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CNN Live At Daybreak

Palestinian Militant Killed, Threatening Ceasefire

Aired January 15, 2002 - 06:39   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the Middle East, the cease- fire between militant Palestinians and Israel didn't last very long. An Israeli soldier was killed and another wounded just hours after a bomb killed a militant from Yasser Arafat's Fatah Party. CNN's Mike Hanna looks at a crisis that appears to be heating up again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Palestinians mourn the death of Raed al-Karmi, killed in an explosion near his home in the West Bank City of Tulkarem. Palestinians say the 27-year old was assassinated by Israeli forces. Israel denies this, but adds al-Karmi was a wanted man, a leading figure in an armed offshoot of the Fatah Movement and that he had supposedly been put in jail by the Palestinian authority.

RA'ANAN GISSIN, ARIEL SHARON SPOKESMAN: Raed al-Karmi, who was responsible for the killing of two Israeli restaurant owners and a whole host of other terrorist activity that took the life of scores of Israelis, was supposed to be under arrest. In other words, the Palestinian authority reported to us that he was arrested and he was under arrest.

HANNA: In an interview with CNN last year, Raed al-Karmi confirmed his involvement in several attacks.

RAED AL-KARMI, FATAH MOVEMENT (through translator): An Israeli that commits any attacks against the Palestinians will be targeted by us, and we will hit them wherever they are, inside Israel or in the Israeli settlements.

HANNA: Raed al-Karmi was the target of an Israeli attack in September when a missile was fired at his car. He survived, but two other Palestinians traveling with him were killed. His death now has sparked a fresh wave of Palestinian anger. Demonstrators rejecting Israeli's denial of involvement in his killing, leaflets calling for revenge, and Fatah leaders says Yasser Arafat's call for a cease-fire will no longer be observed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Israeli destroyed the cease-fire. Not the Palestinians, nobody can blame the Palestinians. The Palestinian people has the full right to defend himself.

HANNA: And later Monday, Israeli soldiers killed in a Palestinian attack near the West Bank City of Nablus, the radical Al Aqsa Brigade of which Raed al-Karmi was a member claiming responsibility.

(on camera): Large scale turmoil is once again looming in the region. Whatever cease-fire was in place, apparently in tatters, and in question to the viability of recent moves by the U.S. to take a more direct role in ending the conflict.

Mike Hanna, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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