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CNN Saturday Morning News

Sharon Takes New Stance on Peace Negotiations

Aired March 09, 2002 - 07:45   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: The world has stopped mincing words about the raging violence between Israelis and Palestinians. It's now being described as war in most accounts. More than 100 people died in fighting this week, and today, the Jewish state is continuing its military attacks with airstrikes in the West Bank and Gaza. But there may be a new chance for a cease-fire.

Our Michael Holmes reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid the bloodshed, an apparent turnaround by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, dropping his long-held insistence on seven violence-free days before cease-fire talks can begin.

ARIEL SHARON, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Negotiations for a cease-fire will go on under fire. There cannot be political negotiations. Clearly, there is no sense. You cannot reach peace if there is no security. But now, we are dealing with a cease- fire. I will make every effort to reach a cease-fire, but if the Palestinian terror continues, we will operate with all our might.

HOLMES (on camera): Mr. Sharon making it clear he is not opening the door to political negotiations; rather just talk of cease-fire. All of this comes as the U.S. special envoy, Anthony Zinni, prepares to arrive here next week to push for just such a cease-fire. However, the United States has made it clear to Israel and the Palestinians that it wants cease-fire talks to happen now, immediately, without waiting for Mr. Zinni to arrive.

(voice-over): However among Palestinians, little thought of talk; rather, outrage at a day of deadly military action.

SAEB ERAKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: What you are witnessing out there are killing fields, is a total escalation and is a war without any limitations as far as Sharon is concerned, and he said that publicly. He said that he will inflict the highest number of deaths on the Palestinians. This is his policy.

HOLMES: It was an unprecedented day of bloodshed, the worst single day death toll since the current uprising began in September, 2000. Dozens of Palestinians killed, dozens more injured. Some of the casualties, armed combatants; others, civilians, caught in the fighting between armed Palestinians and Israeli troops.

In the West Bank town of Tulkarem, Israeli forces rounded up more than 250 Palestinians they suspected of terrorist activities, and then marched them, blindfolded, to a schoolyard for questioning.

Tulkarem was hard hit by the fighting. More than a dozen Palestinians reported killed there, including a 10-year-old boy. This show of force, the latest in a policy aimed at crushing violence, such as the suicide attacker who killed five settlers and the gunman who killed an Israeli soldier, most of those attacks happening on Thursday.

Even as Mr. Sharon spoke of his offer to discuss a cease-fire, the firing continues. Israeli helicopters striking in Hebron. In Gaza, two Palestinians killed after the Israeli military says they opened fire first. Elsewhere, long into the night, tank shells and gunfire and the sound of ambulances racing to treat the injured.

Michael Holmes, CNN, Jerusalem.

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