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Your World Today

Barrage of Rockets Rain Down on Haifa; Israeli Troops Move Equipment, Themselves Closer to Border Area; Some Lebanese Blaming United States for Israeli Attacks

Aired July 21, 2006 - 12:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMILE LAHOUD, LEBANESE PRESIDENT: Of course they will fight the invading force of Israel if it tries to come inside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A president's warning. With Israeli troops on the move, Lebanon's president promises his army will get into the fight if Israel crosses the border.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Rockets send Israelis to the hospital and strikes fear in the heart of Israel's third largest city.

ANDERSON: And a growing crisis. An estimated half a million people in Lebanon are running out of food and water. Aid officials say the situation is rapidly getting worse.

SWEENEY: Hello. I'm Fionnuala Sweeney in Haifa, reporting live from Israel.

ANDERSON: And I'm Becky Anderson in Beirut.

Welcome to our special coverage of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.

We're covering this story for you from both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border and, indeed, across the region here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Well, Israel has -- Israel has called up thousands of reserves and is issuing new warnings to south Lebanon. This, as the U.S. gets ready to dispatch its top aide to the region.

This is the latest this hour in the Middle East crisis.

On the 10th day of a blustering air assault on Lebanon, Israel is ordering more troops to the front lines, signaling it may be ready for a full ground invasion. It's also dropping leaflets, warning people in south Lebanon to move dozens of kilometers away from the border.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will leave for the region on Sunday. Diplomats say she'll discuss options for bringing an end to the fighting. Well, the U.N. warns the humanitarian situation in Lebanon is deteriorating fast and says safe routes are desperately need for relief trucks. The Red Cross sent tons of food and supplies on Friday to Tyre, one of the hardest hit cities.

Israel's offensive has not stopped the Hezbollah rocket attacks. Several northern Israeli towns and cities were hit on Friday, including Haifa.

Well, Lebanon's president says that if Israel does launch a full ground offensive, his troops are ready. Lebanon, he says, will defend itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAHOUD: Of course the army is going to defend its land, and inside Lebanon they can do a lot. They cannot be strong enough to be against Israel on the frontier because they have much more stronger material and weaponry. But inside Lebanon they know the land, and, of course, they will fight the invading force of Israel if it tries to come inside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, the president's promise comes as fighting rages along the Israeli-Lebanese border. Just in the past hours we have had more attacks on both sides.

Let's get to Haifa and back to Fionnuala Sweeney -- Fionnuala.

SWEENEY: Indeed, Becky, a barrage of rockets rained down here in Haifa in northern Israel. In the last six hours, there have been at least five air raid warning sirens, followed by rocket barrages. Not just in Haifa. but across northern Israel. In total. 39 Israelis injured in this city alone, three of them critically.

Paula Hancocks reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This woman just lost part of her leg in a rocket attack. Doctors move the line of beds outside, ready for the next casualties close behind.

Some are in shock. Others clearly closer to the impact. But the patients are not out of danger even inside. The hospital is close to Haifa's sea front and very close to where rockets have hit before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the first time ever in the history of this hospital that it has been under a real attack not far away from this region itself.

HANCOCKS: The air raid siren is barely audible in the children's leukemia ward. A loudspeaker tells patients to go into a safe room. There's no bomb shelter in this hospital, just ordinary rooms away from windows. Just minutes after the rockets hit, contractors rush once again to cover north-facing windows to prevent them from shattering.

(on camera): This used to be the maternity ward, but it faces north, which means it faces Lebanon. Now, since rockets have been falling regularly on Haifa, that department has been moved further into the hospital, and doctors tell me that is the plan, to try and leave as few patients as possible on this side of the building.

(voice over): Sammy (ph) was in critical condition when he arrived here at the beginning of the week. A pellet from a Katyusha lodged in the wall of his heart.

He tells me he's scared every time he hears the siren. He's scared the next rocket will hit him.

Doctors have no choice but to keep working literally in the line of fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you treat a patient, this patient becomes the center of your world. You don't do, you don't think about anything else. It doesn't matter if you were bombed or there is a siren. There is the patient, the team, and that's it.

