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CNN Live At Daybreak

Hopes for Cease Fire Fade With More Israeli-Palestinian Violence

Aired February 28, 2002 - 05:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now, for an update on the situation in the Middle East, we are joined by CNN's Jerrold Kessel who is live in Jerusalem this morning. Good morning, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

And despite those intense efforts to get some kind of cease-fire in place -- there was a holiday period here of Muslim and Jewish holidays -- despite those attempts, despite even a meeting between security chiefs of the two sides, despite that bubbling interest in the Saudi peace initiative to bring an all out peace in the Middle East, all of that has been overshadowed by a new very violent outburst of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians overnight.

And the main focus has been in the Palestinian refugee camps around the big towns on the West Bank, Ramallah -- a big pardon -- Nablus and Jenin. The refugee camp on the edge of Nablus, where Israeli tanks, backed by helicopters and ground troops, have gone into that refugee camp overnight, and there has been fierce fighting there and in a similar situation near the refugee camp on the outskirts of the town of Jenin. Fierce fighting there, and in that fierce fighting, all told so far we have had reports of nine Palestinians killed and at least seven of them Palestinian policemen and the other at least one gunman and apparently another -- an innocent bystander, who was hit by a stray bullet, and one Israeli soldier killed.

This in all this fierce fighting that has continued through the night and the operation of the Israelis are saying -- continuing there, and the Palestinians saying they are keeping up their resistance in those two refugee camps, where the Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers drove in during the night.

This all came after last night, there was another suicide bombing at a military checkpoint on the border between Israel and the West Bank, very much in the center of the country. A car approached the military checkpoint. The Israeli soldiers said they asked a woman, who was in the car to get out, identify herself. She struggled with her papers, so the Israelis reported, and then there was a blast, and she blew herself up. This suicide bombing, the identification of the woman is said to be a 21-year-old Palestinian student on the West Bank.

There were two people with her in the car. One of them was shot in the -- as Israeli troops opened fire there in that unclear situation after the woman had set off the explosives around her waist. And one of those two men were wounded. Both have been taken into custody, their identity not absolutely sure whether they are Israeli Arab citizens or Palestinians from the West Bank. Three Israeli policemen at that roadblock were wounded.

The Palestinians are saying -- charging that this Israeli incursion this morning into the refugee camp is a deliberate attempt to destroy the calm. That kind of calm that they had hoped would be setting in. The Israelis say they went into those refugee camps to root out what they call terrorist bases. Either way you look at it, no calm at all and very little faint hopes of any kind of cease-fire efforts taking root this morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It sure seems that way. Thank you, Jerrold Kessel reporting live for us from Jerusalem this morning.

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