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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Gaza Hospital Flooded With Victims After School Shelter Bombed; Israel, Hamas Blame Each Other for School Bombing; Kerry-Brokered Cease-Fire May Be Near; Dutch P.M. Refuses to Blame Russia Without Investigation; Latest on Air Algerie Plane Crash; Malaysian Families Wait for Bodies from Flight 17 to Return

Aired July 25, 2014 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DAN RIVERS, ITN REPORTER: Everywhere we looked, faces contorted in pain, terrible news broken. For many it was too much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to tell me Netanyahu is doing the responsible thing? Are deaths a responsible thing? To kill the children? The old women? The children? Us? What?

RIVERS: The mayhem of this day will never be forgotten by these people. Their injuries will be life changing. Agony, too, for those yet to live theirs. The injured children were being treated on the floor, so great were they in number. And most with the same injuries, shards of metal lacerating their tiny bodies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Multiple shrapnels.

RIVERS: How many children have been brought in?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So much.

RIVERS: The price of this war is etched on each and every face here, staring blankly back in shock, the innocent victims of this relentless conflict.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So difficult to watch.

Palestinians blame an Israeli air strike. Israel says that's possible but it also could have been a Hamas rocket that fell short. Israel further says it asked that the school be evacuated as the fighting grew stronger and closer but a U.N. spokesman disputed that claim.

I want to bring in my CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem. Wolf, first of all, what is the latest on the school strike? Obviously, it has been a major issue over the last day or so.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM": It's really a horrible, horrible situation. The Israelis say they're continuing their investigation. They're not ruling out the possibility that it was, in fact, an Israeli missile or shell, whatever it was, that did it. They say they don't know. They do also raise the possibility it could have been an errant Hamas missile landing in Gaza. They say there have been plenty examples over the last few weeks.

It's obviously a horrendous, horrendous situation. It underscores as you and I and all our viewers know the need for a cease-fire. The Israelis keep making the point, if Hamas had accepted that cease-fire a week or nine days ago, this would not have happened. There would have been quiet in that Gaza Strip. There wouldn't have been an Israeli military assault on the ground.

That of course is now history. There is a cease-fire proposal that the secretary of state, John Kerry, together with the U.N. Secretary- General, Ban Ki-moon, have worked out.

Apparently, they've got the backing of others. Egypt very much involved in this. Qatar has good relations with Hamas. Turkey pretty much involved as well, Turkey has good relations with Hamas.

The Israeli cabinet has been meeting for the last few hours. They took a recess. Now they're back in session. They're meeting at Tel Aviv at the defense ministry. We expect some sort of vote.

The eight members of the inner security cabinet, they have to resolve this. I know at least two or three of the cabinet ministers will vote against a cease-fire. They say Israel should continue its military operation and destroy Hamas' military capabilities.

We'll see what the majority of the cabinet has to decide and whether or not they'll accept. I think that's in part why secretary of state John Kerry is waiting maybe until later this afternoon, East Coast time, he's in Cairo, to make the announcement.

And then it will be up to Hamas, accept or reject. If, in fact, they accept a cease-fire for a week starting on Sunday that would give everybody a little breathing room to start the long and arduous process of working out some of the long-term issues clearly so central to this dilemma in Gaza.

COOPER: Wolf from Jerusalem, thanks very much. Wolf will be back at the top of the hour on the latest.

Are those investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 getting what they need? That's the question today.

From securing the site to preserving the evidence, this investigation faces major obstacles, an update, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Eight days after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was blown out of the sky, there is still tension and confusion at the crash site. Concerns are growing over the security of the area controlled by pro- Russian rebels.

On Friday, an international team toured the site. Investigators say some victims may still be laying in the debris field. The Netherlands plans to send police to try to secure the area, unclear whether or not they'll be armed.

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, more coffins arrived. Another flight is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. As we just reported, the Pentagon is now warning that Russia is getting ready to transfer more powerful weaponry into Ukraine.

Last evening, I spoke to the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, and asked him if Russia's Vladimir Putin had done all he could to help with the accident investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK RUTTE, DUTCH PRIME MINISTER: I've been on the phone now for six times. It's always difficult to assess why things have been moving a bit further, a bit more swiftly than at the start of the crash investigation and the recovery of the victims.

