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CNN Saturday Morning News

Israel Destroys Palestinian Communications Center

Aired January 19, 2002 - 07:07   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: Turning now to the Middle East and the tit-for-tat of violence more retaliation today as Israel blows up a Palestinian communications center.

CNN's Rula Amin joins us live now from the West Bank with details on all of that -- Rula.

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, I'm standing here right in front of this building that you can see behind me. This building used to have Palestinian television and Palestinian radio, mainly Palestinian radio. The Voice of Palestine, it was called.

Last night in the early hours of this morning, just before dawn, Israeli soldiers and Israeli tanks rolled into this neighborhood. They surrounded the building, evacuated the building from any personnel, and then they plant some explosive charges. And just about 5:30 this morning, they detonated these charges, and the whole building was blown up. Fire was there for a couple of hours.

People here say this is -- they came at watched as the fire and smoke were still coming out of this building. For the Palestinians, this was a devastating measure. They considered this a symbol of their independence.

Now, Israel says this radio and television station was used by the Palestinian Authority to incite against Israel and against Israelis, and Israel has taken a series of measures in the last few days in retaliation for an attack on -- in a party, in a Bar Mitzvah party, in northern town of Israel up on Kabera (ph), where six Israelis were killed and more than 30 were injured.

Israel says Yasser Arafat is not committed to the cease-fire, that it will take matters in its own hands to stop attacks against Israelis, and this is something that they have -- they are entitled to do. The Palestinians, on the other side, say this is unprecedented aggression. They are calling for international intervention. They're calling on the United States. And they say that Israel is trying to undermine the Palestinian Authority and destroy the Palestinian infrastructure -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Rula Amin, joining us from the West Bank. Thank you very much.

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