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tv   Hannity  FOX News  April 18, 2024 11:00pm-12:00am PDT

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is at 2 a.m. on the east coast. it is 9 a.m. in jerusalem. 9:30 a.m. friday in tehran. and overnight israel struck back at iran. eyewitnesses say explosions be seen and heard overnight close to a major air in the iranian province of esfahan. the extent of the damage at this point remains unclear. hello, everyone. i'm jonathan hunt, live in los angeles with our ongoing of the dramatic breaking news in the middle east, the israeli attack, which a u.s. source tells us was is in retaliation for last weekend's large coordinated missile and drone attack on israel for now is playing down the situation, claiming it's defenses defeated the attack flight map show there were significant diversions over iranian
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airspace. we head first to fox news correspondent tracy live in tel aviv. >> hello, tracy. jonathan, good evening. fox news has confirmed from a u.s. military source that the israelis conducted a limited strike overnight in the iranian province of esfahan. the strike was meant to send a message to iran but not drag the region into a broader conflict. we understand that inside iran the airport is reopened in tehran, the iranian capital, after some civilian flights were diverted as this incident was taking place. iranian state media trying to play down what took place overnight, saying that their air defense system intercepted anything that was fired into iranian airspace and that ultimately the explosions were simply their air defense system working. we also know inside israel there are no concerns about an immediate iranian retaliation. israel's home front command,
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the organization responsible for communicating threat level to civilian it, has said that there are no special instructions following strike overnight, although israeli forces do remain on high alert, understanding there could be surprise attacks from iranian proxies across the region, from places like yemen or southern lebanon. >> jonathan and trey, the international atomic agency has just said that there was indeed no damage to any nuclear facilities in iran. israel clearly was not targeting those facilities, but equally clearly seems to have been sending the message that it could do if and when it wanted to. >> is that a fair reading? absolutely. and the un's nuclear watchdog, the iaea, is looking to have both parties deescalate the situation. it is in their interest to ensure that all nuclear
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facilities around the world are protected from military activity and also ensure that the iranians are going above and beyond their agreed upon levels of uranium enrichment for example, and getting closer to a nuclear weapon. but that's exactly the israelis were looking to do overnight with this strike, not to cause extensive military damage, but rather to send a message to iran. the israelis do have the capability to strike within iranian territory. they're not afraid to do so, while at the same time this strike is giving the iranians the opportunity to save face. now the americans are still on high alert across the region, understanding that we are in a very unpredictable moment in the middle east, uncharted territory. and that's part of the reason that the us embassy here in israel is urging civilians and u.s. embassy staff to stay within the bounds. major cities understanding that there are these threats from iranian proxies across the region and we simply don't know where. the days ahead will lead
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israel and iran as there are still threats ongoing at this hour. jonathan. trey, i wonder if you can give us a sense, having been there for so long now. obviously, israel is a country that has lived with threats on its doorsteps, threats in its midst for so long. but we're in a different era now from october 7th with the awful terrorist attacks. >> then then iran launches for the first time this huge attack against israel. unsuccessful but huge and unprecedented nonetheless. and then hezbollah sitting up in lebanon, itching, obviously use some of the thousands of very powerful missiles that they have. >> what kind of a toll does that take on israelis, this complete change in the situation? >> yeah, jonathan, there is a new equation in the middle east as it relates to a variety of fronts for israel following black saturday, the october 7th
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massacre, the entire population ,israel has been at war for more than six months, nearly 200 days of fighting inside gaza. and israel is now faced with the threat from iran following a significant attack last weekend. the iranian response to the killing of mohamed salah, the top iranian general earlier this month, was to attack israel with hundreds of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones in an unprecedented attack. and it was a reminder, israel, that iran has the capability to hit their country, that iran continues to pursue its nuclear program and could ultimately attach a nuclear warhead if they create 1 to 1 of those ballistic missiles. and so you have not only that threat from iran, the ongoing war inside gaza continued activity from iranian proxies in places like yemen, lebanon, iraq and syria. it is a very serious time for
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this country and for the entire region. and there are a lot of politics at play. the americans are trying to urge the israelis not just to have restraint when it comes to iran. with that limited strike overnight, but also as they continue to operate inside gaza amid a rising civilian casualty rate there. and there is this question about if the israelis will enter gaza's southernmost city of rafah where more than 1.4 million palestinians are currently sheltering at the direction of the israeli army. and so there is a very complex situation at play here and unpredictable days ahead. absolutely. and a very serious time for the country, the region and indeed the entire world trading in tel aviv. thank you very much. >> the white house, as you would expect, has been keeping a very close eye on the israeli strikes in iran, with tensions spiking in the middle east. >> for more on reaction in washington, let's go to foxnews.com, london, kevin cole. >> good morning, kevin. morning, jonathan. moms, the word at least so
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far from the white house, although i can tell you that there was pre consultation between the israelis and the u.s. government. it does seem like to me that obviously have been working overnight. >> i've reached out to some of my sources and it's sometimes a difficult task. you make a call, you send a text and you're hopeful to get anything, any slight information. so far it's been all silence. in fact, no comment, not just from the white house, but also from the nsc and from the pentagon. although that can change later on this morning. pardon me for saying this, but when you have major circumstances like, this what typically happens from the white house's perspective, especially if they've been previously notified, is they will work up a statement. they'll sit on that sometimes until 5 a.m.. so that's about 2 hours and 53 minutes from now. then around five, they'll say this is embargoed until, say, 6 a.m. or sometime around in the morning when the morning shows. jonathan can get a hold of it.
