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Jerrold Kessel: Violence on road to peace
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The latest Mideast peace plan, known as the road map, has been presented to the political leaders from both sides -- but once again, Israeli incursions and Palestinian bombers are grabbing the headlines. CNN's Jerrold Kessel offered this report on Thursday. KESSEL: The road map, that peace map, is on the table, but really in the center of the Palestinian-Israeli road -- more violence. Israeli troops went in in force into the Shajaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City overnight. Tanks were backed up by helicopter gunships. And they are surrounding a house where they believe there are a number of the militants of the Hamas organization, its military wing, Izzedine al Qassam. There has been fierce fighting between the Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in the area and so far, a number of Palestinians have been killed, including a 2-year-old toddler and a teenager. The Israelis report six of their troops wounded in this ongoing operation, as the Israelis continue to surround the building. There are media reports -- this has not been officially confirmed -- but good, reliable sources on the Israeli side say that the very large Israeli operation is linked to that suicide bombing the night before last in Tel Aviv. According to these reports, the Israelis went in to find the Hamas operatives who planned and dispatched the suicide bombers to Tel Aviv. In that Tel Aviv incident three people were killed, more than 50 wounded. Israeli police reported in a dramatic disclosure last night that there was not only the one bomber who was killed, but two, and they were both British citizens. The one man who was killed, his bomb belt exploded. The other man also had a bomb belt but discarded it when it apparently didn't go off. And there's a major manhunt in Israel for that second suspected bomber. So all this is suggesting that there are major obstacles, major bumps on the way to getting that road map in place in a constructive kind of way. The violence is on both sides. Hamas and the other militant organizations saying that they don't want to have anything to do with the road map, will do anything to shove it off the road. And the Israelis saying they have serious reservations about implementing the map, as well.
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