those evacuation orders from the israeli military telling civilians in specific pockets they need to evacuate because they are close to, according to the israeli military, hezbollah targets. but what we are also hearing from many on the ground is that those warnings are not giving them enough time to gather their belongings together, their family members, and make it out to safety in time. so this is a hugely desperate and terrifying situation for many on the ground yeah, absolutely. >> all right, sir, i really appreciate that. not about shear. once again, our news just in israel claims that they've killed hezbollah's leader, hassan nasrallah. we're going to have a lot more on this story, including reaction all over the region, coming up here on cnn newsroom, i'm kim brunhuber, pleased stay with us as our coverage continues

you for joining us. >> i'm jim sciutto live from tel aviv. we begin with breaking news this morning, a claim just in the last hour by israel that it has killed hezbollah's leader, hassan nasrallah in an airstrike in southern beirut. yesterday, israel says nasrallah was killed but hezbollah has not yet commented and israeli official told cnn earlier that nasrallah was the target of the attack. and i was told in the last 24 hours that they had very high confidence. nasrallah was on the site when the attack took place. this comes on the heels of israel's largest strikes on beirut in nearly 20 years, lebanon's news agency says israel also launched strikes in southern lebanon, as well as the eastern part of the country. this morning, hezbollah says it fired more rockets into northern israel in response we are also hearing

that some hospitals in the southern part of beirut, an area targeted by israel yesterday, will now be evacuated. i'm joined now by cnn's ben wedeman, who is in beirut and in ben, we've been speaking numerous times in the last 12, 24 hours or so. i wonder what the state of affairs is in beirut right now. i have to imagine there's a great deal of fear as airstrikes continue. >> yeah there is. you're all you have to do is look at the skyline behind me and see just all the areas where smoke is rising from the southern suburbs were pummeled last night and multiple airstrikes by the israeli and he's and of course, because of the warnings, israel sent out, and also simply because of the bombing thousands perhaps tens of thousands of people streamed out of southern beirut and are essentially sleeping rough on the streets wherever they

could. we saw, for instance, on what local whatsapp groups that people what are desperately looking for somewhere to stay in other places are offering places to say, churches, mosques schools, even a football stadium have been opened for those seeking shelter. but there doesn't seem to be any indication how long this is going to go on basically people saw these twitter announcements put out by the arabic spokesman for the israeli military and left as quickly as they could, but keep in mind that the southern part of beirut and particularly some of the neighborhoods like, but jd all densely populated by people who don't necessarily have the means to get out quickly. we're talking about palestinian refugees, syrian migrant workers, workers from south asia and africa don't have cars instance, who, if

they're lucky, have a motorcycle. so definitely this city has, in the last 24 hours been severely jolted by events. >> jim you and i know you've been attempting to reach your contacts within hezbollah in the last 24 hours that has been difficult all what has been the reaction, if any, two israel's announcement that nasrallah is dead? >> it depends who you talk to and as they say, one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. so there are people here in lebanon who do not support it. his balloon fact vehemently hated them. and so we have seen those who are actually celebrating his death. but those of course, who six sincerely believe in him and his cause. so it really depends now, because the announcement has not come from his butler and it's only come from israel

there's a certain amount of skepticism among his supporters until we hear an announcement from his hezbollah know what's interesting is that since monday, since those massive airstrikes hezbollah, which normally regularly puts out the names and dates of birth, place of birth of its fighters who are killed. hat it's only put out the names and pictures and whatnot of just a handful of people most of them commanders. but the rank and file were really not seen. the death notices and certainly for the leader of hezbollah, hassan nasrallah. i think they're going to do it in a certain in particular way. it's not just going to be an announcement, but until now no word from hezbollah, no word from my hezbollah versus about the fate of hassan nasrallah then we wedeman in beirut. >> thanks so much also joined here in tel aviv by cnn's nic

robertson, who has been covering this war since october 7 in the region for a great deal of time. you've been speaking to israeli officials in recent days and weeks? we at one point you made to me earlier, is that this assassination, the strike on azrallah, did not arise yesterday or two weeks ago, months ago, but has been in the works for many years. >> it has. i mean, the idf has had since 2006, the last major offensive in lebanon sedda how it does it, how it does it differently and it is doing it differently last time they were, there were big strikes in beirut. this time it has been targeted to disrupt the command and control. we saw that with the walkie-talkies, we saw that with the pagers then the leadership the leadership chip responsible for the southern border, the most threatening area to israel. and then the other parts of the leadership, the ones in control of the uavs, the ones in control of long-range rockets systematically taken down. and

