situation for the entire country for the next 48 hours. and the beaches along the israeli coast from tel aviv to the lebanon border are currently closed because they are trying to avoid large gatherings of people just in case there is an unexpected attack by hezbollah. we do expect to have more information later in the day. the israeli military is going to be briefing in about 15 minutes to provide a number of information points about what they actually hit overnight. but according to the idf, thousands of targets were eliminated in the strike and the idf says more than 100 jets took part in this preemptive attack against hezbollah to thwart the larger attack that was planned by this iran backed group. those numbers are really significant because it gives you a sense of just how close israel was to a larger attack being carried out by hezbollah that would have caused significant damage to

this country. and the question now is, is really what will take place next? and as we speak, i can hear the roar of israeli fighter jets overhead, an indication that the israelis may be continuing their strikes in southern lebanon to again send a message to hezbollah that they are prepared for the days and weeks ahead. kevin troy, let me ask you a couple of questions. one, 6000 is a massive, massive number. the untold carnage that could have caused is incalculable. and i'm just curious. and as the idf prepared to make this strike, i know you are in constant contact with the defense secretary there. what's the thinking? the idea that if they are going to protect their people on occasion, they have to take a risk and they have to they have to act. and that's what's happened here. is that your sense? is that what you're hearing? well, absolutely. and had hezbollah actually launched this attack, it would have

immediately sent the country into what really would have been a full scale war amid this ongoing war of attrition with hezbollah. the fact that they were able to thwart the attack with these precision strikes overnight may have actually avoided a larger regional war because israel would have responded in a totally different way. had 6000 rockets and missiles rained down on their population centers. and so in a weird, calculated way, the israelis actually avoided, at least for now, a larger conflict. and israeli officials are telling us that the ball is now in hezbollah's court. they're actually giving them an off ramp in all of this. they took out all of these, launching positions. hezbollah was still able to say they responded for the killing on july 30th of their top commander in southern beirut, and now the region is waiting to see what will happen next. kevin, let me ask you also about the american involvement in this. whenever there are circumstances like these and we

are reporting on them today, people wonder, what's the pentagon pentagon's hand in all of this? have you heard anything with respect to possible cooperation or collaboration? so our pentagon team says the americans were not involved in this preemptive strike against hezbollah in southern lebanon. but i can tell you there have been multiple conversations taking place each week between top israeli defense officials and top american defense officials, including overnight, according to an official here in tel aviv that spoke with fox news. a direct conversation between secretary of defense lloyd austin and israel's defense minister yoav gallant. and it gives you a sense of the coordination that is currently taking place. and remember, there are so many american assets in the region, and they serve two purposes. one purpose is to send a message of deterrence to hezbollah. but it appears that message actually wasn't received because the group was preparing to launch a massive strike against israel. and the second message is that

the united states will stand by israel if it is attacked by iran or its proxies, including hezbollah or other proxies across the region, whether it be in yemen with the iran backed houthis or from gaza and the west bank with iran backed groups there, or these iran backed iraqi and syrian shia militias. and so there are a variety of threats that israel is facing. and the american presence in the region will likely stay for the days and weeks ahead to continue to maintain this posture and deter any further action against israel. kevin. tray, stay with us. i want to welcome chanley painter into the conversation. my co-anchor from new york, chanley. thanks, kevin. so trey, i just want to ask. for weeks israel has been on standby anticipating some type of retaliation from hezbollah and iran backed proxies. why now? why tonight? do you think? look, it had been weeks of anticipation and we actually moved some of our operations to the north, to the city of

haifa, in anticipation of an attack against israel's third largest city, the strategic port in the northern part of this country. the information has been floating around and there were these timelines they could see with intelligence that hezbollah was moving into position to prepare for this attack. and my understanding, according to the officials that i talked with, both in the israeli military and the israeli defense ministry overnight, is that the intelligence was so precise that they knew hezbollah was going to conduct this attack overnight. and that's why they decided to take preemptive action against the group. the question now is whether or not hezbollah sees this as an off ramp or a declaration of war, and if it's in their best interest and when you really step back and you analyze the situation, it is not in their interest to go to war with israel, because israel just illustrated overnight that they know where all of these rocket and missile launching positions are, and that they have an air force that consists of hundreds

