper we'll be running each respond. >> and we'll hizballah which could inflict a much greater level of pain. i think quickly on the israelis with their inventory of hydrogen artery weapons. what does his politics? so that's the key >> question right now in my mind i guess as valid does that and as all of us know, hezbollah does have a huge number of rockets and missiles in their >> inventory in southern lebanon, which not only could reach haifa relatively northern part of israel kiryat shmona, the town along the lebanese border, has already been evacuated tens of thousands of israelis have left kiryat shmona, but those rockets and

those missiles that has balah has in south lebanon, they not only could reach haifa, but i'm told they could reach tel aviv and some of them might even be able to reach the southern most puerto, a point of israel, a lot. what do you know about that? >> i mean if you remember off the summer of 2006, which is the last major confrontation between israel and hizballah middle east most preeminent military power, israel the northern half of that country from hyphen and lebanese border was shut down for 33 days. and that was when hizballah had a relatively crude inventory. now they have anywhere up to 150,000 high trajectory weapons of varying ranges, look valleys, and precision that could cover most most of his that raises a very serious question about israeli des and casualties and, and israeli response and lebanon, which is going to be directed against lebanese infrastructure with

>> many, >> many, many lebanese des and cat and casualties. so in coming days, or maybe even sooner, wolf, that's the critical, that's to me is critical issue is it's benjamin netanyahu >> going to be restrained, picking up enormous points with the biden administration if he were not to respond using us-israeli tensions, which are already east, any thought of conditioning or restricting military assistance to israel as a consequence of what's going on in gaza i think is now gone. and one last point gaza is now secondary and the tragedy here is any prospects of an israeli hostage from prison? >> deal. >> i think already very slim is going to be very, very difficult to put back on track because hamas will wait to see how much regional chaos iran and israel can cause, which is precisely what they want this is really a dangerous moment right now in the middle east

and those of us who have covered it for a long time i appreciate what potentially could go on in the olden days and little me get your quick reaction. aaron, in the olden days, that israeli government would launch, what they used to call a preemptive strike. let's say against hizballah south lebanon tried to use their air power to destroy us. a bunch of hizballah's missile and rocket capability as possible on the ground. i anticipate though not that is not necessarily going to happen this time, but what do you think? >> i mean, i think the israelis, again with one front war in gaza and another and lebanon, the israelis are prepared and they've had 16 years to prepare. i think if his bola opens up with its inventory you israelis won't on a massive ground c, and air campaign and unfortunately, his bow will suffer, but worse still the lebanese public is going to serve write, the people have lebanon will suffer in the process as well. all

right. aaron david miller will get back to you. thank you very much. a dick robertson is in jerusalem for us. we're now hearing what about an injury on the ground as a result? of the intercept interception of these rockets and missiles coming in from iran over jerusalem, the shrapnel coming down and injuring someone. what do we know about that? >> a 10-year-old boy wolf south of jerusalem in there, negative area. so not not in the city, but of course the danger is they're very severely injured is what medical authorities are saying at the moment that he has injuries to his head. now, these do appear to be shrapnel injuries from the interceptor missiles. and i remember standing in storage watching the interceptors perhaps a mile, a mile and a half away. and then quite literally a minute later, you could hear the shrapnel from intercepts a mile hello, myelin or hathaway tinkle to the ground. tinkle. as they impacted that the

tarmac road that was close to us that the shrapnel could travel such a distance. and when we went out to look at it and see what it was, it was tinkling on the ground. these were lumps of metal that would cause severe injuries and that's what appears to have happened here. so not an injury to this 10-year-old boy is a direct result of a missile itself. but the interceptor, which of course is why the idf is telling people in those areas the area where he is that they need to stay close to their shelters it's close to their protected areas. because even though these bigger missiles coming from iran are being intercepted, the shrapnel from the interceptions that themselves can be dangerous and an tragically dangerous as well. this boy obviously been taken to hospital now and his condition though is severe wolf to serve situation. i was in the border between gaza and

