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Conflict & Closure
Aired January 29, 2004 - 14:17 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In Beirut today, meanwhile, a homecoming for dozens of Hezbollah prisoners whom Israel released, along with hundreds of other Palestinians, in exchange for three dead Israeli soldiers and a live Israeli businessman, so concluded years of secret negotiations, and CNN's Matthew Chance has more on all of this for us from Jerusalem.
Hello, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, thank you.
It's been a day of tragedy and destruction in Israel. Solemn ceremonies now under way to welcome back the bodies of three Israeli soldiers who have been handed back to the Israeli authorities in a controversial prisoner deal with the Lebanese militia, Hezbollah. A ceremony being held in Tel Aviv right now, with the coffins of the three soldiers draped with an Israeli flag, while the Israel prime minister, Ariel Sharon, delivers his eulogy to the awaiting crowd of people, the assembled, invited guests there, including the parents of the three soldiers, who were conducted and killed by Hezbollah along the very volatile border region between the two countries back in 2000.
Israel also gets the return of one of its citizens, 54-year-old Al Hannan Tenenbaum (ph), who was abducted, kidnapped by Hezbollah also in 2000 as well. All this of course coming on a day of utter devastation on the streets of Jerusalem. A bus is blown up by a Palestinian suicide bomber in a really very powerful explosion. Latest casualty figures we have from that, 10 Israelis killed. The suicide bomber obviously dying as well, 45 people were injured in that devastating attack. Some of them very seriously. It was a very powerful explosion, as I mentioned. Police at the scene there told me that even hours afterwards, they were picking the debris and human remains off the roofs of the houses in that residential area that the explosion took place in.
A Palestinian militant group, the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, has said that it was responsible for carrying out this attack. The bomber, who was a policemen in the Palestinian Authority police force in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, said that he wanted to take revenge for the killings of Palestinians in Gaza.
So as I say, a very solemn day here, contrasting with the other scenes we're seeing from around the region, in Lebanon, in the Palestinian territories, where there have been these quite joyous scenes from all the returns of the prisoners who have been released under this controversial deal with Hezbollah to go back to their homes -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Matthew Chance in Jerusalem. Thank you very much.
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 January 29, 2004 - 14:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In Beirut today, meanwhile, a homecoming for dozens of Hezbollah prisoners whom Israel released, along with hundreds of other Palestinians, in exchange for three dead Israeli soldiers and a live Israeli businessman, so concluded years of secret negotiations, and CNN's Matthew Chance has more on all of this for us from Jerusalem.
Hello, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, thank you.
It's been a day of tragedy and destruction in Israel. Solemn ceremonies now under way to welcome back the bodies of three Israeli soldiers who have been handed back to the Israeli authorities in a controversial prisoner deal with the Lebanese militia, Hezbollah. A ceremony being held in Tel Aviv right now, with the coffins of the three soldiers draped with an Israeli flag, while the Israel prime minister, Ariel Sharon, delivers his eulogy to the awaiting crowd of people, the assembled, invited guests there, including the parents of the three soldiers, who were conducted and killed by Hezbollah along the very volatile border region between the two countries back in 2000.
Israel also gets the return of one of its citizens, 54-year-old Al Hannan Tenenbaum (ph), who was abducted, kidnapped by Hezbollah also in 2000 as well. All this of course coming on a day of utter devastation on the streets of Jerusalem. A bus is blown up by a Palestinian suicide bomber in a really very powerful explosion. Latest casualty figures we have from that, 10 Israelis killed. The suicide bomber obviously dying as well, 45 people were injured in that devastating attack. Some of them very seriously. It was a very powerful explosion, as I mentioned. Police at the scene there told me that even hours afterwards, they were picking the debris and human remains off the roofs of the houses in that residential area that the explosion took place in.
A Palestinian militant group, the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, has said that it was responsible for carrying out this attack. The bomber, who was a policemen in the Palestinian Authority police force in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, said that he wanted to take revenge for the killings of Palestinians in Gaza.
So as I say, a very solemn day here, contrasting with the other scenes we're seeing from around the region, in Lebanon, in the Palestinian territories, where there have been these quite joyous scenes from all the returns of the prisoners who have been released under this controversial deal with Hezbollah to go back to their homes -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Matthew Chance in Jerusalem. Thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