HANCOCKS: Doctors work feverishly inside to treat the wounded. His relatives wait with anguish outside.

Paula Hancocks, CNN Haifa, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: Well, there has been just another air siren warning within the last half-hour. The residents of this northern Israeli port city bracing for more air raid sirens, followed by more rockets, as it enters the weekend, the Jewish Sabbath, which begins just after sunset.

But as you heard, the Israeli army are calling up thousands of reservists, some to fight in Gaza, in the West Bank, others perhaps to go in a ground operation into Lebanon.

And joining us there from the north of Israel is Paula Newton with more.

Paula, what's the scene like there?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fionnuala, we've just returned from the site of many clashes along the border area here, and we can confirm that certainly Israeli troops are on the move.

They are moving their weaponry and moving themselves much closer to these border areas. There are more soldiers and weaponry here than we've seen in days.

They are certainly in position for what happens next. We expect the Israeli cabinet to make a decision on any kind of ground incursion on Sunday. It carries a lot of risks, Fionnuala, but at this point the Israeli officials admit to us that, although they claim to have wiped out 50 percent of Hezbollah's capability, as you're seeing first hand, Hezbollah can and does still strike in northern israel. So they feel like the only way they can really get to those bunkers, those caves that have those missiles, rockets, and those launchers, is to go in on the ground.

They've already started with targeted attacks. The next question is, where do they go from here -- Fionnuala.

SWEENEY: Indeed, where do they go from here? Because the Israeli military telling us earlier this day that they have flown something like 1,500 sorties, targeted missions, pinpoint operations, but they say it is almost impossible to wipe out Hezbollah from the air. So how far and wide do you think this escalation, this movement of ground troops into southern Lebanon, will go?

NEWTON: You know what? They're talking about trying to have as much as a 30-kilometer buffer zone. That might seem at this point to be unrealistic.

Remember, Hezbollah has had six years to try and get their act together there in southern Lebanon, and they are ready for them. We saw that in that battle, in the border battle in the last two days in Avivim. Every time the Israelis went in with that kind of air support, it was really only the boots on the ground that did the job and finally the skirmishes died down there in Avivim -- Fionnuala.

SWEENEY: Let me bring in my colleague, Becky Anderson.

ANDERSON: We've heard from the president of Lebanon today, who says -- sorry. Yes, here in Beirut.

Paula, we've heard from the president in Lebanon today who has suggested that if indeed Israel makes a full-scale ground incursion into Lebanon, they will meet his troops. Have the Israelis addressed that issue?

There are something like 60,000 troops, of course, here in Lebanon, nothing like the scale of troop deployment that we may see on the border. But have they addressed that? Are they considering that option at this point?

NEWTON: The Israeli government and the military have always maintained that they are there to cleanse Hezbollah. If what the Lebanese government is saying holds true, the Israeli government says that they really have no beef with the Lebanese, and what they want to do is make sure that the Lebanese army gets into southern Lebanon and is able to enforce those kinds of issues that the U.N. addressed six years ago in terms of trying to dismantle Hezbollah.

They continue to say they don't want to fight the Lebanese army, that they want to fight Hezbollah. To a certain extent, the Israeli government has always said that they welcome the Lebanese government to have more of a presence, for the army to have more of a presence in southern Lebanon. And as we know right now, it's Hezbollah that has a presence there.

It will be interesting to see what happens after all this posturing, because at a certain point in time the Israeli government is going to have to make a decision about the strategic rebalancing of that border. They continue to say that what they want is a safe border free from attack -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Paula Newton there in northern israel.

Well, with no letup on the air attacks on Lebanon by Israel, bombing bridges, bombing roads, taking out the infrastructure both in the south and, indeed, in the north, Lebanese and foreigners are fleeing the scene. Some 25,000 foreign nationals have left since the Israeli offensive began.

Australia has sent troops to help evacuate some 6,500 citizens. Sri Lanka has 93,000 nationals in Lebanon, mostly serving as domestic workers. So far, they've only managed to get about 300 people out. That would be 9,300, of course.