then the leadership. and in fact, we just heard from the idf what they called this operation to kill hassan. hassan nasrallah and i think it gives you an idea of what they think that this achieves. and they called it operation new order. they believe that they are inflicting a new order on paula and perhaps beyond. but, but to give a sense, the audience here or a sense of what just 20 years of planning look like now, it means 20 years of x but studying satellite imagery, studying drone imagery developing sources, developing spies inside of hezbollah, and all of that feeds into building a target list. and then the question becomes, how you work through that target letter. and that's what we're witnessing yes this let me ask you about clearly, israel has enormous intelligence resources here and that includes surveillance. >> and of course it has the uss a partner. and oftentimes there is intelligence sharing. all

the u.s. has made quite clear they were not involved in this particular strike. should we presume that israel has intelligence penetration of the group itself via human sources, given the accuracy of the strikes recently and even just the knowledge that nasrallah was where he was, according to israel, when they struck last night we should we should assume that they have those develop those spies and either people that are disaffected with hezbollah who want to bring it down, who can work their way into significant or useful positions inside or those that are just he went for money, then that's the electronic eavesdropping as well. >> and you think of the prevalence these days of all the cctv cameras around him that tie into a tie on to wifi networks. all of these things provide an opportunity for israel to develop this level. of knowledge. and i compare it and many the ways with what the british did in northern ireland. they mourn the ira to

its knees that that organisation that was fighting irish unity, they bought it to his knees and peace by and for tracing it to such a level that even the operatives stays joke about that when they got arrested, how many of them that were arrested were actually were actually effectively spiked that level of intelligence is part of what israel has had a time to lay. it's worth just taking a step parent saying, okay well, why didn't they do that in gaza? why couldn't they have had this level of intelligence in gaza? lebanon and gaza are two entirely different things. gaza is very seal and it's very hard to penetrate. lebanon is a much more mixed open environment. therefore, you can insert spy as you can generate that information. and that was what was lacking. that's why the idf did not properly see what was coming on october the seventh from hamas and still has not been able to strike eliminate the hamas leader nearly a year since the october 7 attacks, nic robertson thanks so much. we're joined now by

spokesperson person for the idf major doron spielman, who joins us live from jerusalem. major, thanks so much for joining us. now, i wonder if you can help shed light. and of course i'm conscious of sensitive intelligence but can you help shed light on how israel was able to locate the hezbollah leader and strike yesterday announcing now that that strike killed him having me. in fact, i can confirm that according to our reports, nasrallah and his upper minions have been eliminated. i can't tell you. and what is clear is that this is the diabolical nerve center the largest and most active terror organization in the entire world. hezbollah is the most funded and armed terror organization for more than 30 years. and this isn't an answer to your question for more than 30 years, hezbollah has been targeting both israeli us, and european targets. we have

compiled enormous amounts of intelligence according to foreign reports, we can see what happened two weeks ago with the beepers, followed by the walkie-talkies. these are of course, according to foreign reports, but israel has been focusing on this for years because we have identified that this, they could come and his bullet clearly is out to destroy the state of israel. and therefore, it is the finest intelligence has been exhibited probably in the world for a long time. and it's simply because the greatest source of necessity is we have no choice just behind me, by the way, in central israel, there was an interception, just a few minutes ago, which shows that even though nasrallah and his minions have been eliminated, and that is most crucial step. there is still far more to do with his bullet because they're still trying to kill israeli civilians you say far do, as you know, there have been reserved call-ups in recent days, and there has been a buildup of some israeli forces on the northern border

is the next step, a ground operation or invasion of southern lebanon all options are clearly on the table, jim, and that is definitely one of them. >> we have to understand that. we have no we're under no illusions with all of the aerial strikes and taking out his billows leadership. there are more than 30, 40,000 way more terrorists that have been trained in financed by iran that are most likely holding themselves up underground in numerous locations, including inside of homes and therefore we cannot allow a situation where all of these people compress a red button, fire a missile from a living room, and target my family or my neighbors, family within seconds. and so therefore it may be necessary. we will take whatever directed the political leadership gives us what i can tell you is under no circumstances, is israel going to stop eliminating and fighting hezbollah until all of the residents of northern israel can go back to their homes, whatever it takes. that's what we're going to do.

