Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Standoff Continues in Bethlehem

Aired April 22, 2002 - 14:22   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: The developments in the Middle East are concentrated on two cities today. In Ramallah, talks could impact the standoff in Bethlehem. More on that situation in just a moment with John Vause.

And Yasser Arafat met with assistant U.S. secretary of state, William Burns, at his compound today. Arafat agreed to negotiations with Israel and a third party, to end the standoff at the Church of the Nativity. Outside the compound today, gunmen shot three men accused of being informants for Israel. An angry crowd tried to block ambulance access to those victims.

Now for the latest on that standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, we turn to CNN's John Vause. John, last time we talked, at noon hour Eastern Time, there was live fire going on around the church. What was going on and what's the latest now? I see you've got your vest on.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra. It's calmed down quite a bit. There's still the sound of sporadic gunfire. We can hear automatic weapons being fired. There's the sound of APCs and tanks moving about the streets, but just the occasional gunshot ringing out.

There seems to be a lull in the fighting, certainly over the last 30 minutes or so. If previous days is any indication to go on, it should pick up as the night goes on. We've been here for a week now and we've heard a lot of fighting.

Earlier, about an hour or so ago as the sun was setting over Bethlehem, that's when the firefight began. It began with a lot of smoke coming from the Manger Square area. Shortly after that there was some very cloud explosions. We saw the flash of stun grenades, followed by that very loud bang. And then there was the sound of guns, coming both from the church and towards the church.

Now, what we could see from the church was a position that the Palestinians have, a window that the Palestinian have sandbagged. IT's in a window in the main block of the church. They've sandbagged that. And from that position we could see the smoke from the guns, the muzzle flash, as they fired. We also could hear as the Israelis were firing towards that position.

And we know the Israelis were probably within 100 yards or so. Because as their bullets would ricochet from that part of the building, they would ricochet off. And they were firing tracers every fourth bullet, or every few bullets were in fact tracers. So as they ricocheted off, those tracers would light up and they'd light -- they light up after traveling about 100 meters or so.

So the Israelis firefight, very close indeed, to where the Palestinians were. Now, the IDF has actually issued a statement about this. All they are saying is that the Palestinians inside the church opened fire. They don't even say if they returned fire. But from our position here, we know that they did return fire. And they returned fire in a very big way, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: John Vause, looking for a solution. Thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com