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CNN Live At Daybreak

Conflict in the Middle East: Clashes Continue

Aired August 14, 2001 - 07:02   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.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: An already heated Middle East grows hotter. There have been several clashes today in the West Bank, and they come after Israeli tanks rolled into Jenin, a Palestinian city that Israel says has been the staging area for several suicide bombers.

CNN's Jerrold Kessel is in Jerusalem, and he joins us now with more -- good morning again, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brian.

And the big question now after that Israeli action is this 11- month confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians assuming a new shape again -- this after that foray by about a dozen Israeli tanks into the heart of the Palestinian town of Jenin in the northern part of the West Bank. The tanks are operating there for some three -- 3 1/2 hours. They went into the center of the city, fired at the Palestinian police headquarters -- the main headquarters in the city. Armed bulldozers went in and demolished the building.

Palestinian gunmen fired at the tanks. The Israelis say they didn't fire back, because they knew they were operating in a densely populated area. They focused their attention on that Palestinian police post.

The Israelis saying very emphatically that the reason they went into Jenin was that has been the staging post for a series -- a string of Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks inside Israel by Palestinian militants in recent weeks. And all have emanated from the Jenin district, which the Israeli army chief of staff has called a "city of bombers."

But Israeli officials saying this was a message to Yasser Arafat's Palestinian authority: Stop supporting the militants or else. The Palestinian authority saying in response that Mr. Sharon is simply escalating the situation. He is determined to do away with the last vestiges of any hope for negotiations again and trying to undermine emphatically the authority of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian authority.

A new serious tone to these ongoing confrontations between the Israelis and the Palestinians -- Brian.

NELSON: Thank you, Jerrold -- CNN's Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem.

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