The Philippines bused nearly 200 people to Damascus, but nearly 30,000 remain. And some 600 Indian nationals arrived in Cyprus on Thursday, while China says it has evacuated all of its citizens that wanted to leave.

European countries, along with the United States, continue to bring their citizens out of the country. Meanwhile, the United Nations estimates that some 150,000 Lebanese have now taken refuge in Syria. The Syrian government says 50,000 people passed through a single checkpoint alone on Thursday.

Well, those who remain in Lebanon are seeing their cities slowly destroyed by artillery and airstrikes by the Israelis. The Israelis, of course, say their goal is to take out the Hezbollah infrastructure and pressure the militia to return the two abducted soldiers abducted 10 days ago.

Ben Wedeman has this report from the city of Tyre, which is about 60 kilometers south of here, normally a one-and-a-half hour journey from here by road, taking something like three and a half or four hours at this point. It is a city that is being destroyed by the fire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The wounded are carried out of Tyre's Jabal Amil (ph) hospital, readied for the perilous trip north to the relative safety of cities up the coast. Doctors want to move stabilized cases out, fearing more casualties are on the way.

The ambulances race at top speed up empty roads that are frequently bombed from air and sea. Progress slowed by craters where the bombs have fallen.

Hezbollah's influence is strong in Tyre, the largest Lebanese city near the Israeli border. Israel says its aiming for Hezbollah targets in and around Tyre.

The hospital wards are full of the wounded. Doctors say 36-year- old Jiam Dawish (ph) was wounded when Israeli jets bombed her house outside Tyre. She's now in a coma.

Her cousin, Iman Dawish (ph), lost her husband in the same attack. She hasn't had the courage to tell her children their father is dead.

"God, give me patience," she cries.

Relatives tell me 16-year-old Zacaria al-Amadin (ph) was sitting in his living room when a rocket hit his home. Hospital staff claim they've yet to treat a combatant.

I have treated children and women. Most of them children and women. Around 65 persons are children.

WEDEMAN: The hospital is one of the few places in Tyre with signs of life. With an Israeli jet on the prowl overhead, the streets are empty, save for people fleeing as fast as their cars will take them. But some are stuck here.

"The problem is," says Abdul Rasul Souedin (ph), "we can't afford the $400 to take a taxi to Beirut."

For three days he and his family have slept in the stairway of a building north of the city, caught between poverty and what might come from above.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Tyre, south Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, thousands more are on the move in Lebanon. And Ben Wedeman joins me now.

You're back in Beirut after that trip down to Tyre. Pretty horrific scenes down there. You've been out of Beirut into one of these suburbs or slightly south today.

What did you find?

WEDEMAN: Well, we were in a town just north of Beirut where normally the population is 5,000. It's now 47,000.

Refugees coming from the south, coming from the southern suburbs of Beirut. They're there. They're short on food, they're short on water. There is a -- some American charity out there passing out food, but there just wasn't enough for all the people there.

Now, we went to one place, one building where people were quite angry. When they saw we were American journalists, there was a lot of heated discussion. They're blaming the United States for giving Israel the weapons, giving it the diplomatic green light for this offensive. And at a certain point a man came running out of the crowd and started punching myself and my cameraman.

The people are so angry. They really -- they blame the United States for what's going on.

ANDERSON: You've covered this region for a very, very long time. Is this new, this blame game now, where the United States is -- I mean, they must have seen the sort of instruments of war before, certainly in Gaza and places like that, but now it's all about who's to blame, isn't it?

WEDEMAN: Well, it's about intensity. People are accustomed this sort of thing. I've been hearing this sort of diatribe for years, but really they're looking at -- it's only been 10 days. In 10 days, the road to the south has been utterly destroyed, the bridges have been destroyed, the airport has been knocked out.

And they point. They say, "That F-16, that comes from the United States. The bombs that destroyed my home come from the United States."

So it really is intense, more intense than I've ever seen.

