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Arafat Claims to Want Cease-Fire

Aired March 28, 2002 - 14:45   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Yasser Arafat saying he is ready for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire. Straight away to Jerusalem, and Mike Hanna with more on this. We're certainly wading through a number of definitions as to how you define this.

And as we await on Mike Hanna, we can tell you about that shooting again, that occurred just a short time ago in the West Bank town of Nablus, northern section of the West Bank.

Two dead at this point. Two Jewish settlers, shot and killed by Palestinian gunmen. Three others injured there. And we also come to understand that at least one person right now is being held captive, hostage, by the gunmen inside a home there in Nablus.

They entered a Jewish settlement a short time ago. Yasser Arafat, the word we're getting, apparently, through officials there in Ramallah, that he is -- quote -- "ready" for an unconditional cease- fire. And as we try and define this, all we have to do is look back yesterday to the images that we saw here on CNN and so many other broadcasts around the world.

This suicide bomber who walked in, detonated himself at the beginning of the Passover Seder, in the town of Netanya. Twenty-one dead, including the bomber. One-hundred and seventy injured there.

And the devastation, the physical devastation, is just quite amazing inside that hotel. The windows blown out. The awnings completely removed, and the electricity and electrical wiring there, just hanging completely in the open. John Vause was at the scene earlier today in Netanya, and the images he showed us was just one of absolute devastation.

Again, they are still reeling from that in the Middle East. And as the Israeli cabinet gets together earlier today and considers its next move, there are a number of questions out there. Does the Israeli government, again, retaliate for this bombing yesterday, which again, would continue the cycle of violence that we have seen now? For 18 months running, going back to September of 2000.

THe number of dead, both sides combined now, approaching 1,500. Fifteen-hundred since the intifadah began back in September of 2000. Our Jerusalem bureau right now, working this story in the Middle East, with regard to this statement: Arafat saying ready to immediately implement an unconditional cease-fire. Again, what this all means and how it will be received, or not received, by the Israeli government still an open question. But the violence does continue, even while that Arab Summit was under way in Beirut, Lebanon.

Now it is completed. Twenty-two members of the Arab world have adjourned that meeting. But not before endorsing across the board the Saudi proposal put forth by the crown prince that says, essentially, the Arab world will recognize Israel fully and completely, if the Israeli government withdraws to its pre-1967 borders there, in the Middle East.

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