It started awfully slow. The pictures were heartbreaking for the relatives and families and for the whole nation, the whole country.

COOPER: Do you have any doubt that Vladimir Putin has armed and backed these pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine? There's now a report we aired on CNN, saying there is belief that Russia is actually firing from Russian territory into eastern Ukraine.

RUTTE: I want to get to the bottom of this. I don't believe I am furthering the process or helping the process by pointing my finger.

I want to base this evidence from our intelligence community and be working very closely together with the American and other communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Clearly, the Dutch prime minister not wanting to point fingers directly at Vladimir Putin, Russia being the Netherlands' third largest trading partner, but vowing to get to the bottom of this investigation.

Joining us again, CNN aviation analyst David Soucie along with CNN military analyst Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona.

I think a lot of people just find this stunning that, eight days on, we're still looking at a handful of Malaysian, some Dutch investigators at the site today, some Australians.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: It's painful to see. It really is for me. I feel like jumping through the screen and doing something about it. It's just painful.

People need to know what happened there, and we need to get an answer, and to see it sitting there, lying there, being tampered with every day, it's really difficult to watch.

COOPER: And Barbara Starr's reporting today that Russia may, based on an intelligence assessment, may actually be sending rockets, surface- to-surface not surface-to-air, but to actually ramp up the fighting on the ground.

RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The fighting continues. The air war continues. They're still flying air strikes against the pro- Russian separatists.

Now we're seeing artillery exchanges across the border. It's one thing to provide support across the border, but when you start fighting artillery into Ukraine, and now we see the Ukrainians responding with mortar fire.

This situation, this whole area down there, is going to get much, much more unstable, yet we've got to get people in there to secure this area.

COOPER: We talked to the monitor from OSCE, David, earlier in the program and he was saying one of the rebels came up to him, clearly frustrated, and said, look, the clock is ticking on this, and clearly wanting to get the message across that they're hoping these observers basically will truck this wreckage out and perhaps examine ordeal with it elsewhere. Is that possible?

SOUCIE: It would be possible, but it has to be well documented on site. We've done it before. TWA-800, of course, there was no way to examine it in the water.

COOPER: When you said well documented on site, that takes personnel and time?

SOUCIE: Absolutely right, and GPS and it takes a specialized type of equipment and specialized type of experience. Not just anybody can do these kinds of things.

FRANCONA: Cooperation from the rebels there on the ground.

COOPER: Right.

FRANCONA: And so far, that hasn't been forthcoming. They just want this to go away.

COOPER: Right. Especially if the fighting on the ground is amping up for these folks coming in, that's going to be all the more difficult.

All right, more to talk about. Colonel Francona, thank you, David Soucie.

Turning now to Africa where investigators are trying to piece together what brought down an Air Algerie jet. The plane crashed in Mali. We'll get the latest on that just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: In Africa, French forces have secured the crash of a jetliner. It went down not far from the border of Burkina Faso where it took off yesterday. Nearly half were French citizens. The MD-83 belonged to a Spanish private company.

Al Goodman join us now from Madrid. What do you know, what's the latest?

AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID BUREAU CHIEF: Those French troops have recovered one of the black boxes and all, if not most of the bodies, just about 50 French citizens.

The French transport minister said you could rule out a missile could take out this plane, but later came out and said they're not ruling out anything, although the minister did say weather is one of the working theories of what caused this.

The pilot radioed in about an hour into the flight to say he wanted to change course because of severe weather. Severe thunderstorms are common in that part of West Africa at that time.

COOPER: French officials said they found it in a disintegrated state. Are they investigating this? Are they going to be on the ground there for a while? Have they basically gone in to remove bodies and then to leave, do we know?

GOODMAN: There is an investigative process, and you're hearing it from different capitals. It will be led by Mali, according to the Algerian side. Algeria, where the plane is going, is going to be involved. France is involved. Interpol has offered to send a team.

The fact it is a compact area, according to the French president, that's quite a different scene than what you see in the Ukraine with the broad spread of the Malaysian plane that came down.

Anderson?

COOPER: All right, Al Goodman, thanks very much, Al, from Madrid today.

The family of one of the flight attendants of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 is waiting for her to be identified and brought home, as are all the families.

