DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Israel expanded its military operation in the West Bank today, rolling tanks into more Palestinian towns. The leader of the Palestinians, Yasser Arafat, remains cornered in his office in Ramallah. Our Bill Hemmer is keeping watch on the volatile situation. He joins us right now from Jerusalem. Bill, hello once again.</s>KAGAN: And meanwhile, some twists taking place. One, you have non-Palestinians, non-Israelis trying to getting involved, marching right into Ramallah yesterday. You had a chance even to talk to one American who was taking place as part of the protest.</s>HEMMER: Yes. We've seen a couple of Americans actually on all sides over in this current conflict. The one situation in Ramallah, a number of peace activists, about 40, marched right pass the Israeli troops right in with Yasser Arafat, embraced the Palestinian leader. And several of them, actually, Daryn, stayed there, spent the night. It's our understanding that many might still be inside. The Israeli government says that was a major mistake by the Israeli army to allow that to happen. But say they didn't have enough people to keep them away. The other demonstration you mentioned, again, I was talking about a couple of minutes ago, peace demonstrators marching on Beit Jalla, which is a Palestinian town right near Bethlehem when shots rang out. Not clear what happened there as a result, but some people were wounded. One woman said to be in the hospital, wounded seriously with a gunshot to the abdomen. The point is in all this -- and I know it's quite dizzying for viewers to try and follow this -- is that the situation has escalated. We have gone far away, again, from what many thought would be a cease-fire here.</s>KAGAN: Bill Hemmer joining us from Jerusalem. Bill, thank you. Stay safe out there.
Conflict Escalates in Middle East