You for joining us. Im 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 hezbollahs 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 israels largest strikes on beirut in nearly 20 years, Lebanons 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. Im joined now by cnns Ben Wedeman, who is In Beirut and in ben, weve 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 theres a great deal of fear as airstrikes continue. Yeah there is. Youre 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 hes 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 doesnt 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 dont necessarily have the means to get out quickly. Were talking about palestinian refugees, syrian migrant workers, workers from south Asia And Africa dont have cars instance, who, if theyre lucky, have a motorcycle. So definitely this city has, in the last 24 hours been severely jolted by events. Jim you and i know youve 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 Israels Announcement that nasrallah is dead . It depends who you talk to and as they say, one Mans Freedom Fighter is another mans 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 its only come from israel theres a certain amount of skepticism among his supporters until we hear an announcement from his hezbollah know whats 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 its 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 theyre going to do it in a certain in particular way. Its 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 cnns Nic Robertson, who has been covering this war since October 7 in the region for a great deal of time. Youve 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 walkietalkies, 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 longrange 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 thats what were 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 thats 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. Its worth just taking a Step Parent saying, okay well, why didnt they do that in gaza . Why couldnt they have had this level of intelligence in gaza . Lebanon and gaza are two entirely different things. Gaza is very seal and its 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. Thats 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. Were 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 im 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 cant 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 isnt 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 walkietalkies. 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 its 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 theyre still trying to kill israeli civilians you say far do, as you know, there have been reserved callups 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 were 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. Thats what were 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 weve carried out, weve 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 well 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. Ill 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 longterm jim, this is theres 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 groundzero 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 dont 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 weve heard a few courageous ones come online and i think theyre 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 weve been reporting this, youve 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, lets 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 didnt 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, theres a lot of backandforth. United states is the greatest Ally And Friend of the people of Israel And Everyone in israel knows this. Theres no doubt, however, i will say this unless you. Live with hezbollah on your border, and you have hezbollah attacking you. I dont 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 theres 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 dont have power. Its not that theyve lost power. Theyve 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