ANDERSON: Just how radicalized do you think the average Lebanese person who may not have been a Hezbollah supporter in the past is becoming?

WEDEMAN: Well, it's hard to say, because there's more than one Lebanon. There's the Lebanon of the dolce vita Beirut, and then there are the people from the south, and they've always been fairly more radical. But you really feel the radicalization has taken a huge notch up.

ANDERSON: Ben Wedeman with me here in Beirut.

That's the scene on this side of the border. Let's get back to the other side of the border into Israel and to Fionnuala Sweeney in Haifa -- Fionnuala.

SWEENEY: Thanks, indeed, Becky.

We will have more of our special coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

After the break, I'll be talking to the mayor of Haifa, this Israeli northern port city which has been struck by a barrage of rockets this day, to see how the town is coping.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SWEENEY: Welcome back to our special coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

Seen in more than 200 countries around the world, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN.

Now, I'm in the Israeli port city of Haifa, which has seen some six air raid sirens go off during the day, each followed by a barrage of Katyusha rockets from just 20 kilometers away on the Lebanese border.

I'm joined by the mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav.

Let me ask you, first of all, how is Haifa holding it?

YONA YAHAV, HAIFA MAYOR: Very much so, because the fabric of society is fabulous, the people are very strong, they feel well, and they are coping with the new reality here. They are following our instructions, staying away from the streets. Most of them are at homes in order not to be in danger, and up to now we -- everything is under control.

SWEENEY: But how can the city continue to function? I mean, this morning things were running around fairly routinely, we could see people in the streets having coffee. Now there's nothing on the streets. The only sign punctuated by air raid sirens occasionally.

YAHAV: You're absolutely right. The first hours of the morning it was a kind of honey trap. The tranquillity brought the people out on the streets, but later the siren broke off and we were back at homes.

You know, the whole economy of the city is in a hold. We are absolutely disturbed. The -- usually life in the city is jeopardized. This is war.

SWEENEY: So how long can you hope?

YAHAV: We can cope for a long time because it's a strong society in Haifa. It's a multicultural society. We have Jews and Arabs, and for the last hundred years all this fabric is living in harmony, and nobody can jeopardize this harmony and can harm it.

SWEENEY: But given what we've seen over the last 10 days, and this huge Israeli military response into southern Lebanon, and the incoming rocket attacks continuously, and perhaps more today than any other day, let me ask you, is it worth it?

YAHAV: No war is worth the cost. Even if we had been attacked or the Lebanese are being attacked. A war is not something good. It's not something positive.

But I'll tell you something personally. I was -- I was a member of parliament, and I was heading the movement of one side withdrawal from Lebanon. And we did it. We convinced the government, we convinced the parliament to pull out of Lebanon.

We did it six years ago. We wanted silence. And we didn't get the silence.

I feel betrayed. I did it and I feel now betrayed. My city's under fire.

Why is my city under fire? SWEENEY: Well, I think presumably there will be Hezbollah answers to that, and they're giving them in a very direct form.

YAHAV: But Hezbollah is something illegitimate. We wanted Lebanon to exercise their sovereignty. They didn't exercise their sovereignty. They allowed terrorists to act -- and they gave shelter to terrorists. Once somebody gives shelter to terrorists, he has to pay the price.

SWEENEY: We have to leave it there.

The mayor of Haifa, thank you very much, indeed, Yona Yahav.

With the view here shared by many Israelis, the polls showing overwhelming support for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's stance in this military confrontation. Whether or not they'll support a further escalation remains to be seen.

We'll be back just in a few moments from Haifa. I'll be speaking to an internal security minister.

In the meantime let's take a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SWEENEY: Hello, I'm Fionnuala Sweeney in Haifa, in northern Israel, a city which has suffered a barrage of rocket attacks this day, with a number of injuries. We're continuing our special coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

ANDERSON: And I'm Becky Anderson in Beirut. Welcome to YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Well, with Israel on the move, it's called up thousands of reserves and is warning South Lebanese to get out of the border region. It seems there may be a full-scale ground offensive on the way.