of fighter jets that they can use to target hezbollah positions in southern and central lebanon. and so the question now is how hezbollah will respond to these strikes if they try to claim victory and sort of ignore the fact that they were targeted in an unprecedented way, or if they try to strike back and target cities like tel aviv, where we're standing today, that question is out. and it's part of the reason that the israelis are in a special security situation for the next 48 hours, waiting to see how this iran backed group will respond. and i guess just one more thing, kevin. if you don't mind the hezbollah saying it's the first phase, quote, that particular language, does that mean anything to you and what you know about that group? yeah, the organization is constantly planning attacks against israel, and they've been doing so since october 8th, just one day after the october seventh massacre. remember, on black saturday, october 7th, the israelis were preparing in the aftermath of that attack for the possibility that hezbollah would get directly involved in the fight.

and they did just that one day later. but they have kept their attacks to northern israel. they've focused along the border. they've not fired on major population centers like tel aviv or even deep into haifa in the north or jerusalem. and so what they were preparing for overnight would have changed that calculation. and remember, this is an escalation ladder, traditional escalation ladder in many senses. and so when hezbollah strikes deeper, israel strikes deeper. and when the israelis took out this top hezbollah commander in beirut, hassan nasrallah, the leader of the group, saw this as an escalation by the israelis. and he said what he has traditionally said, an eye for an eye. if israel strikes beirut, hezbollah will strike tel aviv. that is what hezbollah was preparing to do before they were thwarted in that overnight attack by israel. a precision attack that included, according to the idf, more than 100 jets and thousands of targets trying to hit the rocket and missile launchers before they could launch this attack against israel. guys, back to you.

trey, thank you very much. our chief foreign correspondent over there. trey, one more question before we move on to another phoner here. i just want to get your sense and i know we've sort of brushed around this for just a bit, but i did want to ask your perspective as someone who has covered this particular, excursion, which is unfortunate and just devastating for the region, in particular on the heels of october 7th, i'm just curious, as you watch how this continues to unfold, if you get the sense, trey, that we are looking at the beginning of a broader conflict or as has been suggested tonight, because of israel's ability, maybe this is a deterrent, perhaps for the iranians and others to not escalate things. what is your sense? you make a great point, kevin. we really are at a

crossroads here in terms of the direction and where all of this goes, because if hezbollah decides to respond to this preemptive strike overnight that was conducted by israel in a larger way than they already have with hundreds of rockets and drones into the northern part of this country, the situation could quickly unravel. but if they are deterred and they understand that israel has such a strong air force and can target positions not just in the southern part of lebanon, but also the hezbollah strongholds around beirut. remember, hezbollah is an organization with around 150,000 rockets and missiles. some of them precision guided with components that were smuggled into southern lebanon by the iranian regime itself. and iran also doesn't want to go to a larger war. and so there are a lot of calculations that are going to be made over the next 48 hours. about everyone in the region, about their taste and interest in going to a broader regional conflict, because a larger war would not look like the war that we've seen unfold for the past 324 days. inside

gaza, that war between israel and hamas, a larger war between israel and hezbollah, would see things like a series of airstrikes that take place against southern lebanon and also central lebanon, targeting the lebanese capital of beirut. it would see rocket and missile fire into large israeli population centers like tel aviv and haifa, and possibly an israeli ground component into lebanon. what it would not see is a prolonged conflict that really looks endless, like we are seeing on the ground in gaza, and that's simply due to the nature of the conflict. remember, there was a war between israel and lebanon back in 2006. the second lebanon war, and that lasted for just over 30 days. there have been exchanges of fire in recent months between israel and iran. remember, iran launched that massive cruise ballistic missile attack that also included drones against israel in april and ultimately, what we saw from that was an israeli

