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CNN Live At Daybreak

Arafat Surrounded in Ramallah

Aired March 29, 2002 - 06:02   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 more on the Middle East crisis. Yasser Arafat is saying he hopes to be a martyr for the Palestinian cause. He is surrounded right now by Israeli tanks at his Ramallah headquarters.

Our Michael Holmes is also in that West Bank town and joins us live now. What's it like there now?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, thanks very much. It is just after 1:00 p.m. here on the West Bank, and after a lull of a couple of hours in the shooting, in the last hour or so there have been increased sporadic bursts of gunfire around this town, this troubled town, this tense town. We have actually moved in a little bit further than we were from this window here, because of some shooting quite close by.

At last count, more than 25 people have been listed as wounded. The death toll, according to hospital sources, is now up to five. They include a woman, who was shot in her car as she drove with her husband and five-month-old child.

Also, we have just come back from the hospital. There we saw three injured Palestinian security officers, who were shot inside Yasser Arafat's compound here in Ramallah. One of them is a paraplegic now, shot in the spine. Another one was shot through the jaw. Also a television cameraman today shot in the face.

There is a toll here, a death toll and also an injury toll that seems to be growing. Doctors say they have had an incredibly busy day.

There has been a lot of movement of APCs, armored personnel carriers, and tanks around the city. Initially when they rolled in very early this morning about 3:00 in the morning outside, they rolled in, they went pretty much straight to Yasser Arafat's compound.

Now, since then, we have noticed a lot more movement around the city. A short time ago, about two hours ago in fact, about 10 armored personnel carriers went towards the El Amari refugee camp, which is only about a kilometer or so from here. They stopped short of the camp. We heard more shooting, and then about an hour later, they came back again towards the center of the city.

Still a lot of tension here, especially around Yasser Arafat's compound, his West Bank headquarters, where walls have been knocked over by bulldozers, and there has been quite a deal of firing to and fro.

One of those security officers we spoke to in the hospital said that a lot of the wounded inside the compound, more than 20 of them and four of them critical, he said were caused by Israeli snipers on buildings opposite. And he said every time we walked around, we would get picked off. That's not to say the firing is one way, anything but. There have been some quite fierce exchanges of fire.

This day, which began for many Palestinians here in the West Bank at 3:30 with the sound of tanks, continues now well into the afternoon -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And, Michael, you be careful over there. I noticed you put your flak jacket back on -- good idea there.

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