I spoke earlier to the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, and I asked him what exactly would happen if, indeed, the Israelis pushed through that border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Prime Minister, thank you very much indeed for joining us. There are reports that Israel's army will expand its operations and push over the border. What happens if there is a full-scale ground invasion by Israel in Lebanon?

FOUAD SINIORA, LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER: Well, the only difference is that just -- it's a land incursion. Other than that, Israel has been attacking Lebanon, and Lebanon has been subject for a barbaric invasion. But it has been happening through gunboats and aerial attacks.

And, as you can see, Israel, for the past ten days, has been cutting the country into pieces. And the death toll now, I believe it is in excess of 350. And definitely in excess of 1,200 injured. And, in fact, the extent of destruction is unbelievable. I have seen all the invasions that -- and the attacks that were made by Israel over the past 25 years since 1978. And there's nothing compared to this invasion.

ANDERSON: Your government, though, seems to have been rendered almost completely powerless. The country, as you say, is being torn apart. And it's Hezbollah's refusal, surely, to return two abducted soldiers and stop attacking Israel. We've seen attacks once again in Haifa. That is part of the reason for this ongoing conflict. Are you unable or unwilling to control Hezbollah at present, a group which is represented in your government?

SINIORA: Yes, let me put it this way. You see, one has to understand Lebanon. It's not a matter of being powerless or powerful, you see. While this government has really put forth a very important positions and decisions, despite the obstacles that are, in fact, due to the very fact of the composition of this country.

And there are certain constraints that one has to understand. And in these matters, despite the fact that we are in a very difficult situation. But one has always, as well, to try to think ahead and see what are the consequences of certain position and whether it takes the country into a better situation or...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SINIORA: Well, that was my interview earlier with Fouad Siniora, who is the Lebanese prime minister. We also, in the past couple of hours, have had an exclusive interview with the Lebanese president. That was with my colleague Nic Robertson. He joins me now.

Nic, talking there about the possibility of troop deployment, certainly the prime minister wasn't massively enthusiastic when I asked him that question, will he deploy troops?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president today, who is the commander in chief of the Lebanese security forces, including the army here, when we asked him that question -- I asked him if the Israelis launched a ground offensive in big numbers, in bigger numbers than they are today, and the numbers that are massing across the border. He told me that yes, he would want to send in the Lebanese army.

ANDERSON: Let's remind people about just how complicated a mosaic politics here in Lebanon are. Because you've got the prime minister, the president, and indeed, the defense minister, saying things today which sort of clash, don't they?

ROBERTSON: The president not as strong as in favor -- and many people would look at the president and see him as a supporter and a friend of Syria. And they would look at Hezbollah and see them as a friend of Syria. And if they see -- they would see this as sort of an explanation of why the president would want to ratchet up the rhetoric here. But, of course, this has been the concern all along, that as the pressure builds up internally in Lebanon, that these sectarian divisions that they've kept suppressed so long -- and the president today was stressing the unity, because that is their strength in the face of these attacks.

You can see these divisions and opinion opening up. The prime minister not so keen for it, the president saying he would do it. The defense minister also saying that he would support troops going to the border. But I also spoke with the parliamentary speaker today, Nabi Bari (ph), who's an ally of Hezbollah in the government. He's in favor of the Lebanese army going to the border and of sending former militia, the Amal militia, to join Hezbollah.

It is a complex mosaic, and -- but the president today and all the politicians we talked to at the moment are really stressing the unity. But underneath, the fractures are beginning to happen. That's how it appears.

ANDERSON: I've got a question from Fionnuala in Israel -- Fionnuala.

SWEENEY: Thanks indeed, Becky.

Nic, I mean, that really is the central point here. This is where one of the areas of escalation could possibly happen, because Emile Lahoud, the president of Lebanon, is seen essentially as Syria's man. Is there any indication here that Syria is getting more and more involved in the internal politics of Lebanon?