strike against the outskirts of an iranian nuclear facility, targeting the air defense system around it to send a message to iran that the israelis have the capability to conduct over-the-horizon strikes and target close to the country's nuclear facilities. and so what all of this means is that the countries in the region and the players in the region understand what a larger war would look like, and it doesn't actually suit the interests of hezbollah. it doesn't suit the interests of iran, and certainly not of israel. and so the 48 hours ahead will be really conclusive. i think in many ways, for what will come next in the region. will hezbollah and iran, its largest funder and director in the region, take an off ramp that will be offered to them, or will they try to escalate into a larger regional conflict? kevin. well, that's terrific reporting. and listen, i appreciate the explanation because i think a lot of people at home don't understand the stakes and where we are today and how literally this what what happened overnight really could have changed things for the better.

in particular in terms of security in the region. our chief foreign correspondent, trey yingst joining us at this hour, trey, thank you. chanley over to you. thanks, kevin. and thanks, trey. so let's bring in rich goldberg, senior advisor at the foundation for defense of democracies. rich let's talk about what trey was just reporting on there. the unbelievable numbers of rockets, the precision of israel's offensive pre striking what could have been a devastating attack from hezbollah from lebanon. and trey says this may have avoided what everyone was hoping to avoid a larger scale conflict in the region. what are your thoughts? well i think that's exactly right. i mean, if what we are hearing is true, 6000 long range missiles, short range rockets, drones all prepared to launch on major cities in israel, including tel aviv. and they were all wiped out by the israeli military

preemptively. first of all, what a breathtaking, stunning decision by iran and hezbollah to be willing to launch that attack. number two, what a stunning and breathtaking preemptive strike and the success of the israeli military in thwarting that attack. and clearly, the message it sends, not just in beirut, but in tehran. i'll make one very big important point that i think everybody should take away from this, because you'll remember we're just weeks, months after there was a big controversy over the biden administration withholding weapons systems from israel over disagreements on israel's strategy against hamas in gaza. the munitions that you saw employed tonight, the fighter aircraft that were employed tonight, american made fighter jets, american missiles, bombs, munitions that are being provided to israel that were deemed offensive in nature are key to israel's

defense. you cannot have a defense without an offense. israel just showed that tonight. and so when we talk about politicians saying we should support israel's right to defend itself, that commitment cannot be limited to things like the iron dome missile defense system or the arrow missile defense system. those obviously are important and need to be supported, but it means jet fighters, it means jdam missiles. it means small diameter bombs. it means the mark 82 and mark 84 500 pound and 2,000 pound bombs. it means all of those platforms and munitions that the white house deemed offensive in nature earlier this year, because there is no defense without an offense and in fact, if you have that offense and can launch a preemptive strike like this, you can actually prevent major escalation. it's so impressive. rich, i do want to ask you about, during this

preemptive attack, hezbollah was launching drones and rockets into northern israel at the same time, releasing a statement some 320 into the country. a targeting 11 israeli military sites. does that action in retaliation? is that enough for iran and hezbollah to say, okay, we've done our part or to tell their people we've done our part in avenging the death of our leaders? well, what i think it probably is for now is a placeholder. i think they're caught by surprise at the nature of the intelligence penetration, the preemptive strike, the success of the israeli military in taking out 6000 platforms, ready to launch. and so what you really saw was basically a little bit of an escalation above what we see almost on a daily basis, just a little bit more into towns around northern israel. it sounds like one injury potentially in the city of

akko, north of haifa, but otherwise the areas that we see them targeting are not foreign to israelis at this point. so i think they're trying to get off what they have available in areas that are not going to prompt further major escalation all the way up to beirut for now, as they reassess what just happened and what they're going to do next. rich, we're just receiving a statement from the israeli foreign minister addressing dozens of foreign ministers around the world, calling on them to support israel. the foreign minister stressing israel acted after definitively identifying a large scale planned attack of missiles and drones by the terrorist organization hezbollah. it says in this statement towards targets in israel and carried out these preemptive strikes to thwart that attack. what do you make of the minister there, calling on other foreign leaders to stand by israel in this offensive? yeah, i mean, i think that's what i would expect the israeli foreign minister to say. obviously

