In northern israel. The us Defense Secretary Lloyd austin has given his support to israels objectives after speaking with with his counterpart, yoav gallant. Mr austin also warned iran it faced Grave Consequences if it carried out a direct attack against israel in support of hezbollah. This is the scene in beirut where explosions have continued overnight in the capitals southern suburbs. Israel had ordered the evacuation of 3 areas. These pictures show explosions and smoke rising near beirut international airport. There have also been reports of an Air Strike hitting a crowded palestinian Refugee Camp near the southern lebanese city of sidon. Syrian State Media says that 3 people have been killed by israeli strikes on the capital damascus. Israel is yet to comment on the reports. Meanwhile, the Uk Government has charted a flight to help british nationals leave lebanon scheduled to leave beirut on wednesday. In a moment, we will hear from my colleague anna foster, who is in beirut but f
Your people back into their homes, you dont escalate to deescalate. And obviously now, with the iranian retaliation, israelis are in their shelters as they go into the new years holiday weekend. Ben . Yeah. I think, you know, since October 7th, the Biden Administration has had a number of goals, one was to provide support to israel as it aims to go after hamas, but then also one of the principle goals of u. S. Diplomacy since October 7th had been avoiding deescalation into lebanon, precisely because i think there was an understanding that lebanon could be kind of the Trip Wire to this broader regional war that essentially, you know, it is one thing if there is a conflict In Gaza, that alone is destabilizing enough and is obviously brought a tremendous Human Toll and has grinded on for a full year. But the concern has always been that if israel launched a Ground Operation and significantly escalated things in lebanon that could draw iran into a conflict in a direct way as were seeing to
In beirut this morning which has seen further attacks overnight. These were the strikes on the Southern Suburbs of beirut, where israel said it was targeting hezbollah weapons depots. Earlier the Israeli Defense Forces said it was targeting what it says is hezbollah S Headquarters in the capital. The groups leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was reportedly the target of the explosions. At least six people were killed in the attack and more than 90 injured according to lebanese officals. Simonjones has the latest. Explosions. New strikes overnight on Southern Beirut. Israels military said it was targeting buildings storing hezbollah weapons underneath them. Hezbollah denied they were arms depots. Explosions. Earlier a series of massive explosions. It is not that i could hear was the hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. It is unclear whether he was any of the buildings that were hit. Iran which backs hezbollah has called the attacks a dangerous game changing escalation. In the aftermath of the Bart
Hezbollah facilities. The idf continuing to launch what they call it targeted strikes against the iranbacked Paramilitary Group are cnn teams are witnessing one of those strikes and they did so earlier today following what was a punishing overnight barrage in the lebanese Capital City of beirut. This latest strike happening just hours after his balah confirmed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed by an israeli attack on friday the israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issuing a statement saying that israel will continue its policies. And he also says he gave the order to assassinate his strava to ensure he could not rebuild the Terror Group was referring to mr. Alla earlier, i spoke with an Idf Spokesperson about what nasrallah is death potentially could mean for a potential conflict with iran. Listen to his answer i would suggest that iran look very closely how weve dealt with hamas, the leadership of hamas, and how in the last weekandahalf, weve effectively decapitated hezbol
Knowledge of friday s israeli air strike in beirut. But first, we can bring you these live pictures from beirut where israeli warplanes have launched new attacks on buildings in the city s south. The israeli military says hezbollah is storing weapons there, a claim hezbollah denies. Blasts have been heard in the southern suburbs and residents of three specific blocks were ordered to evacuate. Now lebanon s health ministry says the death toll from israel s earlier strike on beirut has risen to six, with 91 wounded. Hezbollah s leader, hassan nasrallah, was reportedly the target of the attack. Neither israel nor hezbollah has formally confirmed his status. Israeli air raids on lebanon this week have killed nearly 800 people, according to lebanon s health ministry. We begin our special programme on the conflict tonight with this report from our middle east correspondent hugo bachega in beirut. (explosions) scenes of war in beirut. Hezbollah s conflict with israel returning to its strongho