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they know they they'll have a captive audience internationally and. they can get out the message. typically sentences like we have collaborated with our partners in the region and we remain committed to their safety and their security, etc. like that. so again, i'll keep an eye on that. and if i get a text message back here from one of my sources who's been fairly reliable, i'll let you know. in the meantime, i can also tell you this as this retaliation pendulum swings between israel and iran, the real hope this morning is that because this was so specific, because this was so measured, if you will, that this will de-escalate this opportunity for the two countries to keep going back and forth, tit for tat. but because we're talking about an iranian government which, as you know, has been unpredictable, say the least, to say nothing of the fact that they operate through proxies very often. >> it's not clear yet if this will be the end of it, although that is certainly the hope. i can also tell you this, the semiofficial iranian fars
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news news agency jonathan says that everything is fine in esfahan. they say there's been no major circumstances of change, anything. they are operating as normal. it is also home to a major iranian nuclear facility in that town. and yet you would expect that the iranians would sort of paint this as much ado about nothing. now, i want to add one more thing. >> from the white house's perspective. this is also complicated. you made a great point in our last hour that while. yes, the u.s. and israel remain key partners in the region, this administration has run afoul politically, domestically ,for its support of israel's entanglements in other areas, specifically gaza. this is a wildly different circumstance from the outside. however, they have to be careful to not be seen as wanting, running or walking lockstep, if you will, with the israeli government, whether
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it's in their problem with iran or gaza, because, again, politically, that can be problematic for this biden administration as we look ahead to the election. >> coming up, again, no official word from the white house as yet. i am looking at a couple of things here and nothing yet. if i get anything, i promise to pass it along as soon as i do. >> but for now, back to you. >> all right, kevin, thank you very much. and yes, please break in with any any news you get. thank you so much, kevin corke in d.c. this early morning. >> joining us now is mike allen, former senior in the bush national security council, also the author, blinking red. i think everything is blinking red right now in the middle east. mike, but israel, if you like, has sort of gone back to a slightly de-escalating while appearing perhaps to have escalated. but it seems that they have given the iranians off ramp here in the way that this was carried out. >> would you agree with that,
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mike? >> yeah, i think they i feel like they knew that they needed to respond, even though iran displayed weakness. the other night and didn't actually land any of their punches, the israelis just simply couldn't let it go to have 300 projectiles fired at their country. so they needed to hit back. i think they hit back in a disciplined way. they didn't hit, for example, any of the nuclear facilities as far as we know at this hour, that would have been escalatory ,that would have asked for a big response from the islamic republic. so for now, i think we're safe to begin to send iran toward an off ramp under the argument that neither side has suffered, everyone's gotten their punches in and let's get back to our corners. but sending them back to their corners or both of them choosing to go back to the that corners. mike, i still means they're in the ring and we are still
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on something of a knife edge in the region are we not. >> no, i think that's right though the two things, hamas and of course hezbollah, the three terrorist organizations that are sponsored by iran are always there. they are perched on their borders. they are stalking the israelis as best as they can. and after october 7th and after the attacks of last saturday night, i have a feeling that over time the israelis are going to get more aggressive against these sort of satellite terrorists who are out there hunting them. the israelis. i don't anymore feel like they can rely on their own deterrence. i'm not sure their enemies fear them as much as they once did. so i think the israelis are going to rely more on what are the capabilities, what's the capacity of our adversaries. and that should be what informs our defensive posture
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and whether they decide to go after these adversaries. hmm. and how do you think the biden administration will view what happened in the overnight hours? what were hearing was that president biden was calling for restraint from israel. >> they appear to have heeded that word. so would you say the u.s. and israel are in lockstep on this, at least if not the the actions in gaza? >> yeah, i think that the administration, of course, they urged the netanyahu, the prime minister, to, quote, take the west. but i think as the sun rises in iran and we see that there maybe aren't very many provocative aspects to the strikes, if you can call that about a military strike, i think you can start to apply pressure or get other friends of iran to apply pressure onto them to do further just so
