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American Morning

Nearly Two Dozen Palestinians Killed in Israel

Aired March 12, 2002 - 08:02   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning, Israel moves aggressively against Palestinians on the day Vice President Dick Cheney arrives in the Middle East. A chief Palestinian negotiator is calling Israel's largest offensive in northern Gaza a bloodbath, where so far 17 Palestinians have died. Actually conflicting accounts, some have it as high as 22.

And fierce fighting in Ramallah began Monday and continued into this morning. Yasser Arafat's compound came under fire, but the Palestinian leader was not injured.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is standing by in Ramallah and joins us with the very latest -- good morning, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Paula. I am sitting on the ground here, because there has been some fairly intense fire here, and we want to be able to move out of the way if the situation requires it.

This Israeli operation in Ramallah began around midnight, involving dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers. Now, their actions have been concentrated in the area of the El Amari refugee camp. That's home to about 8,000 people.

Now, in that area, they drove around announcing on loudspeakers that every male in the camp between the ages of 15 and 45 must give themselves up and surrender their weapons. Nonetheless, there has been fairly intense Palestinian resistance, especially in some of the areas behind me.

We were hearing up until about 25 minutes ago gunfire coming from about 100-150 meters away. A lot of the fighting has been concentrated in the area of the center of town roughly.

It's worth noting that Ramallah is really the cultural, political and economic center of the West Bank, many people living in this very crowded city. As you mentioned before, there was some firing in the direction of the headquarters of Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

Now, the death toll so far here has been, according to Palestinian sources, five people killed, many more have been injured.

Now, when we entered the city, it was very tense. There are Israeli tanks and army personnel carriers all over the place. We saw Israeli soldiers with their faces painted black going from house to house. They are looking for, obviously, people they believe were engaged in attacks on Israel -- Paula.

ZAHN: Tell us about a hotel that was struck, where journalists are based right now?

WEDEMAN: Paula, that is the City Inn Palace, which is really right across the street from the refugee camp I mentioned. According to our cameraman there, Joe Duran (ph), there were about 40 journalists in the hotel, and they were concentrated in the stairwell on the fourth floor overlooking the camp. Their cameras were rolling. They were all there, and all of a sudden, there were shots coming in their direction from street level from an armored personnel carrier. They dove out of the way, but exactly the spot where all of the cameras were, was hit by that gunfire.

One ABC camera took seven bullets, including one bullet directly in the lens. The Israeli government subsequently apologized. They said it was a mistake. That they were shooting in an area they believed fire was coming from. But the journalists who were there told me that there was no fire coming from that hotel.

Now, also in another incident, and in fact, the building I am in, Israeli helicopters apparently fired upon it. This camera took five bullets, essentially destroyed. This is where the bullets came out of. No explanation from the Israeli army as to why that incident took place. But I can tell you that this area, Ramallah, has been declared a closed military area by the Israeli defense forces. But we are unable to leave the area, because it is simply too dangerous.

There is a lot of firing going on right now. It's quiet, but over the last hour or two, Paula, there has been some very heavy exchange of fire and also tank fire as well -- Paula.

ZAHN: So, Ben, there is absolutely no option for you right now. Everything is locked down. You cannot leave under any circumstances.

WEDEMAN: That's correct, Paula. I would feel more comfortable to stay right where we are. It was a very nervous ride into this city, and it would be an even more nervous ride out. Really, there is just too much going on.

We are hearing that one official in the Palestinian Authority is calling upon residents of the refugee camp to resist. And therefore, unlike previous instances over the last few days when Israeli soldiers went in refugee camps and they basically, after some initial fighting, gave up, in this case, it looks like they are going to fight back, which does not bode well for anybody in this city, journalists or otherwise.

ZAHN: All right. Ben Wedeman, thanks so much for that update -- please stay safe.

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