Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

More Unrest in Middle East

Aired February 16, 2002 - 22:35   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: In the Middle East today, more unrest. The Palestinian Red Crescent says that Israeli helicopters have been targeting police headquarters in Nabulu on the West Bank. This comes after a Palestinian suicide bombing in the Jewish settlement elsewhere on the West Bank left two Israelis dead and 26 others injured.

A man police say was the bomber was also killed. That attack was just part of the unrest in the region this weekend. Here's CNN's Jerrold Kessel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was soon after the end of the Jewish Sabbath when the bombers struck. Many young people from the settlement had come out for a pizza in their shopping center. This was the first such suicide bombing in the West Bank settlement. The grizzly scenes though, the same Israelis had come to recognize from previous such attacks in the heart of their cities, death and destruction, anger and pain. The attack capped a day teaming with violent incidents.

In the Palestinian town of Jenin, of course, the revenge as a crowd gathered following the killing of a prominent activist of the radical Islamic group, Hamas', military wing. An explosive ripped through his parked car as he approached it.

Israel maintains a steadied silence on this incident. Palestinians have no doubt it was Israel's work, another assassination of a man on the Israel army's wanted list.

Israel is threatening further escalation after it says Hamas upped the stakes by launching more rockets of the kind showed here in a Hamas promotional video of its homemade Qassam missiles. The latest rockets again landed harmlessly in an Israeli communal farm close to the Gaza border.

Inside Gaza, three Palestinians, two teenagers and a policeman were killed in shooting exchanges after another Israeli incursion into a Palestinian controlled area. This time the take-over of a regional security headquarters.

Each Palestinian attacks reshapes the simmering dissent with Israel, but increasingly, there are questions now about military tactics and over the Sharon government's strategy of pushing for a military solution without a parallel political agenda. For now, the demand is for urgent political action instead of more military action. Several thousand left wing Israelis marching through Tel Aviv and calling for the end to the occupation, the first serious protest since the start of the bloody confrontation a year-and-a-half ago.

TZALI RESHEF, PEACE NOW MOVEMENT: There's the demand from the government to come up with a real plan or a real negotiating plan because if they don't do it, I think that more and more Israelis are not going to accept the policies of this government.

KESSEL:: One of the highlight speakers at the concluding rally was leading Palestinian moderate Surrey Nesaber (ph).

(on camera): The turnout here does suggest that something has changed for some Israelis. But it's a long, long way for this to become the dominant Israeli voice, especially given the current climate of the conflict.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com