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CNN Sunday Morning

Nine People Wounded in Shootings Near Tel Aviv

Aired March 17, 2002 - 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, in the Middle East, conflict news just coming in now. The shootings that left at least nine people wounded near Tel Aviv, our senior international correspondent Sheila MacVicar brings us the latest now from Jerusalem -- Sheila.

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the shootings took place about an hour ago in the Israeli community of Kfar Saba. That's a town just north of -- north of Tel Aviv. Obviously, it's Sunday. It's the first day of the working week. The gunmen opened fire at a busy intersection just around lunchtime. And according to Israeli ambulance sources, there's either nine of 10 people wounded, one of them critically ill and the gunman himself has been shot dead by Israeli police on the scene.

Now, you'll remember about a week ago, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon came out and said that under the current conditions, he no longer thought that it was possible to attain seven days of absolute quiet before going towards a cease fire. So he had removed that condition a week ago.

Now, the U.S. envoy, General Zinni, is in the area. He has been in an intensive series of meeting with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He will meet again later on this afternoon with Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. That meeting just announced as the general's schedule developed in light of breaking developments.

Now, both the general and others on the scene have indicated that they believe that it was possible that the two parties were beginning to move towards a cease fire. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, at the regular Israeli cabinet meeting this morning, said to obtain a cease fire was the number one goal of Israel's government. However, he also said that he did not believe or would not accept any kind of political discussions with the Palestinians until they got the cease fire.

The Palestinians, for their part, say Israel must remove its tanks from Palestinian controlled areas. Palestinian tanks remain in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem. That is a call that has been backed up by American pressure -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Our Sheila MacVicar, thank you very much. And Sheila's going to join us live again in the next hour for our Reporter's Notebook. She'll be answering your questions on the Mid East conflicts. You can e-mail us now at wam, that's w-a-m at CNN.com. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com