Israelis say targeting Hezbollah leader Nasrallah was ‘right thing to do’

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00:00I was on a call with the International Spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces, the IDF, Nadav

00:06Shashomi. He said that he couldn't go into the details, the intelligence details, as

00:11to how Israel knows that it has, in his words, eliminated Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of

00:18Hezbollah. But he said, if we don't know something, we don't say anything. When we do know something,

00:24like we do in this case, we confirm it. And that's what we've done. Israel, the IDF, being

00:29very clear, saying that Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorise the world.

00:36He also said, the spokesperson for the IDF also said, that it was Hezbollah who had,

00:41since October 8th, been escalating the situation. He said they would not back off. And it got

00:48to the point when Israel's mission in this, its goal in this conflict, is to allow its

00:53citizens in the north of Israel, who have been evacuated from their homes, to go back

00:58to their homes and to live in security. So, very, very clear words coming from the IDF

01:04on this. But we have not had an official statement from Hezbollah as to the whereabouts and to

01:10the situation of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. So, for the moment, it's only the Israelis

01:15who are saying that they have knocked him out of the picture and eliminated him.

01:19And Israel, on alert, following that announcement, you arrived in Haifa, in northern Israel.

01:24What is it like there?

01:29This is a big coastal city in northern Israel, which earlier on in the week, not far away

01:35from where I'm standing, you could see rockets coming from Hezbollah in the skies, getting

01:41intercepted by Israel's air defence system, the Iron Dome. Now, we haven't had any alerts

01:47of air raids so far today, but I can tell you, the streets are almost empty. People

01:52are either in their cars or they're staying at home. They're staying where they know they

01:57can get to an air raid shelter as soon as possible, if they need to. I did, though,

02:01just speak to a young couple who were taking a walk and they told me that, they confirmed

02:08that the streets are particularly quiet. I'm in a neighbourhood which is not typically

02:11Jewish neighbourhood, so normally on a Saturday, people here wouldn't be observing the Sabbath.

02:15So, this would be a much busier neighbourhood, but there's hardly anyone in the streets.

02:19And what they told me was very interesting. She described herself as right-wing and she

02:24said that she was absolutely in agreement with the decision to strike that southern

02:29Beirut neighbourhood with the target of killing Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.

02:34Now, the young man who was with her said, actually, I'm left-wing. I'm against war,

02:39I'm against escalation, but I agree here. We had nothing else we could do. We had to

02:46target Hassan Nasrallah. We had the opportunity to kill him and we took it. So, even as a

02:51left-winger, he said, in this case, I agree, this was the right thing to do.

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