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American Morning
Firefight Near Israel's Church of Nativity
Aired April 02, 2002 - 08:02 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning, violence continues in the Middle East. Israeli tanks and attack helicopters moved into Bethlehem and immediately engaged Palestinian gunmen in a firefight near the Church of Nativity.
CNN's Bill Hemmer joins us from Jerusalem now with more on the fighting and an offer by Israeli to allow Yasser Arafat to go into exile -- good morning, Bill.
BILL HEMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, hello.
Yes, that offer came out publicly about two hours ago. Ariel Sharon said he would allow Arafat to leave the region under three conditions. Number one, he had to get it through his cabinet first and two and three include a one way ticket, and no one else would be allowed to with Yasser Arafat upon that departure.
Quickly, Paula, the Palestinians dismissed that frankly out of hand. Saeb Erakat, the Palestinian negotiator, here on CNN said Ariel Sharon simply cannot be trusted.
Meanwhile, let's leave that and take our viewers now to the town of Ramallah in the West Bank. Again, there are two locations right now that continue to be flash points. One is the headquarters for Yasser Arafat and the other is the Palestinian security complex located on a hill. Inside, 400 Palestinians right now surrounded by Israeli troops. The Palestinians say there are women and possibly children, as well, inside. The Israelis say there are 50 suspected terrorists that it wants to apprehend and arrest and they will not leave the area until they do just that. Again, that in Ramallah.
Further south now in the town of Bethlehem, military activity does continue there, as well. We're told tanks and helicopter gunships are in the area of Bethlehem. Late word today says a 45- year-old Roman Catholic priest has been shot and killed there. Both sides exchanging blame on that one. The Palestinians say that the was the responsibility of the Israeli Defense Forces and the IDF responding, saying it was Palestinian militants who helped take that man's life, again, earlier today.
We mentioned the escalation does continue. Again, day five right now, if you go back to early Friday morning when the siege got under way outside Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah -- Paula. ZAHN: Any reaction there to the news now that Secretary of State Colin Powell has confirmed that he does not plan to come to the region any time soon?
HEMMER: Yes, a lot of people are talking about that. Many people think that that might be the glimmer of help[ to cool things off right now. But we've heard from the White House that they plan on keeping Anthony Zinni here. Again, he's here on his third trip. They're still optimistic on the U.S. side that Zinni might be able to forge some sort of cease-fire.
Right now, Colin Powell, we do know he won't come here. A lot of people think, though, that Powell might be able to forge some sort of cease-fire, at least, again, as I mentioned, getting things to cool down right now.
The other thing, Paula, we have yet to hear from Yasser Arafat now for about 48 hours time. And the reason I think that is somewhat significant, the Israelis said from the outset they wanted to isolate the Palestinian leader inside that compound. At least publicly in the past 48 hours, we have not heard or seen him. Palestinians confirm, though, that he does have contact with a number of his colleagues and leaders throughout the West Bank and Gaza, as well -- Paula.
ZAHN: And do we know whether any electricity had been restored there at the compound at all? I know the foreign minister of Israel, Shimon Peres, was a guest yesterday, and he said that was what they were attempting to do.
HEMMER: Yes, perhaps a little bit, and a little bit of water, too. We also do know that food and medicine have been taken in, but we were also told that those are the bare essentials right now for Yasser Arafat.
Again, we mentioned the term isolation, it appears right now that that is the case on the ground in Ramallah.
ZAHN: All right, Bill Hemmer, thank you so much.
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