that's his job to rally diplomatic support at a moment like this. i think the most important message tonight is going to have to be sent from the white house through appropriate channels, which are available directly to the regime in tehran. they see two carrier strike groups now in the region. they see a massive amount of firepower from the united states military. they now see israel not just penetrating their own intelligence services, but hezbollah as well. there needs to be a very clear message sent to tehran reminding them that there is that firepower in the region and hopefully that there is a political will in the white house that that firepower isn't just there for augmenting missile defense of israel. but in case iran decides to escalate, because hopefully this is a moment where israel continues to degrade the capabilities of iran's proxies, actually tries to restore some modicum of deterrence, not just on its northern border, but

throughout this seven front fight that iran is waging and actually can then make progress in a cease fire negotiation by showing that it's willing to continue to close in on sinwar in gaza, the hamas leader in gaza. take it to hezbollah in lebanon. take it inside tehran to high level assets and see if that can, combined with u.s. threats behind the scenes, actually achieve some sort of deterrence. and one last thing. i'm running out of some time here again, the minister saying that israel doesn't seek this all out war against iran backed proxies or hezbollah, they're fighting a war in gaza. but at this juncture, i only have a few seconds. israel hitting targets in. i'm out of time, rich. i'm going to have to go to break. thank you for your time. again, if you're just joining us, israel says we're carrying they carried out preemptive strikes overnight. we're going to squeeze in this we're going to squeeze in this break and come right back force factor total beets is the number one

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continue our coverage here on fox news channel overnight, we are continuing our watch of what's happening in the middle east. israel taking a preemptive strike on hezbollah, knocking out several targets in

lebanon. we are joined by david dowd of the phd. david, a senior fellow. and i just want to ask you, david, this is really fascinating for me. i actually had a chance to read your piece in haaretz on why a cease fire deal with hezbollah is at least right now, would be bad for israel. explain that for the folks at home who may not understand the nuances of that argument. thank you for having me on. well, let's start with what hezbollah sought to accomplish by entering this conflict. secretary-general hassan nasrallah declared on november 3rd, the first time he addressed the attack, the massive attack that hezbollah's allies, hamas, palestinian islamic jihad, these other gaza based terror groups had launched on israel on october 7th, said the goal was to essentially force israel through attrition into a premature cease fire in the gaza strip, and this is by

adding the second support front from lebanon so that he said, the palestinian resistance, specifically hamas, would emerge victorious. now, if hezbollah's attacks had forced a total ceasefire, that would have been one component of where they would have claimed victory. the second part is really what's happening on the north. in that 80,000, 60,000 to 80,000 israelis have been displaced from the north. you have the ten month war of attrition that's been going on in the north, and the golan heights for example. exactly. and the, the power of israeli military arms alone has not been able to silence hezbollah's guns to push hezbollah from the border, to get them to back down from this demand that they were making hezbollah, that is, that they would continue attacking israel until a prior ceasefire in gaza. so that would have been another element of this claimed victory that, hey, the israelis, couldn't, couldn't push us back. the third

element, that one could argue that hezbollah would claim is that, again, 60 to 80,000 israelis have been displaced from the north, a de facto security buffer has been created in northern israel. that's about five kilometers deep from whence these people have been displaced. and again, the power of military arms alone. israeli military arms alone could not reverse the situation. hezbollah could turn to its base and say, you know, the israelis had to come beg us to for their their settlers as they would put it, to return to these colonies in northern occupied palestine. and they would frame this. i would assume, as a victory larger than the one that they claim to have achieved in may of 2000, when israel withdrew from south lebanon because they could frame this as well. in may of 2000, we pushed the israelis out of south lebanon in in 2024, we pushed them out of northern israel and the international community had to come and beg us to allow these people to return to their homes. you see, the liberation

