CEASE-FIRE COLLAPSES

	October 20, 2000
	A report on the apparent failure of the cease-fire agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

JIM LEHRER: We begin our Middle East coverage with a report by Lindsay Taylor of Independent Television News. LINDSAY TAYLOR: Countdown to a cease-fire, but as the deadline approached, the violence intensified. The world's major powers had persuaded Israeli and Palestinian leaders to work towards a truce, but on the ground here in Ramallah, this was the response. Once again, from behind barricades, stone-throwing Palestinians vent their anger. The Israelis retaliate, firing their weapons. The result: Injuries, and again, death. Today, a 13-year-old boy and a 19-year-old were among those shot dead. In Bethlehem, similar scenes, as all the hopes of the Sharm el-Sheikh summit seemed to evaporate. (Gunfire) On the West Bank, too, there was aggravation and retaliation. The would-be truce is a key test of the two sides' ability to end the violence, and prevent the slide into all-out confrontation. But if the scenes today are anything to go by, there is no cease-fire. The countdown was to more conflict. In Nablus, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint. Four Palestinians were killed, and others wounded in the exchange. (Gunfire) Six Israeli soldiers were injured in Tulkom, when they were reportedly fired on by Palestinian police after their vehicle took a wrong turning. There had been signs after the summit that the clashes may have been easing, but today the violence was as bad as in recent weeks, if not worse. A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, accused the Palestinian Authority of failing to fulfill its part of the understandings of the summit. In turn, Israel was accused by the Palestinians of wrecking hopes for peace. Being killed out there, too, is the best international efforts could bring this violence to an end. The U.N. Secretary General says the next 48 hours will be crucial, but already it appears too late. There is a cycle of retribution now in place that seems impossible to break, a conflict with a momentum that for now, at least, seems unstoppable.

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