Violence Erupts in Gaza Strip
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We are getting reports of heavy gunfire in the Middle East. This as there is renewed pressure on Yasser Arafat to push for a formal cease-fire following the weekend's suicide bombing of a disco that killed 21 people. CNN's Jerrold Kessel has the latest now from Jerusalem -- Jerrold.</s>JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Carol. And there was considerably less military activity between Israelis and Palestinians overnight. But within the last hour, there has been this - a report this incident down on the border between Israel and Egypt - between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. That is near Rafah. A heavy exchange of fire between the two sides there. No indication of how exactly it started or where it has gone, but for the moment, it is quiet now. During the night, the Israelis reported one bomb, a small bomb in a Jewish settlement on the West Bank. Also, two mortar bombs fired. A few exchanges, a few shots fired in a few places but much, much less than there have been in previous weeks. And this is, in a sense, we're into a waiting and watching period in the wake of that devastating suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Friday night where the fatality toll has risen now to 20 with another young Israeli dying of wounds overnight, in addition to the suicide bomber himself. There were 14 funerals yesterday. There will be two more today of Israelis and there'll be more tomorrow of these young Israelis, mostly teenage girls and boys, who had been outside that discotheque. This has led to anguish in the country -- anger in the country and those emotions and those pressures that are building up against -- on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to act against the Palestinians in response. Mr. Sharon weighing up those emotions as against broader considerations. And he has said very plainly that what he wants of Yasser Arafat is not just a stop to the shooting but for the -- a stop to what the Israelis call incitement on Palestinian radio and television and the rearrest of Islamic radicals who Mr. Sharon and whom the Israelis say have been responsible for just those kind of attacks inside Israel over the last few weeks. The Palestinians have said Yasser Arafat, yesterday, convened his top leaders in the Fatah movement instructing them to carry out the cessation of fire and they have said that they will do so. At the same time, the Fatah leaders within Mr. Arafat's movement say that they have the right to go on and they will go on with the Intifada uprising against the Israeli occupation. How those two things mesh: a commitment to a cease-fire and the willingness to go on with an Intifada, that remains perhaps the big question at this time - Carol.</s>LIN: Jerrold, let me follow up with that point. I mean CNN is reporting that 13 different Palestinian factions issued a statement calling for the continuation of the intifada, so what does this say about Arafat's influence then over the Palestinian people?</s>KESSEL: Well, we're getting different reports this morning of how the Israelis assess this and it really is a question of assessment. On the one hand, some say he -- what he promised to do, Yasser Arafat, is not promising enough in terms of what's been followed up and the -- although there has been a reduction in the incitement, the Israelis say a reduction in the incidents that's not enough. They do want to see those arrests. On the other hand, there are those in the Israeli security apparatus who say that the falling off of activities indicate that Yasser Arafat can do it if he wants to do it. Ariel Sharon will be making that decision on whether he has done enough and it's in the context of the international pressure that the Israeli's are looking for. The general perception is is that Israel will not strike back militarily in a big way until it's convinced that the world is convinced that it had no alternative but to act. That's the waiting- and-watching period we're in now -- Carol.</s>LIN: All right. Thank you very much. Waiting and watching in Jerusalem, Jerrold Kessel. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com