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CNN Live At Daybreak
Israeli Forces Have Taken Control of Bethlehem
Aired November 22, 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: Israeli forces have taken control of the West Bank town of Bethlehem in the wake of the latest suicide bombing. We get the details now from CNN's Jerrold Kessel, who is live in Jerusalem -- Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, with the ongoing bloodletting between Israelis and Palestinians, the United States had been hoping that this conflict would not spin out of control and that it would remain contained. But there is a fear that that might happen just at the time that the United States is, wants the Middle East focus to be on Iraq, because what's happened since yesterday morning's deadly suicide bombing in Jerusalem -- 11 Israelis killed and some 50 wounded there -- Israeli forces less than a day later, in the early hours of this morning, went into Bethlehem in force. This is the Palestinian town from which they had departed back in August.
They went in first coming in and taking over a number of houses on the outskirts of the city, moving in, sealing off Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity, not wanting gunmen whom they are searching for to take refuge in the holy site, as happened back in the siege in April-May. And then have been conducting house to house searches in search of, they say, Hamas militants. Hamas, the Islamic, radical Islamic group, claimed responsibility for yesterday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
According to the Israeli Army, they've picked up 20 people, a number of them, they say, would be suicide bombers. The Palestinians say 30 people have been detained. The Israeli operation in force continuing in Bethlehem at this time.
Just as the Israelis continue to bury those who were killed in yesterday's suicide bombing attack by a man from Bethlehem. Four teenagers or three teenagers, a child and seven adults were killed, among them a mother and her 16-year-old son and a grandmother and her 8-year-old grandson.
The, apart from that, there's been violence elsewhere and deaths elsewhere. An Israeli soldier reported killed in an ambush by a Palestinian sniper in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank just in the last few minutes we're getting reports of a 12-year-old Palestinian child shot and killed by Israeli forces as some kind of stand-off is developing as Israeli forces there try to track down a militant in the town of Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank.
So, generally violence beginning to gain momentum, unfortunately, in this ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- Carol.
COSTELLO: It all sounds so sadly familiar.
Jerrold Kessel, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 22, 2002 - 05:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Israeli forces have taken control of the West Bank town of Bethlehem in the wake of the latest suicide bombing. We get the details now from CNN's Jerrold Kessel, who is live in Jerusalem -- Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, with the ongoing bloodletting between Israelis and Palestinians, the United States had been hoping that this conflict would not spin out of control and that it would remain contained. But there is a fear that that might happen just at the time that the United States is, wants the Middle East focus to be on Iraq, because what's happened since yesterday morning's deadly suicide bombing in Jerusalem -- 11 Israelis killed and some 50 wounded there -- Israeli forces less than a day later, in the early hours of this morning, went into Bethlehem in force. This is the Palestinian town from which they had departed back in August.
They went in first coming in and taking over a number of houses on the outskirts of the city, moving in, sealing off Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity, not wanting gunmen whom they are searching for to take refuge in the holy site, as happened back in the siege in April-May. And then have been conducting house to house searches in search of, they say, Hamas militants. Hamas, the Islamic, radical Islamic group, claimed responsibility for yesterday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
According to the Israeli Army, they've picked up 20 people, a number of them, they say, would be suicide bombers. The Palestinians say 30 people have been detained. The Israeli operation in force continuing in Bethlehem at this time.
Just as the Israelis continue to bury those who were killed in yesterday's suicide bombing attack by a man from Bethlehem. Four teenagers or three teenagers, a child and seven adults were killed, among them a mother and her 16-year-old son and a grandmother and her 8-year-old grandson.
The, apart from that, there's been violence elsewhere and deaths elsewhere. An Israeli soldier reported killed in an ambush by a Palestinian sniper in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank just in the last few minutes we're getting reports of a 12-year-old Palestinian child shot and killed by Israeli forces as some kind of stand-off is developing as Israeli forces there try to track down a militant in the town of Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank.
So, generally violence beginning to gain momentum, unfortunately, in this ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- Carol.
COSTELLO: It all sounds so sadly familiar.
Jerrold Kessel, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
