Reports that Israel has carried out attack on Iran

good morning from Jerusalem I'm yalda hakeim and we've woken up in the early hours of this morning to learn that uh Israel has launched an attack on Iran now we are being told that this attack is limited there is still very little information coming out uh but we have learned uh from various sources that this strike was limited but the fact remains that Israel has attacked Iran almost a week after Iran attacked uh Israel so the situation here is escalating and it is a very tense time let me bring in our Middle East correspondent Alistair bunol who's here with me in Jerusalem and Alistar all week we heard that there might be a potential strike back from Israel and in the early hours of this morning that's exactly what's happened it is the Israeli government had been taking a lot of advice from their allies President Biden saying take the wi Lord Cameron and the German foreign minister both in Israel this week also trying to um gently nudge Israel away from anything uh that could lead us into the path of War but ultimately Netanyahu was clear Israel would always do uh what it felt was in its own best interests and in the interest of its future security and so I don't think there was ever much doubt that Israel was going to carry out some sort of response after what Iran did here on Saturday night and now we know or we're starting to find out at least what that response is indeed and um this is a as you say a a tense moment and now I mean the ball is very much in Iran's Court yeah I think so so I again you know it is the early hours so we must cave out all of this in that the news is unfolding and we are learning more about what has happened but it looks as though there has been a strike on an air base in the Iranian city of Isfahan now I think that is significant for two reasons firstly it is quite close to an Iranian uh nuclear facility I think a research facility now there's no suggestion that facility has been hit whatsoever but it does send a message from Israel to Iran that you know we can go there if we want to and we're not frightened to if we're pushed to do so in the future but secondly the base that's hit I think is connected to Iran's uh military aviation industry and so it wouldn't be a surprise to me if we learn that perhaps some of the drones that were flown here on Saturday night were manufactured or part of the Drone were manufactured at that Airbase so that sort of draws a link and so it suggests that Israel's response has been carefully calibrated and thought through Netanyahu would have had an a menu of options on the table provided to him by the Israeli Defense Forces probably at the top would have been strikes on Iran's nuclear um facilities and maybe assassination attempts on senior individuals um and then it would have been down in sort of a decreasing scale I would put this lower down the scale if this is it and we don't know but if this is it I put it lower down the scale so the question is what happens next and that is down to Iran does Iran see this as an escalation it needs to respond to or does it somehow try to downplay it yeah I mean when we think about uh the the timeline of the past 6 months I mean we see October 7 take place and then Israel obviously uh enters Gaza and launches their uh operation the war in Gaza begins just a few weeks after and then significant things happen like April the 1st where we saw that diplomatic compound being Iranian diplomatic compound being struck in Damascus in Syria where a senior revolutionary guard Commander is killed and then the attack of last weekend and now as part of that timeline what we're seeing today I mean we are seeing these tensions between these two states really ratcheting up and in the last few days the war of words really ratchet it up as well yeah I I I would always be careful to separate the war of words from from actual action particularly the Iranians um will often speak with a lot of emotion um but actually what they do in terms of their actions can be far more careful and far more considered um the Israelis will deny until they're blw in the face that what they hit in Damascus was in any way part of the Iranian diplomatic compound I've got to be honest I think even amongst our allies they don't really have much support in that argument I think most people see it as uh saw that as as quite a moment and they took out um this senior General connected Iranian General who's connected to hisbah and six other Iranian officers so you know we can argue and people will argue whether that was the start of it or not but it was really the start of this current sort of round of crisis between Israel and Iran Iran then takes its time to respond and we saw that what it did on Saturday night now I think a lot of people say what Iran did was an escalation 300 plus drones missiles and ballistic missiles fired at Israel it was the ballistic missiles for Israel were the red line now what four five days later we have Israel's response to that and I would read this actually as lesser I don't see them actually doing more inre you know escalating escalating escalating but slightly less and diplomats have been speaking to this week what they want to see is that this crisis would gradually like a Falling Leaf starts to sort of drift and fizzle out with increasingly uh lesser events going on this could be that it could be that depending on what the Iranians decide to do indeed um thanks so much ali uh for all of that and of course we will be going back to Ali in a moment for all of his assessment but let's go live now to Alex Rossy who joins us from northern Israel and um Alex we woke up in the early hours of this morning and and saw that strike which the Americans are describing as limited uh but what we did see was Israel has responded to Iran's attack last week yeah that's right I mean certainly the indications from the Israelis were that they would hit back it would be a military response bearing in mind it needs to be a military response to what happened on Saturday there would have to be some kind of symmetry to it remember that what they are doing it's not the blind use of force it sends signals it's messaging it's strategic and it's tactical in nature so it would make sense that they hit a base uh in Iran where some of those drones were manufactured that would have a logic to it but the fact that it is most likely Limited in nature also suggests that perhaps it's de-escalatory there is a chance here for the Iranians uh to deny it happened or deny that there was significant damage and they can now move past uh this incident um I think the thing to bear in mind is whether or not this is the end of it remember we'll wind back to April the 1st that was uh a covert strike attributed to the Israelis and denied by the Israelis part of what is known here as the shadow War that's been fought by Iran and Israel for many years Iran uses what's known as its axis of resistance its proxies in the region uh to attack the Israelis now the message