The wait is almost unbearable. More on that, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: The families of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 are counting the days until their loved one's remains come home. The timing of their return is especially urgent in Malaysia. The country lost 43 people, including all 16 crewmembers and two infants.

Their families obviously desperate for the remains of their loved ones to arrive in time for one of the nation's most important holidays.

Will Ripley reports from Kuala Lumpur with a CNN exclusive interview with the mother of the chief stewardess.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Millions of Malaysian Muslims are preparing to celebrate. Monday is Hari Raya, the end of Ramadan, when families are together.

HASNAN YUSOF, MOTHER: I feel very, very sad.

RIPLEY: But not the families of Flight 17.

YUSOF: I have to miss her without seeing her.

RIPLEY: Hasnan Yusof's daughter was chief stewardess Dorah Shahila. This picture was taken one day before her final flight.

You still wait for your daughter to walk through that door?

YUSOF: I'm alone, and I will call for her. I want her to come back and (inaudible).

RIPLEY: Twenty-nine years at Malaysia Airlines, thousands of flights, Shahila never worried about coming home, until a few weeks ago on a family vacation, she talked about MH-370.

DARLINA KWAN, YOUNGER SISTER: She said, what if it was her on board? And she gave a scenario, saying that anything can happen on board.

RIPLEY: It almost seemed to you like she knew something was going to happen.

KWAN: Giving a hint, but none of us got it.

RIPLEY: Her sister, Darlina Kwan, knew people on both flights.

You're a flight attendant for Malaysia Airlines?

KWAN: Yes, I am.

RIPLEY: The airport is just a few kilometers from this mosque. The remains of Shahila and the other Malaysians will come here for the prayer for the dead, but first, they must be identified. The process could take days at best, months at worst.

Each day and night without a body delays the Muslim tradition of a quick, proper burial.

YUSOF: We believe that if you don't do that, she will not be in peace.

RIPLEY: Peace won't come until Shahila is home.

On a weekend when Malaysian families are supposed to be together, the families of Flight 17 are torn apart.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And Will Ripley joins me now from Kuala Lumpur. What's the Malaysian government doing to try to support families at the time? RIPLEY: As you know, Anderson, Muslim custom calls for burial in a matter of hours after death, so the fact that here we are, more than a week after this crash, and these families are watching the images out of Ukraine, that human remains are still being discovered right now, as we speak, it's agonizing for these families.

The Malaysian government can't do anything about that, but what they can do is help the people who are on the plane restore some of their dignity, so they've actually sent representatives to oversee the preparation of the remains once they're identified, to make sure that all of the Muslim procedures and practices are followed.

So at least when these people finally come home here to Malaysia, the families can have some peace that their traditions have been honored.

COOPER: And have you heard people in Malaysia express concerns or thoughts about their national airline, obviously with two tragedies now in such short a space of time?

RIPLEY: Yeah, absolutely. Not only are their concerns about the national airline's safety, now that there have been these two tragedies, there are concerns about the financial stability.

This is an airline that, even before these two disasters, was losing $1.5 million a day. And now there's also a perception among many people that the airline is perhaps unlucky.

It's going to definitely be a big challenge, but this country is united. They view Malaysia airlines as a symbol of this country and the people here who have endured so much, so much suffering and so much tragedy, and everybody hopes the airline can recover just like these families are trying to recover right now.

COOPER: Will Ripley, appreciate the reporting, Will. Thanks very much.

And thanks for joining me today. Join me tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern for "AC360."

Wolf, live from Jerusalem, starts right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Jerusalem. I'd like to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

Diplomatic sources tell CNN negotiations are moving, they say, closer to a temporary cease-fire to halt the fighting between Israel and Hamas. But it can't come soon enough as anger boils over in the entire region.

Here are the latest developments. Secretary of State John Kerry has been working around the clock. He's pushing for a one-week humanitarian truce.

Sources caution, however, it's still not a done deal. One source says an agreement, though, could come maybe some time tonight. We'll see. Palestinian leaders have declared this a day of rage in the West Bank. Angry protests erupted overnight and today after the shelling of that United Nations school in Gaza. At least four Palestinians have been killed in the violent outbreaks in the protests on the West Bank.