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CNN Live At Daybreak

Attack on Israeli Gathering Leaves Seven Dead

Aired January 18, 2002 - 06:13   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: Palestinian militants' attack on a Jewish family banquet has triggered Israeli air strikes in the West Bank. CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Mike Hanna has the latest for us live from Jerusalem.

Mike, take it away.

MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Carol, yet another familiar escalation of conflict, and yet another familiar argument about who's ultimately to blame for the latest terror attack.

Well, the attack itself was in the Israeli city of Hadera. A Palestinian gunman burst into a banquet which was being held for a young girl's bat mitzvah -- a coming of age for a 12-year-old. He opened fire with an M-16 rifle. Six Israelis were killed; more than 20 were injured in the attack. The gunman himself became the seventh fatality in the event when he was shot by a neighborhood watch officer.

The Palestinian authority has condemned the attack, but Israel says that it's the Palestinian authority that must bear responsibility for such attacks, arguing that Yasser Arafat has not clamped down on militants planning such attacks against Israeli targets.

And Israel has taken its retaliation, it's moved its tanks even deeper into the West Bank city of Ramallah, very close to the headquarters of Yasser Arafat, who's been under virtual house arrest in Ramallah since the beginning of last month.

Within the last half hour we've had reports that there are a crowd of demonstrators confronting these tanks in Ramallah. We'll have more on that in the hours ahead.

Israel also struck at the West Bank city of Tulkarem, hitting there some buildings belonging to the governor of the area and killing a Palestinian police operation -- officer in that operation, in which an F-16 fighter aircraft was used.

So the heart of the issue remains that Israeli insistence that the Palestinian authority must accept responsibility for these terror attacks. The Palestinian authorities condemning these attacks and saying it cannot be held accountable for what happens. That is the heart of the argument going on at present, and it is also an all too familiar argument, Carol. COSTELLO: Yes, you're right about that. Hey, Mike, we always hear about suicide bombers in Israel. Is this a new kind of attack?

HANNA: Well, there has been throughout the past 15 months of ongoing conflict, and before that there have been occasions on which these so-called suicide bomber, normally from a militant organization, has carried out specific attacks.

And these -- in the last few months, there have been a series of attacks where you have had the same ritual, for what it's worth, a videotape is made by the person before the attack is carried out, and a bomb is not used. In this case, once again, an M-16 rifle was used.

And there a couple of months ago you had a similar attack, where Palestinians carried out what amounted to a suicide attack using rifles rather than bombs. But this is an occurring incident from militant Islamic organizations normally, and this is one thing that the Israeli government appears unable to stop on a permanent basis.

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

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