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that there's no state on violence. but as we talked about these terror proxies are still out there. and i think over time, israel is to feel like they need to reset the security environment around. they obviously need to finish off hamas in gaza. there's a big operation that the biden administration is opposed to in the city called lawfare. and over time, like i mentioned ,think they're going to have to go after hezbollah. so i don't think we've hit a complete off ramp to peace, maybe just a minor de-escalation in the short term. >> now, you mentioned rafah, the city in southern, which is the remaining holdout, if you like, in the israeli view of hamas terrorists. they want to go in there. >> as you mentioned, they've been wanting to launch this major ground offensive. the biden administration has been holding them back to some extent.
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do you think it is inevitable, though, that that ground offensive does go ahead soon? i think so. i don't believe that netanyahu can faithfully say to his people that we finished off the attack from october 7th without going to this southernmost city and trying to uproot the final brigades of hamas soldiers there. these terrorists, of course, are also irregular forces. and there are elsewhere in gaza think israel is going to have their hands full going back at them in the top half of the country, but they have to finish the job in gaza. call it complete. they want to be able get the top terrorist leader. they want to be able to kill him and then say to their people, we've at least finished what we started in gaza and now it's time for us to look for order across the region about how they make the israeli people more secure in their
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country. >> michael, great to talk to you as always. >> thank you so much for being here. joining us now, rabbi hymens from the of bel air in los angeles. rabbi, i want to put to you a point that i was talking to trey about that everything changed, obviously, on october the seventh with those absolutely abominable terrorist attacks. >> and then we have this unprecedented attack by iran. how difficult a time these unprecedented times, how difficult it is this for anybody who jewish anybody living in israel. >> like what? how do people say to you they are coping with these extraordinary times? >> and that's exactly what they're doing. they're. and why are they coping? because they have no choice. you see, israel, since its beginning, has always been at war. every single child, when they reach 18, becomes a soldier, they become leaders.
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when you're a leader, you don't have time to. always get down. now we must understand the human. in almost every family, they know somebody that has died or has a wounded leg or or the missing an arm. >> this is the life that goes on in israel. but in israel, there's something beautiful. >> there is this love for life. >> it's like a flower. you can walk on it in the garden. you can step on it, but then all of a sudden decides it wants to keep on coming back. the people in israel that always stressed that always, but they have that smile. we must be a light and we must continue. so how do we do it? the same way with the jews here in america. >> they have family there and with the holidays and with the sabbath coming, everybody's wondering what's going to happen. but at the end of the day, we're here. we survived, but we have to do it in the most positive way because we recognize the world looks at us.
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>> they put us in a horrible we fight our wars, we live our lives, etc.. and i was interested in what you were saying before, rabbi, earlier in the show about how there is the the people of israel have no argument with the people of iran it's the leadership of the iran of iran and the islamic republic 100%. >> do you know, prior to 1979 allow planes is to fly in and out of tehran. the people of tehran, they're smart. the university people, many of the men and the women there are clamoring, can we go back to a life of kind of a democracy? i mean, it is a religious place ,but they're open to all loving people. and we, the jewish people, love the persian people. we love the iranians. >> we stand with them. but yes, when you're living in a dictatorship, you've been living in a brainwashed place. there's a lot of people that go out in the street.
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they pound the in that the american death, the israel that is their religion. >> and that's what you see pouring into the streets of here in america. but i must say something to tell you that here in america, there are so many people i don't even know who they are. they're not jewish people. >> they're sending me emails after i have an interview here ,or they meet me in the street and they go, it is still with you. >> do the job, don't end. we can't allow gaza to continue . we're fighting this war for them. and when i say we, i'm part of the jewish people. >> i'm an american, and they're doing the job for me as an american here. we don't want hamas coming in and talking of hamas and jews turning our attention briefly to the war in gaza, do you believe that the the people of israel, for the most part, stand foursquare behind prime minister netanyahu in when he says we have to finish the job we have to carry out this major ground offensive in rafah.
