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Don Lemon Tonight

All-Out War in Gaza?; Who is Calling Shots for Hamas?; Millennials More Supportive of Palestinians

Aired August 01, 2014 - 22:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

Breaking news just moments ago. Take a look at this. Reuters reporting the Islamic University in Central Gaza has been hit, resulting in that tremendous fireball you see right there. The question is, are we on the brink of war in Gaza? The world is waiting and watching to see what Israel will do.

This much, we do know; 90 minutes after another collapsed cease-fire, an Israeli soldier is missing, and a Hamas military wing says they assume he is dead. We will hear from Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer, who promises a strong response.

Plus, President Obama who addresses the conflict from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have unequivocally condemned Hamas and the Palestinian factions that were responsible for killing two Israeli soldiers and abducting a third almost minutes after a cease-fire had been announced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Also, we know America's leaders support Israel. And now the support might be stronger than ever. But what about America's youth? We're going to take a look at the generation gap when it comes to understanding what is going on in Gaza.

But, first, I want to get to that breaking news, that massive explosion that we just saw from Reuters. They're reporting that the Islamic University in Central Gaza has been hit. Here it is, again, happening moments ago.

I want to go right to CNN's senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance, who is live in Jerusalem.

Matthew, what happened?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, details still very sketchy. But you can see from those dramatic images that were filmed by the Reuters television news agency the destructive power of what appears to be an Israeli artillery shell landing right in the center of Gaza City.

The building that was apparently targeted according to Reuters was the Islamic University, as you mentioned, in Central Gaza. Why that may have been, we haven't had a chance yet to speak to the Israeli Defense Forces, the Israeli military to try and get any clarity on that, but, clearly, a huge explosion right in the center of the Gaza Strip, right in the center of Gaza City, at a time where tension, of course, is running extremely high.

You have that soldier apparently seized by militants in the Gaza Strip, a cease-fire which has gone to the wind. The response from the Israelis has been crushing. That's their words, not mine. They say that they're eliciting a crushing response.

And to give you an indication of that, we have seen an upsurge in artillery attacks, bombing runs on the Gaza Strip since midnight local time here. That's just five hours ago. The latest figures coming to us from Palestinian medical officials, 35 people have been killed. And that's not counting any injuries or fatalities that may have been a result of this latest attack that we saw there so dramatically on the Reuters News Agency on the Islamic University in Central Gaza, Don.

LEMON: And, John (sic), just a little bit more information on that video that you're looking at, if we can put it up. It was shot when the Islamic University in Central Gaza was hit. Al Aqsa, which is Hamas-affiliated, also said the building was hit short time ago by an Israeli artillery.

If this is any indication, this is, of course, the ramping up from the Israeli military.

So, John (sic), the question is, what happens now? Is there any hope left for a cease-fire or are we well beyond that?

CHANCE: Well, ultimately, there will be a cease-fire. Obviously, in the hours or even in the days ahead, it's difficult to see one. You have seen this from an Israeli point of view huge violation in their eyes of the cease-fire by Hamas militants, the capture of that Israeli soldier.

He has been named Hadar Goldin, a 2nd lieutenant apparently from an elite squad of Israeli troopers who was investigating a tunnel entrance. The circumstances of his capture appear to have been, as they went into this area, this house in the southern Gaza Strip, where there was a tunnel entrance, a number of militants emerged from the tunnel. One of them, a suicide bomber, blew up, killed two soldiers with him. The other militants grabbed this Israeli officer, dragged him back into the tunnel and disappeared, a fierce artillery barrage in the area.

Israeli intelligence sources saying that they were looking hard to try and locate the missing soldier. So far, they have not been able to, though. So, Don, just very briefly, I think what will be dependent now on the outcome will be, you know, whether they determine whether this soldier is alive or dead. Hamas at this point says they believe he may have been killed in a barrage of the area by Israeli forces shortly afterwards.

That's, of course, not been confirmed. But if he is alive, the Israelis have a record of doing deals for the return of their captured soldiers. They did the same with Gilad Shalit when he was captured in 2006. Five years later, he was exchanged for 1,000 prisoners, though I expect, if he is alive, militants in Gaza will be looking for some kind of -- looking at him as a kind of bargaining chip.

LEMON: All right, Matthew Chance in Jerusalem, Matthew, stand by.

I want to get now to Gaza and Mohammed Omer. He's a researcher and a journalist in Gaza.

I'm not sure if you heard or saw this explosion. We have been playing it here on CNN. What can you tell us?

