'This area is clearly very vulnerable to rocket fire from Hezbollah'
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00:00So I'm in the old town of Safed. Usually the streets where I am now are full of
00:05people. This is usually a very busy time of year. This is an important town in
00:10Judaism. It's a very old town but the shops are closed. As you can see around me
00:15it's empty. It's absolutely empty. People here who live here are staying at home,
00:20not venturing out all that much and visitors who usually come from around
00:24the world are simply not coming. They've not been coming since the October 7th
00:29attack that Hamas carried out against Israel last year. Now we had an
00:34experience of of what it's like for Safed residents ourselves earlier on. We
00:38were filming something. We were filming an interview at a house which had been
00:43hit by a rocket just two nights ago and then the air raid sirens went off
00:48and we and everyone around us raced to a shelter for cover. We came out again and
00:5420 minutes later another air raid siren went off. We could see the rockets in the
00:58sky being intercepted by Israel's air defense system, the Iron Dome, so we raced
01:03back into that shelter and everyone was around us was okay and as far as we
01:07understand no one was injured in that latest barrage of rocket fire from
01:12Hezbollah because we are so close to the border. We're 12 kilometers away from
01:16Lebanon so this area is clearly very vulnerable to rocket fire from Hezbollah
01:22also because there are army bases situated on the outskirts of the town.
01:27And Claire, could you also give us an update on Israel's military campaign?
01:30It's obviously not letting up in its airstrikes targeting Hezbollah
01:35commanders, is it?
01:40Certainly and the big question that everyone's asking is will there be a
01:44ground operation? Will Israeli troops, those who are near the border and who
01:48are ready in combat positions, that's what the Israel Defense Forces tell us,
01:52their troops are ready, they're prepared. Will they actually venture in to
01:56Lebanon? That's the big question. We've been speaking to people here in Safed
01:59about how they feel about that. We also spoke to a spokesperson from the army
02:04who told us that he would not give us any information as to if and when a
02:08ground operation could happen. He simply said you will know when we're ready to
02:12tell you something, you will know. So for all we know it might have already began.
02:17At the moment it's just not clear but it could be imminent or it could be off the
02:21table. Certainly there's the argument on Israel's side that they can strike now
02:25when Hezbollah is at its weakest. It's lost its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Israel
02:30has destroyed weapons and munitions by targeting Hezbollah positions
02:35particularly in the last week. The Pager and the walkie-talkie attacks that we
02:38saw last week as well. So Hezbollah is weak. This could be an opportunity for
02:43Israel to strike hard but we do not yet know if a ground operation is on the
02:48table or not. We're watching that very closely here.