of palestine from the river to the sea is achievable. we just showed you how it was. stay the course and, you know, whatever pain, sweat and tears we have to achieve, this is an achievable goal or endure. rather, this is an achievable goal. it is a fascinating read and i just want to share for the folks at home. very quickly we got a statement from the foreign minister, minister katz, emphasizing that israel does not seek an all out war and will act accordingly to developments on the ground. a statement that we've just received within the last hour. this is a precarious moment, not just for israel, but for the entire region. they have acted preemptively. we've heard trey yingst and jeff paul and others mentioning tonight that in preparation for what could have been a catastrophe, an absolute catastrophic attack on israel, hezbollah apparently had some 6000 missiles at the ready and they were many of them, if not all of them, were taken out by the idf. we are

short of time for this particular segment, but we want to welcome back the foundation for defense of democracy senior fellow david dowd, to chat with us again a little bit later. again, i want to share with the folks at home this is what's on x, the minister emphasized that israel is acting to protect its citizens and territory against the axis of evil, led by iran. again, iran does back hezbollah, which has declared which has a declared goal of bringing about israel's destruction. i found it interesting in the haaretz piece. they talked about the elimination of hezbollah. david, thank you so much. we certainly appreciate your expertise and your time this morning. we'll talk to you again very soon. meantime, quick time out here on fox news channel as we continue our coverage of the ongoing security circumstances in israel as the israelis attempt to defend themselves from to defend themselves from hezbollah. don't go wealth-changing question --

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the disposal, at the disposal of hezbollah and apparently the idf, in a security move that is to be really talked about for quite some time, were able to defuze that situation by launching precision attacks on hezbollah in lebanon. we want to welcome rich goldberg back into the conversation as we continue our coverage here this morning. rich, i want to talk about some of the tactical ideas of what's happening here. people think it's just hezbollah over in lebanon, but that's not the case. israel also has to deal with hamas. they have to deal with basically iran backed militants in yemen and syria and gaza and iraq. they've got their hands full. and yet in this particular circumstance, they seem to have diffused. if you will, allow the expression a real bomb here. yeah. and if it's possible at some point to throw back up on the screen, just the map of the region so that people can sort of understand and see and i can walk you through the seven fronts where iran is waging a

war since october 7th. we're very familiar with what's going on in gaza with hamas. we're becoming increasingly familiar, as we are tonight with the much larger threat, ten times the lethality in size of force missiles, 200,000 missiles and rockets and drones in lebanon with iran's flagship terrorist organization with hezbollah. but people may not be realizing that there are other fronts as well, that have been very active going back, of course, to october seventh, october 8th, we have militias in iraq and syria. we've seen them attacking american forces on an ongoing basis, provoking at one point after the death of three americans in jordan, a much larger scale american retaliation inside iraq and syria, there have been drones launched from those two fronts that go all the way down to the southern tip of israel at a lot. we have seen, obviously, the houthis in yemen launching

daily attacks into the red sea. for those watching before tonight's news, another ship attacked by the houthis on the high seas in the red sea. but of course, we have seen drones and missiles flown from yemen to israel as well. most recently, a very surprisingly, a drone that reached all the way to tel aviv, downtown tel aviv from yemen. but another front people don't think about is in the west bank as well. and just in the past few days, an attempted spectacular suicide car bombing averted in in tel aviv, potentially launched from this axis as well from the west bank against israel. so again, seven fronts in total. when you include the head of the octopus iran controlling all of this and in fact, also, as we saw back in april, willing to launch direct attacks against israel as well, the senior fellow in the foundation for defense of democracies, rich goldberg, joining us, rich in the minute

or so i have left, i just want to share this. the israeli military says about 100 fighter jets struck and destroyed thousands of hezbollah rocket launchers. and just so much more material on the ground there. i'm so thrilled from an educational perspective that you've laid out this idea. this is a multi-front war being waged on israel by iran. and yet it would seem to me, rich, that a precision strike like this might act as a great deterrent in the minute or so left. explain why that might be the case from iran's perspective, watching what israel has just pulled off. well, it could be. that would be a hope. obviously, hezbollah has 200,000 rockets, missiles and drones in its arsenal. if they just lost 6000, you're down to 194,000. so understand there's still a great threat here scattered throughout southern lebanon all the way into beirut. but the message sent tonight, as was sent just a few weeks ago when israel