MOHAMMED OMER, JOURNALIST: Yes, I just saw the explosion just about two minutes ago. It hit the Islamic University in Gaza.

And we don't know until this moment what is the target exactly inside the university. This is the university which is known to be an institution for educational purposes.

However, it has been bombed and targeted by the Israeli military on several occasions. The situation as it stands at the moment in Gaza is quite horrifying. Don't know if you can hear in the background Israeli F-16s are hovering and bombing every minute, and also the drones and the warplanes and the warships in the east of Gaza City are constantly bombing as I speak at the moment.

The hospitals in Rafah have announced that they are overwhelmed, and they cannot deal with the cases that get into the hospitals. Most of the people who they are trying to evacuate are basically lying on the ground, and dead bodies that the ambulances are not able to do it. That happened just after the Israeli airstrikes hit three ambulance, the drivers, and medical workers in five drop-off cities.

LEMON: So Gaza needed a humanitarian cease-fire today. That was broken. So who do people hold responsible here at this point, Mohammed?

CHANCE: Now -- now, what do we know? Israel was inside Gaza and operating on a tunnel. What we don't know if they advance or not. Palestinians in the tunnel may not have even had electricity to know a cease-fire was reached.

Remember, much of Gaza has been reduced to candlelight. The cease- fire talks is misplaced here, I'm afraid, and we see also that the Palestinians have warned for years that this situation cannot continue. We are an occupied and oppressed people. We want our freedom like anybody else.

And Netanyahu refused to negotiate seriously with the P.A. and now we have precisely what people warned Israel about a year ago, an armed uprising. Now, if the United States of America had been occupied by the Soviet Union, do you think America public, armed as it is, would simply allow it? If your grandmother was -- if your grandmother was thrown out of her house in 1948, would you allow it or insist that she is allowed back in her home?

(CROSSTALK)

CHANCE: I'm just wondering if CNN has asked one time about this to an IDF spokesman.

LEMON: There have been many conversations about that. But what I want to get into is the breaking news that we have right now.

So, listen, as we said, there is a humanitarian crisis happening in Gaza. You said much of Gaza has been reduced to candlelight. Can you tell us in this particular area where the university is what the population is like? Is it dense? Is it sparse at this moment? Would anybody be attending university right now?

CHANCE: Nobody is attending university over the last 26 days because it has been constantly under attack, the area.

I'm about three minutes from the Islamic University. I could see the burns and the fires are coming out of the Islamic University. The situation is quite terrifying at the moment. For the seventh day in my area and the rest of the Gaza Strip, there is no electricity, so that total blackout which makes people totally isolated from the international community.

And also there is the shortage of medical supplies, shortages of water. And we are talking about shortages of water. Just get inside -- I don't know if you can hear right now in the background. There is a terrifying number of bombs that are happening at the moment as I speak to you in Gaza.

LEMON: All right, Mohammed, all right, thank you very much. We're going move on. We're going to continue following this breaking news that is happening in Central Gaza. Mohammed Omer is a researcher and a journalist in Gaza. He is reporting from very near the scene of this blast that you're looking at.

This is from Reuters television reporting just a short time ago that there was an explosion believed to be artillery strikes by the Israeli military on the Islamic University in Central Gaza. We will continue to follow this breaking news on CNN throughout the hour.

Again, this dramatic explosion comes on a day in which a promising cease-fire fell through. .

Joining me now, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer.

Thank you for joining us again, sir.

Ambassador, do you have any faith continuing to negotiate for a cease- fire, given that this one was broken after just 90 minutes?

RON DERMER, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Well, I don't think anyone in Israel has any faith. Unfortunately, Hamas stopped another cease-fire. We were supposed to

have a 72-hour cease-fire, a humanitarian cease-fire. And there was hope that that would be extended be. But then you had this brutal and savage attack by a terror organization in Gaza where a suicide bomber came out of a tunnel, killed a couple of our soldiers and kidnapped another soldier. And, obviously, they blew up the cease-fire.

LEMON: Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Palestinian Jihad all tell CNN that they don't have this soldier either.

DERMER: Listen, you can't take these guys seriously. You have to understand, Don -- and I think this is something that is often lost in the coverage of this whole issue. Hamas is like al Qaeda. They're no different.

They are an organization that is committed to Israel's destruction. They're a terror organization, recognized as such throughout the entire world, not just by America, by the E.U., by Canada, even by Egypt. They're an organization who celebrated on 9/11 when thousands of Americans were dead.