ANDERSON: I think what we're seeing here is posturing, is both sides -- the Israelis building up forces on the border. The Lebanese now from the president, from other people -- from government ministers and the president, saying that they would obviously deploy, that they would deploy the army here. I think this is more a case of, at the moment, everyone sort of looking out for their own interests. Whether or not the president is speaking on behalf or what he thinks Syria would like to happen, it is posturing at this time.

We've seen this current conflict escalate into a propaganda situation, into a situation of putting positions out there that perhaps they won't -- they don't want to follow through on. But for a government to go into a position of posturing and saying it will put the army out on the border if Israel invades, it has to be ready to follow through in that. And these are the top politicians in the country. You have to take what they're saying at their word at this time, posturing or otherwise, Fionnuala.

SWEENEY: All right, Nic Robertson in Beirut for the moment. Thank you very much. We will, of course, be going back to Beirut for more of our special coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

But let's return now to Haifa. And just 20 minutes up the road, even closer to the Lebanese border than we are here, is the town of Nahariya, and that town has been also under a barrage of Hezbollah rocket attacks over those previous ten days. We went to Nahariya yesterday to have a look around there, but also to interview the family of one of the two soldiers who was kidnapped along the Israeli/Lebanese border last Wednesday. And we spoke to them, the wife of Mr. Goldwasser and also the father and the mother of Udi Goldwasser, who has been in captivity and hasn't been heard of since he was taken ten days ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY (voice-over): Karnit Goldwasser married her husband, Udi, just 10 months ago.

KARNIT GOLDWASSER, WIFE OF CAPTURED SOLDIER: He's the love of my life. They wanted to (INAUDIBLE) married and they want, if I chose, to have family, children, and -- and family that they want to see, not only to dream on.

SWEENEY: Udi was serving his last day of annual month-long military duty when he was captured more than a week ago. Nothing has been heard from him since.

K. GOLDWASSER: It will be hard for him, but he will manage, because he know that he -- when he will be back, he will have me.

SWEENEY: Udi's parents spend every waking hour trying to find out whether their son is dead or alive.

SHLOMO GOLDWASSER, FATHER OF CAPTURED SOLDIER: Everyone trying to get any information about his condition, and there is nothing.

MICKEY GOLDWASSER, MOTHER OF CAPTURED SOLDIER: I know only one thing. As a mother, I know that all mothers suffering. All mothers want their sons back home.

SWEENEY: The Goldwassers say they don't know what kind of impact Israel's fierce military action in Lebanon will have on Udi's fate.

S. GOLDWASSER: Maybe if you will hate them more, they will be more willing to -- to negotiate. Maybe the opposite. We don't know. We don't know. We are not expert. We are just a family, a father and mother, and -- and a wife. We don't know.

K. GOLDWASSER: We know that we are waiting here and working here in Nahariya, which is seven mile from the border. And we are suffering, too. We are suffering here. And it hurts, because we're waiting for Udi. We're waiting to find, and prove that he's alive, maybe a phone call, I don't know, a message, a signature. And we're suffering, also, because we're under a bomb attack.

SWEENEY: Not five minutes away from here, this apartment block was damaged by a Hezbollah missile strike a week ago.

And, now, after a series of rocket attacks, Nahariya is a ghost town, its residents ordered to stay indoors. The beaches are deserted, the shops closed. Nahariya looks and feels like a film set without a cast. Not much is normal about Karnit's evening either. SWEENEY (on camera): And this is taken when?

K. GOLDWASSER: In the military reserve. It's 2003, November.

SWEENEY (voice-over): July 2006 sees Karnit putting on a brave face before heading out to do another television interview.

K. GOLDWASSER: I want Udi back. I want the killing from both side of the fence to be stopped. I want to raise children. I want to continue living my life in peace.

SWEENEY: Fionnuala Sweeney, CNN, Nahariya, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: Karnit Goldwasser there ending that report on the kidnap the of her husband, Ehud Goldwasser, which of course kicked off this military escalation 10 days ago. We will be continuing our special coverage of the Middle East. We hope to be talking to Avi Dichter, a member of Israel's internal security cabinet, a man who has the ear of the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, about where Israel goes from next.

