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CNN Live At Daybreak

Israeli Police Find, Detonate Huge Car Bomb; Barghouti Trial Begins in Tel Aviv Court

Aired September 05, 2002 - 06:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: On the eve of the Jewish New Year, there are new security concerns in Israel. We are covering the latest developments in the Middle East from two locations at this hour.
Jerrold Kessel is in Tel Aviv, where the trial of accused terrorist, Marwan Barghouti, is getting under way.

But we begin in Jerusalem, where CNN's Martin Savidge has information on a car bomb found in northern Israel.

It was a close call -- Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a very close call. Good morning to you, Carol.

This is being described as one of the largest car bombs ever discovered in Israel, and there is good reason to be fearful that there could be other attacks that may pop up during the Jewish holiday of New Year that begins tomorrow evening.

Let's back you up now to what happened. At 2:00 in the morning on a roadway that is located between Tel Aviv and Haifa, police had set up a roadblock there, and they were helped by volunteers. Those volunteers spotted other vehicles that were traveling on a dirt road coming out of the West Bank. They grew suspicious, gave chase to the vehicle.

As they approached the vehicle, they found that it had been abandoned. They also found a large amount of explosives, 600 kilograms, over 1,300 pounds of explosives wired to a cell phone. They called in the demolition experts, and what happened was a massive blast.

The blast itself is said to have been actually made even stronger by a large amount of gasoline and also heavy pieces of steel that were made up as part of this bomb. It was this morning that the foreign minister, Shimon Peres, said that this was a catastrophe that had been narrowly averted here. But that is not the only incident that has taken place.

Then, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers, this morning, on a routine patrol came under gunfire. Two Israeli soldiers were wounded. They returned fire, and the Palestinian gunman, they say, was killed in that attack.

All of this follows last night, the prime minister of Israel going on television saying that he was optimistic that there was going to be a breakthrough after so many months now, two years, of conflict.

We spoke to the prime minister's office, the representatives, today. They still say there is optimism, but it is guarded optimism -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Martin Savidge reporting live for us from the Middle East -- thank you very much.

We want to move now to Jerrold Kessel, who is in Tel Aviv.

Will the car bomb that was found affect the peace process? That's the first question we'd like to ask you -- Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, good morning to you.

And certainly, there's a lot of talk now about a new approach to the confrontation, but it remains in the realm of talk with all of those new incidents taking place.

And here, you really get the confrontation as it was, played out in full, as this trial of Marwan Barghouti, the man whom the Israelis say is one of the masterminds of the Palestinian uprising of the last two years. He has been charged with 37 counts of causing the deaths of more than 25 Israelis and the wounding of scores of others.

Well, the trial got under way here today in court, 606 in the Tel Aviv District Court, but the proceedings are over for today. But there were some chaotic scenes earlier today, when Mr. Barghouti -- Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader on the West Bank, was brought in right there onto the defendant's bench. And he tried to take the control of the situation to a degree, because he announced right at the start of the trial that he was not going to be represented by any lawyers, because he said he does not recognize the jurisdiction of this Israeli court.

Well, the court president, Judge Sara Serota, the three-panel bench, told Mr. Barghouti, in that case, the whole indictment would have to be read out, and it's a very lengthy indictment. Mr. Barghouti said he hadn't seen the indictment. It was with his lawyers.

So the court proceedings began with the reading out of the indictment. Mr. Barghouti said he wanted a translator from the Hebrew in Arabic. The court president said to him, rather wryly, "I understand you know Hebrew rather well."

And indeed, Mr. Barghouti from the years he spent in Israeli prisons in the past does know Hebrew well. He said he could get by.

The prosecutor then began reading out the long indictment, and after getting some way into it, the court decided to order a recess until the beginning of October to give Mr. Barghouti time to reconsider his decision of whether he wants to be represented.

So, still unclear where the legal shape of the proceedings here are going, but clearly, it is a question of two narratives being played out. The Israelis trying to show that Marwan Barghouti and, indeed, the Palestinian leadership, as it's presently constituted in the Palestinian areas, is entirely responsible for terror. And the Palestinians trying to say, it is the Israeli occupation that is responsible for this ongoing confrontation.

The legal drama now taking a backseat again to those efforts to get peace going, some kind of talks going, but again, the violence holding sway elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes. All right, Jerrold Kessel reporting live from Tel Aviv this morning -- thank you.

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