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00:00Joining me on the set, our foreign editor James Andre, recently back from a reporting
00:04in southern Lebanon. Hello to you. James, we hear this startling news just over two hours ago from
00:11Israel's military that it claims that Hassan Nasrallah was killed in those Friday strikes
00:15on the Beirut southern suburbs. How credible is that claim? Well, obviously, we wait for
00:21confirmation from the Lebanese side, but I would say very, very credible indeed, simply because
00:27first, you've got to realize the political importance of removing Hassan Nasrallah. I mean,
00:32this is huge. So the Israelis would not say it if they were not pretty sure of what they're saying.
00:37And the other thing is, you've got to realize that, and I really saw this in the few days I've
00:41just spent in Lebanon during these attacks, is the quality of the infiltration and intelligence
00:49the Israelis have managed to create on the ground in Lebanon. They were able to target
00:55the secret meeting, you know, for example, where they killed Ibrahim Akhil. This was
00:59last Tuesday, Tuesday. Basically, they hit this building in which a secret meeting was being held.
01:05We heard that they had the intelligence just less than an hour before they actually hit,
01:10which means they knew it, scrambled the jet, hit and indeed killed this very, very...
01:14That intelligence, does that mean Hezbollah was infiltrated?
01:19Well, very clearly. I mean, we are at a stage where you have, well, you have
01:23electronic intelligence, that's for sure. I mean, they've demonstrated that with the pager attacks,
01:27with the radio attacks. You could, you know, we don't know what exactly they put in these pages.
01:31They put explosives for sure, but maybe they put microphones and GPS chips. Maybe they were
01:35following everyone. It's a very real possibility. The fact of the matter, they've managed to
01:40map out this very secretive organization. You know, they've been carrying out strikes all
01:46over Lebanon, taking out weapon depots, command centers. So they have very clearly managed to
01:51infiltrate the organization. And then you've got to remember that Lebanon is a very fractured
01:56country when it comes to politics. And even within Hezbollah neighborhoods, well, it does seem
02:02they've managed to recruit people who are informing them. And when it comes to Hamas,
02:08you're working in the Gaza Strip, which I'd say is a pretty homogenous society. When it comes
02:15to Lebanon, it is not. So, of course, not having leaks is very complicated. You can see how much,
02:20for example, Hassan Nasrallah is a very, very protected person. He doesn't use a phone.
02:24He doesn't appear publicly. He's not done so since 2006 after the war. So, you know, these are people
02:30who are taking utmost security measures, and Israel has managed to picking them off one after
02:35the other. So the fact of the matter is, if they are saying it, it's very probably that they have
02:39very solid confirmation that indeed Hassan Nasrallah has been killed. And then we'll have
02:44to see what Hezbollah says. Usually, they do confirm very simply because on religious basis,
02:49they have to bury him quite rapidly. And you can expect if he has indeed been killed, and if
02:54indeed this is confirmed, that this is going to be a massive funeral because Hassan Nasrallah enjoys
03:02a very, very important status when it comes to his followers in Lebanon. You attended the funeral
03:08of the Hezbollah drone commander. What was it feeling like of the people in southern Lebanon
03:15about how far this war has gone and how it has changed faces? Is there still widespread support
03:22for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon? Or are people beginning to wonder about the escalation that
03:28we've seen this week? Well, I'd say that things have evolved over the past few days, if you will.
03:34I think that the first attack, which was the Pager attack, which I arrived just the day after,
03:40the Pager attack was a real huge shock for the Lebanese society at large. You've got to realize
03:47that these Pagers, and this was explained to us by a doctor, you hold them like this. So people
03:51have lost their two hands and their two eyes when they've been hit the worst. A lot of people have
03:56lost one eye. A lot of people have lost fingers on their hands. It's something that has really,
04:00really sought terror in Lebanese society. But once again, not just inside Hezbollah. People were
04:06telling me they would not take a lift with somebody which they believed could be part of
04:10the organization. So this is how far we're going. Then that has created a movement of, if you like,
04:16once again, it's very fractious, the Lebanese scene. So a lot of people are against Hezbollah.
04:21But in this specific case, they were feeling that Lebanese people were being targeted,
04:24and that this was a blatant violation of their sovereignty. So in a sense, I had people saying,
04:29look, I hate Hezbollah, but I'd like them to react and I'd like them to fire into Israel.
04:33Some people were saying this. Other people were saying, look, well, you know, it's a good thing.
04:37We need to get rid of Hezbollah in any case. But if you like, you have this kind of moving
04:41situation. When it comes to Hezbollah supporters themselves inside the neighborhoods, for example,
04:45we met a father of a young man who'd lost fingers in the Pedro attack and had his face damaged. He
04:52told us, me and my three sons, we are proud of our martyr, inverted commas, so the son that was hit.
04:59And he said, we are all soldiers of Hassan Nasrallah. He didn't say soldiers of Hezbollah.
05:04He said, me and my three sons are soldiers of Hassan Nasrallah. This is how important this man
05:08is. He is really, if you like, more than a political leader. If you want to understand
05:13how it works, if you take Shia organizations such as that of Hassan Nasrallah or Moktad al-Sadr,
05:19for example, in Iraq. Basically, in Shiism, you have to give a part of your money to the
05:27organization, to a cleric. So people choose the cleric they want to follow. In this instance,
05:32if indeed Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, well, this is the figurehead of Hezbollah, which is,
05:37if you like, a state within the state they provide. Health, schools, they provide all
05:41sorts of services in a dysfunctional state. So, of course, people give their money and follow
05:46the man who gives these televised addresses on giant screens, which thousands of people attend.
05:51So he is really, I'd say, more than a political leader to these people.