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CNN Live Sunday

Diplomatic Efforts Doing Little to Stop Middle East Conflict; At Least Three Killed in Haifa Attack; At Least 14 Killed in Lebanese Attacks

Aired August 06, 2006 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The international community will have put forward its views of how this war can abate, and then we'll see who's for peace and who isn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The United States secretary of state, diplomatic efforts doing very little to stop the rockets from flying as Sunday proves to be the most violent day yet in the Israel- Hezbollah conflict.

Hello, and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Carol Lin. And I want to invite our international viewers to stay with us throughout this hour.

CNN has crews in the cities throughout the region. Most of them have seen the fire firsthand. We're going to get started with a look at what's happening right now in the crisis in the Middle East.

This is the big story today. Rockets striking a neighborhood in Israel's third-largest city just before dark. At least three people were killed in the attack on Haifa, and scores were wounded. We are going to have a live report from Fionnuala Sweeney, who saw the rockets land in the Haifa bay today, has been reporting on this all day long. She'll be with us in just a moment.

Also, 12 Israeli reservists were killed and 14 wounded by a Hezbollah rocket. It was the group's single deadliest in the nearly month of fighting. Also today, Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed at least 14 people; the targets included Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Now, for Israel, this was the bloodiest day so far in nearly four weeks of fighting with Hezbollah. We are going to begin our live coverage in Haifa, with CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney.

Fionnuala, tell us what you've seen today.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it was just over five hours ago, just as the sun was setting here in this northern Israeli port city of Haifa, that several rockets landed inside the city, six in all. As you reported, six people killed, 100 people wounded. Now, for a time, several people were trapped in the rubble, but they have all now been released and have been taken to hospital. One of the rockets hitting an Israeli-Arab neighborhood and, in fact, three Arabs living in this city -- it's rather a mixed city of Jews and Arabs -- have been killed.

Now, the air-raid sirens have been sounded intermittently throughout this conflict, and Haifa has seen some sustained and continued rocket barrages on the city, but tonight is one of the worst nights. About four weeks ago, eight people were killed when rockets hit the city. But in a sense, Haifa residents have become used to the air-raid sirens going off.

But it was quite unusual this evening, because at about 7:00 in the evening, after a pretty quiet day, relatively speaking, we saw some seven rockets land in an open area. There were no injuries. And it is rather unusual, Carol, for Hezbollah to attack after sunset, because when they launch a rocket, the Israeli military drones overheard can see the flash from the rocket launchers.

But it was just coming up to 8:00 in the evening, local time here, the sun just setting, when the air-raid sirens went off again and we saw these rockets landing at various standpoints throughout the city. And because people have gone indoors, Carol, because traffic is stopped on the street, it was really quite an eerie silence, once each of those rockets fell, to be followed almost immediately by smoke, which we could not only see, but also hear, rising from the buildings.

So Haifa residents and the rescue services literally picking up the pieces tonight after yet another rocket attack here.

LIN: Fionnuala, what are your sources telling you about why Hezbollah would choose to strike at night, knowing that they would be more easily detected?

SWEENEY: Well, earlier in the evening, we were talking to correspondent John Roberts who is embedded with Israeli troops just north of the Israeli border in southern Lebanon, and it is a sense, really, that Hezbollah are ratcheting up the ante here. We have seen more rockets, Carol, being fired into northern Israel over the last three or four days each and every day than we've seen at any time in this conflict.

On average, 200 rockets have been falling on northern Israel across the northern one-third of this country over the last three days. And there weren't only just casualties here in Haifa; up at a kibbutz at Kfar Giladi, on the Israeli-Lebanese border, 12 Israeli reservists were killed when a rocket hit them earlier in the day. Now, that is a huge toll for the Israeli military to take. And these reservists were actually standing, and waiting, and resting before they were going ahead up into southern Lebanon to support their colleagues there.

So the Israeli military here now taking quite a pounding. And I think it's quite telling that, despite the pounding that the Israeli military is giving Hezbollah, that they are still able to direct these rockets at places like Haifa.

One final word: The IDF, though, telling us this evening that they took out a rocket launched in Qana in southern Lebanon this evening. That rocket launcher, they believe, was the one responsible for all of the rockets coming into Haifa this evening -- Carol?

