Israel faces Iranian-backed Hamas to the south and Hezbollah to the north | 60 Minutes

Leslie stall has spent a week on the ground in Israel where its military is engaged on three fronts with Hezbollah in the north with Iran in the East and the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza that has created catastrophic civilian consequences the story will continue in a moment where're at the eras Crossing into Gaza which is open at the moment though the flow of aid trucks in has slowed to a trickle uh this has been a week of high drama in Israel uh first off we have the tension increasing tension with the United States over the imminent invasion of Rafa and President Biden's punitive step in holding off the delivery of bombs that could be used in that Invasion there's been a week of intense diplomacy with CIA director William Burns here to try and breathe light into the ceasefire for hostages deal it's been a month since Iran's brutal attack with missiles and drones but this has been a week of more hostilities in the north there's an intensifying of the not much covered battle with Hezbollah and in the South Israel is surrounding Rafa Israeli tanks inched in there were huge explosions and exchanges of Fire fire with Hamas more images of misery as shortages of food and fuel become dire refugees from the north of Gaza who had taken shelter here were being instructed by the Israeli military the IDF to move again what's going right now is a very uh specific operation being run by the IDF a very accurate one on the east part of ref Brigadier General Omar tishler is second in command of the Israeli Air Force if what you're saying is true how come we're seeing what looks like indiscriminate bombing I understand and I feel sorry but the bottom line is Hamas drag us into that kind of War President Biden is been a steadfast Ally and supporter of Israel and that support of Israel is hurting him and now the Biden Administration has already stopped sending weapons 3,000 bombs for Israeli fighter planes mhm I'll want talk about a specific report what I'll talk about is our strong relationship with the United States I know that we will keep on working together with our partners with our friends and with the United States in terms of American opinion things have shifted against Israel because of of these images of all the civilians horrible scenes of Devastation there's I guess two Wars there's a war on the ground and then there's a war of public opinion and you're losing that War I don't know about that I'm telling you maybe you're right what we're doing what we're trying to do and just to remind us where it's all happened where it's when it's all started it started with a brutal brutal attack by Kamas killing 1,200 people at the 7th of October since then over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza according to the UN while Israel is engaged with iran-backed Hamas along Israel's Southern border another iran-backed group Hezbollah has ramped up its attacks from the north we're in Kat Shimona a city just 15 minutes from the border with Lebanon right now Hezbollah is sending drones and Rockets into this area and we can hear the booms going off one after the next so far at least two Israeli soldiers have been killed today and we can also hear the Israeli Counterattack now this fight is not as intense as the one in Gaza but it's serious enough that Israel evacuated more than 60,000 people people emptying out the entire northern part of the country the loss of the north feels to Israelis like a wound an amputation a humiliation we drove up to the border to the abandoned and partly destroyed small town of Matula this Hezbollah video shows near daily missile attacks pummeling the town leot Cohen raviv is one of a handful of residents still in Matula who spend their days underground in this bunker complex safe spot in days she led us into their war room where they monitor incoming fire from the hillsides of Lebanon an area also deserted 990,000 Lebanese were forced to flee oh my goodness how long does it take for a missile to come over here 8 or 202 8 to 20 seconds another drone coming in sorry 20 minutes after we got there reports of a drone overhead carrying explosives quickly please we left the war room and moved to another room I keep hearing the noise overhead I know we're locked in here what's happening So currently we have a suicide drawn you can hear the alerts coming in as we speak uh and it's above us and what's happening now now is that the Army is trying to respond to it and to sh it down those are alerts these are alerts yeah to us stay inside stay inside outside the Army was coming to rescue two soldiers who were wounded and would later die after we've been there an hour a pause in the fighting he wants us to leave one after the other to have the cars just drive right out of here all of our team com to this this go go let's go we drove as fast as we could as the fighting picked up again so would you say that you are fighting a multi-front war right now is yes General tishler calls the fight with Hezbollah won part of a 360 degree war with Iran he gave us a rare tour of his raeli Air Force Headquarters which they taped for us with no sound and blurred for security reasons he showed us where he sat the night of April 13 when Iran blitzed