Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Conflict in the Middle East: Israel Reoccupies Parts of Gaza
Aired April 17, 2001 - 10:06 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to turn now to the Middle East, where a conflict is deepening and fears are rising. Early today, Israel launched an assault on the ground, air and sea and seized Palestinian-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip. It has also drawn a crossfire of condemnation from neighboring Arab countries.
Joining us with the latest on this developing story is CNN's Jerrold Kessel. He is in Jerusalem -- Jerrold, hello.
JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn. And the escalating Palestinian-Israeli confrontation is not just that, about escalation. It's also about, perhaps, a new phase in this now seven month old confrontation between the Israelis and Palestinians, which seems to be, a pattern that seems to be emerging, a really direct confrontation, almost all out at this stage, between the Israeli military and the Palestinian Authority forces of Yasser Arafat.
Counting the costs this morning in Gaza of the aftermath of those fierce Israeli strikes from the air, ground and sea at selected targets of the Palestinian Authority forces widely across Gaza yesterday, this after, following a mortar attack by Palestinians claimed, responsibility for which was claimed by the Hamas, the Islamic militant group Hamas, at an Israeli town in the southern Negev Desert a few miles away from the fringes of Gaza.
And not only did Israel launch those attacks at Palestinian positions, but another new development in this new phase, Israeli forces have taken up positions in what were areas that were held by the Palestinian Authority forces beforehand. And there they have been effectively changing the landscape on the fringes of the Gaza Strip, extinguishing the Palestinian Authority positions, the outposts that were there. The thanks have been in action. They've been digging in.
The Israelis say they are not intent on staying permanently or recapturing, as they say, or occupying, as the Palestinians say, land that was previously held by the Palestinian Authority, but that they will be there as long as the military needs dictate there, that is, to prevent more mortars being fired, say the Israelis.
The Palestinians see this as a pattern of engagement that is aimed at undermining the Palestinian Authority. Literally, as the Israelis say, that the Palestinian Authority forces are those directly responsible for the ongoing violence in the West Bank and Gaza against Israel and now also spilling over into Israel proper. And at this stage also as a part of this new pattern, the Israelis and Palestinians each accusing the other, literally, or seeing it in each other's, in their own eyes, as unbridled, unrestrained attacks, that mortar attack launched against an Israeli town seen by Israeli as taking the confrontation into another dimension.
The degree of Israeli response seen by the Palestinians has Israel taking this confrontation into another dimension and that very much is the pattern of events as Israel digs in in those new positions, the Gaza cut into three separate parts, the Palestinian considering their new options in light of this. And even as this new direct all out confrontation seems to be taking shape, more violence of the old kind, in a sense, with a Palestinian teenager shot and killed in a clash between teenagers, protesters and the Israeli army, that down in Gaza, and another Palestinian teenager shot and killed after he is said to have attacked Israeli troops at a checkpoint and then was pursued and shot and killed.
Two Palestinian teenagers shot and killed, the latest deaths. But also, this confrontation seeming to be escalating to the great concern of those in the region and beyond -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jerrold, I was just hoping if very quickly you could put this in perspective for us, this move by the Israelis. In the many years that you've been covering these conflicts, if you could put in perspective, they are taking this movement, occupying this part of the Gaza Strip. Do you remember the last time they took a move so severe?
KESSEL: Well, they have take, undertaken actions in the last, during the last months of confrontations, but they've been actions pinpointed into areas but not to stay there. At the moment, they are digging in. It's not a big area.
It's only a small area on the fringe of Gaza, the Israelis saying that it is there for military needs, to prevent more mortars being fired, the Palestinians seeing it as a reoccupation, a part of land which was handed back to them as part of the peace agreements in the last six to seven years. It would be the first Israeli if it becomes permanent, the Israelis saying it isn't permanent. But the fact of the matter is their troops are now back in those areas which were previously controlled by the Palestinian Authority -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And not giving a date on when they plan to leave. Jerrold Kessel 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