LIN: Fionnuala, we'll be talking with the IDF spokesman also in our primetime coverage. Fionnuala Sweeney standing by there in Haifa.

She mentioned the attack on the reservists. We're going to have another story, because our Matthew Chance has been covering that story. But we also want to show you what the mayor of Haifa had to say today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR YONA YAHAV, HAIFA, ISRAEL: This evening, which was a very sad evening, the rockets hit our big residential area of the city. And unfortunately, three people were killed and more than 100 people injured. But nothing can jeopardize the harmonal life between Jews and Arabs, which is lasting already more than 100 years in this city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Now, east of Haifa, as Fionnuala was describing, the deadlier attack. A Hezbollah rocket killed an entire group of reserve soldiers who had just been called up to fight. It happened in the town of Kfar Giladi, and CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has been the deadliest day in Israel since the beginning of the campaign with Hezbollah in Lebanon. A Katyusha rocket hitting a group of soldiers at their makeshift staging ground near a kibbutz, just across from the Lebanese border.

We're told by Israeli officials now that at least 12 of those soldiers, reservists in a parachute regiment, were killed as a result of that strike. A number of others were injured and ferried away by helicopter to hospitals to receive treatment. Again, the biggest strike, the deadliest strike of any Hezbollah rocket against the Israelis so far, and a very grim milestone in this conflict.

The big question though: What will be the consequences of this strike? Certainly, this frustration and this anger amongst the Israeli public, they'll be demanding some kind of military from their military. And there are great deal of concern around the region now as to what Israel's response will be in Lebanon to these latest killings.

Matthew Chance, CNN, on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LIN: And let us not forget the two Israeli soldiers who were kidnapped by Hezbollah. Speaking out on CNN, the wife and father of one of the Israeli soldiers kidnapped. They tell Wolf Blitzer what they want from one of the suspected kidnappers now in Israeli custody, that compelling interview coming up on CNN SUNDAY.

Now, there was also death and damage in Lebanon. Straight up the coast from Tyre, more Israeli strikes on the suburbs of Lebanon's capital. The attacks included a rare daytime air raid.

So let's go live to CNN's Jim Clancy on the front lines in Beirut. Jim, what did you see today?

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, this bomb blast really rocked the capital. It happened just at the same time that Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary general, was arriving in Lebanon from the Syrian capital, here for an emergency meeting of the Arab League. That takes place in a matter of hours' time. It's already passed 1:00 in the morning here, Monday morning in Beirut.

But the Lebanese in the southern suburbs, really hardened by successive attacks on those suburbs. The Israelis say they're going after Hezbollah targets. The residents there say, far from that, it is claiming a civilian toll. We went there to today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY (voice-over): Thick, gray smoke rose above Beirut's skyline as a daylight bombing raid again targeted the southern suburbs. Beirut's fire brigade has been dodging the falling bombing, responding to smoldering ruins to douse flames and search for survivors.

This is the remains of a 10-story apartment block hit more than 24 hours earlier; completely flattened, it was a death trap for a family of three unable to flee along with other residents. A bicycle and teddy bear lie in the rubble along with bedding, furniture and other belongings.

Nearby, another apartment block, another bomb site. The fire is out, but anger still burns.

"Let Israel, America and Britain know they can't drive us away," declared this resident. "We are stronger than that. We are not afraid. If a bomb drops on us, we either die or keep standing. We don't run away."

There is uncommon conviction among residents of the southern suburbs, conviction Israel alone is not to blame, that the U.S. provided the bombs and together with Britain let Israel play a deadly military card in their neighborhoods for weeks, a conviction that Hezbollah deserves all of their support.

Many believe it is this sentiment on the street that is driving Arab diplomats to take a tougher stand in the conflict. Ahead of a major meeting Monday, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa arrived in the Lebanese capital, even as it shook from Israel's daylight strike.

His criticism of the draft U.N. cease-fire paled in comparison to government speaker Nabih Berri who said the draft resolution paid attention to Israel's demands but ignored Lebanon's needs. Berri, who is Lebanon's negotiator, said the draft was the result of dictation, not negotiation, and said he wanted no part of it.

"I thank them," Berri said sarcastically. "I was supposed to negotiate. They've relieved me of that responsibility, and I no longer have anything to do with it. Before it even comes up with a vote, I say, 'Merci. Au revoir,'" thanks and goodbye.