Stay with us.

ANDERSON: And I'm Becky Anderson in Beirut. We're going to take a very short break. The sun's going down in this region, and as the sun goes down, tensions rise. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Welcome back to our special coverage of the crisis in the Middle East. I'm Becky Anderson in Beirut.

SWEENEY: And I'm Fionnuala Sweeney in Haifa, Israel, which has endured about six rounds of barrages of rocket attacks from just 20 kilometers up the road, so to speak, from the Lebanese border.

Now we haven't really talked about the diplomatic efforts here, but we understand the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to come to the region as early as Sunday. Diplomatic sources here in Israel also telling us that on Sunday we will be seeing in Israel the German foreign minister, the French foreign minister and the British deputy secretary of state for the Middle East. So there will be three E.U. heavyweights coming here.

Meantime, we're hearing from our reporter Christiane Amanpour near the border, that as much as the diplomatic efforts are continuing, Israel's army has told her that it's moving its men and its forces up towards the border. It's still evaluating whether or not to have a full-scale ground invasion, but they certainly look like they're preparing for one.

Now of course the whole issue here from the Palestinian and also the Hezbollah side has been the unconditional release of their prisoners held in Israeli jails. That, of course, is not unconditional as far as Israel is concerned. What they want to see is their soldiers released unconditionally.

But Matthew Chance in Gaza has been reporting on the strength of the feeling about the need for the release of Palestinian prisoners before there can be any release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped four weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The grim task of retrieving remains of the latest casualties in Israel's raids to free its captured soldier here in Gaza. All members of one family blown apart by Israeli fire in clashes with Palestinian militants.

"We'll not give the soldier back unless Israel releases all our prisoners," this family member says, "and we'll ask Hezbollah not to give the soldiers they're holding either until Israel releases Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians."

Prisoners, Arab and Israeli, are now at the core of this Middle East crisis. Israel has about 10,000 in its jails. Many have murdered, and bombed or plotted against the Jewish state. Some are held without trial.

In Gaza, there's even a ministry of prisoners dedicated to their release. There's only an acting Palestinian minister from Hamas -- the regular one is a prisoner himself in Israel.

ATIF EDWAN, ACTING MIN., PALESTINIAN DETAINEES: All of this world closes its eyes regarding the suffering, but when the Israeli soldiers are captured by some Palestinians, everybody just opens his eyes and tries to pay a very important, you know, attention to this issue.

CHANCE: For Hamas, the Israeli soldier everyone's watching is a valuable bargaining chip.

(on camera): How many prisoners do you think that you can expect to get back in exchange for Gilad Shalit?

EDWAN: I hope a lot of them, thousands. I hope so.

CHANCE (voice-over): There have been deals in the past. Jamal was convicted of terrorism in Israel and sentenced to 30 years, but after serving 12 he was back in Gaza with his family, freed in a political deal. There must now be another, he says, before the soldiers being held by Hamas and Hezbollah are handed back, too.

JAMAL MUKAHHAL, FMR. PRISONER: I'm sure of that. And nobody in the Palestinian (INAUDIBLE) will accept have another solution. The hope of the prisoners is in Gilad.

CHANCE: Hope Israel has yet to fulfill.

(on camera): So far Israel has adamantly refused to negotiate either with Hezbollah or with Hamas here in Gaza for the release of its captured soldiers. To do so, it says, may encourage further abductions, but the military action hasn't set them free either, and at some point a deal may have to be done.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Gaza.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, you're watching our continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East. We're going to take a short break.

After that...

SWEENEY: We'll be talking to Avi Dichter, Israel's internal security cabinet minister.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SWEENEY: Hello, I'm Fionnuala Sweeney in Haifa, Israel. Welcome back to our special coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

ANDERSON: And I'm Becky Anderson in Beirut. You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY, seen live around the globe.

Before we move on in this region, let's just bring you up-to-date on some news just being confirmed to CNN out of Washington. It is the president of the U.S., George W. Bush, and the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, will meet on Sunday in Washington with Saudi officials, with the Saudi foreign minister at the White House, and that is to discuss the situation in the Middle East.

