Wider regional war are heightened once again, and one of the biggest escalations weve seen since the israelhamas war began 100. Its a very, very delicate moment, very, very dangerous indeed. And reportedly waves of Ballistic Missiles from iran are heading towards israel as well. They are more deadly and they fly much faster. Both israel and the United States say they will aim to intercept as many of these drones because and missiles as they possibly can. But this much is already certain. These attacks directly from inside iran. And indeed the suspected attack from israel to which arrived says its responding that these two nations, both with a lot of military power, as close to all out roar as weve seen in recent memory and that could have farreaching implications within the region. And certainly well beyond the region, are reporters and our analysts are standing by. Theyve been covering this from All Over The World and concluding our Nic Robertson in jerusalem, Clarissa Ward in tel aviv, ben wedeman in beirut, and both retired colonel Cedric Leighton and david sanger here with us here in washington. Lets start with our chief International CorrespondentClarissa Ward clarissa some dramatic scenes in israel tonight. What are you seeing well, here in tel aviv, we havent heard the sirens. We have heard distant booms of intercepts in the distance you heard from our Nic Robertson seeing some of those intercepts lighting up the night sky. I do think its very important to emphasize that so far, we do not have any indication that there have been any impacts. We are hearing from the idf. They have told people across the nation to be very the jilan. They have told people in certain areas to stay close to protective shelter, to go immediately to the shelter if they hear the sirens to wait at least ten minutes and they have focused primarily on the areas of the Golan Heights, dimona, a lot. Never team. These are strategically relevant. An important sites. They are the home to the nba team airbase, which is where the f35 fighter jets are based dimona, of course, where there is a Nuclear Reactor and everyone essentially really holding their breath now alex and waiting to see what the 9th, well bring, we expect there to be weird aves and waves as this attack could go on for many hours, we in this hotel went down to the lobby. We saw a number of people had brought their pillows down to the lobby. They wanted to know where the shelter was. The people in the hotel told him that wasnt necessary at this stage, we saw people who were coming back from the airport because the Israelis Have Closed is really airspace. And there is a sense most importantly, as wolf just touched upon, that this is an unprecedented moment in this conflict. It is one that many had desperately hoped to avoid the iranians have telegraphed that it is now over in their eyes but it remains to be seen how the israelis will take that claim, what their response will be, whether there will be some kind of a retaliation, whether that is a direct attack or an attempt to deter further attacks. A lot of moving parts and a lot of anxiety about what could take place next. Clarissa ward. Thank you very much, clarissa. Words in tel aviv for us, i want to go to jerusalem, write down Nic Robertson is on the scene for us. Meghan, we all heard the sirens going off in jerusalem is someone whos covered these kinds of situations in israel over the years. Its pretty unusual for the sirens to be blasting Over Jerusalem normally when arab countries are various proxy groups launched rockets and missiles towards israel, they aim towards tel aviv or haifa, but not necessarily jerusalem, given that its a holy city for muslims and a lot of aerobes live in jerusalem as well. So its pretty unusual that the sirens are now first going off Over Jerusalem as opposed to, lets say tel aviv it is wolfe again, ill restate it. I dont think anyone was expecting that for exactly the reasons that you say reemphasizing again, of course, that were not aware of any impacts on the ground here at any casualties in jerusalem, but it does up here yeah, those Weapons Systems that were being intercepted, those iranian missiles that werent, and drones or whatever they were. Again, we dont have details on what they were that were intercepted in the skies above us here this evening that they perhaps were not intended to target. Here the likely policy civil target here could be obviously the knesset. But again, that is the densely populated area. But we dont know that. We dont know whats being targeted. So they may simply have been flying through to somewhere else, but just to fly them over a city like this with so many Hundreds Thousands of people dangerous in itself, then i think one of the things that im reflecting on what weve seen here this evening. Im trying to understand what weve witnessed. These intercepts we were seeing them come from multiple different directions. So it was hard to track triangulate what was incoming missile or drone and what was intercept. But the white, one of the large incoming Missile Systems that appeared to glow weight, that was something much bigger, much more different than what weve seen, than what weve seen coming. Lets say, from gaza. And again to reemphasize that these Missile Systems flying over this city and around israel tonight much more dangerous, much much more explosives on board and have specific targets programmed