Transcript of Israel Escalates In Lebanon, Vice Presidential Debate

Israel says its ground invasion into Lebanon is limited. Will it stay that way?

That's the question on many people's minds as Israel crosses into Southern Lebanon, striking roads and villages. It says it's targeting Iran-backed Hasbalah.

I'm Michelle Martin. That's Leila Fanal, and this is Up First from NPR News. It's a dramatic escalation after nearly a year of Israel and Lebanon trading fire across the border that's already displaced tens of thousands from their homes. In both Israel and Lebanon. Now, more than a thousand Lebanese have been killed, and more than one million are displaced. Many sleeping in the rain right now. Both Israelis and Lebanese are wondering when they might return home.

In the US, tonight's vice presidential debate may be the last before the election this fall. We'll tell you what to watch for as Tim Walsh and JD Vance face off for the first and probably only time. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. Jd Vance and Tim Walsh are squaring off in their first and only debate on Tuesday. The NPR politics podcast has you covered with all the news and analysis ahead of the vice presidential debate. Listen to the NPR politics podcast wherever you get your podcast. Read about the impact of Women in Music with NPR's new book, How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music. This stunning anthology offers original writing and illustrations, interviews and photos. And the audiobook includes 52 years worth of interview excerpts with more than 60 legendary artists. Visit npr. Org/howwomenmademusik to order now.

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Israel has launched what it's calling limited incursions into Southern Lebanon.

This comes after Israeli airstrikes killed top Hezbollah officials and more than a thousand people, including women and children.

Joining us now from Beirut is NPR's Jane Araf and from Haifa in Northern Israel, NPR's Kat Lonsdorff. Thank you both for being here.

Thank you. Thank you.

Jane, I want to start with you. What just happened?

Well, the short answer, Leila, Israel has invaded Lebanon, not for the first time, but the first time since 2006. Late last night, there was heavy Israeli shelling across the border, and that was followed by Israeli troops moving in. The Lebanese army withdraw from checkpoints and pulled back. An army official called it repositioning. There's now extensive damage in border villages. The main road to some of them now impassable. We have to remember that the The Lebanese army is much weaker than Hezbollah, which has been fighting across the border in support of Palestinians in Gaza since that war began a year ago. The Lebanese government says at least 95 people were killed and 70 wounded in Israeli attacks just yesterday alone.

Right. That was in both South Lebanon and in Beirut. Now, Kat, what is the Israeli military saying about this operation?

Well, the Israeli military is calling these, quote, limited and localized raids. But we've heard them use this language before in parts of Gaza, and Israel is still fighting a war there nearly a year later. There are some real questions about what that really means. They also put it a statement saying that the troops that went into Lebanon first were the same brigades that have been operating in Gaza, noting that these troops gained skills and operational experience that they are going to be using in the north. Gaza has been a brutal war with more than 41,000 Palestinians killed in the fighting there. Israel officials say that the point of this incursion is to push Hezbollah back from the border, and that's so that the tens of thousands of Israelis that have been displaced from the north can return home, which is something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been promising.

Now, you've been up in the north for the past week, and you spent yesterday talking to Israelis still living close to the Israel-Obanese border. What are they saying?

Yeah. So yesterday before this incursion started, we spent all day driving around to cities and towns near the border. It's an area that has been increasingly militarized in the past few months. Since the last time I was up here, there have been a lot of checkpoints added, evacuated, kibbutzim have been turned into makeshift military bases, and there's just lots and lots of military equipment being moved up. Driving around, you'll see tanks, jeeps, soldiers all mobilizing. There's still a lot of sirens and rockets, too. Yesterday, we had to find cover at least three times. We went to the town Rochpina. It's in an area that's been targeted by Hezbollah Rockets a lot in the past week, several times a day. I talked with Yehoud Yotam. He was sitting in a small café. He actually fought in the Israeli military in Lebanon back in the '90s when Israeli troops occupied Southern Lebanon, like you said, for 18 years. I asked him how he was feeling knowing that a similar situation might be about to happen.

It's going to be tough. It's not going to be easy.

But still, it's necessary.

It must be if you want to defense the border of Israel. Now we have to do the operation first, and then we're going to have the time to diplomatic space.

I talked to a lot of people yesterday who had a very similar sentiment that this was a necessary next step for Israel to do, and that diplomacy was not an option right now, that it could happen later.

Jane, what about what you're hearing from Lebanon civilians? We've seen these Israeli airstrikes across the country and in central Beirut.

It's really hard to describe how surreal it is. Here in Beirut, in many senses, a sophisticated city. They go through the day with drones overhead, Israeli drones, the sound of sirens. You can hear the airstrikes from different parts of Beirut. This is already a damaged country, and what's happening now has left people lost in many senses. Israel had It had been focusing its attacks in Beirut, in the Southern suburbs where Hezbollah has bases. But this week, in its first attack in years, it struck Central Beirut, an apartment building targeting commanders of a major Palestinian faction. We had been there just two days before, and people displaced by the attacks in the suburbs were sleeping on the streets. When we went back yesterday, a lot of people were trying to leave the city entirely. It was close to a depot for many busses. A bus driver called out the destinations.

The driver, Hassan, everyone's afraid of giving full names, had himself been displaced from the south of Lebanon, where part of his neighborhood has been destroyed.

I asked him about the future, about a country without Hassan Nasrallah.

He said, No, we're not without him.

