News anchor Anderson Cooper was warned of an upcoming air strike as he broadcast a news segment from Israel to viewers at home in the US in the wake of Operation Midnight Hammer
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper was forced to abandon a live broadcast in Israel as air raid sirens announced a sudden Iranian missile strike. The veteran journalist had been covering the escalating Middle East conflict when the alarms began sounding in Tel Aviv, prompting him and his crew to flee to a bomb shelter on live television.
Cooper was joined by CNN’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward and Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond on a hotel balcony in Tel Aviv during the early hours of Monday when the attack unfolded.
Ward suddenly interrupted their conversation to tell viewers: “I should just say that we’re now hearing an alert.” Moments later Cooper received an emergency warning on his phone, confirming an incoming missile strike from Iran.
“So these are the alerts that go out on all of our phones when you’re in Israel,” Cooper explained. “It’s a 10 minute warning of incoming missiles or something incoming from Iran.”
He continued: “So now the location we’re in has a verbal alarm telling people to go down into bomb shelters. So we have about a 10 minute window to get down into a bomb shelter.”
Despite the danger, Cooper calmly asked his team if they could carry on broadcasting during their escape. He added: “And we’ll continue to try to broadcast from that, that bomb shelter. And even if we can, on the way down.”
“I think we’re going to head down to the shelters – Chuck, do we have capabilities as we go down?” he asked, to which a crew member replied: “Just checking your microphones. Be ready in a second.”
As the crew evacuated the hotel balcony, a loudspeaker announcement echoed throughout the building saying: “Dear guests, we expect an alarm in the next 10 minutes.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later confirmed that a missile had been launched towards the country but was successfully intercepted. No injuries were reported.
The dramatic moment came just hours after US President Donald Trump authorised a surprise military strike targeting key Iranian nuclear facilities called Operation Midnight Hammer. He claims that the US carried out a “successful” bombing attack on three of Iran’s nuclear sites on Sunday.
The assault marked a major escalation in the already volatile relationship between Washington and Tehran, and Iranian leaders have vowed to get revenge.
Trump later took to Truth Social to call for a change of government in Iran, writing: “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!”
There are growing fears that Tehran may respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz, which is a strategic waterway critical to global oil supply. A move to block the strait could trigger conflict with the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is stationed nearby to protect international shipping routes.
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