took out the chief of staff of hezbollah in beirut, who assured her hours later, ismail haniyeh in tehran is that iran and its axis in many ways is fully penetrated by israeli intelligence and the israeli military, thanks to the great support of the united states, has everything it needs to launch preemptive strikes when it is able to take out the threats. and this is going to be critical moving forward, because even though ceasefire talks remain in progress, that does not change the fact that there is a great danger on the ground. each and every day for the people there. and strategically speaking, the israelis, in cooperation and cooperation with their american counterparts and others, continue to do the best that they can to root out root and stem this particular threat. rich, we will touch base with you, of course, again, in the not too distant future. hang

with us if you would. we are up against a break. rich goldberg, senior fellow for the foundation for defense of democracies, joining us, we're going to take a quick timeout as we continue our coverage. we've been having conversations with a number of newsmakers who are helping us unpack what's happening on the ground overnight in israel, and in particular in lebanon, as the idf attacks the hezbollah would be attackers with precision strikes. over 100 jets involved in the incursion. i'm kevin corke in washington. we have chanley painter joining us from new york. we're going to take a very quick time out here on the program. when we come back, more conversations, including an update from jeff paul, who is also on the ground. this is fox news channel. quick break. fox news channel. quick break. we're back after this

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of israeli preemptive strikes against hezbollah in southern lebanon. let's go out to israel for the latest with fox news correspondent jeff paul. live right now in israel. of course, jeff, join us now. break us. break down what we know at this moment, now that it is morning there in israel. well, we know in the wake of this escalation, a major one at that, that israel is under an emergency situation for the next 48 hours. that means everyone is on high alert. the beaches are closed and, you know, just looking off camera and just looking out into tel aviv, you can really see that people are following those directions. not a lot of people out right now. cars obviously moving about as they normally would, but the beach is absolutely empty on what would be normally a pretty packed day. the entire country now though, is waiting to see what is next. is hezbollah satisfied with the actions it took last night, or will they continue to further escalate this? we know that hezbollah has said that this is the first

phase of what they are undertaking against israel. now, this all started early this morning. israel launched a wave of airstrikes targeting hezbollah infrastructure using around 100 fighter jets. the information that israeli intelligence had was that hezbollah was set to launch this massive attack on israel right around 5 a.m. and just prior to that, minutes were being told that's when the israeli airstrikes took place. this was a preemptive strike again, after israeli intelligence received information that hezbollah was mounting. this massive attack on israel. hezbollah then fired upwards of. according to them, 320 rockets and drones, all mostly targeting northern israel. now, local media is reporting that hezbollah had plans to launch an estimated 6000 rockets and uavs, both towards central and northern israel. but israel's preemptive strike then dampened that. so the region must now weigh. we

have these ongoing peace talks that at the moment are set to continue in cairo, egypt. we know that israel is sending a delegation there, and so far we have not heard anything different about them canceling those plans. but you got to understand, these talks have been going on for weeks, and in some cases they've had other rounds in previous months. it's a very delicate situation. another important thing to point out is we haven't heard from hamas yet, so we don't know how they're going to respond to this major escalation. and beyond that, really how iran is going to respond. hezbollah is one of their proxy groups and one of their main supporters. and getting things like these rockets and these uavs that were used against israel today. so it will it will be really interesting to see moving forward how iran responds. and with hezbollah saying this is the first phase, really, what is next over these next 48 hours? could this spark a wider conflict in the region? chanley yeah. and, jeff, i want to mention the ceasefire talks

reportedly today, even though u.s. cairo, qatar were meeting coordinating with hamas, they reportedly were not making any progress hours ago in relation to the preemptive strikes and what hezbollah was planning this morning, or i guess in the last hours. any relation between that lack of progress? have you been hearing and what hezbollah was planning? well, it's hard to tell. we do know that both iran and hezbollah have said that they will be watching these peace talks closely, and they had previously said that it is the one thing that is holding them back from this massive retaliatory attack on israel. so it really begs the question, is this that massive retaliatory attack that hezbollah has been talking about? is this just the first phase? as as hezbollah has sai? and how will that impact the peace talks going forward? you know, israel obviously has a lot on its plate. they've got a war in gaza, and now they've

