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American Morning

Israel Orders Civilian Deaths Inquiry

Aired September 02, 2002 - 09:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get "Up Front" right now. Overseas in the Middle East, a weekend of violence has some Israelis now calling for an investigation into its own army. More than a dozen Palestinians, unarmed civilians, killed this weekend in a series of encounters throughout the West Bank.
Now, Israel's defense minister has ordered an inquiry.

Live in Jerusalem, our bureau chief there, Mike Hanna, tracking this and more for us now.

Mike -- hello.

MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, hello there, Bill.

As many as 13 Palestinians have been killed in ongoing Israeli operation. None of them an identified militant, most of them bystanders, caught up on the fringes of operations that Israel says were directed at those planning terror attacks against Israeli targets.

Well, the defense minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, has reacted angrily to the series of incidents, and he has called for an immediate inquiry to be conducted by the Israeli Defense Force. This inquiry to be completed by the end of the week, handed back to him, together with operational recommendations as to how these can stop.

Among the incidents in the Gaza Strip, Israeli tank fire directed, Israel said, at suspicious individuals, actually went into the home of a family. Four people killed in that attack. All four members of the family.

And then, also, in the West Bank over the weekend, an Israeli helicopter attack on a target that it said was a known militant, also claimed the lives, in addition to the militant, of at least four others -- two youths and two children under the age of 11.

So these incidents created great anger, not only in the defense ministry, but also among the Israeli public. In an unusual display of unity, the Israeli media, today, has called for this inquiry to go ahead, and more importantly, has called for this inquiry, unlike previous ones into actions by the Israeli Defense Force, to yield substantive recommendations and results -- Bill.

HEMMER: If we have heard from the defense minister, Mike, what about the head of the government, Ariel Sharon? Has he talked about the incidents from this past weekend? HANNA: Nothing at all from the head of the government, the Israeli prime minister.

The running in this particular case appears to be from the defense minister himself, who has made this immediate call for an inquiry. And who also, incidentally, is dealing with a newly- appointed chief of staff, a chief of staff who has been in place for less than two months, and who some have seen his public pronouncements as somewhat hard line.

Well, the defense minister is taking on his new chief of staff, and demanding that the chief of staff supervise this inquiry into ongoing incidents in which Israeli forces have been killing the Palestinian civilians, who, by all accounts, were unarmed, were innocent bystanders in the events.

HEMMER: Thank you, Mike -- Mike Hanna, our bureau chief in Jerusalem.

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