The Lebanese are concerned with more than the fate of two captured Israeli soldiers: They want their own prisoners freed and all Israeli troops off Lebanese territory. It's a tough stand. Like the fires that still smolder in Beirut, putting out the flames of this conflict is going to be tough, much tougher than anyone imagined that the outset.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: For her part, the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, cautioned everyone that this draft U.N. cease-fire is not going to immediately stop all of the fighting. Well, that may be regarded as understatement here in the Lebanese capital in the early morning hours now, because as people survey the scene, they are really pessimistic about the chances for peace, pessimistic that the U.N. Security Council will be able to secure that peace, even move the process forward. For many here, it just looks like a relentless push toward more violence -- Carol?

LIN: All right, Jim Clancy reporting live from Beirut.

We are going to be staying in the Middle East on this special edition of CNN LIVE SUNDAY. And we're also going to go to Crawford, Texas, where the secretary of state held an early morning news conference from the president's ranch. She is challenging both sides to stop the violence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: There you were seeing the damage from the rocket attacks in Haifa, Israel. And on your screen right now, you see four screens. Those are the Middle Eastern networks. We are monitoring Arab television stations, including Hezbollah TV, Al-Manar Television, which is owned by Hezbollah.

Some of the more graphic images are coming across, but when we -- they're often on the scene first. And so we want to bring you the most immediate information, and oftentimes the Arab television networks can get to those locations more quickly than the Western media, so we're covering all our bases.

And here in the United States, we're also covering the diplomatic front. It has been a busy working vacation for the president of the United States. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Texas ranch there, trying to work the wording of an U.N. draft resolution. Somehow, this resolution may help reach a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel, at least that is the hope.

But the U.N. Security Council won't vote on the plan until tomorrow, or even Tuesday. So Condoleezza Rice is staying close to the president who is at his ranch.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux traveling with the president, she joins us live from there.

Suzanne, the wording of that draft resolution has to be so careful. The analysis of the word "immediate" even comes down to a matter of days or weeks of debate at the U.N.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, absolutely, Carol. And, of course, the U.N. Security Council is going to have these meetings in the next 24 to 48 hours to go over that resolution. Certainly, the administration hopes that this is going to be some sort of breakthrough, but already we're beginning to hear some words of caution from administration officials simply trying to lower expectations, saying this is not going to mean and end to the violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX (voice-over): As the fierce fighting continues, the Bush administration believes the best shot at ending it will come from an U.N. Security Council resolution it drafted with the French.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I would hope that you would see very early on an end to the kind of large-scale violence, large-scale military operations, firing of rockets that we've been seeing.

MALVEAUX: The White House is in overdrive to try to sell the resolution over the next 24 hours to the other members of the U.N. Security Council in hopes of a vote late Monday. But already Hezbollah, the Lebanese government, and some key Arab allies have expressed frustration with the plan, saying any real cease-fire proposal would have to include Israeli troops immediately pulling out of Lebanese territory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are also asking that, shortly after the cease-fire is in place, the Israeli army should withdraw from the territory it has reoccupied.

MALVEAUX: That will happen, administration officials insist, but it's probably weeks away. This is the first of two resolutions the White House believes will set up the political conditions for a lasting peace.

STEPHEN HADLEY, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We want to get that resolution adopted as a first step towards bringing down the violence, moving very quickly to a second resolution, which would involve a multinational force and call for the Lebanese army to move into southern Lebanon, backed by that multinational force. And at that point, the Israelis could withdraw from southern Lebanon.

MALVEAUX: But until then, when will either side stop the fighting? While the resolution calls for Hezbollah to stop all attacks, it requires Israel to stop only offensive military operations. Today, the White House clarified.

HADLEY: I think, when people talk of offensive military actions, they would be thinking about the air strikes that have occurred out of the southern area and they would be thinking about the military operations that the ground forces have been undertaking.

MALVEAUX: Israel said, if passed, it would abide by the resolution calling for both sides to end the violence.

DANIEL AYALON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: If we could do it simultaneously, so be it. But to do it, we have to see a resolute government of Lebanon which can tackle the Hezbollah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: So, Carol, U.S. officials already saying that this is not going to be a quick fix, this resolution. And tomorrow, we expect to hear from President Bush, along with Secretary Rice, at the Crawford ranch to give a further update on how they are going to handle the situation, how are they going to move the ball forward in the next 24 to 48 hours -- Carol?

