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  • 6/21/2025
Podcaster and political commentator Winston Marshall has spoken from Jerusalem about his experiences since Iran launched its offensive on Israel.He witnessed heavy bombardment in Tel Aviv and now drones are beginning to make their way in from Iran.Marshall said Israel's defence system is beginning to show some signs of weakness, but they have enjoyed one "big scalp"."The mood here remains tense. Whatever point of the day, there might be interruptions", he said.
Transcript
00:00and Marshall. Winston, thank you so much for joining us. What a week to be in Israel.
00:06Can you describe some of your experiences over the last seven days?
00:10Yeah, it's been quite an experience. It's now the ninth day, actually, since Operation Rising Lion
00:15was launched by Israel on Iran. I was here visiting coincidentally and was awoken in the 3 a.m.
00:23in the morning of Friday the 13th, and we've still revelations, sorry, revelations, revelers
00:31outside for the pride celebrations that had just begun that were brought to an abrupt stop.
00:37Since then, well, the first couple of nights, heavy bombardment ballistic missiles, some of which I
00:43witnessed myself, including the missile that hit Batyam, killing nine. Since then, things have
00:50changed. And the big news today, in Israel at least, is that this morning, the first drone
00:56from Iran successfully penetrated at Be'at She'an, which is near the border crossing between Jordan
01:04and Israel. It's the first time a drone has not only penetrated, but even managed to get
01:15into Israeli space. A lot of the footage you've been seeing from Israel have been ballistic
01:20missiles that have come through, and that's been the success. At the beginning, the defense
01:25system was working to the usual rate, 90-95% interception. As the week has gone on here in
01:33Israel, a higher percentage of ballistic missiles have been cutting through. Still, our nights
01:39are interrupted with alarms and alerts to get down to the shelter. This morning at about
01:442 a.m., we had a call. It was only 10 ballistic missiles drastically down from the 200 on the
01:50first night, 100 on the second night, and none of those penetrated through. There's also news
01:55from what's coming through in Iran, and you just had President Trump saying that Israel were winning.
02:00Well, this morning, it's been revealed that Saeed Izaidi, the head of the Palestinian division
02:05in the IRGC Quds Force, who was killed in an Israeli strike at his apartment in the Iranian
02:11city of Qom. He was the mastermind behind the Hamas. The man's supposed to be funding and arming
02:20Hamas in charge of the operation on October 7th. So it's another big scalp for the Israelis, I suppose.
02:29And, but nevertheless, despite this, the mood here in Israel remains tense. As I say, whatever we're
02:39up to at any point of the day, there might be interruptions to get down to shelters.
02:44And Winston, we're hearing this morning that up to nine B-2 stealth bombers of the U.S. Air Force
02:49moving west, potentially to Diego Garcia, that staging post for strikes on Iran if they do come.
02:57What's your reaction to that very quickly? And what's been the mood in Israel about
03:01the Americans joining in on their interventions in Iran?
03:06Yeah, well, on the B-2s, why this is significant is that the Israelis don't have either the bombers
03:13or the bombs to eliminate the Fordow nuclear facility, which is buried 80 metres beneath rock
03:25and soil. So actually, well, so it says there are, I should note, Israelis saying there's other
03:32options to get rid of the Fordow site, which is one to use their commanders. And I've even heard
03:38saying others say they could use their nukes or that they don't officially have nukes.

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