The meeting to take place after President Bush returns from his ranch in Crawford on Sunday. He's scheduled to arrive back just before 4:00 Eastern time on Sunday. The meeting also presumably to take place before Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, leaves for the Middle East on Sunday. That being confirmed just earlier on today.

So news that the president and the secretary of state will meet with Saudi officials to discuss the situation in the Middle East before Condoleezza Rice leaves for the Middle East on Sunday -- Fionnuala.

SWEENEY: And indeed, Becky, we're hearing here from diplomatic sources that three European Union heavyweights will be in Israel on Sunday. They will be the German foreign minister, the French foreign minister, and the British secretary of state for the Middle East.

I want to go now to Tel Aviv where we're joined by Avi Dichter. He's a member of the Internal Security Cabinet. He's a very close advisor to Ehud Olmert, and he's a former head of Shin Bet. Thank you very much for joining us.

Now, Condoleezza Rice has always said she would never come to the Middle East before there was some kind of sustainable solution in the works. What is happening? AVI DICHTER, ISRAELI INTERNAL SECURITY MINISTER: Well, as you know, for the last six years, we've been biting our lips and since last week we started to bite the lips of our enemies, whether it's Hezbollah in Lebanon and, of course, the Hamas and other terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

So I'm sure that all the ministers from those countries that you've mentioned, whenever they're going to be here in Israel, they're going to listen to the briefings given by the Israeli side concerning with what's going on in Lebanon during the last 10 days.

SWEENEY: Now, what you want is an imposition of Resolution 1559, a U.N. resolution from two years ago which would see the Lebanese government take responsibility for disarming the militia and then patrol the border with the Lebanese army.

Do you believe that that's a workable solution? Would Israel's government really trust the Lebanese army -- which some are threatening to defend Lebanon against Israel's military actions at the moment -- to also defend the border with Israel?

DICHTER: I'm sure that the Lebanese authorities since the beginning of being independent in Lebanon, or let's say after we withdrew from Lebanon, I think that they've missed the point in order to deploy their forces along the border in particular, but in all Lebanon in general.

The problem, I think, is the fact that the Lebanese government or the Lebanese prime minister, even during the last two years after the 1559 Resolution of the United Nations, they did nothing. And I'm sorry to say, but it did nothing in terms of a ...

SWEENEY: They didn't do it to your satisfaction. I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir, but we're about to run out of time, and I forgot a very important question. A couple of days ago, you were quoted as saying that Israel would do a prisoner release exchange for other Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners. Is that part of the diplomatic solution?

DICHTER: No, no, the mission of this special operation heads four missions. One them is releasing the prisoners, the Israeli kidnapped soldiers, but there are some other three missions. One of them, of course, is not allowing any terrorists to be deployed along the Israeli-Lebanese border and, of course, to make sure that all launching of rockets -- and I was thinking about the ...

SWEENEY: Will you do a release?

DICHTER: ...more than 1,000 from Lebanon. The release is going to be part of the negotiations with Lebanon, and the other countries are going to be involved in what's going to be in Lebanon. And I'm sure that's -- I mean, the releasing of the Israeli kidnapped soldiers is going to be one of the main points concerning what's going to be in Lebanon in the coming years.

SWEENEY: Avi Dichter, member of the Internal Security Cabinet in Israel, thank you very much indeed for joining us. I apologize. We're out of time, but they're saying that the prisoner release will be a part of any negotiation to bring about a diplomatic solution.

Becky, back to you in Beirut.

ANDERSON: Thank you. You've been watching our special coverage of the crisis in the Middle East. As the tension mounts here, thousands of reservists in Israel are being called to the border and warnings from Israel to residents in south Lebanon. Condoleezza Rice will be speaking at the State Department at 1:30 Eastern time. CNN will carry that live, that ahead of her visit to the Middle East on Sunday.

Thank you very much indeed for watching YOUR WORLD TODAY here on CNN. From Fionnuala and myself, goodbye.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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