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CNN Live Today

Israeli Forces Say They Killed Passover Massacre Mastermind

Aired April 05, 2002 - 14:01   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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Israeli forces say they have killed a key militant in the West Bank. CNN's Jerrold Kessel is following this, as well as many developments in Jerusalem, so let's check in with him now -- Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, Kais Adwan (ph), that's the name of the man who's been killed in the West Bank town of Tubas -- that's in the northern part of the West Bank. An Israeli assault by helicopter gunships and tank shells. Killed six Palestinians in a building that had taken up positions, refuge, if you like, in that building in Tubas.

And Palestinian security officials confirming that one of the men was a Hamas operative, Adwan (ph). The Israeli officials are saying that he was the mastermind behind last Wednesday night's Passover Eve suicide bombing in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, in which 26 Israelis were killed. And that he'd also masterminded a number of other attacks inside Israeli cities. And he was the head of the Hamas, the militant Islamic group, Hamas' northern branch of the West Bank district.

The other five people in that house -- identified by Palestinian security officials in a neighboring town, as being the owner of the house. And four other civilians -- they were described as, they are reported they too were members of Hamas. So this, an important development in terms of the Israelis saying that they were out to eradicate the sources of Palestinian terror.

That, of course, that suicide bombing in Netanya, was what triggered this major and ongoing, and now deepening and broadening, Israeli military sweep through Palestinian towns. The Israelis very much in control, battling, indeed, all half dozen major Palestinian towns in the West Bank, including two in which there have been very serious battles today. Nablus, nearby to Tubas, and Jenin also and in the neighbor refugee camps.

And we've had reports in the last hour from Palestinians within Jenin. Of course, there's no independent reporting from any of these Palestinian towns. The Israeli army adamant that reporters are not allowed to cover any of the operations in the Palestinian towns. But the Palestinian official sources inside Jenin telling us that there have been two explosions. Two people have blown themselves up inside Jenin. One, they said, near a group of Israeli soldiers. Another near an Israeli tank. There has been no confirmation of this from the Israeli army, but the Israeli army has been saying that there's been some very serious and heavy battles indeed, both in Jenin, the neighboring refugee camp, and in the heart of Nablus, in the Casba, as it's called, the narrow street and narrow alleyway -- the heart of that major Palestinian town.

There are reports of up to 20 Palestinians in all killed today. It's not known how many of them militants, how many of them civilians, how many of them gunmen. But those, the reports coming out of the major foci of the Israeli military sweep that's been going on all through this day.

Just as the diplomatic initiative began to take off in Ramallah, further to the south in the West Bank, at Yasser Arafat's headquarters, where the Palestinian leader was allowed out of his splendid or unsplendid isolation, if you like, in the several rooms only of his headquarters in Ramallah, when General Zinni, the U.S. envoy, was allowed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to go to meet Yasser Arafat. They had a 90-minute meeting today.

There were reports that afterwards there would be further meetings between Palestinians and the Americans. We've heard reports that those have been complicated by, again, Israeli refusal to allow General Zinni to meet with other top Palestinian officials together with Yasser Arafat, or for Mr. Arafat to meet with his top officials to coordinate Palestinian positions, vis-a-vis an advance of further American meetings.

So the diplomatic activity, which is of course, all in advance of the expected arrival here next week of Secretary of State Colin Powell, off to something of a stuttering start, as this Israeli military offensive continues in various guises and in various forms.

LIN: OK, guises and forms. Thank you very much. Jerrold Kessel, reporting live from Jerusalem.

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