>> the level of the size of their strike was enormous leveling several buildings has israel made any effort to calculate civilian casualties? and is it undergoing such an effort right now, do you have any estimate of the number of civilians killed in this strike so i can tell you that in every strike that we've carried out, we've been meticulous and evaluating civilian casualties. >> there was another strike that took place two hours after this in critical infrastructure that was aimed at israeli critical infrastructure that because it could have wreaked enormous havoc in israel. and we gave warning to the civilians in that area to move hours and hours in advance. keeping in mind that when those civilians move out of the way, those terrorists flee as well. when from an operational perspective, we can give notification to send billions. we do everything we can. when you have pinpointed leadership and you need the element of surprise. obviously, we take that into account, but even there, as you could see in the

actions of the previous weeks and we'll be releasing more information about what happened this morning. >> we have been using whatever sources we have to try to do this when there are minimal civilian casualties. >> i'll just put this in perspective. >> that every rocket that his bonus firing against israel is saying that civilians and so therefore, there really is an unfair playing field here. >> but at the end of the day, we have no choice. this will protect israeli civilians and long-term jim, this is there's going to be protecting lebanese civilians who are also under this terrorist regime, which is called hezbollah, and has been led by nasrallah for over 30 years how can lebanese civilians believed that statement though, given i know israel has not confirmed what weapons were used in this strike, but weapons experts, cnn has spoken to they make the judgment. >> it was most likely 2000 pound bombs, perhaps bunker buster bombs but how is it meticulous to use weapons of that size? when you see the level of destruction all around

me, the images is ground-zero in terms of the size of this strike look, i can tell you the lebanese civilians and selves. >> there have been numerous lebanese civilians that have had the courage to express what is most likely the will of the massive, vast majority of london many civilians, which is that they don't want hezbollah in their lives. lebanon was a country that israel pulled out of 24 years ago. the lebanese people had an opportunity to build an incredible, incredible nation for themselves, one based on tourism and natural resources and when his bola moved into the st. all of those people were either forced or orchard in order to put hezbollah weapons in their living rooms. so we've heard a few courageous ones come online and i think they're under no illusions that while this is difficult and his bonus, hiding behind civilians, and unfortunately there are civilian casualties. they will be better off without nasrallah and their means and hezbollah and i will just add one more thing. that over the last 12

months, as you know, jim, as we've been reporting this, you've been reporting this from the very beginning while 9,000 rockets have been fired and suicide drones at israel, the world community did not utter a peep, know peep of having a ceasefire or anything else, nor did the world step up and say, let's get rid of hezbollah there torching lebanese civilians all of a sudden, israel begins in offensive, which could have happened months ago, were not for our patients. and the world now wants a ceasefire. this is time that the world turns on the moral barometer and says hezbollah has to go for israel for the west and also for the people of lebanon you about that ceasefire because as you know, the u.s. the u.s. president, antony blinken put enormous diplomatic resources and attempting to get to an agreement on a ceasefire among the parties involved and in fact, to just before this strike took place, the israeli prime minister in new york seemed to walk back some of his earlier dismissal of those negotiations i wonder does

israel have any interest in ceasefire negotiations? and given the reaction of us officials who have made quite clear, they were not involved in this strike and didn't get any notice really until the israeli jets were in the air was this trike done over? us objections so jim, as you know, on the political level, there's a lot of back-and-forth. >> united states is the greatest ally and friend of the people of israel and everyone in israel knows this. there's no doubt, however, i will say this unless you. live with hezbollah on your border, and you have hezbollah attacking you. i don't think you can imagine what it is like to have this type of enemy actively hitting and targeting your population. and people fleeing from their homes. i know in the u.s. right now there's a power outage that has left millions of people without power and that, that is a horrible thing. the northern part of our country, these people don't have power. it's not that they've lost power. they've lost their entire homes

therefore, any type of ceasefire from a military perspective that would not allow our people to go back to their homes and our country not to be under a constant barrage, including the interception that happened over our head is untenable but i don't think anyone in the world would even consider this. that is the position of the israeli army and are political leadership has also reflected the will of the people, which is are people just want to go home. we want peace in our country. we didn't start this war, but it has to end and the terms have to be that israel can live in peace throughout all of its borders major doron spielman, a spokesperson for the idf. thanks so much for joining us thank you, jim, for having me our nic robertson with me again here. >> one thing that stood out to me from the idf spokesperson comments there was that all options are on the table when i asked him about the possible it's ability of an israeli ground invasion following this, we've seen some preparations call up of reservists, some buildup of forces, not clear that there's a critical mass of

