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CNN Live Sunday

Tense Weekend in Middle East After Friday's Suicide Bombing

Aired June 03, 2001 - 16:01   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: A day of sadness and anger in Israel as victims of a suicide bombing are laid to rest and the Israeli government struggles with how to best respond to the attack. Its task is complicated with many Israelis calling for immediate revenge and others pleading for restraint.

There are no credible claims of responsibility for the bombing. However, Israeli and Palestinian sources say they have identified the alleged suicide bomber as 22-year-old Mohammed Saeed al-Hotary. Even his parents say he did it. Israeli sources say that he was a member of the Islamic Jihad. Palestinian sources have not verified claim.

For more on the aftermath and what might happen next, CNN's Jerrold Kessel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Emotions roar at the scene of Friday night's suicide bombing. Many of the people who stopped off to pay tribute to the dead teenagers seemed still stunned. Along with the disbelief, anguish; emotions affecting Israelis in general.

In the country's popular papers, crowed row after row of faces, nearly all of them immigrants from the former Soviet Union; some only children; some of single parents; a few cases both, only children of single mothers.

A special memorial, too, at the school where several of the teenagers had studies. Alongside the tears, there's widespread anger. Balancing gut reactions with broader considerations is what the Israeli government wrestles with.

At the scene of the bombing, amid prayers and wreath laying, differing views of what the government should do.

"So," says this young man, "we give them another 48 hours to see what Arafat will do to calm things down. I think it's empty talk, nothing more. They don't want any peace with us at all."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're waiting now to see what happens in standoff. Acting out of rage is the appropriate way to do things. I think most of us accept way of dealing with the situation.

KESSEL: Officially, Israel says, Yasser Arafat must act, not simply promise.

DORE GOLD, SHARON ADVISER: Israel is stressing now re- incarceration of Palestinian operatives from Hamas and Islamic Jihad who have been involved in these terrorist attacks. We're talking about the end of incitement, and finally, we're talking about a real termination of the kind of shooting attacks and bombing attacks that we have been experience for months. If these things happen, we will have reached a cease-fire and military plans that Israel was considering will become irrelevant.

KESSEL: The Palestinian leader, who's been under enormous international pressure, says he'll work for the cease-fire, but Palestinian officials stress the onus is equally on Israel to make it work.

ZIAD ABU ZAYYAD, PALESTINIAN CABINET MINISTER: The cease-fire will be accompanied by some political steps from the side of Israel, which will enforce the cease-fire and help us to go ahead with it.

KESSEL: Israeli security forces scrutinized permits of Palestinians entering Jerusalem. A tight closure of the West Bank and Gaza includes the blocking of fresh gas and petrol supplies into Gaza.

(on camera): Informally, the Israeli government has indicated it will give Yasser Arafat a chance. Unless there's another terror incident, analysts say, Israel is unlikely to strike militarily until it's convinced that the world is convinced that it had little alternative but to act.

BENJAMIN BEN-ELIEZER, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: At first indications, I would say that I feel that the world do realize that we have done our utmost.

KESSEL (voice-over): But for now, Israel is focused on burying the teenagers, a chain of funerals; 14 in all on Sunday, another Five on Monday.

Jerrold Kessel, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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