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CNN Live Sunday

Haifa Deals With Strongest Attack Since Conflict Began

Aired August 06, 2006 - 16:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here are the latest developments in the crisis in the Middle East. Well, the port city of Haifa has taken a big barrage of rockets there, its strongest attack on that port city since the conflict began. Three people have been confirmed killed and about 100 wounded. That's according to the latest toll.
Israel says more than 180 rockets have hit northern Israel this day. In the village Kfar Giladi, at least 12 soldiers were killed in a rocket barrage there, with the greatest number of Israeli soldiers killed in a single incident since hostilities began 26 days ago.

Later, Haifa was hit by the heaviest barrage of rockets so far in that city, as we mentioned. At least three people are reported to have been killed and the Israeli artillery unleashed a heavy bombardment of targets in southern Lebanon and on the outskirts of the city of Tyre, as well. You see the pictures there.

There was also another raid near Lebanon's border with Syria in the Bekaa Valley. Israeli reports, rising criticism of politicians, military commanders and the intelligence community and Israel ground forces say they've encountered a much more formidable challenge than they anticipated.

All right, now you're up to date on what's happening across the region on both sides of the border.

For more, I'm joined by at senior adviser to the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, Mohamad Chatah. Thanks as always for joining us here.

Now, let me ask you about the diplomatic progress that's being made in trying to resolve this conflict, because we heard the Lebanese cabinet yesterday squarely reject that draft U.N. Security Council resolution.

Are we looking at a diplomatic process that has taken such a bad hit that it will take a long time to recover?

MOHAMAD CHATAH, SENIOR ADVISORY TO LEBENESE PRIME MINISTER: I wouldn't say that the cabinet squarely rejected the draft resolution. The cabinet said, basically, that this resolution goes some way, but it has weaknesses.

It can be improved to make the cease-fire happen on the ground, to make it stick. It's not enough to call for a cease-fire. We want a cease-fire that can be implemented and that can be sustained and these are the types of changes that our government is working round the clock with the members of the Security Council to make those changes, to put those steps in the resolution, that it will ensure that it will be implemented.

GORANI: Specifically, what part of the resolution does the Lebanese cabinet and the prime minister find disappointing and why?

CHATAH: OK, two or three main ones. The resolution does not have an immediate cease-fire. This should happen quickly. This war is not going to end on its own. We see the war escalating day after day.

So, first, there should be an immediate cease-fire. Second, right after the cease-fire, we should have a number of things. Israel should begin withdrawing from the south, with UNIFIL, the United Nations force, monitoring and helping them. At the same time, the Lebanese army moving to the south, taking over all military installations, all weapons.

Also, in the resolution, we want issues, pending issues between Israel and Lebanon, like the Sheba Farms territories.

GORANI: But that's included in the draft.

CHATAH: Yes, but it's included in such a big way that leaves a lot of question marks. We can improve the text to make sure that what I've just described, movement of the Lebanese army and movement of the Israelis happening immediately.

If we wait for a week or two for international forces to come, God knows what can happen during that time.

GORANI: So that being said, let's look forward to tomorrow, Monday, and next week. Are you confident that text can be improved upon in a way that satisfies Lebanese government and that it will be voted and adopted by the U.N. Security Council?

CHATAH: That's our hope. We're working even now, at this very moment...

GORANI: Are you in telephone contact with Washington?

CHATAH: We're in telephone contact with Washington, with New York, with Paris, with London and with people here to make sure that we use every possibility to make these changes that will make the cease-fire work.

We have not rejected the resolution. The Lebanese people are the ones who are suffering the most. We want the resolution to work. We are concerned that there will be a resolution that's not implemented and that's not the point. The point is to make the war stop.

GORANI: In those telephone conversations, is there a sense that Washington and Paris are listening to you, that they are listening to your concerns and are willing to make those changes?

CHATAH: I think there is some understanding of our concerns. And, you know, these things do not happen very quickly. These things take time, but we have a problem. We need to raise against the rockets that are flying over people's homes and killing people, families, people sitting in their shelters, this how to stop.

And there is understanding of our concern. People are talking about the need for a cease-fire that works and one that can be sustained. So we're speaking the same language and we are working on the steps. Hopefully, hopefully, this will happen in the next hours so that we do have a resolution in a day or two days that can really put an end to the war.

GORANI: So you still think the one or two days, you still think the Tuesday-Wednesday sort of horizon is feasible.

CHATAH: It is feasible. We are working towards that. Nothing is assured, but a lot is at stake.

GORANI: Because I've been sensing a lot more pessimism coming from everybody, including some of the cabinet ministers and the Fouad Siniora's government.