got, you know, the situation in northern israel along the lebanon-israel border. and a lot of people do live up there. so it will be curious to see how negotiators are interpreting all of this. and honestly, what happens over the next couple of days could really determine a lot, not only for this region, but particularly for the people in gaza. and jeff, kevin, now bringing in has some questions. kevin. thank you. jeff. i want to ask what, if anything, have we heard from israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu? obviously, this is a circumstance where you might imagine he might have a message for not just the israeli people, but for the global community. have you heard anything about that? well, obviously, you know, netanyahu has always toed the line that, you know, israel has the right to defend itself. the u.s. has backed him up on that. that israel does have the right to defend itself. we know that the cabinet will be getting together today at some point this will obviously be a huge topic of conversation. and

again, the country right now is under this emergency situation. so a very high alert for not only military personnel but also for just people in general here in israel. this sort of brings them back to a different period in this country where not only worrying about a war that they have going on in the south, but but one that appears to be opening up a little wider in the north as well. kevin. yeah. let me let me follow up on that, because obviously everything has changed since october 7th. and yet there's almost this daily threat now that people have to live with on the ground. you heard charlie mentioned earlier, you get these alerts on your phone. you hear the air raid sirens, they close the airport. what is life like on the ground in the east? listen, i don't have to tell you. you're there. i'm just curious how the people make it through dealing with these circumstances on a continuing basis. i mean, that's a great question, kevin.

and sometimes i wonder that myself. i don't know how people who call israel home make it through the day and have made it through the last ten plus months, you know, for us, when we come in here to, to work, at some point we do get to go home. but for a lot of people, both here in israel and gaza and around the region, i mean, this is home. so this is a heightened state that they are they're in. and for some of them, it does become normal. sadly, the warnings on their phone. and you got to think about the people who live in the north, it's almost a daily basis that we get warnings on our phone. and i would say 90% of the time, if it's not something in the area near gaza, it's always in the north. and so for the people who call that area home, there is no real getting rest. there is no real normalcy right now. and it appears that that won't be something that will happen for quite some time, just given how frequent it keeps happening.

and this early this morning, what happened only shows that israel is prepared, obviously. and they can send a message to both iran and its proxies that not only can they defend itself, but they can get ahead of some of these attacks. is it going to be 100% every time? absolutely not. but it does send a pretty strong message to iran and its proxy groups like hezbollah that iran, that israel is ready to defend itself. and it has intelligence to hit back before they can even start in some cases. very interesting job. great. great talking to you, jeff. paul, obviously we hope that you and trey and the rest of our team is safe there. we'll touch base with you again very shortly. thank you jeff, for now, let's head back over to chanley. thanks kevin. and of course jeff as well. so let's go now to david dowd at the foundation for defense of democracies. david's on the phone. david, thank you for joining us. this morning. i first want to get your reaction to what jeff has been telling us. the scale of this preemptive attack from israel to possibly avoid this

larger conflict. the numbers of rockets, 6000, some rockets were set to be fired into israel to major population centers of the country. here, israel striking back on the offensive, making a very strong statement, did they not? david well, yes. so, look, it's unclear where these and it's not just rockets. it was the idf identified, drones, uavs and rockets, a mixture of these three types of projectiles. it's unclear where they would have been headed, whether these would have been population centers, whether they would have been, you know, israeli military bases, whether they were intended to hit open air areas. let's let's not forget that hezbollah really does not want a war with israel right now, you know, when they killed the 12 israeli children, in majdal shams, on july 27th, they forced israel's hand, to,

