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American Morning

Israel Deaths Mount

Aired March 13, 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 though, the death toll continues to climb in the Middle East as the international outcry against the escalating violence grows. Today, Israel pressed on with its largest military operation said to involve as many as 20,000 troops defying a call from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to end its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. Those were his words. And just last night, the United Nations Security Council approved for the first time a draft resolution affirming a vision of a Palestinian state.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where violence and casualties have been heavy.

He brings us an update now -- good morning, Ben. Where are you exactly at this hour?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Paula, I am in a building overlooking basically the heart of Ramallah, which is here on my left. We have been hearing -- as we have been hearing for quite some time, in fact, some intense gunfire. There are also ambulances driving around. There are many wounded today, several killed, one, in fact, a foreign journalist, the first journalist to die in this conflict. I'll get to that in just a moment.

But despite the fighting, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem, Ron Schlicher, did come here to Ramallah, and he had a meeting with Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. Now, according to Palestinian officials, the purpose of that meeting was to begin preparations for the visit of Anthony Zinni. He is the special U.S. envoy to the Middle East due here tomorrow.

But during that conversation, the Palestinians apparently expressed some unhappiness over reports that the United States, in fact, gave a green light to Israel to conduct this operation here in Ramallah, which is now about a day-and-a-half old and has left scores wounded and many dead as well.

And now, to get to this Italian journalist who was killed today, Raffaele Ciriello. He was a freelance journalist. He was shot today six times in the abdomen and chest. This was during while he was following Palestinian gunmen into an area close to the center of town. Apparently, they came across an Israeli tank. According to some reports, that tank opened fire on him and hit him in the chest and the abdomen, as I said. Apparently because of the situation there, Palestinian ambulances were unable to reach the scene, and he was later transported to the hospital by some Palestinian youths. Unfortunately, apparently that is too late.

The Israeli army says that they are looking into the incident and have no further comment at this point.

Also another journalist was injured today. A French journalist shot twice in the leg, apparently a very serious wound as well -- Paula.

ZAHN: Ben, what has been the reaction of the Israelis to Kofi Annan's call for the Israelis to basically retreat. He has asked them to -- he accused them of illegally occupying Palestinian lands.

WEDEMAN: Well, in fact, that has been the position of the United Nations for quite some time, that the territories captured by Israel in the June, 1967 war -- that includes Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as the Golan Heights -- are illegally occupied. That in a sense is not new. The Israelis long ago really stopped paying much attention to the United Nations. Their perception for many years is that that is a body that because of its makeup of the number of countries in there are opposed to Israel's presence in the West Bank and Gaza, and therefore they are not really putting too much -- paying too much attention to Mr. Annan's statements -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right. Ben Wedeman, thanks for that report -- please stay safe.

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