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CNN Live Today
Hamas claims responsibility for suicide bombing
Aired November 21, 2002 - 10:04 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: On to the Middle East and a terror attack there. The radical Islamic group Hamas has claimed responsibility for this morning's suicide bombing aboard a crowded bus in Jerusalem. At least 11 people are dead and some 50 others injured, many of them schoolchildren. Our Jerrold Kessel has more now from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anguish at the bus stop where the bomber had just blown himself up aboard bus number 20.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
KESSEL: My son went to school, Abi (ph), wails this woman. Many on the rush hour city bus were teenagers heading to school. Many of them were among the casualties. Anguish, anger, and fear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language)
KESSEL: I'm scared; I'm afraid; the whole bus! The whole bus! This woman says, describing the horrible scene over her cellular phone.
It was 7:20 a.m. when the loud explosion rocked homes in this low-income west Jerusalem neighborhood.
SIMMA COHEN, WITNESS: It's not life like this. We have to start a new life.
KESSEL: 67-year-old Simma Cohen says she fears the bombings won't stop but prays they will.
COHEN: I pray every day; every night; every single day I say God, put in our hearts enough -- start to love each other!
KESSEL: As the wounded are treated in hospital, as the bodies are loaded into ambulances, on the sidewalk, poignantly, smaller bags containing body parts, bits of skin, also for burial -- according to Jewish custom.
This is the fist time in months that there's been an attack of this kind in Jerusalem. But not for want of trying on the part of the Palestinian militants say Israeli leaders.
MAYOR EHUD OLMERT, JERUSALEM: Every single evening in the last few months there were at least ten attempts. Either of terror attacks, shooting attacks, or suicidal attacks. And, we were successful in preventing many of those attempts -- most outside of Jerusalem.
KESSEL: Israelis are just getting involved in an election campaign that will take them to a general election at the end of January, but for now, what Israelis are really preoccupied with is the reality here that they know anyone who might have been killed or wounded in this attack and how they can continue to cope when such attacks continue to occur.
CROWD: (Chanting.)
KESSEL: Some young neighborhood boys chanted "Death to Arabs," and as the cleanup was completing, some argued about how this ought to effect their political choice in the upcoming elections. The dominant mood here, however, is that none of Israeli leaders have brought them security.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody prevents them. Nobody. Not Barak, not Netanyahu, not Sharon, not Rabin.
KESSEL: And as another number 20 passes by, routine settles back in. But the candles and the prayers remain. With the pain, the deep pain. Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.
Aired November 21, 2002 - 10:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: On to the Middle East and a terror attack there. The radical Islamic group Hamas has claimed responsibility for this morning's suicide bombing aboard a crowded bus in Jerusalem. At least 11 people are dead and some 50 others injured, many of them schoolchildren. Our Jerrold Kessel has more now from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anguish at the bus stop where the bomber had just blown himself up aboard bus number 20.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
KESSEL: My son went to school, Abi (ph), wails this woman. Many on the rush hour city bus were teenagers heading to school. Many of them were among the casualties. Anguish, anger, and fear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language)
KESSEL: I'm scared; I'm afraid; the whole bus! The whole bus! This woman says, describing the horrible scene over her cellular phone.
It was 7:20 a.m. when the loud explosion rocked homes in this low-income west Jerusalem neighborhood.
SIMMA COHEN, WITNESS: It's not life like this. We have to start a new life.
KESSEL: 67-year-old Simma Cohen says she fears the bombings won't stop but prays they will.
COHEN: I pray every day; every night; every single day I say God, put in our hearts enough -- start to love each other!
KESSEL: As the wounded are treated in hospital, as the bodies are loaded into ambulances, on the sidewalk, poignantly, smaller bags containing body parts, bits of skin, also for burial -- according to Jewish custom.
This is the fist time in months that there's been an attack of this kind in Jerusalem. But not for want of trying on the part of the Palestinian militants say Israeli leaders.
MAYOR EHUD OLMERT, JERUSALEM: Every single evening in the last few months there were at least ten attempts. Either of terror attacks, shooting attacks, or suicidal attacks. And, we were successful in preventing many of those attempts -- most outside of Jerusalem.
KESSEL: Israelis are just getting involved in an election campaign that will take them to a general election at the end of January, but for now, what Israelis are really preoccupied with is the reality here that they know anyone who might have been killed or wounded in this attack and how they can continue to cope when such attacks continue to occur.
CROWD: (Chanting.)
KESSEL: Some young neighborhood boys chanted "Death to Arabs," and as the cleanup was completing, some argued about how this ought to effect their political choice in the upcoming elections. The dominant mood here, however, is that none of Israeli leaders have brought them security.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody prevents them. Nobody. Not Barak, not Netanyahu, not Sharon, not Rabin.
KESSEL: And as another number 20 passes by, routine settles back in. But the candles and the prayers remain. With the pain, the deep pain. Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.
