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CNN Sunday Morning

Attacks and Reprisals in Israel Leave 2 Dead

Aired February 10, 2002 - 07:05   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Overseas this morning, as we told you at the top of the broadcast, attacks and reprisals in Israel and the West Bank leave two dead, five wounded and three arrested. CNN's Jerrold Kessel joining us live from Jerusalem with the latest -- Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, just within the last half hour, an attack in the heart of the Israel, in the southern Israeli town, the desert town of Beersheba (ph). Two suspected Palestinian gunman opened fire after arriving in a car just outside a main army base in the center of that Israeli town began firing at random and five Israelis reported hurt, four in serious condition and one of those four said to be in very critical condition. The other, less seriously hurt.

The two gunmen were then shot themselves and killed by Israeli troops or police. It's not yet clear as their car came to a halt just a short way away from the entrance to that major army base. In fact, the head of Israel's southern command in the southern part of the country in the town of Beersheba.

This is the first time in the 16, 17 months of the bloody confrontation between Palestinians and the Israelis that the town of Beersheba has come under attack in this way. There have, of course, been many attacks by Palestinian militants in the heart of Israelis cities, in the center and northern part of the country.

But this, Beersheba is somewhere remote from the West Bank or Gaza and it has not yet come under attack of this sort before. But the two gunmen, as I say, have wounded five people before themselves, being shot and killed by Israeli police or troops just outside that army base in the center of the Israeli southern town of Beersheba.

Now, this incident followed Israeli incursion into the West Bank town of Nebulas earlier in the night. For some two hours, gun shots -- there was gunfire between the Israeli army troops who went into the fringes of the West Bank town of Nebulas and were searched, the Israelis said, for gunmen and militants who have been operating out of there. There was a firefight. Six Palestinians were reported wounded, two in critical condition. The Israelis said they detained three people.

And that incident in Nebulas, that incursion by the Israelis came after a series of attacks by Palestinian in the region of the northern part of the West Bank. The latest of which was the -- an ambush of -- shooting ambush on the West Bank road last night, which killed a 79- year-old Israeli settler woman on the West Bank and slightly wounded her son who was driving with -- who was driving the car as they drove on that West Bank road.

But in this latest incident in Beersheba, five Israelis seriously hurt, four of them in serious condition, one of whom is reportedly very critical. And the two Palestinian, believed Palestinian gunmen have been shot and killed themselves -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem, keep us posted on that. We'll check in with you in a bit.

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