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American Morning

Israel Occupies Palestinian Authority Headquarters

Aired August 10, 2001 - 09:32   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Funerals being held for the people killed in yesterday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem as the Jewish state reacts to the deadly attack yesterday.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Jerrold Kessel has the latest developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Buried together, the funeral for five members of the same Israeli family killed by the suicide bomber in the downtown Jerusalem pizza parlor. Among the 15 dead are five children, three of them of the single family, whose parents were also killed. They had immigrated from Holland. Two of their other young children, who were with the family for a day's outing in Jerusalem from their home in a West Bank settlement, survived.

Israeli jets leveled the Palestinian police headquarters in the West Bank. The building had been evacuated and no one was hurt. Visibly the most spectacular aspect of a three-pronged response decided by a majority within Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet.

"These Israeli attacks are a big escalation," Yasser Arafat said as he inspected the ruined building. Everybody has to understand, we are stronger, harder and believe even more after the Israeli attack.

But the most potent and politically explosive elements of the Israeli response, here -- the takeover by police of Palestinian officers in Jerusalem, and what is described as the command centers of the Palestinian Authority's security forces in the village of Abu Dis, on the city's outskirts.

The Israeli flag flying now instead of the Palestinian flag over Orient House, the unofficial Palestinian headquarters in East Jerusalem, and symbol of Palestinian sovereignty aspirations in the city. Israel says the move, in the wake of the suicide bombing, has calculated security and political goals.

DORE GOLD, SHARON ADVISER: These attacks have one common thread: they are being used to achieve Palestinian political ends. Violence is being used to achieve political ends. What the government of Israel decided to do last night was to deny those Palestinian political goals by its actions. Israel -- Jerusalem will be much safer with the springboards for attack having been removed in Abu Dis and other areas.

KESSEL: Palestinians call the Israeli's moves "provocative" and "counterproductive," to attempts to halt the two-way violence and revert the negotiations.

AHMAD ABDEL RAHMAN, PALESTINIAN CABINET SECRETARY: This aggression of this occupation of the Orient House, the aim is to Judaism Jerusalem. We have only one weapon in our hands: our Intifadah, our resistance. We will continue our resistance against the Israeli occupation.

KESSEL: Israeli troops are now entrenched in this critical spot on Jerusalem's outskirts, where the Palestinian Authority had been entrenching. And outside the closed Orient House compound, Israeli police ward off a small pro-Palestinian demonstration.

(on camera): The assault on Jerusalem in the form of the deadly suicide bombing by an Islamic militant, and now the counter-Israeli political move here could bury lingering hope of stopping the escalating bloodshed and of restoring any form of negotiations, at least for the present.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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