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you know, you put two jews in a room, you've come up with three opinions. well, when it comes to the concept of wiping out hamas, everybody is on board. >> what you see going on in israel is is outside trying to destroy the bibi government. there's a lot people from the left here in america, the trump. >> but there's one thing they can't accomplish. they're not able to destroy the unity the jewish people are in right now, whether it's bibi or somebody else. and everybody says, if we don't destroy hamas, we tried 2004, we tried to start another again two years later, two years later, two years later, and every two years there's another to look at that little map. >> you see a little tiny map. that was fort lauderdale for the jewish people. we took 20,000 jews out of their businesses. there was five star hotels there. it was the most it was gorgeous . and we decided, let's give these people a chance
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of peace. we left them. the businesses. we get a tiny piece of land. and guess what? they voted in for hamas and now it became a terrorist place. >> so we're not after the people. >> we got out to destroy the people. all they say is, do you see that little white line to the left in a big you see that america telling egypt that border. let all the refugees run out. and guess what? >> hamas will be gone in two weeks and why that's like it is. >> i don't know. right. it is an ongoing and very interesting question that nobody has reached all of those who complain about israeli action in, the gaza strip, nobody has reached out to open their borders. >> and the egyptians could. >> and then you come back to us and say, feed them, and then you feed them. we will feed them a little bit . >> we'll give them medicine. all right. but we got to get rid of hamas . thank you, rabbi mansour, thank you for being here. we will be back to you again, the top of the hour.
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rabbi mance, thank you so much . we will be back shortly with a lot more on the ongoing coverage of the dramatic events overnight in the middle with israel striking at iran. we'll be back. >> unable to fix this is everything we have. >> we need to pray from the creators of revolution, things like that. get you some help. this makes giving a little taste of home. jelly revival begins with family. look around you. you see your family. that's what makes you rich in life. it's a miracle you don't say. >> unsung hero. really, pj. well she >> these bills are crazy. >> she has noro idea. she's sitting on a goldmine. she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more, she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term, even a term
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cell by cell, unleashing health transformation. >> welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the dramatic events overnight in the middle east, where israel has struck at iran. iran's says the attack did no damage and its air defense systems took out what it called suspicious objects. we're joined now by foundation for defense of democracies senior fellow and iran scholar benham ben talbot. >> thank for being back with us. benham and i just want to talk a little bit about israel's
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strategy here. >> it's seems that they very much didn't want to deliver any huge physical blow, but certainly wanted to send a powerful message. >> would you agree with that? great to be back with you, allegedly for the main course now. indeed. i think these are the israelis wanted to draw a sharp contrast with what the islamic republic tried to do with massive, overwhelming force and what the israelis do with exceptionally more limited and precise force. this is an important, i think, political contrast to keep in mind. and second, of course, is to present the islamic republic with a political in the road. if it chooses to escalate, it would be the one owning this and that if it chooses to back down what this is potentially a way to put a court and one of the middle east more dangerous escalation zones. >> so you think, though, that this does put a cork in it for now? benham it seems that iran is saying, okay, no damage,
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done. so that allows them to move on quietly. >> one would hope. is that what you would expect to happen? >> it's not what i would expect . it's what i would hope. but i would expect right now is anyone's guess. we're not privy to the supreme national security council conversations nor the conversation in the supreme leader's office, the iran right now. but they are almost quite certainly literally debating over that fork in the road, because those really are the only options here. when you took a look at the iranian meeting, the iranian media this morning, they're trying to present pictures of this plant, which is the place that allegedly had the blast, everything back to normal. their constant stress and everything back to normal tells. you that they understand something is not normal, which is that the israelis have achieved parity and beyond with the iranians, even though the strike was smaller because the israelis had promised in the lead up to the iranian strike against israel over the weekend that if israeli territory was struck that at some point in time iranian territory would be struck.