LIN: Tight deadline. Thank you very much, Suzanne.

Now, in 20 minutes, please don't miss our Aneesh Raman's exclusive interview with Amr Moussa. He is the secretary general of the Arab League which is meeting tomorrow. He talks about why some Arab attitudes towards the Israelis are dramatically changing. That's in about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, there are too many innocent victims to list in this ongoing crisis in the Middle East, but perhaps it's the hurt we see in the children of war that strikes hardest at our hearts. Coming up, Amnesty International reaches out to the victims of war.

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LIN: The scenes from the carnage of a rocket attack in Haifa, Israel, tonight.

You know, there are always innocents getting caught in the crossfire of war, but we are seeing a new trend: the targeting of women, and specifically children. Now, even today, the group, Human Rights Watch, accused Hezbollah of war crimes today, citing the group's alleged indiscriminate firing of rockets into civilian areas.

Curt Goering from Amnesty International joins us live from our New York bureau. Curt, not only the attacks of civilians in the Middle East crisis, but specifically the targeted bombing of a soccer field just a few days ago in Baghdad, in Iraq. Are children becoming the target of choice in a war zone now? CURT GOERING, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Unfortunately, that seems to be the trend that we are seeing. You know, it used to be that the casualties and victims in wartime, at the beginning of the century, for example, were overwhelmingly combatants, up to 90 percent combatants. Today, that statistic has been turned on its head, and we see in many conflicts between 80 and 90 percent of the victims of the casualties being civilians, and particularly women and children who are the casualties in disproportionate numbers.

LIN: But why? I mean, these insurgents in Baghdad put two bombs on an active soccer field knowing that they would detonate during a game.

GOERING: Yes, these kinds of attacks, these brazen attacks deliberately attempting to kill as many civilians, children, as possible are just outrageous. There was also a second attack on another soccer field to the north of Baghdad this week.

These kinds of brazen attacks that are carried out by armed groups, groups that have no other purpose than to sow the seeds of terror, to try to kill as many innocent civilians, and particularly children, as possible. People going today in Iraq on their way to a funeral were targeted, people standing in line for work, people on their way to the mosque to pray are targeted.

Six thousand civilians in Iraq over the last two months have been killed by groups whose purpose is none other than to sow terror.

LIN: And by killing children, the most innocent of people in a war zone, it creates shock, it creates disgust, and somehow empowers those groups. And yet what happened to the international standards of winning hearts and minds on a battlefield, that that is how you win the war? What happened to international standards? They can't apply when it comes to a war of insurgency.

GOERING: Well, they should apply, and one of the reasons -- we can't fight wars by abandoning standards. It is true that these insurgent groups, these groups that sow terror, are not going to respect international standards, but that is not the way to counter terrorism.

One thing we do know from the experience of the last four years is we cannot abandon the rules of warfare; we cannot adopt the same kind of techniques that the insurgent groups are using.

LIN: But if the insurgents kill yours and you can't kill theirs, how do you protect yourself?

GOERING: No, there is a place for robust law enforcement. There is a place for very good intelligence. But what you also do not do is grab people off the battlefield or even away from the battlefield, haul them off, hold them without charge or trial for years on end. You don't engage in torture or ill treatment of those you capture. And you certainly don't disappear individuals in a network of clandestine centers. But there is a lot that can and should be done. The clerics in Iraq, for example, perhaps particularly the Sunni religious leadership, could be and should be far more outspoken in their condemnation of these kinds of outrageous attacks on children, and women, and innocent civilians.

LIN: All right. Well, let's see. We hope to see more of that, because the voices from the region are going to be the loudest. Curt Goering, thank you very much, Amnesty International.

GOERING: Thank you.

LIN: We're going to continue of our coverage of children in the conflict, the Middle East conflict in particular. Children are being killed on both sides of the border. So coming up next in the next hour, we're going to hear what the U.N. Security Council is doing to protect them.

Also, more reports from the war-torn region next. Plus, meet a family living in America that's determined to move to Israel, despite the escalating violence. You're watching a special edition of CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

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