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Two Israelis Killed in Middle East Fighting; Humanitarian Organizations Grapple with Crisis

Aired July 24, 2006 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well the American exodus out of Lebanon is almost complete. Here's what we know about the Middle East crisis right now. More than 12,000 U.S. citizens have been brought out of Lebanon with hundreds more still leaving today. The U.S. military says its help with the evacuation is ending. The new focus for troops, helping deliver humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Israel. Earlier today she paid a surprise visit to Beirut, engaging in talks with Lebanon's prime minister, but the country's parliament speaker, who has close ties with Hezbollah, rejected her proposal, insisting a cease-fire must precede talks on other matters.

And United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says Iran and Syria have pledged their cooperation in ending this conflict. He warns force alone will not disarm Hezbollah. Annan meet with Rice and key Middle East players in Rome on Wednesday.

CNN's Betty Nguyen has an eye on the CNN international desk. Betty, you've got some news from Israel for us?

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes we do. The IDF, Israel Defense Force, has confirmed to CNN that two Israeli soldiers were killed during fighting between Israelis and the Hezbollah this morning in the area called Bint Jubail. We're going to try to put up a map here, so you can see exactly where this is. The is in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel.

Now, what I understand is, of course we've been talking about Israel has created this foothold in Maroon al Ras, and now they are pushing farther in into Bint Jubail area, where two Israeli soldiers are now reported dead, in fighting with Hezbollah there. This part of what Israel is creating, a buffer zone inside the southern Lebanon area. So far 375 people have been killed in Lebanon, 39 people killed in Israel. Now, you can add two more to that list. Because as of now, Kyra, we have learned that two Israeli soldiers have been killed in clashes with Hezbollah. This in the Bint Jubail area of southern Lebanon. We'll stay on top of it and bring you the latest.

PHILLIPS: All right Betty, thanks. Well, if war is hell for soldiers, how can words possibly describe what it means to innocent civilians. In Lebanon almost a half million people have fled their homes to avoid getting caught in the deadly cross-fire. Half a million people without food, water or ready shelter. It's already a humanitarian crisis, but the emergency coordinator from the World Food Program hopes to keep it from getting worse. Amer Daoudi joins me now live from Beirut.

Amer, tell me the biggest challenge for you right now.

AMER DAOUDI, WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: Well the biggest challenge is to ensure safe delivery of humanitarian relief items to the Lebanese people. The infrastructure is totally destroyed. We will have to negotiate roads that are very difficult to access and to travel on. We have to be wart of the security situation. We have to coordinate quite a lot with all parties involved, in order to ensure the safe delivery of these relief items to all these Lebanese people.

PHILLIPS: We got a description from the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator about what was happening in southern Lebanon. I want to play part of this interview for you and get your response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAN EGELUND, U.N. RELIEF COORDINATOR: We have horrific stories, especially from southern Lebanon. Today I met with the people from Sarifah village where so many men and women and children died because of the bombardment. Their plea, and they were crying, these old women, when they told me, let's be able to go back to at least recover our dead because we believe now, we hear that the dogs are eating on them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Is it getting that bad, Amer? I mean, are animals actually eating the dead in some areas?

DAOUDI: Well we are getting these reports that this is happening. But the situation is extremely bad. People are fleeing. They cannot even carry their own personal items. Seeking shelter, security and food and medicine and all relief items that are required in such a situation. The security situation is very precarious. The destruction is incredible in Beirut, in southern Beirut, and in southern Lebanon and bridges, infrastructure has all, nearly all been destroyed.

So the delivery of relief items will be quite a challenge, but we are sure and confident we will be able to do that. We are in fact launching or sending the first aid convoy down to here next Wednesday, this coming Wednesday, loaded with food, medical supplies, medical kits, and it will constitute ten trucks escorted with two U.N. vehicles. That will be the first of many convoys to come.

PHILLIPS: Let me ask you, in addition to those convoys, do you see Hezbollah helping its people and are you able to work side by side with those within Hezbollah that we have been told within some reports that they are helping their people in various strong holds?

DAOUDI: Well, the nature of the Lebanese people is to assist and help each other. You will see a lot of the displaced people are being hosted by the local communities, by people opening their houses and sharing their food and their supplies with the displaced people. We will work with all sides to ensure the safe delivery of relief items. We are coordinating with all sides to ensure that we can get all the relief items and the assistance to the suffering people of Lebanon.

PHILLIPS: Are you able to communicate with the IDF or with Israeli, as well, to let them know you are in certain areas to try to help the civilians.

