Middle east very closely. The united states is committed to Israels Defense. We are watching developments, as i said, very carefully this morning. U. S. Officials tell Nbc News they expect this iranian response to involve more fire power. Israel is trying to push hezbollah forces north. The israeli defense Forces Spokesperson announced israel uncovered Hezbollah Tunnels in Southern Lebanon. One of the buildings that our troops raided, we found proof of this. This is a map that hezbollah planned to give its terrorists at the time of a widescale invasion of israel. It was to cover out a massacre in israels north. Joining me from jerusalem is nbcs Erin Mclaughlin. Also with is monica alba. Monica, what are you hearing from the White House . The State Department ordered all u. S. Government employees and their families to shelter in place and that this is supposed by in response to the killing of nasrallah on friday in a massive Air Strike by israel as well as previous fronts to hezbollah
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
Between israel and an arab neighbor. Katy tur picks up our breaking News Coverage right now. Good to be with you. Im Katy Tur in for chris jansing. We are watching israel and waiting for a Damage Assessment after iran sent dozens, perhaps more, of ballistic missiles at the country, including tel aviv. This is what it looked like and sounded like add it was happening. [ sirens ] in a statement, iran says the missiles were in honor of hezbollah leader nasrallah where the israelis killed with a 2,000 Pound Bunker busting bomb In Beirut last friday. If israel responds, iran says it will face crushing attacks. So will israel respond . Theyre already indicating, yes, they will. The u. S. And allies have been trying to convince all the parties involved to work toward a Cease Fire worried the continued escalation of attacks between Hezbollah And Israel and now iran could lead to all out war. Meanwhile, as the Iron Dome was trying to intercept these missiles, israeli News Outlets were reporting
Welcome back to the weekend, we began with Breaking News out of The Middle East. Hezbollah has now confirmed israel killed its longtime leader. Just last hour the spokesperson for the israeli military confirmed that. His killing under the command of, Choice Chuck chose to join the war that hamas started. There are consequences for that decision. Aaron mcglocklin is live in tel aviv. Bring us up to speed on the latest list our. Symone, around 6 00 yesterday evening, a massive explosion rocked the city of beirut and minutes later, israeli officials were Briefing Members of the press that he was the target of an israeli airstrike on a residential building. They were saying that the Command And Control headquarters for hezbollah was located under then the building. And there was a question whether they had carried out the assassination effectively. They released the Audio Exchange between the Fighter Pilot who carried out the attack and his commander moments after the airstrike was carried
Sovereignty, just as we do for any other nation. We need to withdraw russian occupiers, which will bring an end to the hostilities in ukraine and we must hold those responsible for War Crimes accountable. We need to prevent the destruction of nature because by the war and we must not allow a second or third phase of these russian invasions. And we need to make it clear the war is over this is the peace formula. What part of this could be unacceptable to anyone who upholds the Un Charter . If someone in the world seeks alternatives to any of these points or tries to ignore any of them, it likely means they themselves want to do a part of what putin is doing. The point hides the desire they are hiding. And when the chinese or brazilians tries to grow into a choir of voices, with someone in europe, with someone in africa saying something alternative to a just peace, the question arises what is the question arises what is the true interest . Everyone must understand, you will not boost you