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CNN Live Saturday

Explosion in Jewish Settlement Kills 3 in Israel

Aired February 16, 2002 - 17:09   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the Middle East, where an explosion in a Jewish settlement on the West Bank has left three people dead and 26 injured. Police say one of those killed was the Palestinian suicide bomber. Earlier in a separate incident, three Palestinians were killed during an Israeli incursion in Gaza.

CNN's Jerrold Kessel is in Jerusalem, and joins us now with more on that.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, two Israelis dead, killed by that suicide bombing in the West Bank town -- settlement town of Kanai Shamron (ph). Another 26 were wounded; a number of them in serious condition, we understand from medical relief services who were on the spot after the bombing, which took place shortly after the end of the Jewish sabbath, when many of the young people in particular of the settlement came out into their -- into their shopping center to -- for a pizza, and it was at the pizzeria, the small pizzeria in that shopping center that the bomber struck, blowing himself up, and, as I say, killing two Israelis, wounding 26 others.

The -- this was the first such suicide bombing in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. But the scene for Israelis were the same grizzly type of scenes that have become all too familiar to them for similar attacks in the heart of their cities, in the heart of the country. And the -- the Palestinian security sources telling CNN that they believe that the man responsible was a 20-year-old from the town of Kilkalia (ph). That's a Palestinian town not far away from that Jewish settlement in the West Bank, and they believe to be a member of the radical national group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

An anonymous caller on the telephone to the Al Jazeera network said that indeed the PFLP carried out this attack. That's the only claim of responsibility we've heard.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who will be returning after a week -- he has been indisposed, ill at home -- will be back at work tomorrow, and we understand he's convened an emergency security cabinet meeting at midday to discuss this escalating situation and what will be Israel's response.

It indeed has been an escalating situation, the last 36 hours teaming with violent incidents. And indeed, if you could say there was some kind of violence measuring instrument to devise just how the level of escalation was going up, the pendulum would be swinging dramatically toward the red hot zone. And there are all indications that it could become even more violent in the days ahead -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks very much. Jerrold Kessel reporting.

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