DAOUDI: Yes ma'am, we are. We have established communications with the IDF through our U.N. office in Jerusalem and we are coordinating with all parties to ensure safe delivery.

PHILLIPS: Amer, have you ever seen it this bad? We've talked about years past humanitarian issues, but what we are seeing right now, some say this is the worst it's been in decades.

DAOUDI: Yes, ma'am, it has been. Even though Lebanon has suffered from different civil war, invasions and everything, but this is really, really bad. It's horrendous.

PHILLIPS: We want our viewers to know about WFP.org. Is this the best way that people can get involved to help your organization.

DAOUDI: Yes ma'am, www.WFP.org. We welcome any assistance, any help, any contributions to help us get the assistance that is needed to the Lebanese people.

PHILLIPS: Amer Daoudi, WFP emergency coordinator, appreciate your time.

DAOUDI: Thank you ma'am.

PHILLIPS: Well he's been in a coma for months, and he's taken a turn for the worst over the past two days. Doctors are running more tests on former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is in a hospital outside of Tel Aviv. His kidneys are failing and he's suffering other complications. The 78-year-old Sharon had a massive stroke in January.

Surrounded by the destruction of war, now many are venting their anger with the tools of technology. We will show you how, straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

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PHILLIPS: Well, the temps could hit triple digits in California's Bay Area, putting pressure on a problem-filled power grid. Nearly 40,000 power customers are in the dark and heat. Pacific Gas and Electric say it's making progress in getting people's power turned back on, but they can't say when everyone will have electricity. The company says the outages were heat-related.

It's worse, perhaps, for firefighters who have to with hot, windy conditions across Southern California. One wildfire is raising across San Diego County, but away from homes where people were ready to evacuate. Other crews are hoping to corral a fire on Catalina Island by tomorrow, and fires burning in the San Bernardino mountains are about two-thirds contained.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, how do you celebrate wining cycling's biggest race? How about hip replacement surgery? That's the plan for American Floyd Landis. Landis won the Tour de France yesterday, the first time in eight years someone other than Lance Armstrong has been the winner. Landis developed arthritis in his hip after a fall in 2003. He hopes to get back to riding after an operation this fall.

An incredible display of ability and emotion in England. Tiger Woods couldn't hold back the tears after winning the British Open yesterday. There it is. Oh! It's on the edge. It was his first win since his father Earl had died in May, and his 11th major title as he continues to quest to beat Jack Nicklaus' record 18. He didn't sink that putt, but it didn't matter. He won. And there's the big finale kiss by his beautiful blond wife.

When we come back, our Wolf Blitzer joins us live from Jerusalem. We'll get his veteran take on the violence that's happening over there. Stay with LIVE FROM. The news keeps coming, we'll keep bringing it to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, mission diplomacy. On day 13 of the crisis in the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits leaders throughout the region. But what message is she carrying for the president?

We join our Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem, where he's working on a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM." Tell us what you're going to have for us coming up, Wolf, and are you going to get a chance to get in the field?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The answers are, Yes. The answer to the second is yes. But we have a special late -- a special "SITUATION ROOM" coming up.

We're live in Jerusalem tonight, and it's happening right now, what's already being billed as some initial shuttle diplomacy. The secretary of state earlier in the day in Beirut. She is now here in Jerusalem. Can she broker a deal that will lead to a lasting peace?

Also, on the front lines, we're going to take you to the edge of the fighting, where Israeli tanks continuing to pound positions in Southern Lebanon. I'll speak with the former Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He's standing by to speak live to us here in Jerusalem.

Also, anger and desperation continuing in Beirut. We'll take you live to the heart of the city. We'll speak with a top Lebanese government official. All that coming up on our special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wolf, give me a couple minutes here. This used to be your beat. You worked for Reuters, Jerusalem post. Of course did a lot of coverage for CNN as well. What's going to be interesting for you to tackle and go out and report on, now that you're there?

BLITZER: It looks, at least from the outside -- and I've been watching all of this from Washington over the past 13 days -- it looked like the Israelis have had a harder time than they initially suspected in trying to uproot Hezbollah.

Clearly, they've been surprised, based on everything that I've heard over the past several days, that Hezbollah's military capability, Kyra, is as sophisticated and as robust as it has it been. Over these past six years, since the Israelis withdrew from Southern Lebanon, there have been, as has been well-documented, thousands of rockets and other pretty sophisticated military equipment.