israel a few years ago when another war was going on. and i remember standing there and the iron dome would go off and destroy an incoming rocket or missile coming into israel. but this shrapnel, the metal that came down from that destroyed missile, it was so powerful, they were huge holes in the ground. and i can only imagine if some of that hit a person, the damage that could be done. so it's one thing to see those missiles destroyed because if they're not destroyed and they hit a populated area could kill a lot of people, but it's another thing once they're destroyed, they got to come down all those met the metal and the shrapnel and potentially could kill people on the ground as well standby nick, we're going to get back to you. colonel cedric leighton retired us army, is joining us right now. you're military analysts. what's your assessment of what what's happening on the ground militarily and over the skies. and not only of jerusalem, but elsewhere in israel. >> well, >> it will one of the big things about this is that this is really a changes nick was

mentioning in his reporting and alex had mentioned as well, this is going to really change the way in which the armies of the middle pleased face each other there's going to be a different style of warfare. there's going to be in essence see using swarms, what the iranians have talked about for a long time. now, they're actually putting this in into practice and we're seeing, i think maybe they've learned some lessons from ukraine where some of the things that have happened in the ukrainian war are now being use transferred by the iranians to israel. and i think the key thing here, wolf is that with the way in which the iranians are doing this or doing a multi-layered attack that multilayered attack is going to have a major impact on how your defense systems are structured as well. right now, the iron dome arrow, david sling, those israeli system seemed to be fairly effective, very effective actually against the uranian the texas far as we know at the moment. but clearly this kind of volume that they're dealing with is going

to impact how these systems are designed and how intelligence is the integrated into the radar picture. >> because the iron dome is very effective, the arrow air defense missile system, very effective. david's sling, another system very effective. but if hundreds of these armed drones are coming in and cruise missiles and other sophisticated rockets, it's, it gets pretty complicated. it really does. and because one of the key things that you have to think about is if you're gonna be a military operator, like a radar operator for example, and you're looking at an incoming picture, you see what's going on, you see all the different inputs that you get, and you have to discern which one of these is something that you have to attack, which is something that you can and let go, we ignore which are things that you can postpone until later. and those are decisions that have to happen in basically split seconds. and that's where system it's like the a wax patriot missile batteries. and of course, the israeli versions of all of that really play a large, large wall significant role. did david sanger our friend from the new

york times, is with a to cnn, national security analysts one thing that worries me and i hope i'm worried about it, but let me get your thoughts. iran is pretty close. i'm told to develop a nuclear capability. how close are they right now because if israel retaliates, none of us knows what around might do. >> what we know about this wolf is that the iranians shipped most of their nuclear fuel out after the 2015 agreement with the obama administration after president trump decided to pull out of that agreement, they have slowly be to build back-up and they probably have enough now for about three nuclear weapons but it would take them probably six months, maybe a year to actually fashion it into a weapon. i think the bigger fear here now is that if we are really at the cusp of a new age one in which there are direct strikes back-and-forth between israel and iran. the

temptation for iran to race ahead with nuclear program could be pretty high in till now, they've been moving steadily, slowly, but they haven't been racing toward it as far as we can can tell. and that's been an interesting bit of restraint. this is second thing we're looking for and it gets really to what cedric just said if it turns out that these waves are one and done and that a few hours from now, we're not seeing more coming. then. i think it's a signal from iran that they had to go out and do something, but they don't plan to get into a situation where the israelis are under pressure to go take the next step if on the other hand, this is followed by cruise missiles and others that it truly is an effort to overwhelm the system then that's a very different, that's followed by proxies like hezbollah are the houthis taking aim at israel complicates it a lot and particularly complicated because president biden, his aides have been on the phone.

two prime minister netanyahu and others saying, let's, let tonight be it if there are no significant casualties when that statement that the iranian mission at the united nations put out basically said that the matter can be deemed concluded right now so that's a really important signal that i'm sure in the situation room, they're looking at they're looking at a very, very closely lots of stake, right? everybody stand by our special live coverage will continue after a very quick break. >> tomorrow. >> a ninth of space for stoma whole story with anderson cooper, the james webb telescope when. you alone followed by the two parts of an of space shuttle columbia, the final flight. tomorrow, starting at eight on cnn

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