Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Israeli Tanks Have Pulled Out Two West Bank Towns, But Entered New One

Aired April 09, 2002 - 09:00   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: On the military front, Israeli tanks have pulled out of two West Bank towns but entered a new one overnight. And some of the heaviest fighting of the 12-day long Israeli military operation has been in Jenin where as many as 200 Palestinians may have been killed. CNN's Rula Amin joins us now from Jenin with the very latest. Good morning.

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Paula. We're here in a village called Ramana (ph), it's about 12 miles away from Jenin and Jenin refugee camp and we are here because there are about 200 to 300 residences of Jenin refugee camp right here in this village. They were rounded up in Israel's latest operation and then they were released two days, three days later, some of them were released today, some yesterday.

(INAUDIBLE) if we tilt with the camera up, you can see - we'll try to see up in the camera, you will see that we are in the mosque. You can see that mosque. There is about 100 people lying there inside the mosque. They have been here for a few days and they have been giving up horrible accounts of what has been happening in Jenin. The residences here are very angry. Some have nervous breakdown after they lost some of their beloved ones.

We are hearing really very disturbing accounts from them, saying they were arrested. They were asked to take off all of their clothes. They were naked for days. They had no shoes, no clothes. They were in the cold. But the most disturbing accounts we heard from them is that they had said that their houses were shelled. They were knocked down. They - many of them say they have lost a family member, a wife, a kid; some of them have lost their fathers. Most of the people here are men who have been arrested and released. They still cannot go back to the Jenin refugee camp because the camp is still a closed military area and they have no contact with their families -Paula?

ZAHN: All right. Rula, by the same token, the Israelis argue there's a very good reason why they went into the Jenin in the first place, that they know that men who are very active in the Palestinian authority's violence against Israel are located there.

AMIN: That is true. Israel says it's hunting down Palestinian militants responsible for suicide attacks against Israeli. But what we're hearing back from those people is that many of those who have been killed were civilians who had nothing to do with these suicide attacks.

And the other point, actually that when we told these people here, we said you know a lot of people in Jenin have been involved in suicide attacks against Israelis. They told us but you know this doesn't solve it because now there's more anger. There is more resentment. Many of the people we saw here are very, very angry. They want to take revenge for what happened to them and to their camp - Paula?

ZAHN: The Israelis are also arguing today in spite of the fact that the Palestinians are calling this the massacre, there has not been a suicide bombing in a week now and they say that's evidence that their campaign to root out terrorism is working. What do the Palestinians say about that?

AMIN: Well the people here we spoke to say, anyway most of the people that were killed were civilians and had nothing to do with the suicide attacks. And the second thing is that to carry out suicide attacks, it's not a very complicated operation. All you need is someone with a motive to be willing to die and some explosives. It's not like a very sophisticated, complicated operation. And they feel that what happened in Jenin actually aggravates people more and makes them more angry and more willing to die - Paula?

ZAHN: All right, Rula Amin, we're going to leave it there at this hour. Thanks so much for that live update.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com