forces there necessary to go in. but based on your conversations with israeli officials, is that at just a matter of when i think it's a matter of when, but i think that determination would be on what hezbollah does next. >> the narrative from it's a great clear that they want hezbollah to pull back from the border and so that their citizens can return home. this is their stated goal and one way to achieve that is to make sure that there is no hezbollah along the border because what has happened and what will we go to the border, we go with local people who live there or we go with the idf. they show us the houses that were once the homes of lebanese civilians. and they say, look, those houses now, they been taken over by hezbollah. we know, we can show you the video of an rpg a shoulder launch rocket that you can easily walk into a building but often. fire, fire from the window. i was where it's impacted and the homes that have been damaged or destroyed inside of israel what they will be looking at and this is the

conversations that i have is making sure that can't happen. so the question then becomes, how do you do that one way to do that is to essentially create a buffer inside of south lebanon kilometer wide, two kilometers wide. and then the question becomes, how do you do that? well, israel and the public at the moment have suffered significant losses within the miller the military is fought very hard campaign in gaza. there is among some reservers, they don't particularly want to go back into battle again after three or four tours unless it's really necessary so the government will be very aware of that, of that sentiment. this is undoubtedly a sentiment that the idf commanders and the defense minister would have communicated to go we heard from we heard from the defense minister a few weeks ago saying this wasn't the time to have an offensive in lebanon with hezbollah all of that, then that's a long answer to the right question to ask right now

it could be a big set of airstrikes artillery along the border with troops then going in to mop up that would be most likely scenario. it's not clear that it's going to happen immediately. >> but ellison, israel's experience of ground operations in lebanon has been a difficult and bloody one from 82 to 2000, but also in the we've thousand six war in israeli public quite aware of that as well nic robertson, thanks so much. we're gonna go now back to beirut. cnn's ben wedeman there. and ben, you heard me ask the idf spokesperson about any estimate of civilian casualties from the strike that. israel now says killed nasrallah. they say they don't have an estimate yet have you heard any additional casualty reports there from the ground? >> not since late last night when the ministry of health, you were saying six people killed 91 wounded, but clearly the death toll is going to rise

from certainly that massive strike that. the israelis claim killed hassan nasrallah. but the variety of strikes that happened afterwards. so we haven't heard yet, but certainly i mean, it's not there's no question about it. and with of course, the problem is that the strike took place. they wanted to 6:00 p.m. local time in south beirut, which in this subsidy repeatedly struck by israel. so it's questionable how possible it is to even maintain rescue crews and equipment on the scene under those circumstances, given that so many people have fled, that part of town, jim ben wedeman in beirut. thanks so much, joining us now from washington is for osm oxide, his senior director for strategic outreach, a senior fellow as well at the middle east

institute for us. thanks so much for joining us region, as you know, has been on pins and needles back to october 7, regarding the prospect of a broader multifront or regional war and i wonder, do you believe that this strike as well as the strikes that preceded it and followed it puts the region on exactly that path or perhaps are we there already well, jim, pending confirmation from hezbollah that in fact, it's secretary general has been killed today clearly, the hinge of history has turned the attack, the unprecedented nature of the attack scale, scope, clearly answers that question that many of us who've been watching, what is essentially been largely a border conflict that horrible as it's been for the better part of a year since october 7 but the threshold to an all out

war has been crossed today with this it's a. >> nation or at least attempted assassination of hassan nasrallah for lebanon and israel. this is a whole new ballgame, a whole new era, but also for the region, because nasrallah was not only just a leader in lebanon, obviously, his influence far went far beyond lebanon. hezbollah became iran's priory, asked that outside of its border on the mediterranean, on israel's northern front. but also it's trainer for proxies in syria fighting that war on behalf of bashar less sudden, pretty much salvaging the regime. they're after the uprising in 2011 in iraq with the militias there with the houthis in yemen so this is an assassination that is far, that exceeds lebanon's border in terms of the likely implication. >> and if early reports are in fact true, that senior iranian general where at that bumper well as headquarters and have also been killed along with

