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CNN Saturday Morning News

Israeli Military Attacks Palestinian Security Forces

Aired May 19, 2001 - 07:03   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: State Department officials tell CNN they'll look again early next week at whether Powell should meet with Arafat on his upcoming trip to Africa and Europe.

As the diplomatic chasm deepens between the Israelis and the Palestinians, there is a common thread, the desire for revenge and more blood.

CNN's Sheila MacVicar with that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The reprisals came quickly. Israeli war planes, never used before in this conflict, fired missiles into a Palestinian police post adjoining a prison in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Trapped under the rubble, at least eight dead, all of them Palestinian policemen, and 46 wounded.

Minutes later, Israeli F-16 jets struck again at the headquarters of a Palestinian security organization in Ramallah. As darkness fell, there were more raids, missile strikes in Gaza, and helicopter attacks on the West Bank.

The Israelis are going after the Palestinian security forces, targeting the infrastructure of the Palestinian National Authority.

Friday's violence began in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya. In front of this mall crowded with morning shoppers, a security guard noticed someone acting suspiciously, called police, and, as the police arrived, the Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up and killed at least five others.

"I saw a pregnant woman with her arm blown off," says this eyewitness. "I saw one man without legs, and a baby covered in blood."

Six bombs have been found in Netanya in five months. Three exploded.

In Netanya, people are scared and angry and baying for blood. "Revenge! Revenge!" they shouted. The Netanya bomber, a 21-year-old Palestinian, came from the West Bank town of Tulkarem. His family said he left home this morning saying he had something important to do.

The bomber was a member of the extremist group Hammas. They paraded through the town streets today, celebrating, asking, "Have you heard the news?"

Hammas says it has more suicide bombers ready to bring more death to Israelis, their bid, they say, to end the occupation. Israelis are telling Yasser Arafat that they hold him responsible. He has to end the violence, they say, in this conflict that now looks more and more like a war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACVICAR: Israeli helicopter gunships have been in action again today over the West Bank, attacking Palestinian security facilities in two towns, Tulkarem, the home of the Palestinian bomber, and in Jenine. Islamic Red Crescent people in Tulkarem say that there are about 29 people there, many of them apparently, according to wire services, civilians, who have been lightly wounded, one person who has been seriously wounded.

We are also continuing to see the aftermath of yesterday's bombing raids in Nablus, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been on the streets as the 11 Palestinian policemen who died there last night have been buried. They have been following their funeral corteges, chanting, "We will march, a million of us, to Jerusalem."

It continues to be a day of very heightened emotions here in the Middle East.

O'BRIEN: Sheila, if you could just give us a sense as to what people in Israel are thinking right now about a potential U.S. role as an honest broker for trying to end this cycle of violence, Secretary of State Powell indicating a great deal of frustration. Is there anything the U.S. can do at this juncture, with the violence where it is right now?

MACVICAR: There are a number of initiatives under way. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is meeting in Cairo today with foreign ministers from the Arab states. There have been calls for an immediate cessation to violence. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan deplored both the bombing yesterday in Netanya and the Israeli response to the bombing as excessive.

There are many people who are apparently trying to find a way to get a cease-fire. The Israelis, of course, are saying again today that unless the violence stops, there will be no cessation of their response.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Sheila MacVicar in Jerusalem, thank you very much.

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