plagiarism? what we are learning today from harvard insiders. plus, the deadly airport runway inferno. two lanes collide, five on one jet nearly killed, 400 escaped alive. how did the planes and up on the runway in the first place? and the senior member of hamas assassinated at an explosion in beirut. is the situation in the middle east about to get even worse? happy new year, and welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper, and we start out with raking news. harvard university s claudine gay is stepping down as president, resigning after just about six months on the job. the student journalist who broke the story of her stepping down for the harvard crimson newspaper noted that this is the shortest presidential tenure in harvard s august history. it has been quite a tumultuous month for the now former present. when asked for calling for the genocide of would violate harvard campuses code of conduct. yes or no. it can be, depending on the context. from that, to multiple allega
been careful not to publicly take responsibility. israel has not taken responsible for this attack, but whoever did it, it must be clear it was not an attack on the lebanese state. it was not an attack even on hezbollah. reporter: hezbollah perhaps not the target in israel s eyes, but the iran-backed group has long warned any attack on lebanese soil would trigger a response of equal severity on israeli territory. fighting between israel and hezbollah has been largely contained to lebanon s southern border region. but the brazen strike in beirut in the heart of hezbollah territory has raised fears among the united states and its allies that a full-scale war could break out between israel and the middle east s most powerful paramilitary force, all even more broadly across the region. what s the united states saying about who could be
iran, very well connected with officials in hez baa will. this comes after the back of mounting tensions between hezbollah and israel on that southern border over the course of this war. we have continued to see exchanges of fire. israel has repeatedly carried out strikes on that southern border region. as well as journalists, carrying out strikes on the targets as cross the border. and this evening, we are expecting to hear from hezbollah s secretary general. thank you. nikki haley and ron desantis taking shots at trump at the campaign trail but refusing to hit him on january 6th. what s behind that strategy. we ll be breaking down new polling saying few blame trump for the rye e the yachts a and it could m mean for ththe caucu and prprimaries. stay with h us.
israel has not taken responsibility for this attack, but whoever did it, it must be clear that this was not an attack on the lebanese state. it was not an attack eaven on hezbollah. reporter: the iran-backed group has hock warned that any attack on lebanese soil would trigger a response of equal severity on israeli territory. from the outset of the war between israel and hamas, fighting between israel and hezbollah has been largely contained to lebanon s southern border region, but the braisen strike in beirut in the heart of hezbollah territory has raised fears among the united states and its allies that a full-scale war could break out between israel and the middle east s most powerful paramilitary force, all even more broadly across the region. wolf, what we re hearing is warnings from hezbollah about the potential for this conflict
this comes in the context of building tensions on the border. we have seen israel carrying out airstrikes on lebanese villages on the southern border region. we have seen civilians killed as well, as well as journalists. they been targeting israeli positions and we are expecting to achieve that with hezbollah tomorrow. we will see what he has to say about this latest incident. as we enter this new year, civilians in gaza, millions, are struggling to survive under the intense israeli bombardment of hamas, and of course, this tragic lack of humanitarian aid getting through. starvation, disease. what s the latest on the ground there? we been hearing repeated calls from aid agencies. there needs to be more aid getting into the gulf. unfortunately, they are now