hassan nasrallah than we definitely have to anticipate some kind of an iranian response or involvement in the coming reaction let me ask you about iran because there is a school of thought here that they are iran is keeping its powder dry as it were, does not want a regional war itself does not want to tempt. >> and israeli attack on iran. most notably any of its nuclear facilities and therefore might hold its fire. but i wonder, do you buy that argument given the point you just made? it's not only is the leader of one of its powerful proxies, arguably its most powerful proxy in the region. now dead, but the possibility that this strike killed senior iranian commanders as well well i mean that's the challenge of error runs calculus and targets been the challenge of his butler's capitalist two since the october 7 attack by hamas on israel on one hand, it wants to

establish at this point, re-established deterrence against israel. >> given the fact that israel has held escalation dominance, all throughout, israel has been more willing to escalate this conflict and go and cross beyond the total war threshold then iran and hezbollah for various reasons, including irans, historic reference for taking the fight to israel using proxies. >> all these proxies that ring of fire that it's stablished around. israel through hezbollah being its crown jewel in lebanon, but also the houthis in yemen, the militias in iraq and syria, knowing very well that in a direct confrontation with israel, israel is much more militarily superior and sophisticated to iran. >> so i expect that as the iranian leadership contemplates this need to reestablish brands versus avoid an all-out direct confrontation with israel. >> but there will probably be a preference for bringing in the range of iranian proxies in the region. so attack and responses from syria or iraq, yemen, but

also from lebanon. and if hamas, i mean, hamas is also part of that iranian axis has any ability to also punch that. we can also expect that to be part of this regional reaction to the assassination this leave the relationship between the israeli prime minister and president biden? >> and more broadly, the relationship between israel and the u.s. given that the u.s. was in the midst of a high-profile effort to engineer a ceasefire between israel and hezbollah and other parties involved and this strike happens and there was quite deliberate effort, including among us officials that i spoke to to put distance between this strike and the u.s us yeah. >> no doubt significant daylight between the u.s. >> administration and israel on this. and i know it's something that's very hard for people in the region to believe most people in the middle east believe that there's collusion one way or another. the administration and israel playing different roles here.

>> but in fact, i mean, talking to senior administration officials, there was this attempt in the previous days to this hail mary effort, last-ditch effort to try and get a 21 day ceasefire and try to get israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to even provide hassan nasrallah of fig leaf on gaza and free texts that come down from the tree, so to speak. >> because he hassan nasrallah ryan had very much sort of premise a ceasefire in lebanon on the ability to get a ceasefire in gaza. >> the administration of goods we're hoping that at the un speech in even than yahoo would say something to the effect that all major operations in gaza at pleaded and maybe even they are victory, which would then allow movement towards a ceasefire in lebanon this 21 day reprieve instead, it's clear now that bibi netanyahu decided to literally go for the kill from that statement that us

officials might have been expected for asthma thanks so much for joining us still ahead. we continue to cover the aftermath of this major israeli strike in beirut as it continues to unfold israel has said the strike killed, has billows long time, three decades long, leader along with other top commanders, our breaking news coverage continues right after for short break, please stay with us we'll look at the news of the week and asked questions like, what does a comedy show doing on cnn too much but i want donald know, can you slice that nobody got news for you tonight at nine on they are trying to shut down this legal loophole to get 100 milligram generic viagra or 20 milligram generic sialic delivered to your door for just $0.87 in less than two minutes. do this first scan the qr code to go to get friday

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is that love island? 108796 viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm jim sciutto live in tel aviv. and this is cnn newsroom. more now on the breaking news here in the middle east, israel's military now says that a major airstrike on beirut on friday

has killed the leader of hezbollah, hassan nasrallah. the iran-backed militant group has not yet commented. this comes after the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu cut his visit short to the un in new york. he left the gathering of world leaders a day early on friday evening as israel continued to carry out other strikes on hezbollah targets in lebanon. but it was not before netanyahu delivered a combative speech to the un general assembly in his opening remarks, he said he wanted to defend against what he called quote, lies and slander and he addressed israel's ongoing fight against hezbollah in lebanon would war with hezbollah, which was hijacked your country and threatens to destroy ours as long as hezbollah chooses the path of war israel has no choice and israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes

safely. >> and that's exactly what we're doing audience there at the un general assembly were not interested in listening to the israeli prime minister's speech. a large number of delegates walked out and the jeers. just as the israeli prime minister took the stage, cnn's jeremy diamond, he is standing by in northern israel, in haifa and jeremy, i wonder you've been up there for some time and multiple times since the october 7 attacks, have you seen any uptick in missile and rocket strikes from lebanon into northern israel since this israeli strike it now says killed the hezbollah leader well, there were several barrages of rockets being fired from by hezbollah into northern israel in the wake of the israeli military's announcement that it has killed hassan nasrallah, hezbollah's leader, but certainly nothing of the kind of barrages that we have

anticipated seeing in the event of a large-scale operation is really officials for months now have been telling me that should things really escalate with hezbollah, they anticipated that hezbollah would be firing hundreds of kids simultaneously, perhaps thousands of rockets a day in order to try an overwhelm israel's air defense systems, including the iron dome and we simply have not yet seen that neither in the wake of this strike in beirut, that these really military says killed hassan nasrallah nor over the course of the last week-and-a-half as we have seen, one escalatory action after another being carried out by the israeli military lebanon, including multiple strikes. >> now, in the lebanese capital of beirut, and certainly part of that has to do with the fact that these really military has dealt a severe blow to hezbollah over the course of these last two weeks. we know that nasrallah not only is his death, if indeed it is confirmed bye bye hezbollah as well, not only is this an

earth-shattering moment in this nearly year-long conflict. but it's not just his death alone. we have seen over the course of the last year, as israel has killed the majority of hezbollah's leadership and certainly over the course of the last two weeks, multiple senior hezbollah commanders have been killed by the israeli military. and so this must be an organization in disarray on organization that is scrambling to figure out its next move. and one where i expect that we will see iran, which has financed and supported hezbollah for decades now, likely going to play a much, much larger role question and this has been the fear going back to october 7 and perhaps earlier, does this erupt into a larger regional war? >> jeremy diamond and haifa please keep your team and yourself safe. let's bring in jasmine el-gamal. she's a middle east analyst, former middle east adviser for the u.s. defense it's apartment she joins us now, live from london. jasmine, thanks so much for joining it to see you, jim

jasmine with this strike. >> do we now have the ingredients for the broader regional conflict that so many have feared i think this could really go. >> one of two ways, right now, the israelis, based on the successive actions against hezbollah over the last few months have you know, fairly strongly neutralized, has been left from a communications perspective after the pager attack and now from a leadership perspective through the assassination of successive senior commanders. >> now with this frankly shocking assassination of nasrallah as well, the question is, are they going to now go in, in a ground invasion to try to neutralize the organisms they should militarily, as you know, hezbollah has tens of thousands of fighters in lebanon. they have a large military arsenal that is still

intact and so is israel going to see this as just a prelude to a ground invasion to really finish the organization off once and for all? or is it going to back down and say, this is the enough for now? and of course on the other end in the short term, there's the reaction from his hezbollah and from iran as well. are they going to see this as a need to go in and try to restore any semblance of deterrence they have left or are they going to retreat, lick their wounds regroup, and try to figure out their next step. good go one of two ways you say finished the organization off, but israel's experience in gaza, a much smaller group terms of the size of hamas, much smaller territory, even after a year of fighting there, while depleted, hamas is not finished off, lesbian lebanon has beloved as well a much larger target. >> israel has tried this before 18 years of occupation from 82

to 2000 in lebanon, as well as the 2006 war, in which it took enormous losses. and while it imposed losses on hezbollah, hezbollah lived another day, i just wonder, is that goal of elimination? actually a realistic one i'm really glad you asked that question, jim, because that was going to be not my next point which was about the longer-term implications of this. i mean, obviously in terms of going in and finishing the job, i'm speaking from an israeli perspective of what they would want to do, but is that in fact actually possible? >> the bull now has an assault law is not going to be more and nor should he he was responsible for the deaths of thousands of syrians. he has held lebanese hostage for decades, so he certainly not going to be more but if we look at it just from an organizational perspective, it's exactly like you said in fact, we have to remember that hassan nasrallah's predecessor at best, mousa, he was also

assassinated by israel and that brought in hassan nasrallah, leader and so we cannot take it for granted that these assassinations, whether it's this ismail haniyeh in iran, or even if it were to be sinwar, that these assassinations are actually going to make he is israel safer in the long run. and that's not even mentioning the vast collateral damage that we've seen just in the last several days with the attempts to get an a settler and other senior commanders of the lebanese. so lots of conflict, lots of damage being done. but is it actually making israel safer in the long run? q. when you look at history, it doesn't tell us that that is the case about the u.s. >> relationship with israel before we go, one could reasonably read this strike as the israeli prime minister to answer to us efforts to get the sides to a ceasefire do you see