to attack and kill in beirut and, that in turn, forced hezbollah's hand to carry out the spectacular some kind of a spectacular attack. but at the same time, there were always trying to thread this needle between, you know, retaliating in kind for the attack, but not giving the israelis a justification to go, to go to full war. and i think with the preemptive strike, the demonstration of israeli capability of intelligence, the capability of israel's intelligence and its kinetic arms, definitely. that's going to put hezbollah on notice a lot more, that, attacking israel isn't going to be so easy. right? we do know that now, the israeli military spokesperson, david, saying hezbollah was planning to target mostly the north of israel, but also had some targets in central israel for this scale of the attack. speak to the intelligence that went

into this for israel to be on the offensive, possibly saving many, many lives. david yeah. i mean, this is this this this isn't just signal intelligence that can pick up the locations of these of these attacks. the timing of the attack, i'm not sure how much it's been reported tonight, but there were already reports in israeli media starting yesterday that, hezbollah's attack would come soon, much sooner than anticipated, that the organization, had noticed that talks ceasefire talks, which justified the delay in the retaliation for their assassination, chief of staff, that these talks were snagging and that, you know, hezbollah was going to attack imminently. this is not something that you just pick up through signals intelligence. this means the israelis have extensive networks within lebanon, that that is able to cull this kind of information and from which

they're able to determine the exact timing of hezbollah's attacks. and again, the preemptive strike itself, so to start the idf hasn't confirmed yet that tel aviv was necessarily the target. they said, central israel. but to even know that, again, takes a great deal of intelligence gathering, a great deal of intelligence capability. and to find the locations of these launchers from whence this attack was going to be launched, that that demonstrates an intelligence, an impressive intelligence gathering capability. and, david, we're just receiving some highlights from the idf international spokesperson saying that this was an act of self-defense on behalf of israel. a little before 5 a.m. local time there in the country, israel, israel used 100 airplanes, thousands of targets and 40 launchers in southern lebanon, most of them in south lebanon. it says the launchers were targeting, were mostly that they shot, were targeting northern israel, but

some in central israel, as we just stated as well. but this, israel says, was part of a larger planned attack in the idf, thwarted it in a precise manner on that home front here moving forward, we know right now benjamin netanyahu is meeting with his security council, planning what could be next steps. what do you anticipate, david, well, i think the israelis are going to remain on high alert for the next couple of days. really, the next steps depend on on hezbollah. this really, you know, hezbollah still managed to get off about their claiming 320 attacks or, sorry, 320 rockets, the idf, from what i'm seeing from idf radio, identified a much lower number of 210 rockets and 20 drones. nevertheless, they were able to get off a barrage. the barrage has caused relatively minimal damage, and i think the israelis are going to react accordingly. had these had had this barrage caused more casualties, which was a risk

that hezbollah was taking, then there would be possibly a commensurate, proportionate strike from the israelis. i think now they're going to try to calm the situation, i think hezbollah has an interest in kind of returning, to the routine. it remains to be seen if this will be the last attack that hezbollah conduct. they did call this a preliminary strike. they're calling this a success, not to be deterred by reality. hezbollah is going to call this a success. this is more meant for domestic consumption to its base to show that they are capable of matching the israelis toe or toe or and or going toe to toe with the israelis. it doesn't with the israelis. it doesn't have to do anything with (birds chirping)

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to avoid self-injection. self-injection could cause allergic reactions like anaphylaxis. ask your vet about solensia and help get your cat back to their normal. chanley painter in new york, along with kevin corke in dc. we are following breaking news out of the middle east where overnight, israel's defense forces say they preemptively struck several hezbollah

targets in lebanon. the idf claims the iran backed group was preparing to fire thousands of missiles and rockets towards the israeli territory. joining us now, foreign correspondent jeff paul, with the latest from there in israel, jeff. well, we know the israeli security cabinet is meeting right now. this will obviously be a huge moment as israel decides the next steps moving forward and prepares itself for possibly another phase. hezbollah has said that this early morning attack, involving both rockets and drones was just the first phase. so this country now finds itself under a emergency situation for the next 48 hours. that means the beaches are closed. people are told to basically be at high alert. obviously. so is the military. now, this all started early this morning local time. israel launched a wave of airstrikes targeting both hezbollah infrastructure, using 100 fighter jets. this was a preemptive strike after israeli intelligence got