Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Israeli Siege of Ramallah Continues

Aired March 30, 2002 - 09:05   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: Let's shift our focus now to Jerusalem and see if we can get some insights into Israel strategy as the siege in Ramallah continues.

John Vause has been there watching things for us, and we're talking in the Reporter's Notebook about the strategy that the Israelis might be employing. Lot of guesswork right now, John. Are you able to sort of read the tea leaves yet?

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the word that we're getting from the Israeli government officials who we've been speaking with over the last couple of hours here is that basically their plan has been to go in and force Yasser Arafat to negotiate into a cease-fire. Yasser Arafat, for his part, before this action began said that he would agree to the Tenet plan, to that cease-fire. The Israelis said it was too late, too little, especially after a wave of suicide bombings here in Israel, the latest coming yesterday at a Jerusalem supermarket.

So basically what they're saying now is that Yasser Arafat has failed to stop those bombings, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of what's failed to stop those terrorist attacks. So now they're going to isolate him, that's why they've got him holed up in Ramallah on the second floor of his compound there, basically confined to two rooms.

So their tactic has been, Yasser Arafat has refused to stop these militants, so they're going to isolate him, surround him, stop him from what they say is inspiring these suicide bombers to go into Israel.

And we've seen that Israeli military operation ongoing. This morning in Bet Jala, which is a Palestinian-controlled city in Palestinian territory, the army and the IDF moved in there with tanks and troops and armored personnel carriers. They were in there for just a few hours, and they say that was in responses to what they say was a Palestinian mortar attack on a Jewish settlement, Gilaut (ph), which is also very close to Bet Jala.

So this military operation, they say, will go on. They're not listening to that U.N. Security Council resolution to withdraw from Ramallah and the Palestinian cities. They say they will continue this operation in self-defense of Israel. They reserve the right to do that. And they believe that they have the world public opinion on their side, despite that U.N. Security Council resolution. They say this operation will last as long as it lasts -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, John, I suspect, especially given what has happened with the Passover attack, that -- and with these suicide bombers, you know, cropping up repeatedly, that the tension must be tremendous on the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and all throughout Israel. Do you have any sense of whether there's any added security measures? It's already a very -- well, security is as tight as it can be, put it that way, or so it seems.

Do you have any sense of that, and how deep those tensions are this afternoon there?

VAUSE: Miles, yes, very tense indeed. It really doesn't describe the feeling you get walking around Jerusalem. The security force has put out an extra 10,000 soldiers over Passover because they feared that there may, in fact, be these suicide bombings. Those forces didn't stop the two suicide bombings, the one on Wednesday at a hotel in the seaside resort of Netanya, and also the one which I mentioned earlier at a shopping center in southern Jerusalem.

Just walking down the streets here in Jerusalem, which are pretty much deserted, especially today being the Sabbath, but generally there's nobody out on the streets. The coffee shops are deserted, because there've been bombings there before. There's no one out at the bars at night. The restaurants are quiet.

Speaking to people who live here, they say that the people are just afraid to go out, they're afraid to gather in groups, they're afraid to go out with their families to restaurants because they're the targets for suicide bombings.

And also, if you look out on these streets, what you will see, very heavily armed Israeli soldiers. And I've noticed that their presence, especially over the last couple of days, has greatly increased. When I first arrived here, you'd certainly see them out and about, but now you actually see them on patrol. They patrol the streets in groups of four. And they're pretty much everywhere -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's John Vause in Jerusalem, thank you very much. Appreciate that.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Yasser Arafat is angrily denouncing the Israeli attack on his headquarters.

CNN's Michael Holmes has this latest report from Ramallah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sounds of Ramallah at dawn, birds and gunfire.

Throughout the night, there had been the sound of battle. At dawn, both sounds continued. An ambulance siren competes with the guns. The scene of the fighting, a building in the heart of Ramallah. Inside, a group of Palestinian gunmen, also civilians.

(on camera): The battle raged for hours. Tank shells and heavy machine gun fire from the Israeli side, return shooting from inside the building.

And then a fire broke out.

(voice-over): Smoke could be seen across the city, but it didn't consume the building. Eventually a dramatic surrender. Israeli troops taking no chances confusing the innocent with the fighter. Everyone who came out told to kneel and lay down amid the refuse of battle -- glass, bullet casings, used tear-gas canisters.

Another routine precaution, forced to lift their shirts in case they were wearing explosive belts. None of them were.

There were the injured too, numbers difficult to ascertain. This man not wounded but traumatized. This man also.

Inside the building had been hard-core fighters. The building housed offices, among them the media office of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and a senior official of that movement was inside.

UNIDENTIFIED SENIOR FATAH OFFICIAL: They start shooting, the fighters can shoot.

HOLMES: Some prisoners were taken back to the scene of the fighting. We heard a soldier say to one of them, "This is what we did. Now show us what you have here."

Adjacent to Ramallah in the city of Al Beera (ph), all males between the ages of 15 and 45 ordered by loudspeaker to assemble at a local mosque. Under tight Israeli security, the men were told to remove their jackets and were taken into a local school.

Women relations of some of these men ordered to go home. Some of the men were later allowed to leave. How long the others will stay is unclear.

At the Palestinian Authority headquarters, Israeli troops in complete control, although early in the day we heard several gunshots from inside. Dr. Joha Sayev (ph) spent 24 hours inside the compound under siege before being allowed to leave. Dr. Sayev says he treated six wounded Palestinian security officers. One of them died this morning.

He told of having to crawl to the wounded under what he called "a rain of bullets."

DR. JOHA SAYEV: When you are going, somebody is screaming that he is wounded, and you go there into while they were shooting into you.

HOLMES (on camera): Israeli troops and tanks are well dug in now inside the Palestinian Authority headquarters here in Ramallah. When they might leave is unclear. Michael Holmes, CNN, Ramallah, in the West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com