Ila i mean, he is one that tomorrow please donate. Now joining we are following Breaking News, iran launching a barrage of missiles into israel, major escalation in the conflict in the Middle East. Im Anderson Cooper alongside my colleague Wolf Blitzer. Weve witnessed missiles intercepted across israel a short time ago as Air Raid sirens went off on the ground below the israeli military now confirms some of those missiles made a direct impact in central and southern israel. Its estimated iran launched nearly 200 missiles, hundred projectiles iran says this attack was in response for the killing of Hezbollahs Leader Hassan Nasrallah and other assassinations a source says the israeli Security Cabinet is in their Emergency Bunker right down the israeli military says, irans attack and im quoting now will have consequences. The White House says both President Biden and Vice President harris are in the white House Situation Room monitoring the situation. Were standing by to get an immediate
But first right now, the lead with Jake Tapper starts right now welcome to the lead. Im Jake Tapper and we are following two major breaking stories. I am right now inside the Spin Room at Cbs Studio goes in new York Hours away from tonights first and only 2024, Vice President ial debate. But the Worlds Attention might be elsewhere at roughly 12 30 p. M. Eastern youre in time. Iran launched a major attack on Israel Firing nearly 200 ballistic missiles according to us officials, cnns Jim Sciutto and his crew were live on an air in israel at the time as Air Raid sirens sounded and missiles began to rain down overhead okay, guys, we got to get off the roof. These are coming down right next to us here. Hes do jim, please do theyre coming down one just about. We got to go Inside Sciutto and his team are thankfully safe. We are waiting for reports as to the damage done by the iranian souls, the Israel Defense forces reports that most of irans missiles its were intercepted by Israels Air defen
Hezbollah back from israels border. Joining us now, nbcs Matt Bradley in beirut, former u. S. Ambassador to morocco and former president ial middle East Adviser mike ginsburg, u. S. Retired Army Colonel Jack jacobs as well. I want to bring with nbcs white House Correspondent Monica alba with us by phone. You have this breaking news reporting. What have you learned about this potential iranian attack against israel . Well, ana, this is coming from a senior white House Official and a department of Defense Official who confirmed to myself and to our Pentagon Correspondent Courtney Kube this indication that the united states has, which is typically a reflection of Intelligence And Information that they have gleaned from other countries, who would potentially be affected by this, that iran is indeed preparing to launch that ballistic Missile Attack against israel. Now, to put this into context, this is something that has happened before, it happened earlier this year as we may remember. And
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 accordance with the decision of the political echelon, a few hours ago, the idf began limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern lebanon. These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to israeli communities in northern israel. This is the live scene in beirut, as bbc teams report hearing explosions in the capital s southern suburbs israel has ordered the evacuation of three areas. Meanwhile the uk government has chartered a flight to help british nationals leave lebanon, scheduled to leave beirut on wednesday. It s as israeli tanks were seen gathering at the border on monday. Israel s defense minister yoav gallant said the military is prepared to use forces from the air, land and sea to allow thousands of displaced israelis to return to their homes in the north. Meanwhile, the deputy chief of hezbollah, naim qaissem, said the groups fighter