Israel from its own soil for the first time to retaliate for the assassination in Damascus of a top Iranian General Iran launched a massive synchronized attack of some 170 suicide drones over 30 cruise missiles that fly low and fast like Jets and over 120 ballistic missiles the skies across the Middle East lit up as pilot shot down the drones and cruise missiles Israel's Advanced Arrow system took down ballistic missiles in the outer atmosphere only a handful of all that made it through till that night Iran at Texas were using its proxies from Yemen from from Iraq from Syria from Lebanon but on that night Iran attacked Israel directly do you think that it's possible that Iran chose to do this because it perceived Israel right now as being weak you're arguing with the Americans all kinds of issues with Gaza Iran attack us with all their capabilities and they failed and Iran knows that we are capable of attacking at any given time one reason Iran failed was because a surprising Coalition joined forces to help Israel including several Arab states like Saudi Arabia Jordan the Emirates Bahrain cter I'll say that what happened at that night on that night was historic but we didn't do it on our own we've done it with our partners are you talking about the Saudis and the jordanians we're flying with the US with the Brit with the French and I'll not talk I don't think it will be wise to talk about other countries but you know that is the most interesting part of all this it's almost unfathomable to think that these Arab countries would come into the air to defend Israel what's clear now is that Iran pauses threat to the region and we should act together against Iran but you know something the Arab countries are refusing to admit they participated what do you make of that we're not talking we're acting so less words and more action were you at all surprised that all those Arab countries came into this Coalition with Israel given what's going on in Gaza given the context of Gaza yeah unbelievable Tamir Iman is former head of Israeli Army intelligence now head of the institute for National Security studies well what did these other countries really do um like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and Jordan well the main issue is early detection if you have a network of Radars spread it all over the Middle East connected into one Central Hub which is maybe American one you give you you you spread a network of detection that you give you enough time to be prepared days after the attack a group of Orthodox men found a ballistic missile in the desert that was successfully shot down by the Army another one was found floating in the Dead Sea both were brought to this army base for forensic analysis no one was killed that night one girl was injured from falling debris oh so this is the whole this is but four ballistic missiles did hit the neim Air Force base base commander yotam Sigler showed us one point of impact his base was one of Iran's main targets because it's home to Israel's Fleet of stealth f35s were any of your uh f-35s damaged in any way no but what they did prove to you to themselves and to the world is that they could send a ballistic missile from Iran and hit Israel yeah it is a big deal so if those four had hit and they had nuclear weapons on them MH this must terrify Israel it terrifies not only Israel but the middle the middle east the US and Israel consider the Battle of April 13 a win but so does Iran President Biden issued a public warning to Iran don't attack don't do this several times and they did they defied him from their eyes it's a strategic Victory they have stood against a direct Threat by the most powerful nation in the world and Divi and Define it Tamir Iman is concerned about Israel's future with the us we are worried about the internal Trends inside Israel and the internal long-term trends inside United States what happened right now in in in the universities in United States is just Exel ation of a phenomena that was well observed I think a year ago that is the we have a challenge on maintaining the common values which are the basics of those of the special connection relationship with the United States we are drifting apart and it's a strategic threat that we need to to address prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tested the special relationship this week with a public message from President Biden that the incursion into Rafa is on with or without the US weapons if Israel is forced to stand alone Israel will stand alone the week here ended with the points of contention even more acute the UN says it could run out of food to distribute to Gaza as soon as today here in Tel Aviv the hostage families continue their vigil as some of their protests have turned into violent clashes with the police and CIA director William Burns left the region with no progress on the ceasefire for hostages negotiations this fight is Leslie stall on reporting from Matula Israel I don't think enough people are getting how serious this is at 60 minutes overtime.com

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 333,116

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, israel, hamas, gaza, idf, palestine, pharma

Id: JBPSEWiDIBE

Length: 13min 57sec (837 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2024