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CNN Sunday Morning
Israeli Assault on Arafat's Compound Continues
Aired September 22, 2002 - 07:02 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: First up this hour, the crisis in the Mideast. Israel says its military assault on Yasser Arafat's compound is aimed at getting some 50 suspects on its "Most Wanted" list to surrender. Arafat remains isolated inside, but his supporters are taking their cause to the streets.
CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us live from Ramallah with the latest on all of this. Hello Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles. Well, the destruction, the demolition of what was once Yasser Arafat's headquarters continues throughout the day. It's going on basically 24 hours a day. It appears the Israelis are systematically destroying almost every structure within that compound. Now there are as many as 200 people hold up with the Palestinian leader inside that building. Among them, Israel says, are now 50 people who they say are on their list of wanted individuals they say were involved in terrorist activities against Israel, among them, four senior Palestinian security officials.
Now, one of them, who's the head of intelligence for the West Bank, for the Palestinian Authority, Tawfiq al-Tirawi, spoke with CNN's producer here in Ramallah, Sausan Ghosheh. He said he is not going to surrender. He has no intention whatsoever of doing so. He said that he doesn't believe the Israeli claim that they are here only to get those 50 wanted men. He says in his words that the purpose of this operation is to destroy Yasser Arafat. Now Israeli officials insist that's not the case. That they are only here to encircle him and isolate him, and that they have no intention of harming the Palestinian leader. And in fact, they say he's free to go whenever he likes.
Now, you're probably hearing that. It's an Israeli jeep just below me. They've surrounded this entire area. Now interestingly, they've also put up massive amounts of barbed wire around the building in which the Palestinian leader is housed. This would indicate that they intend to be here for quite some time. Now Palestinians inside the building say that they're running low on supplies. They say the water has been cut.
Now, earlier today we saw a truck with Palestinian workers coming to fix a water main that was broken by an Israeli tank. However, we're told by people inside the building they were unable to complete their mission because of the bulldozing activity that's going on. The electricity, apparently, is only partially working within the building and they say that the landlines, the phone lines have been cut. Now, overnight thousands of Palestinians took the streets of the West Bank in Gaza in the West Bank in defiance for the first time in so many numbers of the curfew that's essentially been in place in the West Bank now for almost three months. Here in Ramallah, two Palestinian demonstrators were killed by Israeli troops. Two others were killed elsewhere in the West Bank. Today those demonstrations continue. Demonstrations to protest the Israeli siege of the Palestinian leader in Hebron, in Tulkarem and Nablus, and in Nablus, one of those demonstrators was killed.
Now these demonstrations have sparked a good deal of outrage within the Arab world where many people are calling for some sort of action to stop this Israeli operation in Ramallah -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Ben, bring us up to date. As we follow the bulldozers and all the activity there, it's sort of hard to keep track of what's still standing in Yasser Arafat's compound. Why don't you give us a sense of that?
WEDEMAN: Well, basically what's standing is the building that he is in and that's where those 200 or so people are. Some of the buildings are being just bulldozed, jack hammered into dust. Others, it looks like they've placed explosive charges and essentially destroyed the structure that's holding them up.
So really the one building is essentially standing, relatively unharmed. Of course, we have to remember that there have been repeated sieges of the compound behind me, and the destruction that you can see is not only from this time, but other times, as well, going back, in fact, to March when the first such operations took place -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Ben Wedeman in Ramallah. Thanks very much.
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 22, 2002 - 07:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: First up this hour, the crisis in the Mideast. Israel says its military assault on Yasser Arafat's compound is aimed at getting some 50 suspects on its "Most Wanted" list to surrender. Arafat remains isolated inside, but his supporters are taking their cause to the streets.
CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us live from Ramallah with the latest on all of this. Hello Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles. Well, the destruction, the demolition of what was once Yasser Arafat's headquarters continues throughout the day. It's going on basically 24 hours a day. It appears the Israelis are systematically destroying almost every structure within that compound. Now there are as many as 200 people hold up with the Palestinian leader inside that building. Among them, Israel says, are now 50 people who they say are on their list of wanted individuals they say were involved in terrorist activities against Israel, among them, four senior Palestinian security officials.
Now, one of them, who's the head of intelligence for the West Bank, for the Palestinian Authority, Tawfiq al-Tirawi, spoke with CNN's producer here in Ramallah, Sausan Ghosheh. He said he is not going to surrender. He has no intention whatsoever of doing so. He said that he doesn't believe the Israeli claim that they are here only to get those 50 wanted men. He says in his words that the purpose of this operation is to destroy Yasser Arafat. Now Israeli officials insist that's not the case. That they are only here to encircle him and isolate him, and that they have no intention of harming the Palestinian leader. And in fact, they say he's free to go whenever he likes.
Now, you're probably hearing that. It's an Israeli jeep just below me. They've surrounded this entire area. Now interestingly, they've also put up massive amounts of barbed wire around the building in which the Palestinian leader is housed. This would indicate that they intend to be here for quite some time. Now Palestinians inside the building say that they're running low on supplies. They say the water has been cut.
Now, earlier today we saw a truck with Palestinian workers coming to fix a water main that was broken by an Israeli tank. However, we're told by people inside the building they were unable to complete their mission because of the bulldozing activity that's going on. The electricity, apparently, is only partially working within the building and they say that the landlines, the phone lines have been cut. Now, overnight thousands of Palestinians took the streets of the West Bank in Gaza in the West Bank in defiance for the first time in so many numbers of the curfew that's essentially been in place in the West Bank now for almost three months. Here in Ramallah, two Palestinian demonstrators were killed by Israeli troops. Two others were killed elsewhere in the West Bank. Today those demonstrations continue. Demonstrations to protest the Israeli siege of the Palestinian leader in Hebron, in Tulkarem and Nablus, and in Nablus, one of those demonstrators was killed.
Now these demonstrations have sparked a good deal of outrage within the Arab world where many people are calling for some sort of action to stop this Israeli operation in Ramallah -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Ben, bring us up to date. As we follow the bulldozers and all the activity there, it's sort of hard to keep track of what's still standing in Yasser Arafat's compound. Why don't you give us a sense of that?
WEDEMAN: Well, basically what's standing is the building that he is in and that's where those 200 or so people are. Some of the buildings are being just bulldozed, jack hammered into dust. Others, it looks like they've placed explosive charges and essentially destroyed the structure that's holding them up.
So really the one building is essentially standing, relatively unharmed. Of course, we have to remember that there have been repeated sieges of the compound behind me, and the destruction that you can see is not only from this time, but other times, as well, going back, in fact, to March when the first such operations took place -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Ben Wedeman in Ramallah. Thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
