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CNN Sunday Morning

Deadly Weekend in the Middle East

Aired February 17, 2002 - 09:05   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: It's been a deadly weekend in the Middle East, a rapid succession of attacks and counter attacks have left two Israelis and four Palestinians dead, many more wounded.

CNN's Jerrold Kessel joining us live from Jerusalem with the latest. Hello, Jerrold.

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles, and to assess just where that deadly weekend has left the situation and where it might be going next, Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime Minister, convened his expanded security cabinet here in Jerusalem today, and we understand there were a number of proposals put on the table about what Israel should do now to try to re-change the situation, which has gone escalating, particularly seriously over the last 48 hours.

I understand there were a number of proposals put forward by various ministers. All options were discussed we're told, but no concrete decisions taken of whether there might be any change, any firmer policy vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority of Yasser Arafat, as some ministers, we understand, were insisting that Israel do.

Now there was an air strike last night in the town of Nablis, the main town on the West Bank. Israeli helicopter gun ships sent missiles into one of the central buildings of Nablis. This is a place, the government headquarters where Yasser Arafat would normally stay were he to visit that Palestinian town.

It was empty, we understand, and no one was hurt and other than the material damage, nothing material changing the situation, because Yasser Arafat, of course we remember, is kept literally locked up in the town of Ramallah to the south on the West Bank by Israeli tanks, and Ariel Sharon's strictures that he's not going anywhere for the moment until he begins to grapple with terror.

Well that terror was in action again last night, not far away from Nablis, and that was the reason for the Israeli strike, when a young Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Jewish settlement inside the shopping center there as young people came out for a pizza, and two young Israeli teenagers were killed.

More than 20 were hurt by the suicide bomber as he killed himself of course as well, and of those hurt, two are reported to be still in critical condition, a number of others still in hospital. And as they contemplate where things might go, both sides really are looking down the option of this grim situation, looking to get grimmer still with both sides threatening that they will escalate, simply because they say the other side is escalating and upping the stakes. Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, on that sobering note, we'll leave it there. CNN's Jerrold Kessel in Jerusalem, thank you very much.

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