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CNN Live Saturday
More Bloodshed in Middle East
Aired March 02, 2002 - 22:13 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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: More blood was shed today in the Middle East. First, a Palestinian suicide bombing in central Jerusalem, which left 10 people dead, including the bomber. In an apparent response, Israel defense forces have confirmed Cobra helicopters fired on a Palestinian weapons factory in Bethlehem, also hitting a nearby Palestinian government building we're told.
CNN's Jerrold Kessel has more on today's suicide bombing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Prayers replaced by pandemonium, the powerful blast rocking the crowded Jerusalem street, just as people were emerging from synagogue at the end of the Jewish sabbath.
At least nine people were killed. Among the dead, an 18-month- old baby girl. Dozens of people wounded. The Baeth (ph) Israel neighborhood is home mostly to ultra Orthodox religious Jews. It also lies close to the unmarked theme between some of the city's Jewish neighborhoods and Palestinians suburbs. And several times in the past year in the focus of similar terror attacks.
At first, because of the car on fire, the presumption was that a booby-trapped vehicle had exploded. The Israeli police soon revised their working premise, convinced that this was another suicide bombing, striking as several have done in recent months in the center of Jerusalem.
The Eluxa (ph) Brigades, an armed offshoot to the mainstream Fata (ph) movement claimed responsibility.
DORE GOLD, ARIEL SHARON'S ADVISER: This has nothing to do with warfare. This has nothing to do with national liberation. This has to do with the murder of innocent Jews, coming back from their evening prayers. The state of Israel knows how to defend the people of Israel and will do so.
KESSEL: The Palestinian Authority issued a swift condemnation. But at the very time of the Jerusalem explosion, a rally had just got underway in nearby Ramallah on the West Bank. Palestinians have been expressing outrage and Palestinian groups vowing to avenge the Israeli military incursion into two West Bank refugee camps, an operation still underway and during which, fear fighting, more that 20 Palestinians, police, gunmen and civilians and two Israeli soldiers have been killed.
Came this as news of the Jerusalem bombing reached the rally. "What do the occupation expect of us?" says this man, who's linked to Hamas, the radical Islamic group. "What does the world want for the Palestinian people? Do we not have the right to respond," he adds. "Has the victim not the right to respond to those who are beating him?"
In the two refugee camps, sporadic shooting continued, as the Israeli army, despite international criticism, maintained its offensive against Palestinian militants. Though the forces have now regrouped on the outskirts of one of the camps.
Within the Balata (ph) camp, home to 20,000, allowing the battles, allowing the people who remain to try and pick up the pieces, after the three days of fierce fighting. Several vehicles were destroyed, as the tanks burst through. But there's little room for armor in much of the cramped camps. And that's meant the Israeli command has relied primarily on ground forces. To keep out of the narrow alleys as far as possible, the troops blew holes in walls, dividing homes as they conducted what the army called a building to building search for militant strongholds.
Palestinians called the Israeli sweep a war crime. Israel says the action is self-defense. The army says the action became imperative because militants were operating out of the camps at will. But this kind of battle is something the army command has stayed away from until now. And the wisdom of what's termed a grandiose operation is being challenged by some Israeli military and political commentators. A senior officer, however, says the message is being left loud and clear, the terrorists will not be allowed a safe haven anywhere.
The army gives no time limit for the operation, though some commanders concede political developments could dictate how long the troops will remain in Balata and around the Genean (ph) camp.
Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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