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Morning News

Crisis in the Middle East: Clashes Less Intense Today; Diplomatic Efforts Continue

Aired October 13, 2000 - 9:33 a.m. ET

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

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Again, watching the latest in the Middle East and the Palestinian territories. Another "day of rage" has been declared for today.

Live to Jerusalem, our bureau chief, Mike Hanna watching all of it for us now.

Mike, hello.

MIKE HANNA, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Hello there.

Well, several reports of violence from several areas within the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. In particular, the West Bank town of Ramallah, where, once again, a confrontation between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli security forces. A number of Palestinians wounded in that particular clash, but, generally, in a wider scheme of things, there does appear to be a definite reduction in the intensity of the violence in most areas.

This, of course, I must stress, relative to recent days which had reached an absolute height of conflict in the course of yesterday with an Israeli helicopter attack on targets in Ramallah and in Gaza City itself.

In Gaza City, there has been reports of disturbances in the streets within the city itself, of crowds attacking hotels and some bottle stores. However, we hear there, too, that the Palestinian police attempting to control the crowd to a degree. We hear, too, that there have been no approaches at any of the Jewish enclaves within the Gaza Strip, areas in which we've seen violence break out on days past.

The diplomatic efforts continuing despite this ongoing violence that we see out of Ramallah. And we have reported to us from another couple of West Bank towns, on the table the proposal of a summit. It is understood a summit to be attended by the leaders, by the U.S. president, Bill Clinton, along with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah.

Well, no sign yet whether either side is prepared to do so. Each side is saying that the other must end the violence before they are prepared to talk. The intermediaries -- the international intermediaries are saying that both leaders must end the violence before they can sit down and talk.

So, still we have situation, the leaders not talking to each other, not even by telephone, deciding whether they will take part in the summit intended to end the violence or to begin to end the violence.

Back to you.

HEMMER: Mike, let's take it one step further. If the top leaders of both the Israelis and Palestinians are not communicating with each other, the are they saying anything publicly to their own people thus far today?

HANNA: No, there's been no statements from either of the leaders in the course of this day as to the diplomatic efforts that are under way. Ehud Barak, the Israeli prime minister, overnight repeated his assertion that the Palestinian Authority must end this ongoing violence, saying he does not believe that Yasser Arafat is a real partner for peace.

From the Palestinian side, we've had Palestinian spokesmen saying, repeating their assertion that they've made over the past two weeks that it is up to the Israeli government to end the violence; in particular, its security forces.

So there's still the situation of blame and counter-blame from each side. Meanwhile, the West and the other mediators involved in attempting to bring the leaders together looking to the leaders to publicly state their opposition to the violence whichever side it is on. This has not happened yet.

HEMMER: All right, again, we remind people it is Friday in the Middle East. That means the Sabbath will begin shortly, about two and a half hours, when the sun goes down in the Middle East. Mike Hanna live there in Jerusalem.

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