Military

DATE=10/31/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL / PALESTINIAN REACTION (L-O)

NUMBER=2-268668

BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN

DATELINE=RAMALLAH

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank town of Ramallah reacted angrily Tuesday after Israeli air attacks on suspected command centers of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. The Israeli attack was in response to the killing of two Israeli Jews. Correspondent Laurie Kassman reports from Ramallah, where one Fatah social center was hit.

TEXT: /// SFX GLASS SWEPT UP ///

Rabia Barghouti is cleaning up the glass shards from her shattered front window. Her home sits directly across the narrow Ramallah street from a Fatah social center, which was targeted late Monday night by Israeli combat helicopters.

Mrs. Barghouti is still shaking as she remembers the moment of the attack. She and her seven-year-old son were watching T-V when she heard the helicopters hovering overhead.

/// BARGHOUTI ACT ///

And ten minutes later, not more than that, we heard a big boom. And the children hang over my neck and cry "Mama, are we going to die?" I said, "no, don't worry, God will protect us." Then I looked here, and there is a fire in the living room and the carpet in the veranda.

/// END ACT ///

Across the street in what remains of the one-room meeting place for Fatah supporters, a portrait of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat hangs precariously in the sagging frame of a shattered doorway.

/// ABU TALAL IN ARABIC AND FADE ///

Thirty-three-year-old Abu Talal describes the former shop as a makeshift social center where Palestinian youngsters could sit around and talk. He says he left the room only a few minutes before the raid, just after the helicopter hit the house next door.

The speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, Ahmed Korei considers the Israeli attacks on the Fatah offices in the West Bank and Gaza a new stage of Israeli aggression against Palestinians.

/// KOREI ACT ///

It's a new stage in the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. And now they are focussing on al Fatah. Fatah is not a camp, it's not a military base. It's not an office. It's not someone to be arrested or assassinated. Al Fatah is a movement between all the Palestinian people here in the West Bank and Gaza.

/// END ACT ///

Israeli officials say the attack came in response to the killing of two Israeli citizens, but it also appears to signal a new initiative aimed at targeting facilities used by Palestinians they blame for firing on Israelis. The Israeli army says the helicopters fired missiles in pinpoint strikes at mostly empty buildings used by the Fatah movement. (Signed)

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