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CNN Live At Daybreak
Four Palestinians Killed in Overnight Explosion
Aired June 23, 2003 - 06:08 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 world hears it one more time: The United States will remain committed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process; more of the same from Colin Powell. The secretary of state was the administration's point man at a meeting of the Mideast Quartet. The U.S. and U.N., the European Union and Russia are the architects of the road map to Middle East peace, but their efforts to push the peace plan forward were overshadowed by another weekend of bloodshed in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We've got to keep pressing ahead, but this does not mean that we will not have incidents that will come along that will cause people to wonder whether or not we're going to succeed. And what we have to do is keep driving ahead and not let these incidents keep us off course or stop the progress that I think it is possible to make.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And that word from Powell comes just hours after more violence. Four Palestinian were killed overnight in an explosion in the Gaza Strip.
Live to Jerusalem and Jerrold Kessel.
Hello -- Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.
And despite the violence, a rather upbeat appraisal by the secretary of state there, speaking at that World Economic Forum in Jordan. But the equation remains the same, the violence versus these intensive endeavors to get the road map for peace up and going.
And, really, the big question is: Is everything finally coming together to get that peace initiative on the road, or is it call coming apart? But to look at the violence, maybe the latter is suggested.
After the night before last, Israel had targeted and killed a leading Hamas man in Hebron on the West Bank. Last night, four other Palestinian militants killed in Gaza. They belonged to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. That's the mainstream group linked to the Fatah movement.
But it could be in this (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that they were preparing a bomb, and it might have gone off prematurely. First, Palestinian officials said Israeli forces targeted the man. That was denied by Israel. And now the Palestinians seem to be suggesting that it was a premature explosion, although al-Aqsa is still saying that their men were targeted by Israel, though they do admit they were planning to bomb one of the Israeli positions there, where Israel has reoccupied the northern part of Gaza.
But Mr. Powell has been optimistic that the two axes, which are under way to try to get that peace initiative up and running, may bear fruit in the days ahead. The first is the question of: Will Hamas be contained by the talks that the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas is trying to constrain them on to get them to agree to at least a temporary truce in their activities, in their actions, in their strikes against Israel? And the second level of whether there can be a formal agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority, whereby Israeli forces will be withdrawn from those areas, like northern Gaza, and the Palestinian security come in instead.
Another observation by Mr. Powell, he's quoted in an Israeli newspaper this morning as saying the next two weeks will be critical. If we don't get things really moving, he said, maybe we won't be able to salvage this peace initiative.
So, a critical time, always a danger to put a timeline on things in the Middle East. Mr. Powell seems to be doing that, but he still seems to be optimistic that peace, or least the peace drive, can gain momentum -- Carol.
COSTELLO: We'll see what happens. Jerrold Kessel 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 23, 2003 - 06:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The world hears it one more time: The United States will remain committed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process; more of the same from Colin Powell. The secretary of state was the administration's point man at a meeting of the Mideast Quartet. The U.S. and U.N., the European Union and Russia are the architects of the road map to Middle East peace, but their efforts to push the peace plan forward were overshadowed by another weekend of bloodshed in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We've got to keep pressing ahead, but this does not mean that we will not have incidents that will come along that will cause people to wonder whether or not we're going to succeed. And what we have to do is keep driving ahead and not let these incidents keep us off course or stop the progress that I think it is possible to make.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And that word from Powell comes just hours after more violence. Four Palestinian were killed overnight in an explosion in the Gaza Strip.
Live to Jerusalem and Jerrold Kessel.
Hello -- Jerrold.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.
And despite the violence, a rather upbeat appraisal by the secretary of state there, speaking at that World Economic Forum in Jordan. But the equation remains the same, the violence versus these intensive endeavors to get the road map for peace up and going.
And, really, the big question is: Is everything finally coming together to get that peace initiative on the road, or is it call coming apart? But to look at the violence, maybe the latter is suggested.
After the night before last, Israel had targeted and killed a leading Hamas man in Hebron on the West Bank. Last night, four other Palestinian militants killed in Gaza. They belonged to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. That's the mainstream group linked to the Fatah movement.
But it could be in this (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that they were preparing a bomb, and it might have gone off prematurely. First, Palestinian officials said Israeli forces targeted the man. That was denied by Israel. And now the Palestinians seem to be suggesting that it was a premature explosion, although al-Aqsa is still saying that their men were targeted by Israel, though they do admit they were planning to bomb one of the Israeli positions there, where Israel has reoccupied the northern part of Gaza.
But Mr. Powell has been optimistic that the two axes, which are under way to try to get that peace initiative up and running, may bear fruit in the days ahead. The first is the question of: Will Hamas be contained by the talks that the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas is trying to constrain them on to get them to agree to at least a temporary truce in their activities, in their actions, in their strikes against Israel? And the second level of whether there can be a formal agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority, whereby Israeli forces will be withdrawn from those areas, like northern Gaza, and the Palestinian security come in instead.
Another observation by Mr. Powell, he's quoted in an Israeli newspaper this morning as saying the next two weeks will be critical. If we don't get things really moving, he said, maybe we won't be able to salvage this peace initiative.
So, a critical time, always a danger to put a timeline on things in the Middle East. Mr. Powell seems to be doing that, but he still seems to be optimistic that peace, or least the peace drive, can gain momentum -- Carol.
COSTELLO: We'll see what happens. Jerrold Kessel 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.