election timing as part of this that the israeli prime minister identifies a window here before the u.s. election in which you have in effect a lame duck us president and you have one of two outcomes. either harris victory that he might perceive restricts his options going forward, or a trump victory, that netanyahu might perceive gives him, would give, give him further carte blanche to do what he wants to do is netanyahu playing the us political situation right now to some degree listen you was always played the u.s political system and he's, he's bragged about it openly it's no secret that he says that he says himself, he knows how to manipulate the americans, that the americans are easily manipulated but i think more to the point, jim, is that the nuts basically has seen that there will be no consequences to his actions from the biden administration. >> the biden administration has been saying for months that

they're very angry at netanyahu, very frustrated with netanyahu but they don't really do anything about it. they send the us envoy, amos hochstein into the region to try to get to a ceasefire. he's ignored. >> it's almost embarrassing really for the americans. >> and so if you were in netanyahu's shoes, you would do the same exact thing. you would see that you have carte blanche to do whatever you want in the region that there are no real consequences from the americans. they seem completely impotent. deploy buckley, while at the same time enabling the war by contingent continuing to fund and arm israel. so netanyahu was doing what anyone would do in his position which is to keep driving forward. now, the damage that that's doing as we've said before, both in lebanon and in gaza is immense. and whether and new administration, whether it's trump or kamala harris will able to roll back some of that damage and salvage any semblance of peace in the region remains to be seen

because if you i mean, as we know, the u.s. president, no matter who wins in november, doesn't take office until january we effectively have until there until the end of the year. we have a biden administration and if we look at what it's been doing so far and what it's not been doing so far. i don't see any reason to believe that all of the sudden they're going to step in and stop netanyahu in his tracks. one hopes that they will, but we haven't seen any indication that there we're willing to do so maybe after the election, but i'm not sure yeah. you're right. that that timeline extensor beyond the election right up to integration day, jasmine the mile thanks so much for joining thanks, jim please do stay with them for breaking news, cnn for breaking news coverage of israel's killing and now says it has killed the hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah in a massive strike in beirut yesterday we'll have more in just a moment

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>> sciutto live in tel aviv, returning to our breaking news that we're following this morning, israel says that hezbollah's leader, hassan some nasrallah is dead. israel says he was killed in yesterday's israeli strike in beirut, hezbollah has not yet commented, and israeli official told cnn earlier nasrallah was the target and i was told by a former senior israeli official that they had high confidence. nasrallah was at the site at the time of the strike? this comes on the heels of israel's worst most massive strikes on beirut nearly 20 years. the lebanese news agency says israel has launched more strikes in the south and east of the country this morning, hezbollah says it has fired more rockets into northern israel. we are also hearing that some hospitals in the southern part of a root area which israel targeted yesterday will be evacuated for more on the effects of this strike. what comes next? we're joined

now by fawaz gerges. he's professor that's sort of international relations at the london school of economics for us. thanks so much for joining us thanks begin here on where this strike as well as previous strikes, including the massive pager attack leaves hezbollah, is it a functioning military organization at this point? is it capable of retaliation well, i mean, i think what we have seen now is that hezbollah has suffer heavy operational psychological blows it seems to me that israel has infiltrated the decision-making process of hezbollah it has inflicted major, major kills against hezbollah leaders in a way, i would say, i, based on what we know is that hezbollah now is

off balance it's rattled i wonder whether its command and control is still functioning. >> the reason why we have not really seen major strategic retaliations on the part of hezbollah because they're trying to put that house in order. they trying to really find ways and means to basically put their command and control and basically management, better management. but the situation as you know, israel is going for the kill look i think we need to connect the dots. gym here this is not about killing hassan nasrallah, and we have not heard from hezbollah. this is not about assassinating in individual commanders. i think the big picture is the prime minister, israel prime minister has declared all out war not only against hezbollah, but against the entire axis of resistance. and in particular against iran yesterday in his speech at the

united nations, he basically threatened iran by saying there is no target in iran that we cannot reach. beyond even if hezbollah has been killed as israel does, this is really a new situation. it's all out war now, not just between hezbollah and israel, but between israel and the entire axis of resistance about what you think or how you think iran might respond here. because as you'll remember irans massive missile and drone strike on israel in april. attempt to try, i suppose i should say was largely neutralized. the vast majority of those missiles and drones on shot down before they reach their target is you're iran. at all reluctant to strike questioning whether it has the ability to do so in a convincing way. >> of course, jim

