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CNN Live At Daybreak

More Violence and Deaths Overnight in the Middle East Conflict

Aired March 27, 2002 - 06:12   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: We've been telling you about that Arab summit happening now in Beirut. In fact, you're looking at live pictures. Just a short time ago, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke to Arab leaders and he had some tough words for both the Palestinians and the Israelis.

We want to head live now to Jerusalem to CNN's John Vause to see how the Arab summit is playing there -- good morning.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well the big news here is that we're waiting for Yasser Arafat to appear, but he won't be appearing in person, he'll be appearing via video. We're still waiting for that. That summit's been going on now for just over an hour.

Of course the will he or won't he go debate about Yasser Arafat dominating talk here in Jerusalem for a number of days. Last night, though, the Israeli Prime Minister stated his case saying that the Palestinian leader had not done enough to earn his ticket to Beirut. The Israeli Prime Minister saying there were a number of conditions.

Firstly, Yasser Arafat needed to address the Palestinian people in Arabic calling for an end to the 18-month uprising and end to the violence. And in a fairly -- in a new twist on an old condition, he said that he wanted to reserve the right to stop Mr. Arafat from returning from the summit should there be any violence in his absence. And on that demand he wanted backing from Washington.

Now it's that last demand which the Palestinians found most objectionable. But overall, they said Mr. Sharon's terms were humiliating, illegal and most immoral.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Arafat decision came after serious and in-depth study of the situation and a view of the whole situation the past days or two weeks. The Israeli government handled this issue in the most despicable fashion and humiliating -- an attempt to humiliate the Palestinian leader and the Palestinian people.

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VAUSE: Now some new information coming in to us just in the last hour or so, the Israeli military says it stopped a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance just outside Jerusalem. They say on -- in that ambulance were two men and an explosive belt. They claim that these two men were wanted and this was possibly a -- suicide bombers who were intercepted and are now being questioned by the Israeli authorities. The Red Crescent, for its part, denies that there were any suicide bombers in that ambulance. They say in fact that that ambulance was carrying a woman and two children from Nablus.

Now also overnight there has been some violence. Two Palestinian men were shot dead by Israeli sources -- by Israeli military, rather. The military says they crossed over from Palestinian-controlled territory. A hand grenade was thrown, there was an exchange of gunfire and one Palestinian man was shot dead. A few hours later, the second Palestinian man was shot dead.

Also killed overnight, two observers from the Temporary International Presence. They were shot dead while driving on a road in the outside Hebron. A third observer was wounded in that attack. He later told Israeli Radio that the gunman was dressed in a Palestinian police uniform and armed with a Kalashnikov rifle. And even though their vehicle was clearly marked, this observer says the gunman opened fire anyway.

Now those observers are based in Hebron to monitor truce violations. Hebron is a city which is divided into Israeli and Palestinian controlled zones -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. John Vause reporting live for us from Jerusalem this morning. Thank you for that report.

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