Sky News
Sept. 11, 2001
Israeli tanks have blocked the town of Jenin in an apparent response to a spate of suicide bomb attacks.
Tanks rolled up to the edge of the town in the early hours of Tuesday - four Palestinians were seriously wounded in exchanges with Israeli troops.
'Terrorism nest'
Jenin is seen by Israel as a key Hamas town and a launchpad for the suicide bombers that have brought death and destruction to Jerusalem and northern coastal towns.
Israel said the operation, which involved about 17 tanks, was to prevent suicide bombers leaving the town. It did not say how long the operation would last.
"Access roads to the city have been blocked and they are under the full control of the Israeli army, in order to prevent the movement of terrorists into Israel," an Army statement said.
The move follows another bloody weekend in which a bomber killed three Israelis and injured dozens more in the northern town of Nahariya.
Arafat talks
The operation has overshadowed a planned meeting on Tuesday between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. No time or location has been set for the talks.
It is hoped the two men can secure a ceasefire as a springboard to more talks and an end to the year of violence which has left 559 Palestinians and 165 Israelis dead.
But the signs are not good. Previous ceasefires have lasted just hours before the sound of gunshots can be heard echoing around Gaza and the West Bank.
In separate incident, two Israeli border guards were killed and another wounded when Palestinian gunmen fired on their base in northern Israel.
Last Modified: 08:55 UK, Tuesday September 11, 2001
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Tuesday, September 11, 2001 By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- A chaotic scene of devastation unfolded on national television Tuesday with cameras catching a plane crashing into the World Trade Center and the subsequent collapse of both of the towers.
Television networks began live coverage of a morning of terrorism at the time the first plane hit the New York City landmark. With cameras trained on the smoking skyscraper, television caught the second plane crashing into the other tower, footage replayed several times.
As the terror spread, CNN showed a split screen view of the smoking World Trade Center and the Pentagon, where smoke billowed from another plane crash.
Reports spread as fast as television could detail them -- planes grounded across the country, the White House evacuated, an apparent explosion on Capitol Hill -- while commentators tried to keep calm.
''This may be one of the worst tragedies ever to strike this country,'' said MSNBC's John Siegenthaler.
A producer from CNN, Rose Arce, reported people jumping from the World Trade Center and described the chaos gripping lower Manhattan.
Cameras then caught the collapse of both of the twin towers, showing white smoke billowing throughout the streets of lower Manhattan. A shaken Ashleigh Banfield reporting on MSNBC described debris showering around.
''Oh, my God,'' a breathless Banfield said. ''It's just unbelievable.''
C-SPAN took phone calls from shaken citizens. One caller from California said: ''This is a sign to America: We think we are the strongest country and they hit us; they knew where to hit us.''