CHATAH: It's an uphill battle, but it's a battle worth fighting and we're doing it.

GORANI: Let me ask you this. You say the Lebanese cabinet doesn't squarely reject this draft text. However, when we listen to the Hezbollah cabinet ministers, it sounds like just a complete rejection. So, isn't it -- Hezbollah is the warring party here. It's not the Lebanese cabinet.

CHATAH: Look, Hala, people express their viewpoint in their own way. Clearly, when you don't have an immediate cease-fire and a clear objective of having the Israelis withdraw and sustained cease-fire, you can say that they reject the resolution.

No one in their right mind can reject something that can put an end to this. We, the government, representatives of the Lebanese people, are working day and night to make it happen and we don't care if it takes a miracle. We're going to go after a miracle. We are going to put an end to this war.

GORANI: Let me ask you one last thing that I've heard also from Lebanese officials. One of their fears is let's assume that a zone is established between the border and the Litani River, with the Lebanese army and, say, a U.N. force that has some enforcement powers.

Some of their fears are that then that would push Hezbollah forces back on the other side of the Litani River, closer to the center of the country and instead of having Hezbollah armed in the southern part of the country, you have it armed in the middle of the country.

CHATAH: Look, that's why we have approached this from the beginning, approached this problem as one that is in need of a package to solve it. Immediate steps to make the cease-fire work, but also the elements that would lead to a sustained solution. What we mean by that are elements that will enable the Lebanese government to exercise its authority throughout the country. Hezbollah...

GORANI: Is it strong enough?

CHATAH: Of course, it's strong enough, when you have a political agreement, when the army is in power, it can do that. What cannot happen is to try to force Hezbollah, simply get a foreign contingent or the Lebanese army and try to force Hezbollah to disarm.

The Israelis have been fighting Hezbollah for three weeks or almost four weeks now. But what's happening, only or mainly civilians are dying.

There is a way. The Lebanese cabinet includes Hezbollah ministers and they have agreed that the government and the Lebanese army should be the only authority with weapons. This is the national agreement that we are committed to implement, but only, only if the package makes sense and it's approved and that's what we're going to the Security Council with.

GORANI: Can I ask you a question that requires a one-word answer?

CHATAH: OK.

GORANI: Pessimistic or optimistic?

CHATAH: Optimistic.

GORANI: All right, for the next week?

CHATAH: For the coming days.

GORANI: All right, Mohamad Chatah, senior advisor to the Lebanese prime minister, as always, thanks so much for being with us on CNN.

All right, well, in the last few weeks, we've seen almost half of Lebanon's southern region evacuated by people who have tried to flee the violence.

Sometimes the Israeli military drops leaflets on some of the villages asking residents to leave in order to avoid air strikes. Well, in Sidon it did so a couple of days ago, but as Ben Wedeman reports, not everyone is heeding that call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Sidon's old market, it's business as usual. Less than an hour's drive from the bombing and shelling in the south, this city, Lebanon's third largest, is peaceful, at least for now.

Saturday, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over Sidon, calling on residents to leave because Hezbollah targets in and around the city would be bombed. Down by the harbor, the usual group of pensioners gathers for a midday water pipe and a cup of tea. These old-timers are philosophical about this war. It's not their first by a long shot. They aren't easily swayed by scraps of paper falling from the sky.

"The Israelis are trying to scare us all away," says Mustafa Jamah (ph), but even if they start bombing, we're not going anywhere."

This is a predominantly Sunni Muslim city. Its hero, assassinated former Lebanese prime minister and Sidon native, Rafik Hariri. Israel is trying to appeal in whatever way it can to those who aren't Hezbollah's hard core supporters.

Normally, this frequency, 92.2 FM, is al-Nour, which is Hezbollah's radio station. But since the fighting began, the Israelis are bumping into the frequency with a message of their own.

In Arabic, a voice claiming to speak in the name of the state of Israel, calls upon the people of Lebanon not to allow Hezbollah to destroy their country. In Sidon's old quarter, refugees from the south squat in a building dating back to when Lebanon was a remote province of the Ottoman empire.

Leaflets and radio broadcasts aren't enough to send them packing again.

"We can't go any further," says Uma Cahatah (ph), who fled here from Tyre. "We've gone as far as we can go. We don't have the money."

So they'll just stay put and hope the war will pass them by.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Sidon, Lebanon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: As we've been reporting, this was a night that saw an Israeli-Arab neighborhood in Haifa hit by Hezbollah rockets. We understand three people have been killed as a result.

Our Fionnuala Sweeney is live in Haifa and joins us now with more. Fionnuala?

