'Like several shooting stars': Reporting on Iran's missile attack on Israel
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00:00Joining me on the set is our reporter, Claire Papillon. Hello to you, Claire.
00:04Fresh back from Israel, reporting on the fighting for, what, about 10 days there,
00:09including you witnessed firsthand Iran's massive missile strike on Israel.
00:14Tell us a bit about that.
00:16Sure. It was a bit like seeing shooting stars going through the skies.
00:21We actually were in Jerusalem when the attack happened.
00:25It was nighttime, so we could see the two bursts, really, of missiles coming across.
00:30Yeah, it looked exactly like that.
00:32The image, as you can see, every now and again, that's it.
00:34When you see it blowing up, that's when it's getting intercepted
00:37by either Israel's air defense system or on that night of Iran's attack.
00:42The U.S. supported Israel on intercepting those missiles coming through.
00:46Now, just a small number of people were hurt.
00:49One person was killed in the occupied West Bank.
00:52A Palestinian was killed there.
00:54That's why it's worth noting that in the West Bank people don't have shelters they can get to easily.
00:59But overall, given the scale of the attack,
01:02thanks to the air defense system which is in place and the warning system as well,
01:06there were not large-scale injuries or deaths.
01:10The IAF, so the Israel Air Force, says that some of its bases were damaged,
01:14but not significantly, that it was mostly maintenance and offices that were damaged
01:19and that they are still operating at full capacity.
01:22How does that warning system work in Israel?
01:24In Israel, there's an app that you can get on your mobile phone and it has notifications.
01:29You put your notifications on and you'll get a little notification
01:32every time there is a danger of a rocket attack in a certain area.
01:36The app will tell you.
01:37I think we can see a screenshot of it on our screens now.
01:42It's a red app.
01:44When there's a moment where there's an attack happening,
01:48the area on the map will show you.
01:51If you're in that area, then obviously you need to get to an air raid shelter
01:55or you need to lie down very quickly if you can't get to a shelter quickly.
02:02I can show you now the images that you just saw.
02:04I think we need to play them again so that you can fully understand.
02:07I filmed them in the town of Safed in the north of Israel.
02:11It's very vulnerable to rocket attack from Hezbollah.
02:14We just stopped the images there because I need to actually show you them properly.
02:19I want to show you them and actually commentate them.
02:21We were in Safed when an air raid went off.
02:25We knew that it was an alert.
02:26It went on our mobile phones and you could see at the beginning in the skies
02:30Hezbollah rockets being intercepted by the Iron Dome
02:33and, of course, everyone running to a shelter.
02:35Let's play those images again so you can actually see what it was like
02:39being in an alert in Safed.
02:43There are the rockets in the skies.
02:45That's the air raid shelter.
02:47Everyone running.
02:49This was a couple of days before Iran's attack.
02:56And that's the inside of the air raid shelter.
02:58Well, you stay for about 10, 15 minutes usually until you get the all clear.
03:02Now, it's really important to remember that, of course,
03:04on the other side of the border in Lebanon,
03:06people don't have that kind of a warning system.
03:09They don't have shelters easily available for them to get to.
03:13Israel has stepped up its bombing campaign in Lebanon in recent weeks.
03:17And, of course, you're seeing tens of thousands of Lebanese having to flee
03:20and several hundred being killed as well.
03:22Now, some of those killed will be Hezbollah fighters, but not all of them.
03:25And Lebanese civilians are getting killed as well.
03:27So there is a big difference in terms of the preparedness
03:31on the Israeli side of the border to the Lebanese side.
03:34You also spent time in northern Israel.
03:36What was it like there? What did people tell you?
03:39Well, it's very quiet up there.
03:40The towns and communities that are closest to the border with Lebanon,
03:43they were evacuated nearly a year ago
03:46when Hezbollah first started launching rockets into Israel on a daily basis.
03:52We visited some towns where people are still living,
03:55but it's very quiet on the streets.
03:56People aren't really going out much.
03:58Schools are closed, so kids are doing their lessons from home.
04:01And quite a lot of people we spoke to were weighing up
04:03whether they wanted to stay or not because they are living,
04:06just like in Safed, they are living with this daily threat
04:08of rocket attack coming across the border from Hezbollah.
04:11And, of course, there was the attack as well from Iran on Tuesday night.
04:16So some people are thinking, is it time to leave?
04:18I spoke to a woman in a kibbutz called Sa'a in the north of Israel.
04:23And Sa'a, a rocket got through.
04:25It wasn't intercepted by the Iron Dome.
04:27And she told me, I think I need to leave.
04:30Her house was 50 meters away from where the rocket struck.
04:33A few people were injured. No one was killed.
04:35And I've spoken to her since.
04:36And she has now moved away, a bit further away.
04:38She's feeling that she needs to be a bit further away from the border.
04:42So certainly in the north of Israel, it's an area where people are weighing up
04:46whether it's safe to stay or not.
04:49What was it like covering the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah?
04:52Well, that was on the Friday evening.
04:54We heard, first of all, about this massive blast in Beirut.
04:58Our correspondents, our team were there.
05:00And it was really something that shook the city.
05:04And huge, huge, huge amounts of smoke.
05:07And while we didn't know on the Friday night whether Hassan Nasrallah
05:12had been killed or not, clearly given the scale of the strike,
05:16there was a general feeling that that's an image there of Benjamin Netanyahu,
05:20the Israeli prime minister.
05:21That's him in New York just before he spoke to the UN General Assembly.
05:24We understand that's a picture of him green-lighting the attack
05:28on targeting Hassan Nasrallah.
05:31He did that just before speaking to the UN General Assembly.
05:34The attack happened later on in the day.
05:36And it was only the next morning, on Saturday morning,
05:39that Israel confirmed that it had killed, it had eliminated,
05:43in Israel's words, Hassan Nasrallah.
05:45And a few hours later, Hezbollah confirmed it too.
05:48I mean, it was a huge piece of news.
05:51He has been the leader of Hezbollah for more than 30 years.
05:54So it was a really big deal.