just reluctant iran is anxious and terrified at providing a justification for benjamin netanyahu to attack its nuclear program iran has repeatedly made it very clear. it does not really want all-out war either with israel and the united states and iran. iranian leaders are very anxious that benjamin netanyahu is trying to drag them into all outdoor the united states. but again, i think we're missing the big picture for forgive me for saying so. this is not just about what iran can do. now if my reading is correct this is a long war. this is all our tool we're talking about. he is not weak days or weeks so both iran and hezbollah, and the entire axis of resistance now, they are biding their time we are trying to position themselves for the long game and look, i mean, again, jim, i keep saying look, if israel's strategic

aim to return its displays citizens to the north, the lebanese israeli border is a long war, will lever basically bring this about. in fact, the americans and the british and the french have basically pressed on israel the need for a diplomatic solution because they realized a long war in a long war, israel can never have peace and security. this is, it will changes the geo, strategic landscape for israel for years to come and if, and when israel decides to launch a ground attack, this will really dragged israel. and in trapped israel in a very bleeding war. as israel has discovered in gaza and the past 12 months let me ask, before we go about iran and its nuclear program here because the perception is that iran is quite close if it were to make a decision to being, being able to assemble a nuclear weapon or several nuclear weapons since does this

make iran more or less likely to do, do, do so more because it might calculate that it's only defense or less because they might calculate that that would spark a direct israeli attack on its nuclear facilities. look, john, i mean, this is really the most important question. i mean, that we need to talk about. i mean, in terms of the big picture, my reading and a consensus is emerging in iran. and the scholars that no iran that this, the weakening of hamas and hezbollah and israel's basically arrogance and israel's decision to really kill with impunity we'll, and has motivated iranian leadership to basically weaponize their nuclear program what's happening now, this all our tool in the middle east itself will reinforce iranians a perception that the only way for iran to have deterrence is

basically to have a nuclear deal because israel has between 100200 nuclear devices according to american intelligence services, the ability of the united states to restrain israel, the willingness of the united states to arm israel and turn it into a military fortress. the willingness of the united states to basically protect israel, even when israel provokes and escalate this war basically convinced iranian leaders, particular the revolutionary guards leadership, that the only way for iran to respond to israel's provocation to protect iranian interests and iranian security is to really go for the tipping point. and again, this, if this is, if this reason singing is correct, this will change the entire geopolitical landscape and will change as the relationship between the united states and middle eastern state four years to come. >> and what might wonder what other powers in this region decide or attempt to go nuclear

shared his thanks so much for joining thanks let's get you up to date with the latest on the continuing breaking news from lebanon, israel claims today it has now confirmed the death of the hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah in a statement, the israeli military says necessarily was killed yesterday's israeli airstrike in beirut. the idf also says, though it does not know how many civilians were killed in that attack, which leveled several we'll apartment buildings. has, hezbollah has not commented on the fate of nasrallah. i should note the idf has also said, quote, this strike is not the end of our toolbox perhaps indicating their other military steps to come while israel is striking inside lebanon, the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu returned israel from new york and the un general assembly a day earlier than he had planned he left the u.s friday evening just hours after

liberating a speech before the un general well assembly, find one. the u.s. says it has had no advance warning of the strike us officials say president joe biden has been briefed several times by his national security team. i should note that us officials have repeatedly put distance between the u.s. and this israeli strike on nasrallah, the u.s. defense secretary, lloyd austin confirms the strikes were already underway when he spoke with his kennel which apart the israeli defense minister yoav gallant, on friday he called as many us officials have been doing for several days he called for a diplomatic solution. >> what i will say is that you've heard me say a number of times should be awarded the policy continues to be the best way forward. and it's the fastest this way to lead displaced

israeli and lebanese citizens return to their homes on both sides. with the border of course, it's not clear where those diplomatic efforts stand. >> now, following the strikes, cnn will have more coverage of this ongoing situation in lebanon, just a moment for now, live from tel aviv. i'm jim sciutto, and we'll be right back rainbow king it's like your generation has evolved past traditional political symbols. >> and there's room for everyone. >> yeah puke later those white taken. okay. everyone. our mission is to provide complete balanced nutrition or strike good energy ensure with 27

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