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00:00Hospitals in northern Israel have been told to shift to a war footing, transferring operations
00:06to facilities with extra protection from airstrikes.
00:10This after Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia based in Lebanon, fired a barrage of missiles
00:15targeting industrial and military sites.
00:17Most of the 105 rockets were intercepted, though some homes were hit, air raid sirens
00:22sounding throughout the night.
00:24The strikes were in response to a series of Israeli attacks in Lebanon this week.
00:28There's been a near daily exchange of cross-border fire since the war in Gaza began almost one
00:32year ago.
00:33But, if confirmed, this Hezbollah assault would be the furthest-reaching attack inside
00:37Israel since the conflict began.
00:39For more, let's speak to our senior reporter, James Andre, standing by in Beirut.
00:43Hello to you, James.
00:46An intensification of the strikes overnight.
00:49Tell us more about what transpired.
00:52Yes, indeed.
00:55What we are seeing is, indeed, an intensification of violence along this border between Lebanon
00:59and Israel.
01:00Yesterday evening, Israel was flying missions and attacking inside Lebanon on Hezbollah
01:08targets.
01:09I mean, there were reports that, in some instances, there were over 50 air raids in a 40-minute
01:17window.
01:18So, extensive damage to Hezbollah infrastructure.
01:21And then, Hezbollah responding with these over 100, 115, it is said here, missiles that
01:27were fired into Israel, most of which were, according to Israeli spokespeople, intercepted
01:34by the Iron Dome system, but some did fall.
01:37Now, Hezbollah here have been announcing that their targets were, and indeed, it appears
01:41some of these rockets have actually hit these targets.
01:45One is the Ramat David Air Base in northern Israel.
01:49The other is a company called Rafael that, indeed, is a defense company near Haifa.
01:55There as well, there have been impacts and fire.
01:58So not all these missiles have been intercepted.
02:00There are some lightly wounded people inside Israel.
02:04But indeed, this is quite clearly an escalation.
02:06And, of course, people here in Lebanon are worried that things could get worse.
02:11Indeed, doctors, for example, in hospitals have been telling us that they're bracing
02:16for potential casualties if there was an intensification of the war.
02:23We've been seeing the streets here in Beirut being calmer than usual in previous days.
02:30And while it's important to note that if there was an intensification of this war, it does
02:34appear that Israel, with its Pedro attack, has taken clearly a step further, has broken
02:39this kind of mutual deterrence that was along this border.
02:44And this means that there is a potential conflict looming with, according to the CIA,
02:49they consider that Hezbollah has 45,000 men and 150,000 missiles and rockets at hand.
02:57So, of course, this could be a pretty violent conflict.
03:01James, on Friday, Israel carried out airstrikes on a Beirut suburb targeting senior members
03:06of Hezbollah.
03:07That death toll has risen to 45.
03:09Among the dead was top commander Ibrahim Akil.
03:12His funeral being held today.
03:13What more can you tell us?
03:15Yes, absolutely.
03:18The funeral is planned for this afternoon.
03:20And indeed, it will probably be a very large gathering of people.
03:24Indeed, Ibrahim Akil was very much one of the most senior commanders of the whole of
03:30the Hezbollah's military infrastructure.
03:32He was killed alongside Ahmed Wahabi, who was seen as the coordinator with Hamas and
03:36also one of the main trainers of the Hezbollah's military force and an important coordinator.
03:43So yes, indeed, this strike, which we visited the site of this strike yesterday with the
03:47team, we saw that the building, a nine-story building, had been completely leveled.
03:51The targets were actually holding a covert meeting underneath the building.
03:56And indeed, the Israeli Air Force used four missiles in order to collapse that building.
04:01Now, yes, they did manage to kill these Hezbollah senior operatives and leaders.
04:08But indeed, there's been a lot of collateral damage, with 45 people killed in total, over
04:1460 people wounded.
04:16And yesterday in the afternoon, we saw diggers and first responders still on site trying
04:23to find potential survivors, as well as the families of the civilians who had been killed
04:27in this attack, who were mourning and crying close to the location.
04:31All right, James, thank you very much.
04:33James Andre, reporting from Beirut.