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and that's why it's a hope that it could potentially be a walk in this territorial tit for tat. but one wonders, as you just mentioned, if they do recede back into the shadows, will the shadow war is what brought us to october 7th in the first place. >> so, benjamin, it's 10 a.m. friday now in tehran with the cloak of 30 minute time zones. >> it's obviously it's friday. it's their traditional day of prayer. we've heard a lot of rhetoric from the mosques and from religious leaders in iran over the years. do you think we will hear that today? >> and does that give us any clue about how the leadership of the islamic republic is thinking? >> it will certainly be one factor. let me just note your audience here, your audience who stayed up with us today, also, april is also reportedly the supreme leader of iran's birthday. >> so the israelis may have delivered a kinetic strike against the supreme leader. historically on his 85th birthday. and as you know, the government
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of the islamic republic is staffed not just with ideologues, but many, many octogenarians like the supreme leader himself. but all of that aside, the messaging is likely to be in these friday prayer sermons, the same defiant tone that you had, the same harping on the themes of the israel-gaza war, the same kind of chest thumping post april 13, april 14, military operation. and given that the iranian media, in the lead up to the friday prayer time, has been trying to spin things as all is normal, all is well, you're likely going to see the islamic public try to, at least in the short term, rhetorically, pocket and move on. but in terms of attacks, well, who knows? >> the irgc may be advocating for behind closed doors because lest we forget, there were also reports that when there was this strike in esfahan that there were explosions in iraq and there were explosions in syria, and that irgc change in doctrine was all about responding threats both inside and outside iranian territory with direct attacks from iran.
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so who knows what the battle damage assessments and the weapons use in places like syria and iraq were allegedly potentially from the israelis as well. >> so, again, turning our attention briefly, if you don't mind, benham, to gaza, the war against hamas there. now, the idf obviously has never taken its eye off that ball over the past week when they've also been dealing with plans for iran. do you expect the offensive that prime minister netanyahu has wanted to carry out for some time now into the southern city of raqqa, which they is the last stronghold of the hamas leadership? >> do you expect that to happen shortly? >> i think there is a very interesting, at least it certainly seems the very interesting talk of a potential quid pro quo is in some way was at least tacitly aware of what this israeli targets that was doesn't necessarily have to blessed, but at least may have been aware of it. was that going to be something pocketed? would that be something limited
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within iran so that you can return to the war against hamas carried out october seven in gaza? this is something to be explored if there is any potential linkage there. i, for one, think that the resumption of the rafah operation was a matter of when and not if ben ben tlaib blew appetizer and the main course have both been fascinating. we'll join you for dessert in about an hour's time. thank you. benham. >> great to have you with us as always. okay, so we are coming back with more coverage on what has obviously been a dramatic and tense few hours in the middle east with israel striking at iran. iran saying its air defenses defeated, the attack. we'll be back with ongoing coverage. south dakota has the blueprint for success. recently, we led the nation in new building, but we're still growing so fast we need
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>> all eyes are on the middle east. just hours after israel carried out strikes on iranian soil. those strikes are being called, quote, limited by u.s. sources. it's the latest tit for tat exchange between the two countries. and it could, of course, deepen conflict in the region. israel's attack is retaliation for tehran firing a barrage of missiles and drones at, israel over the weekend. now, israeli forces are on high alert, waiting to see if and how iran and its proxies will respond. let's go to fox news foreign correspondent trainings live, tel aviv. >> and trey, from what i heard of your reporting earlier, you were saying some of your sources, knowing what was coming, are realized that this was some limited, that they just went to bed anyway and slept through the whole thing as they wake up now. what are people telling
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you about how they view this action by israel? >> yeah, jonathan, good evening . this was clearly a limited response to the iranian attack last weekend, targeting this area just about 200 miles south of the iranian capital of tehran. we are getting an interesting development in this hour. according to syrian state media. there were reportedly israeli strikes that targeted syrian air defense and early warning systems overnight. so this is an indication that there were multiple locations across the middle east hit in israeli strikes overnight. we will continue to gather more information about what exactly took place. there were also reports of explosions in iraq. but this really gives you a sense of how kinetic this story is and how many developing parts there are when an operation takes place, especially one that takes place inside iranian territory. we do expect a return to normalcy across the region
