Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
Hostility at Lebanese-Israeli Border
Aired April 10, 2002 - 12:32 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: As we are reporting today, Vice President Cheney has telephoned Syria's leader to warn of what could happen if Syrian-backed forces in Lebanon attack Israelis. Over the past week or so, guerrillas in southern Lebanon have fired rockets into Israel, and also today at the Golan Heights.
CNN's Jason Bellini reports these attacks threaten to widen the current war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Along the fence separating Lebanon from Israel, a dangerous game: Israeli Defense Force says Hezbollah fighters make the sporadic, but increasingly frequent attacks on IDF positions in Israeli kibbutzim on the border.
United Nations patrols the Lebanese side.
My translator is told everything is fine here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) We can sleep well tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You sure? You promise?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
BELLINI: The gunfire in the direction of kibbutz like this one is raising alarm among people who live in this part of Israel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We believe that they try either to take the gate which is near us.
BELLINI: At another kibbutz down the road, residents were forced to take cover for a few hours Sunday...
... after the Israeli military says Hezbollah guerrillas fired rockets into the area. It was first time since Israel withdraw from Lebanon. All bomb shelter doors are now open indefinitely.
(on camera): The dirt road behind me is border between Israel and Lebanon; it's also the property line of Kibbutz (UNINTELLIGIBLE). The road is freshly plowed to monitor for Hezbollah footprints, and an Israeli Defense Force surveillance balloon keeps an open eye for Hezbollah movements on the Lebanese side.
What happens along this fence could provoke a wider war. Israeli officials have said they will hold Syria, the sponsor of the Hezbollah guerrillas, responsible.
What would it take to escalate the situation?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen, right now there have been more and more fire incidents across the border every day. I would say if the firing continues, and if we have casualties -- and especially if there are any kind of heavily casualties, God forbid -- I don't see anyway that the IDF will be able to hold back anymore.
I can say it's totally a place where we're not supposed to be, but I am going to try to bring you right next to the border, where you can see the sign for it, until somebody starts yelling at us. So come a little closer.
BELLINI: The IDF spokesman wants me and a small pack of other journalists to see just how restrained the IDF has been. A Hezbollah flag waves just across the fence that separates Lebanon from Israel. A poster on the other side shows a mutilated soldier, killed in past Lebanon fighting: a warning for the Israeli military to stay away.
There is a predictability to Hezbollah's attacks on Israeli fortifications. The exchange of artillery begins each day at about 4:00 p.m. The IDF says it's reaching its limit.
And so the border begins to look more and more like a front line: a good fence in a violent neighborhood.
Jason Bellini, CNN, on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
