Yeah

... to follow.

We woke up to reports this morning that there'd been some sort of emergency, uh, landing in Saudi Arabia of a flight from Dubai to, to Tel Aviv.

And at first the Israeli authorities said it wasn't a hijacking attempt, and then slowly we've had accounts emerge from passengers saying that they witnessed one of the pilots stabbing the other one and, and-

It raises all sorts of questions, doesn't it?

It does.

Uh, it's pretty stunning, not only, you know, airport security, but also, you know, this occurs during Israel's election period.

Um, so, you know, Pr- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had, had warned in sort of a vague warning a couple of days ago that some sort of attack on Israel was coming.

Yeah

... to follow.

We woke up to reports this morning that there'd been some sort of emergency, uh, landing in Saudi Arabia of a flight from Dubai to, to Tel Aviv.

And at first the Israeli authorities said it wasn't a hijacking attempt, and then slowly we've had accounts emerge from passengers saying that they witnessed one of the pilots stabbing the other one and, and-

But for now, I mean, there are serious questions about how- This level of injury was able to be ah, uh, inflicted upon someone onboard a flight given airport security even for pilots, it raises all sorts of questions, doesn't it?

It does.

Uh, it's pretty stunning, not only, you know, airport security, but also, you know, this occurs during Israel's election period.

Um, so, you know, Pr- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had, had warned in sort of a vague warning a couple of days ago that some sort of attack on Israel was coming.

We will clear this area and ensure the security of the residents of the north, and under no circumstances will we withdraw, not in Lebanon, not in Syria, not in Gaza, from the security zones.

Um, then you have the, uh, Israeli Foreign Ministry, which is engaged in negotiations with the Lebanese government, saying they wanna leave, but they need, um, guarantees of security.

Um, so the Israelis are saying essentially they're gonna stay there until the Lebanese government can, um, deal with Hezbollah, disarm them, or, um, you know, make sure that they're not a threat to Israel's security.

Um, the issue is that the people who are negotiating are the Israeli government and the Lebanese government.

Hezbollah is not a party to the talks, and they've said repeatedly they don't want the talks to be happening, and they won't respect the outcome.

So whatever comes out of these talks, you know, even if you have something on paper, it's gonna be much, much harder to implement that in practice.

You know, let's say tomorrow Lebanese government says, "For sure we will disarm Hezbollah," um, you know, all good, then they have to do it.

Like, what kind of calculations is Hezbollah making right now?

And I just wonder, I mean, he says he feels like a refugee, but where are displaced people going? Where are they living?

So about 1.2 million people have been displaced by this conflict.

That's more than one out of five Lebanese people.

Only about 150,000 of those are in state shelters.

Most are either with other relatives or lots of sleeping rough.

You know, if you walk around Beirut today, you'll see tents everywhere.

The nightclub district, for example, on the beach, filled with tents.

Given all that, how will talks in Washington today affect that ongoing crisis in the Middle East?

What, what is it like in Beirut right now?

Yeah.

And you know, that attack, um, it's now being referred to as Black Wednesday.

Um, over 357 people were killed.

Um, over 1,000 people were injured.

Um, and you know, it was just brutal psychologically.

Um, people are still sort of sta- taking stock.

What do you know about those protests?

Everyone in the city, including journalists like Will, were told to go.

The quarters were just filled with people talking to each other.

Are you going to leave? Are you going to stay? Grabbing bags, grabbing kids, screaming, trying to run out in time ahead of the bombing.

We decided to stay and we were sitting on a little pier overlooking the rest of the city and waiting for the bombing to come.

And it was me and a few other journalists and one of us got a phone call.

It was from a Romanian number.

It was an automated voice in Arabic saying, this is the IDF.

And for the Lebanese government, how challenging was it to fulfill this task of disarming Hezbollah, this non-state militia that for many years was thought to be more powerful than the Lebanese army itself?

Could you just explain Hezbollah in this context and their relationship with Iran, why they did strike against Israel in those early strikes in retaliation for the killing of the Ayatollah? And also, I guess, their relationship with the Lebanese people and the Lebanese government.

Yeah, so Hezbollah is a group that came out of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon in the 80s.

They were a so-called resistance group.

They were trained by Iran, but their primary goal was to evict Israel from southern Lebanon.

2000, that happened.

Israel left.

And since then, they've dominated Lebanese politics for the last 20 years or so.

How do you think Hezbollah will respond? And what is the goal here?