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CNN Live At Daybreak

Islamic Jihad Claiming Responsibility For Today's Deadly Car Bombing

Aired June 05, 2002 - 05:05   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: Turning to the new violence in the Middle East, a report says the militant group Islamic Jihad is claiming responsibility for today's deadly car bombing in northern Israel.

CNN's Jerrold Kessel is at the scene of the explosion near the town of Megiddo.

Jerrold, what can you tell us?

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, deadly attack here, and the latest casualty figures just been given, at least 16 Israelis killed by this Palestinian, in this Palestinian attack. And it's been very difficult to determine the exact number of those killed. And if I get out of the way and we look at the scene, here is the bus that you see there being, about to be hauled away. We'll explain why this has been such a deadly attack.

What happened was the bus set out from Tel Aviv early, just before 6:00 a.m. in the morning, heading here towards northern Israel, having on board many soldiers who were heading to their bases in northern Israel. As it approached this major intersection, the Megiddo intersection, which is just north of Israel's border with the West Bank, a car drew up alongside the bus. It had aboard it dozens, dozens and dozens, the police say, of explosives, several explosive charges.

The bomber in that car blew himself and the car up as it came across the middle -- alongside the bus, almost giving all those aboard the bus virtually no chance of surviving.

We understand the bus caught fire, somersaulted a couple of times, came to rest on the side of the road beneath what you see in the background. That building is a military prison where many Palestinians who are accused by Israel of undertaking terror attacks are being held. And the bus caught fire. The rescue teams were on the scene very, very quickly. The -- but all that remained, literally, was that bus as it sees there.

As I say, 16 people confirmed dead, 35 wounded. Of them, at least two in critical condition and some dozen in very serious condition. The immediate impression had been that the -- this was another case of a suicide bomber boarding a bus. But clearly, it soon became clear that the extent of the blast and the nature of the attack meant that this was something different. It was only yesterday in the Israeli parliament that -- in a special security committee that the chief of military intelligence had been warning that Palestinian militant groups had wanted and were seeking to carry out what he called a mega terror attack or a series of major terrorist strikes.

The Palestinians say, the spokesmen for these groups this morning have been saying that so long as Israel carries out its continued attacks against Palestinians what they call counter strikes can be expected to continue.

Now, on the site here, we're joined by one of the men who are engaged in the very grizzly but what they see as a very honorable task of picking up the body parts and other parts of, remains of the people who were killed for burial according to Jewish tradition.

Shmul Shimshoni, thanks very much for joining us.

You've been involved in this such kind of grizzly, honorable work that you do many times before. Was this time something different?

SHMUL SHIMSHONI, BURIAL SOCIETY: For the last couple of years, we've been, I've been involved in these kind of things. I've never seen a bus burned out as badly as this and the -- a lot of the body parts were actually burned beyond being able to tell that they were actually body parts without very, very close examination.

KESSEL: What happened precisely, as far as you're concerned? When did you hear about it? How quickly did you get here?

SHIMSHONI: I was sitting at the computer back in Sedera (ph). That's about 50 kilometers from here. And my wife came in to tell me that she heard on the media -- I don't remember television or radio -- about the act. I wanted to finish up a little job and get down to work in the garden, and -- but I expected exactly the way it happened within five minutes I got a phone call, be ready downstairs, we're going out on a job. And, well, that set off my work in the garden. And...

KESSEL: What are you feeling like this morning? You say this is something you've never seen the like of, this kind of burnt out bus. What are you feeling this morning?

SHIMSHONI: I'm very, very disappointed and even angry at members of our parliament who have had the chance to eradicate the chief terrorist, Mr. Arafat, and instead of that they freed him for another day to burn up the country again and again and again.

KESSEL: You're angry against the Israeli leadership, not against the Palestinian leadership?

SHIMSHONI: I'm angry against the Israeli leadership for not finishing the job properly. They had Arafat trapped and he should have been eradicated completely, just wiped off the face of the earth.

KESSEL: OK, Shmul, thank you very much.

Well, there you have it, Carol, some of the emotion. And it is pretty intense, although even here the road remains closed. It's a very subdued atmosphere now. The cleanup work continuing, the forensics experts on the scene determining exactly what happened.

And there is a debate in the Israeli political and security establishment of just how best they can contain the bombers. Some commanders had been arguing for the last couple of weeks perhaps it's necessary for Israel to retain a military presence in some of the Palestinian towns, temporary but semi-permanent.

Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, at least up until now has been arguing that the tactics employed by Israel over the last several weeks, tight containment of Palestinian cities and periodic and very regular incursions into Palestinian towns, indeed, into towns like Jenin, which just lies some five miles away from here, that ought to be the policy.

The Israeli cabinet convening now, security cabinet. See if there'll be any change in that policy.

Back to you for now, Carol.

COSTELLO: Jerrold, Israel is going to build that big 70 mile long fence. Is that going to run near the area where you are?

KESSEL: That is exactly the spot on question and the spot on question, which many Israelis have been arguing, and it's saying why hasn't it been done yet? Because what we have here, we're near this Megiddo Junction, which lies perhaps three miles, no more than that, from the border with the West Bank. And it runs all the way around the curve of Israel, well, it is about a 200 mile border.

But the main attacks have come in a region close to the center of the country, close to this major trunk highway in northern Israel, where the West Bank is nearby that.

Now, it's only a few days ago that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has given the final go ahead to the defense establishment to go ahead and build a fence along at least some 50, 70 miles of this border. It would be a containment, they say.

The problem with that fence has always been will this spell a political boundary? Does it have some kind of political implications for the future of where Israel would try to set its boundaries with the Palestinians? That something is now fading as Israelis are demanding more and more, more security, and they're hoping that the fence may provide an element more of that security -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Maybe so.

Jerrold Kessel reporting live from Megiddo this morning.

Thank you very much.

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