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today. israeli officials still on high alert across the country, especially within the military echelon, understanding there are regional threats from iran backed groups in places like yemen, southern lebanon. >> but israel's home front command, the body responsible for communicating with civilians, says there are no special instructions, no warnings, no telling of civilians to remain near bomb shelters. and this is an indication the israelis do not believe iranians are going to respond despite the threats that they made the week, saying that any strike in their territory would draw an immediate response. so a lot of developments here and real questions about what exactly place overnight following this israeli strike targeting, iranian territory. >> jonathan. and trey, i'm just seeing a reuters flash come across the wires and analyst telling state tv that these strikes were carried out by and this is a quote, many drones flown
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by infiltrators from inside the country now with a huge if in front of it. if that is true, could that indicate that israel ran some sort of special forces operation inside iran? i know the israelis will not confirm or deny anything in terms of these operations, but is that a possibility here? >> try. it's certainly a possibility. and it is a big before any of the statements that are made by iranian state media. and the reality is our reporting doesn't match that at this moment. but israel certainly has the ability to operate in iranian territory and conduct secret operations. and they've done this for years. and you can look back to 2020 when they killed a top iranian nuclear scientist, mohsen fakhrizadeh, and they killed him without operatives there on the ground. they had basically setup
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that in the back of a car there was an automatic remote controlled machine gun that killed this top nuclear scientist. and it really showed israel's over the horizon capabilities that they could target this top scientist without having anyone there manning the weapon. and so the israelis certainly have really top level intelligence inside iran. it is part of the reason in the past they've been able to gather hard evidence and information about iran's nuclear programs. >> and it is also part of the reason saw this strike, looking to send a message to the iranian regime that they know where the targets are. they're located in the site of the israeli military, and they can certainly increase the targeting inside iran if iran decides to respond to this strike overnight. jonathan? and trey, you have told us so often and so accurately that everything is connected here. so let's turn our attention to for a moment and the ongoing war there against hamas.
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there's been much talk over weeks, maybe even months now, about what the israelis might see as see as a final offensive against the hamas leadership in the southern city of rafah. >> do we believe that that is about to happen? >> are we should we be expecting it in the next few days? >> so just yesterday, israeli government officials once again indicated there is a date set to enter gaza, southern most city of rafah. now, they've said this before and done nothing. they've also been facing quite a bit of pressure from the united states, specifically the biden administration telling the israelis don't go into rafah unless. there is a plan to evacuate the more than 1.4 million vulnerable palestinians that the army has ordered to shelter. and so israel says they have to enter rafah in order to two things one, to destroy the remaining hamas battalions and two, to look for the hostages. now, the latter is closer to reality.
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are hostages being held in rafah? and the israelis are trying to get to them and rescue them if possible. as for the first point, there are no really remaining hamas battalion left in rafah as it is advertised by the israeli military. there are cells of hamas fighters across gaza still nearly 200 days into this conflict. but israel has really sold this point that there are remaining battalions that must be destroyed. the structure of hamas was destroyed very quickly in the aftermath of black saturday, the october 7th massacre, where israel, in response launched a massive air campaign against gaza, followed by a ground operation. and so the israelis say they need to complete that ground operation by entering rafah. it is something they likely will do, but it will take a lot of preparation and the evacuation of these vulnerable palestinians who are currently sheltering there jonathan. >> training, standing in tel aviv, thank you very much indeed. >> with israel striking back, how concerned should we be about iran and israel's
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nuclear facilities? >> for more on that, let's turn to fox news correspondent charlie painter. >> hello, charlie. hey, jonathan. fox news confirms that the targets of the attacks in iran were not nuclear nor civilian. and it does, though, like you said, raised questions on iran's nuclear. given that earlier thursday, tehran warned that if israel targeted iranian nuclear facilities that it had the ability to strike israeli nuclear sites. a senior commander in is wrong. iran's islamic revolutionary guard said thursday, quote, if the zionist regime wants to take action against nuclear centers and facilities, we will surely and categorically reciprocate with advanced missiles against their own nuclear sites. this irgc commander in charge of nuclear security warned that such a strike would make it possible for iran to review nuclear doctrine and deviate from the country's previous considerations. while it was unclear exactly what he meant, we know in 2015, a deal was introduced imposing
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strict limits on iran's nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions against tehran. among other provisions in 2018 that president trump pulled the u.s. out of that deal reimposing sanctions on tehran. in 2019, iran reportedly started breaching the restrictions of its nuclear activity and its nuclear activities. and thursday, the iranian foreign minister told cnn this watch the entire nuclear program of iran in its totality within the framework of a peaceful program. and i do think that america must pay closer attention and focus the adventure seeking a regime in israel so that such a crisis will not happen in gaza because netanyahu showed that he will not respect any of the red lines. >> iran's supreme leader has the last say on tehran's nuclear program.