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Hala, three people killed Arabs in an Arab-Israeli neighborhood here in Haifa, the explosions, the rockets hitting just over three hours ago, 100 people wounded.

For a time, people who had been trapped in a building which had been hit by one rocket were trapped there, but they were evacuated and moved to hospital. However, this has been a very serious barrage of rockets coming into Haifa.

We ourselves heard the air raid sirens sound about 7:00 in the evening and witnessed several rockets landing in open areas. And then just an hour later, as dust was falling, which is rather unusual for Hezbollah tactics in terms of launching rockets at Israel, we heard the air raid sirens go off again and before they had even finished, we began hearing the huge, thunderous impact of the rockets as they landed across this city.

We could see the smoke rising from the areas in the city which had been hit and the area which had been deadly quiet because of the air raid sirens, which meant that people had been taking cover, suddenly we heard the air filled, punctuated with the sound of ambulances, the sirens of police and fire and rescue services.

So Haifa taking quite a hit this evening. It has been a rather deadly day for Israel across the northern one-third of this country. As you know, 12 Israeli reservists were killed in a rocket attack up near the Lebanese border, that today bringing the total of people dead 15 across northern Israel, more than 100 wounded.

Hala?

GORANI: All right, Fionnuala Sweeney, live in Haifa, thanks very much for that.

Well, civilians normally fight to get out of a war zone, but one Israeli family is fighting to get back in. Gary Nurenberg has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN FEMALE (through translator): I love you dearly, but I have no idea where your pink pocketbook is.

GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is barely controlled chaos, getting a family of five ready for a move to Israel, a country where children can be in danger before they are born.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: When I was pregnant with her, I was wearing a bullet-proof vest and helmet provided by my father.

NURENBERG: And now she's moving back with her three kids and husband.

UNKNOWN MALE: Why am I moving to Israel? Because I don't feel complete outside of Israel. I just find that it's part of what I am, you know, part of, you know, part of what it means for me to be a Jew.

NURENBERG: The University of Maryland rabbi knows the danger to his family. A predecessor at the school moved to Israel, where his 13-year-old son, Coby Mandel, was kidnapped and stoned to death by Palestinians.

UNKNOWN MALE: There's an old Talmudic statement that essentially says that the angel of death doesn't know international boundaries; that if we were to live our lives constantly looking over our shoulders to see, you know, like what kind of dangers might be lurking, then our lives wouldn't really be lives.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: We have the sense of doing something bigger than who we are, which is why we're doing it, even though the world might think this is a really dangerous time.

But I think in Israel, it's kind of always a dangerous time.

NURENBERG: They leave in several days.

Gary Nurenberg, CNN, in College Park, Maryland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: We'll have a lot more on the continuing crisis in the Middle East. We have a special program at the top of the next hour. My colleague, Fionnala Sweeney and I will be presenting that, co- presenting that.

We're going to take a short break here on CNN. When we come back, a recap of the day's other news headlines. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANAND NAIDOO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, I'm Anand Naidoo. Here's a look at some of the other stories we are following at this hour.

At least 26 people have been killed this day in sectarian violence in Iraq. The violence came as the U.S. military in Iraq began hearing testimony about four soldiers accused in the rape and murder of a young Iraqi girl. There's been some graphic details especially from an Iraqi army medic who found her body.

Harris Whitbeck has more now on the accusations and the proceedings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The case resolves around what happened in this house in the town of Mahmoudiya one night early last March, accusations of rape, premeditated murder, destruction of evidence, allegedly by five U.S. soldiers who manned a nearby checkpoint.

Private First Class Bryan Howard, Sergeant Paul Cortez, Specialist James Barker and Private First Class Jesse Spielman. Sergeant Anthony Yribe is not charged with participating in the rape and killings, but is charged with dereliction of duty for having failed to report the incident to his superiors.

The hearing, run by a military investigating officer, is taking place on a U.S. base in Baghdad, Camp Victory. It is the first step toward a possible court-martial.

UNKNOWN MALE: He ultimately has to determine whether there's a reasonable basis to believe that those crimes were committed. And then he simply advises the convening authority of his opinion, what he's been able to find.

WHITBECK: A sixth soldier, Private First Class Stephen Greene, is no longer in the service, having been discharged for a personality disorder in May. He is facing similar charges in a civilian court in the United States.

Military prosecutors say the soldiers had been drinking the night of the crime, that they went into the house, raped a woman whose age has not been determined, but according to the mayor of Mahmoudiya, was only 14, and then killed her, her parents and her 5-year-old sister before setting fire to their bodies.

