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CNN Live At Daybreak

No End to Middle East Violence

Aired August 05, 2002 - 06:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to take you now to the Middle East, where there seems to be no end to the violence. More than a dozen people have been killed within 24 hours.
Let's go live to Jerusalem now for more, our Jerrold Kessel live again.

Good morning -- Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

And the violence of yesterday, the bloodshed of yesterday seems only to have deepened overnight with more Palestinian attacks and with Israel countering with some fierce measures of its own in the West Bank to try to counter what seems to be the latest phase of Palestinian bombings. As the Israelis have begun burying their dead from yesterday's attacks, and there will be many more funerals today.

There was another attack overnight, and two Israelis were killed, the Jewish settler couple on their way back, driving home to their settlement in the West Bank north of Ramallah. They were ambushed by Palestinian gunmen. The 29-year-old man and his 27-year-old pregnant wife were killed. Their two small children, one aged 3 and the other 8 months, were in the car with them, were wounded.

Responsibility for that attack was claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the mainstream movement belonging to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

The responsibility for the major attack yesterday of the bus bombing in northern Israel was claimed by Hamas, the militant Islamic group. In that bus bombing near the town of Safed in northern Israel, the computer bus, which was bombed as it pulled into a bus stop outside of Safed, and nine people were killed there. And of them, three were Israeli solders heading back to their bases, another of -- the other six, one was an Israel-Arab woman and two Philippine women who were working inside Israel. The funerals of some of those dead in that attack will be happening today.

Now, Israel has countered with a series of attacks going into the West Bank village in a shootout there. Two Palestinians, one believed to have been a fugitive, were killed.

Israel has also continued yesterday blowing up and demolishing the homes of relatives of previous suicide bombers and Palestinian attackers, and Israel continues its heavy military presence, searching for Hamas infrastructure in the town of Nablus. The tanks are still very much there as this attempt to counter the latest wave of Palestinian bombings continues. And despite that heavy Israeli presence, the Palestinian extremists seem to have been able to continue mounting their attacks, both on West Bank roads and inside Israel -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I mean, is there any hope at all, any moves towards some kind of peace plan, anything?

KESSEL: Well, there were talks about talks coming up in the -- between Mr. Sharon, Prime Minister Sharon, his defense minister and top Palestinian ministers.

Now, yesterday, the Israelis said not while the funerals are going on, but that those talks about trying to ease the restrictions on Palestinian civilians would possibly be held later in the week. But for the moment, the Israelis have been imposing more restrictions on Palestinian travel in the West Bank, trying to tighten up and tightening up the curfews on Palestinian town. And still, the Palestinian bombers have been able to get through.

There was criticism of the Israeli government of that, but responding to that this morning, the defense minister, Mr. Ben- Eliezer, said, well, some of the bombers may have got through, but Israel was holding 140 people, whom he said, were -- wanted to be suicide bombers who they have captured, and thwarted at least 90 percent of would-be attacks.

But still, Israelis are asking, how can it be that some attackers are able to get through? The battles not only go on, but perhaps do intensify -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, all right, Jerrold Kessel reporting live from Jerusalem -- thank you.

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