Just moments ago, a flairs
seen across the sky and Gaza
just as we were coming to air.
We are right now
witnessing in the midst of this.
Wherever you're watching in Gaza
the biggest air assault,
anyone who is there on that 25 m
since this war began on October
And it comes as our CNN team in
Israel is also now
witnessing rocket
fire from Iranian backed
forces in Lebanon into Israel.
This is a pivotal moment,
a crucial moment.
The leader of Hezbollah,
in fact, is about to speak
for the first time since the war
And what he says could change
the trajectory of the war.
Jim Sciutto is OUTFRONT on the g
And Jim,
what have you been seeing there
Well, this whole past week and l
we've seen an exchange of fire
along this northern border, most
artillery fire, mortar fire.
Today, though, we saw
the sky filled rockets
coming from Lebanon
into into northern Israel.
And then we also saw
Israeli missile
defense
high in the sky
taking out some of those rockets
Did not appear. They got all of
Israeli fighter jets higher up i
responding as well.
Helicopters moving
in both directions,
just a level of activity in the
that shows the level of alarm to
on the border
as the attacks stepped up, comin
from Hezbollah
in southern Lebanon
and fears of the opening of a ne
A rocket fired from southern
Lebanon
sets the street on fire in Kirya
today in northern Israel,
suffered under
one of the biggest barrages of r
since the start of the war.
Our team witnessed the Iron Dome
missile
defense system
intercept two incoming rockets
though at least one other caused
substantial damage.
In response, the Israeli militar
fired back at what it says
is the culprit, Hezbollah,
in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah sits on a massive
stockpile of rockets and missile
far bigger than that of Hamas,
numbering more than 100,000
Many have the range and accuracy
to strike deep into Israeli terr
including all the way to Tel Avi
And this is one sign
of how seriously Israel is takin
the Hezbollah threat
Today, we watched Israeli
special forces
and tank units conduct
a live fire exercise
training to defend Israel
in case of invasion from the nor
These are combined arms exercise
Israeli Special
Forces, IDF Special Forces here.
There's also two tanks involved
It is live fire.
It's a measure of the seriousnes
with which they're keeping their
trained up,
ready to go if necessary in the
But also,
given that we're
within sight of Syria here
and just a few miles
from the Lebanon border,
this is also a show of force
to Iran's proxies.
In the region,
a show of force perhaps to this
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezb
to his admirers in the Muslim wo
He is a leader of the resistance
credited with forcing Israeli
forces out of southern Lebanon i
after an 18 year occupation.
To Israel.
He is an existential threat
on its northern border.
Tomorrow he will address his fol
and the world
for the first time
since the October 7th Hamas atta
The question for many.
Will he order his forces
to join the war
against Israel more aggressively
They have the capacity.
To do enormous.
Damage,
but I'm not certain
that they really want
to be
on the receiving end of what
Israel is going to send their wa
The threat of escalation
extends beyond Hezbollah.
Yemen based Houthi
rebels, also backed by Iran,
are firing
long range missiles
at Israel from the south east.
Another potential front in a war
that would see Israel surrounded
As the world
awaits the
words of Hezbollah's leader, Nas
Hezbollah
fighters issued their own public
earlier this week
saying that their hands,
their fingers are on the trigger
Israeli officials
have have their own strong words
communicating to Hezbollah via
interlocutors in Europe
that if Hezbollah
gets into this war in numbers,
that Israel will strike back dee
into Lebanon.
Strong words now.
And now all eyes
tomorrow on the words of the Hez
leader Erin.
Very sobering.
Jim, thank you very much.
And more breaking news on this,
because CNN is now learning
that Syria has agreed
to provide Hezbollah
with a RUSSIAN-MADE missile
defense system.
And Oren Liebermann is OUTFRONT
at the Pentagon.
Breaking this news and Oren,
you are just getting these
breaking details from your repor
This obviously would be
a very significant
and very serious development.
What more are you learning.
Erin, according to two
sources familiar with the intell
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
has agreed to provide
a Russian
made aerial defense system to He
And it is the Russian mercenary
group, Wagner,
that will transfer that as,
say, 22 or panzer missile defens
from Syria to Lebanon,
where it could be set up to be u
Now, what's unclear
from the intelligence,
according to these sources,
is whether the system
has already been transferred.
It is a medium range air defense
and would add to Hezbollah's cap
if and when it arrives in Lebano
Now, the Israelis have dealt
with this system in the past in
Take a look at this video.
This is from May 2018.
This is video from the IDF
of them striking say 22 in Syria
that was operated by Iran
or being used by Iranian proxies
So they have shown the capabilit
to handle these systems
and to strike them from the air.
But of course, now
the situation is entirely differ
with Israel embroiled with a war
and the possibility
that Hezbollah could enter this
in a much more significant fashi
So even if Israel has dealt
with, say, 22 before,
certainly not under these circum
And that's what everyone here
is watching very closely.
According to other sources on th
So far, the U.S.
believes that Iran and its proxi
don't want to get involved in a
But, of course,
as Jim pointed out, the speech
from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nas
everyone is watching that speech
to see where this goes and what
It's also worth pointing out the
denominator here.
Hezbollah
backed by Iran,
Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad backed by Iran.
And they have worked with Russia
which has also backed Assad
and provided that Wagner support
the ties here linking
all of these different groups Er
Absolutely.
Thank you very much, Oren Lieber