Iraqi public opinion about the case revolves around jurisdiction and the immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts U.S. soldiers enjoy.

UNKNOWN MALE (through translator): We believe that the immunity given to international forces is what emboldened them to commit such crimes in cold blood. This requires that such immunity should be reconsidered. We affirm that we should participate in investigating crimes committed against Iraqi people.

WHITBECK: But U.S. legal experts say the proceedings which are being closely followed in Baghdad will serve to assure confidence in the U.S. military justice system.

UNKNOWN MALE: They will watch the process unfold. They will watch what a fair trial looks like in accordance with due process and the presumption of innocence and they will make their own judgments.

WHITBECK: Some have already made a judgment. Last month, an Islamic Website posted video of two kidnapped soldiers who were beheaded and disemboweled in, quote, "revenge for our sister who was dishonored by one of the soldiers."

(on-camera): The Article 32 hearing will determine whether there is enough evidence for courts-martial to proceed. It is being described by some as the case that could be as potentially damaging to U.S. military's image in Iraq as the Abu Ghraib prison cases were a few years ago.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Baghdad.

NAIDOO: The "Reuters" news agency reports as many as 150 people were killed by flash flooding in eastern Ethiopia. Authorities are quoted as saying residents in a village were asleep in the Dechatu River overflowed its banks in the middle of the night. Since June, heavy rain has caused flooding across Ethiopia's lowlands. Rescue operations are underway.

We'll take a look at your weather when we come back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NAIDOO: The word from Havana is that Cuban President Fidel Castro is on the mend and will resume his presidential duties. While visiting Bolivia, Cuba's vice president told reporters that President Fidel Castro did not have stomach cancer. Vice President Carlos Lage also said Mr. Castro may be able to return to work within weeks. But on the streets of Havana, citizens are divided on the legacy of the revolution.

Morgan Neal looks at two lives in Castro's Cuba.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN NEAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 93-year-old Swella Torres (ph) isn't quite homeless. She was ousted from her apartment building a year ago, told it was to be demolished. And with nowhere to go, she and four family members set up a makeshift home in an open hallway of a nearby building. At night they spread the mattresses across the floor. She walks block after block just to find somewhere to cook. And on the days when the rain soaks everything, she says it gets to be too much.

SWELLA TORRES (ph) (through translator): I just want them to tell me where to go, who I have to see.

NEAL: Nevertheless, Swella (ph) has never stopped believing in the revolution.

TORRES (through translator): Those of us who are here can sustain the revolution. If I had a place to live, I could do something, anything, like the neighborhood watch, because we're the ones who take care of the population.

NEAL: And she's sure Fidel can help her, if only he pulls through.

TORRES (through translator): I'm worried because if he had some breakdown, we, the poor, are going to have it much worse than we do now, because if the leader falls, I don't know what his replacements will do.

NEAL: 65-year-old Oscar Espinoza, known as "Chepe," lives here in this cramped Havana apartment with his wife, Miriam Deva (ph). Arrested in a wave of detentions in 2003, he was released a year and a half later due to his deteriorating health. But Chepe wasn't always a dissident.

OSCAR "CHEPE" ESPINOZA (through translator): Like all of Cuba, we were very enthusiastic when the revolution triumphed, but I don't think there has been another instance in Latin America like the Cuban one, where the new government that emerged had the support that it did.

NEAL: He work toward decades in the revolutionary government, first as an economic adviser, then in the central bank, but soon he began to have doubts.

ESPINOZA (through translator): I had a series of reservations, things I didn't like. The lack of real participation by the people in basic political and economic decisions and I saw a lot of contradictions between the rhetoric and the reality. NEAL: After he started to voice those reservations, he lost his job at the central bank. He started to contribute to foreign media, voicing his doubts about the country's path.

ESPINOZA (through translator): There are extraordinary social differences, not because there's differences in what each person gives to society, but because some people are lucky enough to have relatives who send them dollars, because you can't live on salary here.

NEAL (on-camera): Both cheered Fidel's triumph and both gave years of their lives to the revolution. But while one feels its ideals are still within reach, the other says they were lost along the way.

Morgan Neal, CNN, Havana.

NAIDOO: Time now for a look at the international weather forecast. For that we turn to Kevin Corriveau at the weather center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NAIDOO: Kevin Corriveau there with the weather.

I'm Anand Naidoo. Stay with us for a one-hour special on the Middle East crisis. It's presented by Hala Gorani, she's in the Lebanese capitol of Beirut, and by Fionnuala Sweeney, who is in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

That's coming up right after the break, next, here on CNN.

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