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CNN Live Today

Conflict Escalates in Middle East

Aired April 01, 2002 - 11:02   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Israel expanded its military operation in the West Bank today, rolling tanks into more Palestinian towns. The leader of the Palestinians, Yasser Arafat, remains cornered in his office in Ramallah. Our Bill Hemmer is keeping watch on the volatile situation. He joins us right now from Jerusalem. Bill, hello once again.

BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (AUDIO GAP) appears to be going off throughout the West Bank. We're getting reports about every 15 or 30 minutes of different clashes all throughout the West Bank. In fact, a short time ago, an Israeli settlement here near Jerusalem, an Israeli was shot and killed a short time ago.

We hear also these peace demonstrators south of Jerusalem, the town of Beit Jalla, five wounded after the Israeli army opened fire apparently near the wall near these demonstrators at their feet. These type of clashes is what we're hearing about throughout the entire area.

Now for our viewers, we'll try and keep this straight for you. Let's go to Ramallah first in the West Bank. This is where Yasser Arafat has been under siege for the past four days. That continues today. And what we can see clearly through this videotape is that the clashes in terms of Palestinian gunmen and the Israeli army continue as well. A building took some direct fire, not only small-arms fire, but larger explosions several hours ago. Ramallah has been a flash point and there is no changing that reality thus far today.

Also from Ramallah, there is other videotape we want to show you, detained Palestinians. This has been the track record so far of this current operation. Operation Protective Wall, the Israeli government says, is going in to these towns, trying to arrest and apprehend what they believe are terrorists hiding out there. Difficult to say how many have been detained, but we can say it's been in the hundreds. Yesterday, on Sunday, we were told 150, but clearly those numbers have gone up as of today.

Meanwhile, we talked about the various action throughout the West Bank. Qalqilia is another town in the West Bank. Daryn, when night fell here late last night, late on Sunday, dozens of Israeli tanks rolled into this town. We're told about 100 right now occupying that city. The water has been cut off. The electricity has been cut off, and again, this is one of the signs that we see here, is the escalation. And, Daryn, to be quite frank with you once again, you know, for a lot of people last week who thought we might be near a cease-fire and might be able to hold off this current situation, we have gone far from it, almost 180 degrees, frankly, in the other direction. It has expanded. And there's no telling, frankly, how much longer this will last. In talking with some members of the Israeli government earlier today, they say this operation to, what they say, uproot terrorist cells throughout the West Bank and Gaza may last as long as two months. And if that's the case, you've got a dire situation ongoing here in the Middle East -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And meanwhile, some twists taking place. One, you have non-Palestinians, non-Israelis trying to getting involved, marching right into Ramallah yesterday. You had a chance even to talk to one American who was taking place as part of the protest.

HEMMER: Yes. We've seen a couple of Americans actually on all sides over in this current conflict. The one situation in Ramallah, a number of peace activists, about 40, marched right pass the Israeli troops right in with Yasser Arafat, embraced the Palestinian leader. And several of them, actually, Daryn, stayed there, spent the night. It's our understanding that many might still be inside.

The Israeli government says that was a major mistake by the Israeli army to allow that to happen. But say they didn't have enough people to keep them away. The other demonstration you mentioned, again, I was talking about a couple of minutes ago, peace demonstrators marching on Beit Jalla, which is a Palestinian town right near Bethlehem when shots rang out. Not clear what happened there as a result, but some people were wounded. One woman said to be in the hospital, wounded seriously with a gunshot to the abdomen. The point is in all this -- and I know it's quite dizzying for viewers to try and follow this -- is that the situation has escalated. We have gone far away, again, from what many thought would be a cease-fire here.

KAGAN: Bill Hemmer joining us from Jerusalem. Bill, thank you. Stay safe out there.

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