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CNN Live At Daybreak

Sharon Says Israel Will Withdraw From West Bank When Mission Is Complete

Aired October 25, 2001 - 05:30   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, to the conflict in the Middle East, where at least 5 Palestinians are dead at the hands of Israeli troops in the West Bank.

CNN's Mike Hanna has been covering this for the last few days. He joins us now live, from Jerusalem. Hello Mike.

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello Leon.

Well controversy continues to surround the latest Israeli operation or incursion into Palestinian controlled territory. That was into a little village in the West Bank, a village called Beit Rima. Throughout yesterday the village was completely cordoned off by Israeli security forces. There was intense fighting reported from inside the village.

There are disputed accounts of exactly what happened . The Israeli defense force says that five Palestinians were killed during the operation. It says that all of these killed were known militants. The Palestinian medical sources, however, say that five bodies have been returned to them by the Israeli forces, but all of these five were police officers who were stationed in the village.

Israel says it was hunting after the killers of an Israeli government minister who was assassinated last week. Elsewhere in the West Bank, there has been ongoing violence in the West Bank city of Bethlehem in particular throughout Wednesday, there was ongoing conflict, exchanges of fire. Palestinian gunmen firing at the Israeli tanks that had ensconced themselves in the city over the past week.

In the course of this morning, another casualty. A Palestinian shot and killed by an Israeli soldier in Bethlehem. The Israeli forces have moved out of that village, in Beit Rima, in the West Bank. But the tanks remained ensconced several other West Bank towns, cities and villages. The Palestinian Authority has called for the immediate withdrawal. So, too, has the United States in a State Department statement yesterday.

The Secretary of State, Colin Powell said that it would be good if the troops withdrew "immediately." He used the word immediately. Ariel Sharon has been using the phrase "as soon as possible," saying that Israeli troops will stay where they are until "their mission," as he puts it, is completed. So from the Israeli government, still what amounts to defiance of U.S. demands for a withdrawal from the Palestinian areas that have been occupied over the past week, but the Israeli cabinet is meeting later on in the day to decide its timetable for withdrawal, if indeed it does decide to withdraw from these autonomous Palestinian territories.

Leon.

HARRIS: Thank you very much. Mike Hanna reporting live for us this morning from Jerusalem.

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