Guess you heard about the two homicide bombings.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2002

Answers

Pounding is right. Looking at the film it seems the flashes are about two persecond, on and on and on. Can't tell what it is, tank I suppose, taken from some distance and it's night of course. Damn, a vehicle rolled up with a red flashing light and now it's hard to tell if the tank is still firing or not.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2002

Israeli tanks fire near Arafat compound

Action follows Tel Aviv terror attack that killed 5

Thursday, September 19, 2002 Posted: 1:30 PM EDT (1730 GMT)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- Hours after a suicide bomber killed five people in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Israeli troops in armored personnel carriers advanced near Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound and opened fire with machine guns, according to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat.

Erakat, who said he was speaking by telephone with Arafat when the firing began, said Arafat had not been hurt.

He said Arafat told him two of his guards had been injured and "the situation is continuing."

Another Arafat spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the compound was being shelled. He said Israeli troops had entered the gate of the compound. Arafat remained in his office, he said.

CNN Producer Sausan Ghosheh said she saw the APCs move forward and heard gunfire.

The Israel Defense Forces said that an operation was ongoing in Ramallah and that its troops were on high alert, but it would give no other details.

The action followed two suicide bombings in Israel in the last two days. The full Israeli Cabinet met in emergency session Thursday night.

In Thursday's attack, a suicide bomber set off a blast on a crowded city bus in Tel Aviv that killed five people.

"A bus just blew up in front of my eyes," said CNN sound engineer Michael Harris, who was near the scene. He described the blast as "enormous."

Ambulance services said at least 60 people had been wounded. At least five of them were reported to be in serious condition. The bomber was killed, police said.

The Tel Aviv police chief told Israeli television that the bus driver is believed to have tried to block the bomber as he boarded the bus. That, said the police chief, probably lessened the number of casualties.

The Israeli government said that both Hamas and Islamic Jihad had claimed responsibility for the attack.

The explosion went off just after 1 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) on Allenby Street in a crowded shopping district.

Dozens of emergency workers rushed to the scene. Television pictures showed rescuers aiding victims who sat on the shady, tree-lined sidewalks.

Police brought in bomb-sniffing dogs and canvassed the area, looking for other explosives. None were found.

The blast came one day after an Israeli policeman was killed and two other Israelis were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop near the town of Umm el-Fahm in northern Israel. (Full story)

Ra'anan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Palestinian terror groups remained "highly motivated" to carry out attacks in Israel.

Gissin said the Palestinian Authority was taking "no action whatsoever to stop the terror activity." He said Israeli military activity in the Palestinian territories was the only reason there had been "a lull in the successful terrorist attacks" for six weeks prior to Wednesday.

But Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the Palestinian Authority was doing "everything we can" to stop the violence.

He said the Palestinian Authority "condemns any attack on Israeli citizens" and said the only way stop the violence is to "resume a meaningful peace process."

President Bush expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

"We strongly condemn terror, we strongly condemn violence," Bush said. "And we continue to send our message to the good people in that region that if you are interested in peace and if you want people to grow up in a peaceful world, all should do everything they can to reject and stop violence."

Elsewhere, an 11-year-old boy was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers outside his house Thursday morning in the El-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah, according to Palestinian police and the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

The Israel Defense Forces said it was checking the report.

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2002