He left hundreds behind like him. We all know this. Imagine this small country, 6 million people, a million displaced, many with no possessions and nowhere to go. Those who can leave the country are trying hard. But if you look at the airport departure list at Beirut Airport, it's just cancelation after cancelation, and that has become much, much tougher.

What about how Hezbollah is responding?

Israel's killing of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nassrallah, was an immense blow. Last night, Hezbollah continued to shell Israeli positions across the border. And Nassrallah's deputy, Naim Qassim, addressed followers as well. Across Beirut, people were listening on their phones and car radios. Qassim said they would continue the battle in support of Palestinians and to defend Lebanon. He ended with a Quran verse that canceled patience while rebuilding strength for the fight. And meanwhile, Israel has expanded from its main target of Hezbollah, Lebanon, but around back to militant Palestinian leaders, including a strike yesterday on a Palestinian refugee camp.

Now, Kat, all of this, of course, is happening and maybe overshadowing what continues, which is the war in Gaza. It seems the scale of the conflict is only expanding.

Yeah. I mean, Israel is now fighting on several fronts. The war in Gaza is still very much happening. Now this expanded front up north in Lebanon, and there are also nearly daily Israeli military raids happening in the Israeli occupied West Bank. Israeli Please generally seem supportive of a lot of this. There's one question that everyone is asking here, though. It's that, like I said earlier, the Israeli leadership justified this operation up north with a pledge to return the displaced people their home. But now as this conflict expands, there's no guarantee this will end.

That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorff in Haifa, Northern Israel, and Jane Araf in Beirut, Lebanon. Thank you to you both, and be safe. Thank you, Lou.

Thank you.

Tonight, Ohio Senator, JD Vance, and Minnesota governor, Tim Walsh will face off for the first and only time in the vice presidential debate.

Republican Vance and Democrat Walsh both need to help their respective tickets win over undecided or perhaps indifferent voters in several crucial swing states, even as voting is already underway in parts of the country.

Npr political correspondent, Danielle Kurtzleben, is here to help us set up what tonight might look like. Good morning, Danielle.

Hey, good Good morning.

So let's start with the Republican candidate. What are you expecting from J. D. Vance?

Well, he's smart. He went to Yale law school after all, and he does a lot of interviews, and he isn't shy in those about arguing with his interviewers. I imagine he might be an aggressive debater tonight, but he also does have some low favorability ratings to overcome, so we may well see him try to be as likable and approachable as possible. Now, in a call yesterday with the Trump campaign, reporters got a taste of what Vance might say tonight. They really emphasize that despite Walsh's casual demeanor on the trail, he is still a longtime politician. They also cast Walsh as super liberal. Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer, who has been playing Walsh in Vance's debate prep, he called Walsh, Gavin Newsom in a flannel shirt.

Okay, so what about Tim Walsh? What should we expect there?

We haven't heard as much from the Harris side about his debate prep, but a source familiar told my colleague, Tamara Keith, that they're really trying to let, quote, the governor be the governor and let him stay true to who he is, not turn him into a slick debater like Vance. He's really the one, remember, who really popularized calling Vance and Trump weird and while casting Democrats as common sense. That's one of his big philosophies in this race.

Okay, I have to ask, though, how much this debate actually matters. As we point out, I mean, early voting has started in parts of the country. There's already been this big debate between Trump and Harris.

Right, yeah. I mean, vice presidential debates don't have a history of swinging polls meaningfully. Now, I'm not going to say that they don't matter, Or especially in a tight race like this, and also these two, either one would be a heartbeat from the presidency, as we say. I mean, generally, I think the idea of a vice presidential debate is first, do no harm. These guys need to not make any big flubs and just sell the person at the top of the ticket. The two things I would add is that this is a unique debate in some ways. Like you said, we've had one matchup, but it's only been one between Harris and Trump. We're not expecting another. So this is only going to be the second debate that voters are going to see. Besides that, Harris has only been a candidate for two months, so Walls is defending a record that many voters might not even be very familiar with. Vance, meanwhile, might be trying to make up for a presidential debate that went badly for Trump.

Okay, so tonight seems to not so much be about winning individually as it's about sticking to the presidential candidate's message. But both Vance and Walls are new to a lot of Americans. How much is tonight about the message versus the messenger?

Well, like you said, a lot of Americans are just getting to know these two guys, so people watching may well learn something new about them. Moreover, Vance and Vance are both the everyman haves of their respective tickets. Trump, after all, is a billionaire, and Kamala Harris has been well known as a politician for years, and Moreover, she is something new in a presidential candidate. She's a woman of color. So both of these guys very much may try to just be as relatable as possible. That's something they do a lot, and I imagine that's what we'll see from them tonight.

And PR's Dania Danielle. Kurt Slaben. Thank you, Danielle.

Thank you.

There's one more story we're following. Doc workers at ports from Houston to Boston are on strike. Who are we? Who are we? At the Port of Baltimore, a picket line formed just after midnight when workers contracts with shipping companies and port operators expired. They're demanding better wages and job protections. The standoff couldn't snare billions of dollars in imports and exports. That's Up First for Tuesday, October first. I'm Leila F Alden.

I'm Michelle Martin. Join us tonight at 09:00 PM Eastern for live special coverage as we simulcast the CBS News vice presidential debate. Listen live on many local NPR stations or the NPR app, and come back tomorrow for coverage and analysis right here on Up First.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Vincent Nee, Megan Pratz, Ali Schweitzer, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Iman Maani, Paige Waterhouse, Nia Dumas, and Ana Perez. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Zack Coleman. Join us again tomorrow.

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