This is (AUDIO GAP). They're taking some significant military casualties. They expect they're going to be taking more. They're going to continue to pound as much as they can, until the diplomats in effect come up with some sort of short-term cease-fire. And it's unclear how long that will take, but my suspicion is Condoleezza Rice is here in Jerusalem tonight. She's going to be spending some time over the next several days shuttling around the world trying to come up with something.

PHILLIPS: With regard to Hezbollah, Wolf, from when you were in country working there to what we see now and how this is carrying out, differences? Comparisons? Weaker? Stronger? How do you see Hezbollah?

BLITZER: Well, Hezbollah is certainly a lot stronger today than they used to be. And they have been bolstered in their military capability and their political capability. Strong support from Syria, strong support from Iran. A weak Lebanese government after the assassination last year of Rafik Hariri, the prime minister. There was the Cedar Revolution, as it was called.

And peacefully they forced the Syrians to pull out militarily from Lebanon. But the Syrians, you know, they may have pulled out military, but they still have influence over Hezbollah and there's been this train of weaponry flowing from Iran through Syria into Lebanon. And that's obviously made Hezbollah a lot stronger today than it used to be.

The argument against this Israeli military offensive that some are expressing, especially outside observers is that what the Israelis are doing is fighting an insurgency and in an insurgency like this, the more you pound, the more likely that insurgency is going to grow elsewhere and create new supporters among those who have been on the sidelines. So this is by no means an easy operation for the Israelis, despite their military process.

PHILLIPS: All right, Wolf Blitzer, a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" coming up in country there in about eight minutes. Looking forward to it Wolf, thanks so much.

Well outrage and frustration fueled by war. The Internet gives a voice to those who can't escape the Middle East conflict. Randi Kaye shows us the war blogs in a report from "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED) are killing everybody here.

RANDI KAYE: It's the war in Lebanon unfiltered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED), man.

KAYE: Video posted online by bloggers. Residents and stranded tourists, raw and very direct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

KAYE: This video, apparently of Israeli air strikes, was shot by 24-year-old Bassem Mazloum from his home in the Bekaa Valley, 40 minutes from Beirut.

BASSEM MAZLOUM, BLOGGER IN LEBANON: The uncensored version of my video with me swearing pretty much tells you how scared I was when they, you know, when they started hitting close to home. And you can't even hear that. Basically by the time you hear it, it's -- you know, it's either too late or just in time and it's gone. I mean, if you hear it, you know you're alive, basically.

KAYE: We talked to Mazloum via Web cam from New York. The jerky image, proof of the fragile communications these days from Lebanon.

MAZLOUM: They are pretty much launched from the jets. And I've seen my fair and heard my fair share of the explosions. The after shocks are very intense. And so it makes you think, I mean, what if it does hit you? I mean, what's it going to do to you?

KAYE: If anyone in Lebanon might be sympathetic to Israel, Mazloum seems to fit the profile. He was born in Lebanon, but raised in Canada and America. He counts Israelis among his friends in the United States, and says he firmly believes Hezbollah should be disarmed.

But missiles blowing up in the next neighborhood have a way of hardening your views. And his blog, like most originating from Lebanon these days, is consumed by civilian suffering, and why the U.S. is not pressuring Israel to stop.

MAZLOUM: The lack of effort to stop is basically what I could call a massacre is intense. It gets too slow. It just starts eating at you and takes something away from here. I'm scared about my relatives here. I'm scared about all the friends that I've made here.

KAYE: Opinion, information, raw footage, passion, and fear. It's all there for anyone with an Internet hook-up.

MAZLOUM: It's going to be a rough night here today.

KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well check out Randi Kaye's reports on "A.C. 360" weeknights. Tonight Anderson Cooper reports from Israel at 10 Eastern. The closing bell and a wrap of the action on Wall Street straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, if this doesn't give somebody a case of cold feet, nothing ever well. Nineteen-year-old Adam Sutton surprised his high school sweetheart with a plane ride on Friday night. Well he thought it would be a great idea to pop the question to 18-year-old Erika Bussee. Well family members were enlisted to hold up a "will you marry me sign" when the charter plane flew over the Richard B. Russell Regional Airport of Rome, Georgia. But instead of buzzing the tarmac, well, there you go, the plane stalled and crashed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIKA BUSSEE, PROPOSED TO ON AIRPLANE: He was telling me to look down, look at something and I saw the sheet on the ground and I saw the word "marry" and then I saw my mom waving and then I looked at him and that's when we crashed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: No serious injuries, although the ring was lost amid the wreckage. The bride-to-be still said yes by the way during the ambulance ride. Ali Velshi, I still can't find out who was piloting the aircraft. Was it her parents? Curious?

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