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CNN Live At Daybreak

Israel Responds To Bat Mitzvah Attack In Hadera

Aired January 18, 2002 - 05:17   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: Israeli forces responded early today to last night's Palestinian attack on a bat mitzvah.

CNN Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Hanna has the latest on an escalating round of violence this week -- Mike, it just doesn't stop.

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it doesn't, Carol. Escalating violence, indeed, and an all too familiar argument about whether or not the Palestinian Authority must accept responsibility for the terror attack.

There are still 14 Israelis being treated in hospital in the wake of that attack, which took place in the Israeli city of Hadera late last night. It was a bat mitzvah rites of passage for a 12-year-old girl. A Palestinian gunman armed with an M-16 rifle burst into the hall where the celebrations were taking place, opening fire.

Six Israelis were killed in the attack. A seventh person killed was the gunman himself, who was shot by bystanders during, at the celebrations.

The Al Aqsa Brigades has claimed responsibility for the attack. Now, the Al Aqsa Brigades is a group that has formed within the last 15 months. It is an offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah Movement. Now, the Palestinian Authority has condemned the Hadera terror attack, saying that it had nothing to do with it.

Israel says that the Palestinian Authority must accept responsibility for the activities of militants because it is not meeting its commitment to arrest such militants and stop the planning of such attacks.

Israel has stepped up its pressure against the Palestinian Authority. It's moved tanks even closer to Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, tightening its blockade of that city, which has been in effect for about six weeks now. Arafat himself confined to virtual house arrest in Ramallah.

And in addition, Israel has also struck at the West Bank city of Tulkarem using their F-16 fighters. One Palestinian police officer killed in that strike. The targets of the Israeli attack reportedly the offices of the governor of Tulkarem.

Tulkarem seen by Israel as a breeding place of militants planning and carrying out attacks against Israeli civilians. Tulkarem was also the home city of an Al Aqsa leader, Raed al-Karmi, who died in a mysterious explosion earlier in the week. Palestinians say it was an Israeli assassination. Israel has refused to confirm or deny its involvement in that attack.

But that killing of Raed al-Karmi was given as justification by the Al Aqsa Brigades in claiming responsibility for the terror attack in Hadera. So we see here that very familiar cycle of attack, of revenge, of retaliation and a cycle that leaves no hope whatsoever of getting the two parties back in concrete talks, of getting some form of cease-fire in place on the ground to allow moves towards a wider peace. No sign of that whatsoever -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Is this another sign that Yasser Arafat is losing control or has no control over fanatical militants in his country, or in Palestine?

HANNA: Well, once again, that's a very valid question. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority have said that they are taking action against militants, that the cease-fire pledge that Arafat made in the middle of last month is being strictly enforced. And yet still the militants are able to plan and carry out attacks such as happened in Hadera.

Now, the Palestinian Authority argues that these attacks like the Hadera terror attack is carried out in Israeli territory and Palestinians cannot accept responsibility, security responsibility for that.

Israel says well, the Authority is simply not doing enough or is refusing to do enough to stop the militants at source, that is, the villages and cities from where they come -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Got you.

Thank you, Mike Hanna, reporting live for us from Jerusalem.

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