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CNN Live At Daybreak

Israel Delivers Forceful Retaliation

Aired June 20, 2002 - 05:06   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 COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Two deadly suicide attacks in two days, and this morning the Israeli military continues to target areas of the West Bank and Gaza.

CNN's Jerrold Kessel is live in Jerusalem with the latest developments -- good morning, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

And this is a day when the battle over the suicide bombers, the Palestinian suicide bombers, the battle of those bombers, the battle against those bombers seems to be well and truly joined on various fronts.

The bombers themselves, of course, striking in those two successive days of attacks in Jerusalem, first the bus bombing on Tuesday, then yesterday, late yesterday in an area of East Jerusalem, as a Palestinian suicide bomber struck at people waiting at a bus stop, killing seven people, among them a 59-year-old grandmother and her 5-year-old granddaughter. They were heading back to their settlement in the West Bank.

The woman's daughter was herself seriously hurt and her other child, an 18-month-old infant, survived, but was also likely hurt in that attack.

It was difficult to establish the exact number of fatalities. So fierce was the explosion that it took some time to determine exactly how many people had been killed by that suicide bomber, and also the identity of the dead. This after the previous attack had killed 19 people aboard the bus in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Israel has reacted forcefully after this action. Its air force helicopters attacking with missiles a number of locations in the Gaza Strip, in all four. Israel said the targets were foundries and other workshops preparing weapons in the Palestinian areas, Palestinian towns. One was in the Jabaliya refugee camp north of Gaza City. Palestinians reporting in all 13 people wounded in those Israeli strikes.

And on the ground in the West Bank, Israeli forces continue to make operations into Palestinian towns. They have driven in overnight, the latest into the town of Bethlehem, and a neighboring refugee camp of Dheisheh, into the largest Palestinian town of Nablus, where a curfew has also been established, and there are arrests under way of suspected Palestinian militants. The Israeli forces continue to operate, as they have been doing for more than 36 hours, in two large Palestinian towns, Jenin and Qalqilya.

But it isn't yet clear whether this is the implementation of the new declared policy by Ariel Sharon, Israeli's prime minister, that Israeli forces will go in and retake on a permanent basis some Palestinian areas if the terror continues or if it's the continuation of the previous policy of making limited timed forays into the Palestinian towns in order to preempt the bombers or to try to preempt them at source.

But the bombers continue to come and there is also a battle being waged on the political level. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority president, issuing a very firm statement yesterday condemning the attacks on Israelis in -- Israeli civilians inside Israel and saying that this gives Israel the excuse for reoccupying or trying to reoccupy Palestinian areas. And something of an argument evolving also within Israel between the prime minister, Mr. Sharon, and his defense minister, Ben-Eliezer whether Israel should go in on a permanent basis into the Palestinian towns.

All this as President Bush says, the White House says he is holding off on his outlining of the U.S. vision until the dust settles. But quite frankly this morning it doesn't look as if the dust is likely to settle any time soon -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Unfortunately, I think you're right about that.

Jerrold Kessel, thanks so much, reporting live from Jerusalem this morning.

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