into them. This makes them incredibly dangerous. But again, this is potentially because its going im quiet here now, the first wave that weve witnessed and the idf has said they expect there potentially to be more waves. But to your point that these came in over, this city is quite staggering wolf. It certainly is. Its quite dramatic that All Of A Sudden the sirens showing off in jerusalem, which means if, if people who earn jerusalem, whether theyre israelis, are aerobes or whoever they are, thats a warning to them, go into a bomb shelter, are safe room where youre staying right now because you dont know where those missiles are going to be landing, what theyre going to be doing, even if theres an interception, the iron dome blood hey, if they intercept these incoming rockets or missiles, once theyre exploded in the skies, they come down and ive been there when ive seen the shrapnel, the metal that comes down and thats that could be extremely dangerous to anybody who was outside, who happens to be on the ground. So i want you to be very careful over there. Nick will get back to you, are leaving terminus, joining us right now. Hes getting some new information on these iranian drones that are being intercepted by the United States. What do we know on wolf . It is an ongoing effort by us forces in the region in iraq, syria, and perhaps elsewhere to continue to try to intercept these drones. This has been a process that has played out over the course of at least a couple of hours here since the first reports of iranian drones being launched came into us, we reported in the last hour, according to two us officials that us forces had intercepted a number of these drones. And now we know that process is ongoing. Weve got a short statement from a defense official, just a short time ago. I want to read this to you here. It says in accordance with our ironclad commitment Israel Security, us forces in the region continue to shoot down iranian Launch Drones targeting israel are forces remained postured to provide additional defensive support and to protect us forces operating in the region. Now, whats not clear at this point is what types of us forces and Military Assets have been used to shoot down this drone there was a tanker, an Aerial Refueling platform that we saw on Flight Tracking websites sometime ago. Thats indicative of us fighters up an active in the region. Of course, a tanker wouldnt simply be flying around and certainly not under these current circumstances. So its possible that these were intercepted by us ariel fighter jets or as possible that there were groundbased Aerial Defense systems that intercepted these drones or both. Thats the type of information were still looking for at this point. But crucially that effort to continue to intercept these drones that have been coming in for some time now. And we see the interceptions over israel. That effort is ongoing, but us forces in the middle east will the israelis are clearly, clearly relying a lot on the United States to help intercept a lot of those incoming drones with rockets and missiles on board, as well as those Cruise Missiles that may be coming in as well. This is a joint project from the United States and israel and its significant oren, the head of the us military Central Command was just in israel coordinating with the Israeli Military. Tell us about that hes in israel. It has been fairly often since the beginning of the war, some 6 months ago, but this trip, this latest trip, was moved up. He remains in the region, but crucially, he was in israel for a couple of days meeting with senior Israeli Military leader heres the minister of defense, the idf Chief Of Staff to coordinate a response and to make sure that the israeli and us militarys are on the same page here that theyre communicating, that they know what options they have available in terms of defense, theres obviously farther out the us assets and youll hear there the sirens, warning of incoming fire. There are obviously the us assets in iraq, syria, and elsewhere. Then theres israels own layered Aerial Defense, the arrow three, which is primarily but not only a Ballistic MissileDefense System the david slim, which is more of a medium range Aerial Defense system, very similar to the us fat and Missile Defense system that weve seen positioned around the world. And then of course, the short range is the iron dome wolf. You and i Nic Robertson and so many others have seen that. But the question is how best to layer that had a coordinate the us and israeli response to make sure you catch as much of this as possible. It very much looks like iran was trying to overwhelm the quality of israels Aerial Defense systems and us ariel Defense Systems with quantity simply overwhelming these systems. And weve seen that happen in the past, the us and israel, it seems trying to coordinate the response to make sure the intercept as much of this as possible before it gets to israeli aerospace. And then of course, if needed, intersect i think over israeli airspace as well is drilled. Israels air Defense System. As you and i well know, is very, very intense, very sophisticated between the iron dome, the arrow, davids sling. Theyve got a lot of major capabilities. And when theyre backed up by the United States, which has significant military capabilities antiaircraft capabilities in the region right now, its a very, very impressive, a little impressive. But