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CNN Live At Daybreak
7-Year-Old Israeli Girl Killed on Toll Road
Aired June 18, 2003 - 06:05 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: The littlest victim, a 7-year-old Israeli girl is killed as someone opens fire on her car. Palestinian gunmen are suspected. This happens as Mahmoud Abbas struggles for a cease-fire from terrorist groups.
Live to Jerusalem now and Jerrold Kessel.
Good morning -- Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is due in the area in 48 hours from now to try to consolidate these efforts that have been under way over the last few days to get an informal truce in place of the end of the attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis.
But to underline the fragile situation, this latest shooting incident late last night on an Israeli highway close to the West Bank, a family car traveling down that highway was attacked, came under automatic gunfire. A 7-year-old girl was killed and three other family members were wounded, including her 3-year-old sister who was seriously hurt.
The Israeli forces have clamped down the curfew on the nearby Palestinian town of Qalqilyah, but so far they've been unable to come up with the gunmen or gunman, who slipped across a wall that's being built by the Israelis to avert such attacks across the West Bank border.
Just in the last few minutes, Carol, a claim of responsibility in Beirut by two radical nationalist groups, not the Islamic groups. No word at this end of a claim of responsibility.
But it certainly overshadows those efforts that have been going on for the last several days down in Gaza, where Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, has been trying to get the radical groups, all various denominations of those groups, in line to commit themselves to stopping their attacks on Israel, and there to open up the way for an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, where the Israeli forces would withdraw from some of the areas they've reoccupied in Gaza and in the West Bank and allow the Palestinian Authority forces to take over. The Palestinian Authority says it can only do that if it manages to get the cease-fire in place.
There is expected to be an answer from Hamas and the other radical groups by tomorrow, in advance of Colin Powell's arrival in the area for a short visit. But at the moment, it's certainly a very fragile situation with this fresh violence casting a shadow over those attempts to get a cease-fire -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jerrold Kessel bringing us up-to-date live from Jerusalem this morning.
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 June 18, 2003 - 06:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The littlest victim, a 7-year-old Israeli girl is killed as someone opens fire on her car. Palestinian gunmen are suspected. This happens as Mahmoud Abbas struggles for a cease-fire from terrorist groups.
Live to Jerusalem now and Jerrold Kessel.
Good morning -- Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is due in the area in 48 hours from now to try to consolidate these efforts that have been under way over the last few days to get an informal truce in place of the end of the attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis.
But to underline the fragile situation, this latest shooting incident late last night on an Israeli highway close to the West Bank, a family car traveling down that highway was attacked, came under automatic gunfire. A 7-year-old girl was killed and three other family members were wounded, including her 3-year-old sister who was seriously hurt.
The Israeli forces have clamped down the curfew on the nearby Palestinian town of Qalqilyah, but so far they've been unable to come up with the gunmen or gunman, who slipped across a wall that's being built by the Israelis to avert such attacks across the West Bank border.
Just in the last few minutes, Carol, a claim of responsibility in Beirut by two radical nationalist groups, not the Islamic groups. No word at this end of a claim of responsibility.
But it certainly overshadows those efforts that have been going on for the last several days down in Gaza, where Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, has been trying to get the radical groups, all various denominations of those groups, in line to commit themselves to stopping their attacks on Israel, and there to open up the way for an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, where the Israeli forces would withdraw from some of the areas they've reoccupied in Gaza and in the West Bank and allow the Palestinian Authority forces to take over. The Palestinian Authority says it can only do that if it manages to get the cease-fire in place.
There is expected to be an answer from Hamas and the other radical groups by tomorrow, in advance of Colin Powell's arrival in the area for a short visit. But at the moment, it's certainly a very fragile situation with this fresh violence casting a shadow over those attempts to get a cease-fire -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Jerrold Kessel bringing us up-to-date live from Jerusalem this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