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in the early 2000, the ayatollah banned stockpiling nuclear bombs, ruling in a religious decree stating that although we have nuclear technology, iran has firmly avoided it. but this new rhetoric from irgc officials about striking israeli nuclear facilities is raising concerns about the program that the country has always been purported for strictly peaceful purposes. jonathan chan, lee painter, thank you very much indeed. >> we will be back with more coverage as trey yingst reports that as as a strike against iran, there may be may have been strikes on syrian territory. we'll be back with the breaking news after a break. sean combs built a hip hop empire and he was the biggest thing going. that's when this house of cards starts collapsing. more people came forward alleging different kinds of abuse. they do think you can make
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our coverage of the breaking news. the israeli strike against iran . we are joined now by the director of the national security law and policy program at george mason university, former chief counsel and senior adviser for the senate foreign committee, jameel jaffer. jamal, great to have you with us these early hours of friday morning. >> wonder, first of all, what you make of what we're hearing from reuters now is. a senior iranian official saying that and this is a quote, there is no plan for immediate retaliation. that would seem to indicate that israel has achieved its objectives, sending a very clear message while not provoking any real reaction. >> well, it does seem that way . if, in fact, iran decides not to respond here and that back and forth, tit for tat is over, that's probably good situation for the region. it probably makes a lot of sense.
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the israelis are taking a very clear targeted strike against a military inside of iran and yet not doing what the iranians it frankly, which was a significant escalation, you know, over 300 missiles aimed at israeli territory. you know, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, in this case, a small target attack not aimed at civilian facilities. >> so it seems to me, while we haven't gone over the cliff, terms of conflict in the region, but we're certainly we're not back from the brink really here, are we? we still are on a knife edge to mix my metaphors. >> no, that's exactly right, jonathan. obviously, this is a knife edge that's been going on and been getting increasingly bad for a while. we've seen the iranians, their proxy forces, target the israelis in a variety of ways. hezbollah, hamas. we've seen these attacks. and then, of course, they've gone after americans as well, killing three americans in jordan recently, attacking american and other commercial
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shipping and military vessels in the red sea. so the iranian escalation has been going on for a while. what you're now finally seeing is a more effective response, both by israel but also by the united against iranian proxies. and now at one point, the actually striking iran inside of its own border. >> it seems to me significant, jamal, that iran has kept a lid on its most powerful proxies, hezbollah, over the last week. i mean, they're they're the on going rocket fire, obviously, that we have seen since october 7th, but it's not been the kind of barrage that hezbollah certainly is capable of launching. what is the significance of that lack of response from hezbollah, would you say? >> well, i think it tells you a couple of things, jonathan. what i think it tells you how clearly responsive hezbollah is to iranian direction. it's very clear that hezbollah is nothing more than a iranian
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and that they respond to what iran wants. >> so when iran wants to tamp them down, it can when iran wants to amp them up again. that means that we should hold iran directly responsible for anything and everything that hezbollah does. and i guess one of the challenges here, because, yes, in this case, iran's held them at bay and there hasn't been this simultaneous attack from the north while iran is largely was bristled at the same time, hezbollah has been attacking israel directly for, you know, the better part of a decade and just in the last few months, launching, as you say a barrage of rockets at israel, including at civilian targets. >> so the israelis did not do here. and really briefly, jamal, they want to of gaza now. do you think this much talked about ground operation into rafah to wipe out hamas there is coming very soon. >> well, you know, look, i think the israelis have got to take that action. >> there's four battalions of hamas operatives there in rafah. the challenge, of course, the u.s., as pointed out repeatedly, is the humanitarian
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situation in rafah is very difficult, with over a million people there having taken refuge moving south and moving into that city to avoid the other bombardment that's taking. so which you've got to find a way to get the civilians as clear there as possible before you go after rafah and hezbollah and sorry, hamas there. at the end of the day, that operation has to happen. the question is how do you avoid as many civilian casualties as possible? >> yeah. jameel jaffer, a pleasure to talk to you. these are early hours of friday morning. thank you so much for being with us. >> we continue to follow the breaking news. an israeli strike against iran, possibly according to the reporting of our own trains on the ground in tel aviv. a strike two against syria. syrian air defense early warning facilities. we will be back with much more about breaking. top of the hour. >> we need your help. this is everything we have that i wrote a song.
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