when those sirens go off in jerusalem and the folks over there, Hundreds Of Thousands of people here though sirens, they, their immediate instinct is to rush off into a bomb shelter, protect their kids, protect their families and stick it out inside those bob bomb shelters, which are in every major building in israel right now, well watch that unfold or in liebermans at the pentagon, i want to go to the white house right now. Are corresponding mj lee has been monitoring whats going on. I take it President Biden has been huddled in the White House Situation Room in the west wing of the white house with his Top National Security advisers give us the latest what are you learning . Mj well, if initially this was supposed to be acquired or weekend here at the white house, President Biden was supposed to spend most of the weekend in rehoboth beach, but he ended up cutting that trip short and return to the white house earlier this afternoon. And i am told by a white house official that he remains in the situation room, right now with his Top National Security advisers to assess the situation. And of course, figure out what comes next. You know, the white house has been preparing for this very possibility for a number of days now, in the aftermath of those israeli strike in damascus that took out a number of top iranian commanders. And youll notice that in the white house statement that we got earlier tonight, it said and reiterated the us support for Israel Security is ironclad. And to that end, as oren was just reporting on, that is why we are seeing of course, the us is involvement here and working to intercept some of these weapons that have been launched by iran. And it is a part of why, of course, we saw in recent days, a us moving extra forces into the region and getting them in position in preparation for exactly this kind of scenario. And i think it is also just worth i underscoring that this state onstate conflict between a and israel was exactly the kind of scenario that us officials had very much hope to avoid given the real volatility and unpredictability that this could potentially usher in. And i think that is why one thing that we should be watching out for very closely in the coming hours is any indication of what us officials are advising israeli officials to do in response to these attacks that iran has launched, you know, at the same time that we are hearing from the white house. And it is being reiterated he did that the uss commitment to israels security is ironclad at the same time, the us also wants to situation in the region to very much be contained. So again, those conversations that have been going on over the last few hours, the last several days, certainly worth keeping a very close eye on mj. Yeah. Stay standby at the white house, said, well check back with you often. Obviously, the president meeting with his Top National Security advisers, right now, theyve been meeting for hours and hours. This crisis is continuing and it looks like its about to get even worse. Well see what happens. But mj standby to bring in Fred Pleitgen hey, hes are correspondent who recently was in iran. Youve done, youve done a lot of reporting from inside are run over the years. Fred give us a little sense of the Uranium Mindset right now why this is happening . Well, i think its a very calibrated response from the iranians and certainly something that seems to have been in the works for a couple of days. Weve heard the iranians essentially telegraph this with a lot of the Phone Conversations that the Iranian Foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian has had with some of his european counterparts, but also of course with some middle eastern counterparts. Well and if you recall both in 2020 when the us assassinated the top iranian general Qassem Soleimani, we heard something very similar from the iranian back then as well. Actually, it in iran then and that was called in to the supreme leaders military adviser. And he said to me, look, The Americans killed one of our top generals. We are going to respond and and its then up to the us whether or not it concludes there and certainly if were looking at the statement now that we saw from the iranian representative to the United Nations, it seems very similar when we keep that hearing that sentence that weve repeated a couple of times on the air here as well. The iranian saying the matter can be deemed concluded that doesnt mean that there retaliation is over yet, but essentially with the iranians are seeing here is look, you attacked our embassy, you killed a lot of our top military officials inside that embassy. We are going to retaliate and then its up to you whether the matter has concluded or not. So certainly, what the iranian seem to be saying here is that the ball is now in israels cord, whether or not its going to strike back and then possibly obviously the situation getting even worse. I think one of the other things though wolf that were also seeing and which certainly ive seen over the past couple of years as ive been reporting from iran, is that a lot of rons, especially Missile Systems, but their drones as well are a lot more capable than many people in the west thing. I mean, one of the things that we have seen over the past couple of years is the iranians capable of shooting down a us Reconnaissance Drone over the strait of hormuz. But ill also, if we look at this drone and Missile Str