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CNN Live At Daybreak

Israel Strikes Gaza and West Bank Simultaneously

Aired December 04, 2001 - 05:41   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Retaliation for suicide bombings that has killed dozens of civilians, Israel continues to pound Palestinian targets in Gaza and the West Bank.

Our CNN's Jerrold Kessel joins us live from Jerusalem now with more on this story continuing at this very moment -- Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, there have been simultaneous strikes by the Israeli air forces at targets in the Gaza and the West Bank -- four in all of such targets. But the most critical was when helicopter gunships -- Israeli helicopter gunships fired at least two missiles at a building in the heart of the West Bank town of Ramallah at the compound, which houses Yasser Arafat's headquarters.

Now, the Palestinian Authority leader was, in fact, in a building adjacent to the one that was hit by those missiles. He was reported by -- confirmed by Palestinian officials to have been there at the time, but was unhurt, they say.

Now, the Israeli gunships also struck in another West Bank location in the town Sofi (ph) for the North and the West Bank, and two targets in Gaza -- one in Gaza City itself, and one in the southern part of Gaza in Khan Yunis there. A target hit designated by the Israeli army as being a regional headquarters of the Preventative Security operators, and that's one very close to Yasser Arafat.

Now, these air attacks come after a ground action by Israeli tanks during the night in Ramallah, and the northern West Bank of Nablus, and these come after a critical decision taken by the Israeli government after a six-hour meeting late last night, which lasted into the early hours of this morning. The coalition government of Ariel Sharon coming out and designating the Palestinian Authority of Yasser Arafat as an organization, as an entity, which support terrorism. And of course, that can have dramatic implications for the way Mr. Sharon and his government relates to Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

And in that very firm statement issued by the Israeli government at the end of that meeting, they stipulated that the cause of the ferocity of the suicide bombing attacks -- the coordinated attacks as Israel sees them -- over the weekend in the town -- in Jerusalem and in Haifa, which killed 25 Israelis and wounded over 200. Israel needed to take firm action in response to step up its action against the Palestinian Authority and against the sources of terror, and Israel is saying very pointedly that those actions would continue so long as the Palestinian Authority did not, itself, root out its terror roots, in the Israeli description of the Palestinian Authority.

So, in wake of the very fierce rhetoric that emerged from the Israeli government, we have now had airstrikes -- coordinated airstrikes in four locations in Gaza and the West Bank. In terms of casualties, Palestinian sources, medical relief services in Gaza are reporting that two people dead in the attack in Gaza City, and some 80 injured according to sources in Gaza itself. That has not been confirmed from elsewhere. But in Ramallah, one person reported hurt, and no other reports of casualties in the other Israeli airstrikes this morning -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jerrold, analyzing these targets -- Arafat's presidential compound, Arafat's helicopters, the Gaza International Airport, et cetera -- what's keeping Israel from targeting Arafat directly?

KESSEL: That's an absolutely valid question, and I think they decided to refrain from that, perhaps we should add at this stage.

Now, we know that there have been enormous demands from the right wing of the Israeli government to say that Ariel Sharon should go and to try to pressure him into going after Mr. Arafat personally, to effectively toppling the Palestinian Authority. Well, Mr. Sharon seems to stop short of that, both in his public statement yesterday, in the official statement put out by the Israeli Authority, but it is as close as close as close can be to taking that extra step of targeting the Palestinian Authority itself.

You don't cut much more closer to the bone than the kind of building that was hit in one of the missile attacks this morning, and that is one right next to where Mr. Arafat was at the time. Yesterday, the attacks were on the helicopters, as you say, in Gaza City, where he was not on the airport -- the Gaza International Airport. Those can definitely be seen as strikes, at the symbols of the Palestinian Authority at its sovereignty, at its would-be sovereignty as the elements that would form the basis of the future Palestinian state. Now, they have come even closer and gone closer to going after Yasser Arafat himself.

The Israelis are saying that's not their target, but I do think we need to say at this stage -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: CNN's Jerrold Kessel live from Jerusalem -- thank you very much.

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