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Israeli Helicopters Fire More Missiles in Gaza

Aired June 13, 2003 - 14:00   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour now with the latest round of bloodshed in Gaza.
And for the latest information, we turn to CNN's Matthew Chance in Jerusalem.

Matthew -- so much going on there this day. What can you tell us as far as the very latest?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, thank you very much.

More bloodshed, I'm afraid. This time again in the Gaza Strip, where it seems that Israeli helicopter gunships or at least Israeli aircraft -- details are very sketchy right now -- have launched another strike apparently on a car driving through the busy streets of Gaza City. As I say, Heidi, details very sketchy at this stage, but we've been seeing video coming out of Gaza Strip, very angry scenes, very desperate scenes there of the kind that we've been seeing on repeated occasions throughout the course of the past week.

The target of the airstrike has not been confirmed to us by Israeli officials, but certainly Israeli leaders have identified the leaders of Hamas as legitimate targets in their campaign, they say, to increase Israel security. They say they're killing -- or rather targeting Hamas leaders in order to, in their words, rescue the peace process. Hamas is a leading Palestinian militant group, which opposes the road map peace process backed, of course, by the United States.

On casualty figures in this latest incident, still very sketchy, but we understand from Palestinian doctors that at least two people have been killed and 25 have been injured, but it's a very confused, fluid situation on the ground. We'll obviously have more details for you as time passes on -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Matthew, I tried to ask this question a little bit earlier, and you touched on it already with the steps of security as far as Palestine goes, but I'm just wondering. If the Palestinians know, because of the order that Ariel Sharon gave about cracking down on Hamas leaders and ordering this, they really go and attack them, if they know that already, is there any effort to get the Hamas leaders away from the everyday Palestinian civilians so as to keep them safer?

CHANCE: Well, I think what I've heard from Gaza is that many of the Hamas leaders, who are often quite public down there, have gone underground to some extent and they're not sort of holding public court in the way that they often do. But I think it's very important to remember, and the Israelis know this as well as anybody else who has been to Gaza, it that it is among the most crowded places on the face of the earth. More than a million Palestinians are crowded into this very sort of small handkerchief-sized area of land. And, you know, really, it is very difficult to carry out what Israel insists are targeted killings. It's very difficult to carry those out, as has been demonstrated over the course of the past week or so, particularly without injuring other people, if not killing other people in the process.

As I say, a number of people, bystanders unconnected with Hamas or any other militant group, appeared to have been injured. We may have reports later on, certainly in the past people have been killed as well when Israel carries out these assassination attempts against senior figures in militant groups like Hamas or anyone else -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Matthew Chance updating us on the very latest situation, looking at that video, Matthew, once again, very disturbing. We, of course, will keep our finger on this story. Thanks so much, Matthew.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired June 13, 2003 - 14:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour now with the latest round of bloodshed in Gaza.
And for the latest information, we turn to CNN's Matthew Chance in Jerusalem.

Matthew -- so much going on there this day. What can you tell us as far as the very latest?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, thank you very much.

More bloodshed, I'm afraid. This time again in the Gaza Strip, where it seems that Israeli helicopter gunships or at least Israeli aircraft -- details are very sketchy right now -- have launched another strike apparently on a car driving through the busy streets of Gaza City. As I say, Heidi, details very sketchy at this stage, but we've been seeing video coming out of Gaza Strip, very angry scenes, very desperate scenes there of the kind that we've been seeing on repeated occasions throughout the course of the past week.

The target of the airstrike has not been confirmed to us by Israeli officials, but certainly Israeli leaders have identified the leaders of Hamas as legitimate targets in their campaign, they say, to increase Israel security. They say they're killing -- or rather targeting Hamas leaders in order to, in their words, rescue the peace process. Hamas is a leading Palestinian militant group, which opposes the road map peace process backed, of course, by the United States.

On casualty figures in this latest incident, still very sketchy, but we understand from Palestinian doctors that at least two people have been killed and 25 have been injured, but it's a very confused, fluid situation on the ground. We'll obviously have more details for you as time passes on -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Matthew, I tried to ask this question a little bit earlier, and you touched on it already with the steps of security as far as Palestine goes, but I'm just wondering. If the Palestinians know, because of the order that Ariel Sharon gave about cracking down on Hamas leaders and ordering this, they really go and attack them, if they know that already, is there any effort to get the Hamas leaders away from the everyday Palestinian civilians so as to keep them safer?

CHANCE: Well, I think what I've heard from Gaza is that many of the Hamas leaders, who are often quite public down there, have gone underground to some extent and they're not sort of holding public court in the way that they often do. But I think it's very important to remember, and the Israelis know this as well as anybody else who has been to Gaza, it that it is among the most crowded places on the face of the earth. More than a million Palestinians are crowded into this very sort of small handkerchief-sized area of land. And, you know, really, it is very difficult to carry out what Israel insists are targeted killings. It's very difficult to carry those out, as has been demonstrated over the course of the past week or so, particularly without injuring other people, if not killing other people in the process.

As I say, a number of people, bystanders unconnected with Hamas or any other militant group, appeared to have been injured. We may have reports later on, certainly in the past people have been killed as well when Israel carries out these assassination attempts against senior figures in militant groups like Hamas or anyone else -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Matthew Chance updating us on the very latest situation, looking at that video, Matthew, once again, very disturbing. We, of course, will keep our finger on this story. Thanks so much, Matthew.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.