that the Iranians sent was actually you can't Carry On In the Shadows anymore you can't attack our nuclear scientists you can't attack our Iranian generals uh without there being some kind of response so do we see this this over attack which sends the signal uh to the Iranians that they can't launch missiles we aren't fearful Israel says and we will strike back and we will strike deep in Iranian territory we will strike a city where drones were perhaps manufactured where your nuclear program is but also we are going to carry on with the shadow war and we haven't seen that yet does Israel carry on will we see an attack which is denied by Israel but actually causes some serious destruction uh to the Iranian regime so we we watched that I think underlying all of this of course is that this remains an extraordinarily dangerous moment Israel is facing crisis on multiple fronts the uh war against Hamas is far from finished on the northern border here in Israel there are daily exchanges there's a low-level war going on y between hisbah and the Israeli military that itself is enough of a flash point to cause a more significant War which could tumble which would have its own deadly logic into a far greater regional conflict so this is a really dangerous time but we wait of course to see what the Iranian reaction is now to this Israeli attack uh indeed um Alex thank you so much for all of your analysis there let's go live now to Alex Crawford who joins us from Beirut and um Alex uh as Alex Rossy was saying there in Northern uh Israel I mean this really is a a dangerous moment um everyone is now watching very closely to how uh the Iranians will respond although uh Iranian State media is now trying to to play this down and we've heard from the Americans that this was a a limited strike I think everyone behind the scenes will be doing just that trying to play it down because certainly all the people that we've been speaking to over the past few days those within Hezbollah those very close to Hezbollah the politicians here in Lebanon some of those connected to Hezbollah some of those just part of the Lebanese government all stressing that uh they don't want War uh that also very carefully underlined they don't fear war and that it the ball is very much in the Israeli Court uh we were surrounded by a number of Hezbollah Fighters yesterday huge crowds of Hezbollah supporters and Loyalists at a funeral there are multiple funerals uh every week from the crossb exchanges with those uh down south in uh with against the border with Israel and all of them very determined to uh hit back if they saw a significant attack by the Israelis obviously there's a long history of distrust between Hezbollah and the Israelis uh very close links with Hezbollah and Iran because uh they even had posters of aahi at the at the funeral a lot of people professing loyalty to Iran as well as Hezbollah it was a a time of of grief to focus on those who'd been killed in the war because they feel there are very many but also to show us and to show everyone else that they are strong very many of them saying that they're strong they're powerful uh Hezbollah itself has a military and political wing and its military Wing is said to be far more powerful than the Lebanese Army so there was a big show uh for the families for those who belong to Hezbollah but as foreigners and as a a foreign media team there they were determined to let us know that there was no fear if there was a retaliation if there was a big uh as in their view provocative strike from Israel but certainly behind the scenes all the political Maneuvers all the Diplomatic Maneuvers all the attempts are to try to play this down you heard the Lebanese foreign minister earlier this week Yer talking about how the ball was in Israel's court that they had only a certain amount of influence over Hezbollah that if there was a big provocative strike it would spread out into a massive big Regional war and maybe even further that it would draw in the houthis in Yemen the Mila group in Syria the Hezbollah linked groups in Syria as well as in Iraq and of of course here in Lebanon a country which has already suffered for many years from a massive economic downturn and years of of War now they believe here in in uh the south of Lebanon particularly that they are already engaged in a low-level third front the Lebanese foreign minister again underlining that that there is this almost forgotten third front in this this whole Middle East war and that is the Lebanese Israeli order where they are having multiple strikes it's there's seen a massive increase since the weekend in the number of of strikes on the border with uh a number of of funerals if we gauge the casualties in that a number of funerals per day since since we've just been here and thousands and thousands of people displaced on both sides of the Border nearly 80 villages in towns on this side of the Border in Lebanon in the south of Lebanon which have had to been emptied which are now ghost towns because of the regular firing between the two sides between Israel and Hezbollah but again Hezbollah telling us at least over and over again that of course Hezbollah is not the same as Hamas they felt they were a target of the Israelis since October the 7th because they are seen to be so close to Iran because they've had these very fundamental links with Iran but they very much do not see themselves in quite the same vulnerable position as Hamas they are a big strong Army that once defeated uh uh and pushed out Israeli troops back in 2006 they feel now that they have grown developed become much more powerful built up their Arsenal um built up their their fighting force they're not the same as they were back in in those days in 2006 they believe they're much stronger so the whole time that we've been here uh since the Iranian drone and missile attack over the weekend they've been constant uh telling us constant um attempts to tell us about you know warnings almost through us to the rest of the world do not try and attack make a wides scale large scale attack on Iran and from by all accounts this could be seen to be very low scale so I'm sure this everyone will be working massively behind the scenes to try and P persuade the Iranians and also Hezbollah that it is just that it is too low scale in fact the first indication from the Hezbollah leadership is that that is how they're viewing it that they don't in their words that the Israelis don't seem to have a plan that it's clear they don't have the uh the wherewithal to to make a big scale attack so they are the the first first uh uh statements from Hezbollah is that they they are also are trying to pass it off as as nothing

Channel: Sky News

Views: 1,158,496

Keywords: israel, hamas, war, iran, sky news, nuclear, world news, attack, middle east, sky news breaking, sky news live, mossad, the world with yalda hakim, iran attack, gaza, drones, isfahan

Id: qcaGISkWBdE

Length: 15min 3sec (903 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2024