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CNN Live At Daybreak
Israeli Forces Reenter Ramallah
Aired June 10, 2002 - 05:05 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: Overseas, Israeli forces have reentered the West Bank city of Ramallah. The headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is one of the sites being targeted.
CNN's Matthew Chance is in Ramallah. He has more from there -- good morning, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, and actually the presidential headquarters of Yasser Arafat hasn't been hit in any of the heavy tank fire that we've been witnessing here in Ramallah. It's the buildings immediately outside of the compound that appear to be targeted.
The incursion, the military incursion by the Israeli military forces continues. Tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopter gunships continue to circle in the skies as those tanks and APCs are placed in key positions around this West Bank city. Barricades have been erected along key road junctions, key road routes, barricades made out of dirt and rocks erected by Israeli bulldozers to seal up all the entrance points into the compound. The Israeli Defense Forces, the Israeli military say this is yet another one of their operations against what they call a terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank. They say they're searching out bomb making factories and weapons caches.
So far, the military authorities say they have made about 20 arrests. They say that two of their soldiers have been injured during the incursion. From the Palestinian side, the Palestinian Red Crescent says that one Palestinian has been killed in the past few hours. Another three are injured in hospital here in Ramallah.
The Israeli Defense Forces say that this incursion will not be short-lived, although at this point it doesn't look like there's any indication of the troops leaving -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, our Matthew Chance in Ramallah. We'll continue to follow this story with you, Matthew.
The Ramallah raid comes as President Bush prepares to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel has a preview of that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yael Sorek, who was nine months pregnant, and her husband Eyal, buried side by side in Israel's National War Cemetery. Another man was also killed by Palestinian gunmen in the Saturday attack on a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
Twenty-four hours later, an attack on another settlement, unlike attacks within Israeli cities, most Palestinians argue such attacks in the West Bank underline that the conflict is a battle against the occupation, to push Israel back to the lines from which the occupation began 35 years ago.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, preparing for his Monday summit, says going back to the 1967 lines isn't going to happen. That would leave Israel forever vulnerable, he argues.
But it was niggling concerns that some in the Bush administration seem to be in favor of declaring just such principles, a full Israeli withdrawal in return for peace with the Arab world, which prompted Mr. Sharon to press for what will be his sixth meeting in a year with the president.
GERALD STEINBERG, ISRAELI ANALYST: If Israelis cannot sleep at night because they're going to be continually under threat of terrorism, there's no sense talking about all those technical issues. The prime minister is going to Washington to say there is no Palestinian partner, unless you have fundamental reform, and I think that really means changing Palestinian leadership, getting somebody else out there, not Arafat. There's no sense even talking about these issues. The United States can come up with another vision, another plan, but it's going to sit on the shelf or even worse.
KESSEL: Israeli officials have been buoyed by their reading of President Bush's rebuffing of the Egyptian initiative to press for a Palestinian state now and a major peace offensive now.
(on camera): The perception from here is that the prime minister probably won't have much of an awkward time in Washington. But that doesn't really relieve Ariel Sharon from an awkward question that continues to resonate, both in Washington and here among many of the people of Israel. The question, what hope he offers once his war on terror is over.
(voice-over): As envoys of other states come to confer with Yasser Arafat here, Palestinians say the only way forward is for the U.S. to give hope by committing itself immediately to the contours of that Palestinian state to be.
NABIL SHA'ATH, PALESTINIAN CABINET MINISTER: We are really still awaiting Mr. Bush's statement. I hope this time it will be a speech that contains a real program for effective movement towards peace, ending the Israeli occupation.
KESSEL: But with attacks on Israelis going on in the West Bank and inside Israel, Ariel Sharon is reasonably confident that the U.S. will continue accepting Israel's priorities -- no declaration of a Palestinian state now and effective war on terror and only then thinking about effective moves towards peace.
Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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