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CNN Live At Daybreak
More Bloodshed in Mideast
Aired May 01, 2003 - 05:33 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.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now to the Middle East. Just hours after the unveiling of the so-called road map to peace in the region, there is more bloodshed. At least seven Palestinians are dead after Israeli forces entered Gaza City and surrounded the house of a Hamas activist.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel joins us now from Jerusalem with more -- Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Arthel, well, they're telling about that battle that's evolving in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City, and it's still the stand-off, a military stand-off still in place. There's the Israeli forces, who went in in force with tanks backed up by helicopter gunships during the, late into the night, have surrounded a building where there are believed to be a number of the members of the Izz a-Din el-Kassam -- that's the military wing of Hamas -- have holed up.
There have been some fairly heavy exchanges of fire between the militant operatives and the Israeli forces. And on terms of casualties, at least seven Palestinians have been killed during the hours of fighting there, including a 2-year-old toddler and a teenager. The Israelis report six of their soldiers wounded in the fierce clashes.
And just in the last hour or so, loudspeakers have been attached to cars have been traveling around the neighborhood, calling on all Hamas militants to withdraw from the area. That does seem to suggest that Hamas wary of this exploding into a still bigger gunfight with many non-combatants involved.
But the stand-off at the house is seemingly continuing at this hour.
Now, it seems, at least according to reliable Israeli sources, that although the army has not yet confirmed this, that this major operation by the Israelis in the Gaza City is linked to that suicide bombing that took place the night before last in Tel Aviv on the Tel Aviv seafront at that jazz bar at the, where two Palestinian -- two suicide bombers -- and it emerges they were not Palestinians, in fact, but British citizens who had been sent by Palestinians, so say the Israeli police. One of the men exploded with his bomb belt, killing three people and wounding some 50. The other man, the bomb belt apparently malfunctioned on that belt and he discarded it, made good a getaway and there's a major manhunt underway throughout Israel to find the second man, who, as I say, is a British citizen, so say the Israeli police. Now, what the Israeli media are saying is that the troops who went into that neighborhood of Gaza to search for the people who planned and dispatched those bombers into Tel Aviv.
So these two operations and this violence continuing and threatening to give a very bumpy start to the implementation of that peace plan, the road map for peace -- Arthel.
NEVILLE: So, Jerrold, what's the likelihood of this road map to peace even working?
KESSEL: Well, there's certainly these bumps off on the side, if you like, of the violence. There's the declarations from Hamas and the other militant groups not to play ball with the peacemakers and certainly to go against the new Palestinian government under the new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, who was given that road map only yesterday. All these things are threatening to scuttle the road map even before it has really got in place.
But there's another even more perhaps dangerous element in this, and that's the differing interpretations that the Palestinians and the Israelis have of the road map. The Palestinians say all the obligations, at least in the first phase, should be implemented together, both the Israeli obligations and the Palestinians. The Israelis say no, no, it's sequential. If we have obligations, say the Israelis, first must come the Palestinians' curbing of terror. Only if that is done do we need to operate and put into place our obligations. That's the Israeli view.
The Palestinian view very different. It remains to be seen whether the international community, primarily the United States, takes the position of one side or the other -- sequential or parallel moves by the two sides. But road map there is in place and there's some glimmer of hope at least that the violence can be ended. For the moment, it's the violence that's in the middle of the road -- Arthel.
NEVILLE: Jerrold Kessel, thank you very much for that live report from Jerusalem.
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 May 1, 2003 - 05:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now to the Middle East. Just hours after the unveiling of the so-called road map to peace in the region, there is more bloodshed. At least seven Palestinians are dead after Israeli forces entered Gaza City and surrounded the house of a Hamas activist.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel joins us now from Jerusalem with more -- Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Arthel, well, they're telling about that battle that's evolving in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City, and it's still the stand-off, a military stand-off still in place. There's the Israeli forces, who went in in force with tanks backed up by helicopter gunships during the, late into the night, have surrounded a building where there are believed to be a number of the members of the Izz a-Din el-Kassam -- that's the military wing of Hamas -- have holed up.
There have been some fairly heavy exchanges of fire between the militant operatives and the Israeli forces. And on terms of casualties, at least seven Palestinians have been killed during the hours of fighting there, including a 2-year-old toddler and a teenager. The Israelis report six of their soldiers wounded in the fierce clashes.
And just in the last hour or so, loudspeakers have been attached to cars have been traveling around the neighborhood, calling on all Hamas militants to withdraw from the area. That does seem to suggest that Hamas wary of this exploding into a still bigger gunfight with many non-combatants involved.
But the stand-off at the house is seemingly continuing at this hour.
Now, it seems, at least according to reliable Israeli sources, that although the army has not yet confirmed this, that this major operation by the Israelis in the Gaza City is linked to that suicide bombing that took place the night before last in Tel Aviv on the Tel Aviv seafront at that jazz bar at the, where two Palestinian -- two suicide bombers -- and it emerges they were not Palestinians, in fact, but British citizens who had been sent by Palestinians, so say the Israeli police. One of the men exploded with his bomb belt, killing three people and wounding some 50. The other man, the bomb belt apparently malfunctioned on that belt and he discarded it, made good a getaway and there's a major manhunt underway throughout Israel to find the second man, who, as I say, is a British citizen, so say the Israeli police. Now, what the Israeli media are saying is that the troops who went into that neighborhood of Gaza to search for the people who planned and dispatched those bombers into Tel Aviv.
So these two operations and this violence continuing and threatening to give a very bumpy start to the implementation of that peace plan, the road map for peace -- Arthel.
NEVILLE: So, Jerrold, what's the likelihood of this road map to peace even working?
KESSEL: Well, there's certainly these bumps off on the side, if you like, of the violence. There's the declarations from Hamas and the other militant groups not to play ball with the peacemakers and certainly to go against the new Palestinian government under the new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, who was given that road map only yesterday. All these things are threatening to scuttle the road map even before it has really got in place.
But there's another even more perhaps dangerous element in this, and that's the differing interpretations that the Palestinians and the Israelis have of the road map. The Palestinians say all the obligations, at least in the first phase, should be implemented together, both the Israeli obligations and the Palestinians. The Israelis say no, no, it's sequential. If we have obligations, say the Israelis, first must come the Palestinians' curbing of terror. Only if that is done do we need to operate and put into place our obligations. That's the Israeli view.
The Palestinian view very different. It remains to be seen whether the international community, primarily the United States, takes the position of one side or the other -- sequential or parallel moves by the two sides. But road map there is in place and there's some glimmer of hope at least that the violence can be ended. For the moment, it's the violence that's in the middle of the road -- Arthel.
NEVILLE: Jerrold Kessel, thank you very much for that live report from Jerusalem.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
