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American Morning
Mideast Attacks
Aired September 10, 2003 - 07:06 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The Israeli air force this morning staged an airstrike in Gaza City. It comes a day after two suicide bombings by Palestinian militants killed 15 Israelis in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Today's strike was aiming for the home of a senior Hamas leader.
Chris Burns joins us live by videophone from Gaza City this morning.
Chris -- good morning.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
It's hard to see President Bush's peace road map for all of the smoke around here. Yet another Israeli airstrike here, striking at a political figure of Hamas. That being very significant because Israel had only begun doing that in the last couple weeks.
Mahmoud Zahar has been wounded, moderately wounded, though one of his sons and his bodyguard were killed. His wife and daughter are in intensive care in critical condition, among 20 people who have been injured. This, of course, comes on the heels of a twin suicide bombing inside Israel that killed 15 people.
This step up of violence in the last two and a half weeks has taken a political toll on the Palestinian side, where Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, threw up his hands and gave up and passed it on to this next person, Abu Ala, who is also asking for the same thing that Mahmoud Abbas was asking for: Cooperation not only from the Palestinian side and Yasser Arafat to pull together his security forces and take on the militants, but on the Israeli side for some confidence-building measures, lifting up, lifting more closures, freeing more Palestinian prisoners and also pulling up some of those settlement outposts.
This is what is facing the Palestinian government, and at the same time this crisis putting the road map for peace in jeopardy -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Chris, in recent days, we have heard Israel talking about the possibility of expelling Yasser Arafat. Have you heard that -- more of those conversations, and how likely do you think that could be?
BURNS: There have been a lot of calls within the last few days, going up as far as the Israeli foreign minister who is saying that it is inevitable that Yasser Arafat be expelled. However, the Israeli government has yet to take a firm policy stand on that.
This latest violence could perhaps push them over the edge. The U.S. government repeatedly has said that they object to that sort of policy, and many analysts say it would only empower Yasser Arafat by sending him abroad. He could go and campaign for his cause.
So, that is very much being debated now. However, there could be increasing calls for that.
The Israelis are also threatening a full-scale invasion of 2,000 or 3,000 troops inside Gaza here to go after Hamas militants. So, this increasing violence does seem to be putting pressure on the Israeli government to take even further action, once again further pushing the road map for peace further behind in the background.
Back to you.
O'BRIEN: CNN' Chris Burns joining us from Gaza this morning. Chris, thank you for that 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.
Aired September 10, 2003 - 07:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The Israeli air force this morning staged an airstrike in Gaza City. It comes a day after two suicide bombings by Palestinian militants killed 15 Israelis in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Today's strike was aiming for the home of a senior Hamas leader.
Chris Burns joins us live by videophone from Gaza City this morning.
Chris -- good morning.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
It's hard to see President Bush's peace road map for all of the smoke around here. Yet another Israeli airstrike here, striking at a political figure of Hamas. That being very significant because Israel had only begun doing that in the last couple weeks.
Mahmoud Zahar has been wounded, moderately wounded, though one of his sons and his bodyguard were killed. His wife and daughter are in intensive care in critical condition, among 20 people who have been injured. This, of course, comes on the heels of a twin suicide bombing inside Israel that killed 15 people.
This step up of violence in the last two and a half weeks has taken a political toll on the Palestinian side, where Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, threw up his hands and gave up and passed it on to this next person, Abu Ala, who is also asking for the same thing that Mahmoud Abbas was asking for: Cooperation not only from the Palestinian side and Yasser Arafat to pull together his security forces and take on the militants, but on the Israeli side for some confidence-building measures, lifting up, lifting more closures, freeing more Palestinian prisoners and also pulling up some of those settlement outposts.
This is what is facing the Palestinian government, and at the same time this crisis putting the road map for peace in jeopardy -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Chris, in recent days, we have heard Israel talking about the possibility of expelling Yasser Arafat. Have you heard that -- more of those conversations, and how likely do you think that could be?
BURNS: There have been a lot of calls within the last few days, going up as far as the Israeli foreign minister who is saying that it is inevitable that Yasser Arafat be expelled. However, the Israeli government has yet to take a firm policy stand on that.
This latest violence could perhaps push them over the edge. The U.S. government repeatedly has said that they object to that sort of policy, and many analysts say it would only empower Yasser Arafat by sending him abroad. He could go and campaign for his cause.
So, that is very much being debated now. However, there could be increasing calls for that.
The Israelis are also threatening a full-scale invasion of 2,000 or 3,000 troops inside Gaza here to go after Hamas militants. So, this increasing violence does seem to be putting pressure on the Israeli government to take even further action, once again further pushing the road map for peace further behind in the background.
Back to you.
O'BRIEN: CNN' Chris Burns joining us from Gaza this morning. Chris, thank you for that 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.