And they're an organization that condemned the United States for killing Osama bin Laden. So they're not going have a problem, Don, if they're celebrating when thousands of Americans are dead, lying on American television. So, I don't take seriously anything that Hamas says seriously and I certainly don't take any anything that Islamic Jihad says seriously.

They're a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran, which is also committed to Israel's destruction. What happened, Don, is that you had is a cease- fire where assurances were given to the international community, to Secretary Kerry, also to the U.N. secretary-general, that all of the Palestinians were on board, all of the factions. So I don't know exactly who did it or who did not do it.

But in the name of these Palestinian factions, they said there was a cease-fire. We were operating according to that cease-fire, and our soldiers were attacked about an hour and 15 minutes after that cease- fire went into effect.

LEMON: OK. There are a couple of things I want to get in here. I wanted to play for you what the president said today, a strong statement today condemning the capture of the soldier. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I have unequivocally condemned Hamas and the Palestinian factions that were responsible for killing two Israeli soldiers and abducting a third almost minutes after a cease-fire had been announced.

I have been very clear throughout this crisis that Israel has a right to defend itself. No country can tolerate missiles raining down on its cities and people having to rush to bomb shelters every 20 minutes or half-hour. No country can or would tolerate tunnels being dug under their land that can be used to launch terrorist attacks. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Those are very strong words.

And in all honesty, this is a game-changer, I would imagine. How do you plan to deal with this?

DERMER: Well, our security cabinet is meeting tonight in Jerusalem. So we will have to let the decision-makers make those decisions. But, obviously, this is something that won't go unanswered. Rest assured, Don, there will be a very strong response from the Israeli government.

LEMON: Is that a ramping up of military action in Gaza?

DERMER: I think you have already seen a ramping up of military action in Gaza. You don't have to wait for the security cabinet decision.

The question is, what will Israel's leaders decide to do? Because obviously we have, with these terror organizations Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and others, they may have a certain belief that Israel will not respond in a very forceful way, that this is not a game-changer. I think they are going to understand that they are dead wrong.

LEMON: Given that dealing with Hamas seems to be pointless, from your perspective, is there a Palestinian faction that Israel can do business with?

DERMER: Well, hoping the Palestinian Authority would be that faction, led by President Abbas.

One of the problems we have, Don, is that two months ago, President Abbas made an alliance with the terror organization. He made an alliance with Israel's al Qaeda. That was the problem. That's why the peace process all broke down.

We hope, in the wake of this -- and I don't know how long it's going to be now that you had this operation and Israel will have to decide what to do next, but we hope when it's all said and done that President Abbas will leave this alliance, will break this pact that he has made with this terror organization and go back to peace talks with Israel.

LEMON: I have a few more things I want to get in a very short time, so if you can answer quickly for me.

Israel has been making the case that the media focuses too much on civilian casualties in Gaza without holding Hamas responsible for their actions. Now that Hamas seems to have broken the cease-fire in the most provocative way, do you think that will change?

DERMER: No.

I mean, I saw the coverage this morning and I was pretty -- frankly, very appalled by, and not just on your station, on other stations, because you get into this he said/she said type of thing. Israel says A. Hamas says B. Let me ask you, Don. America is fighting al Qaeda. America says A.

Al Qaeda says B. That's what people feel when they watch the coverage of this. We're dealing with a brutal terror organization committed to our destruction, wants to murder Jews all over the world, dancing on 9/11.

This is the organization we're dealing with. It is certainly not reflected in the coverage of your network or other networks.

LEMON: Well, you do understand we have to cover all sides. As we are doing this interview now, there is a protest going on right outside of our building, people who are, you know, pro-Palestinian. So there is that side of the story.

DERMER: It's not about being pro-Palestinian. It's Israel is fighting Hamas. We're not fighting the Palestinian people. We're fighting Hamas.

And you should never be neutral between a democracy that shares your values and a terror organization that hates everything that you stand for. A free media should never be neutral in that fight. When you treat both sides as being equally credible, when you turn Israel and Hamas into a he said/she said, when you take what they're saying seriously, when you don't challenge them on people who want to murder Jews around the world, when you have a Palestinian who is walking in there and who is telling you, look, I'm very concerned about these civilian casualties, you need to do something about it, what Israel is doing, ask them a simple question.

Over 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in Syria. Did he go on television and condemn that? Did you see rioting in Europe against Syrian communities because you have had over 1,500 Palestinians killed in Syria? No.

So there is something that is unique when Israel is the one that is fighting. That's what creates this bias. And I think it's wrong. And I think the free world and the free media should stand on the side of a democracy when it's fighting against a terror organization, not to not cover, but to cover it treating the parties not as equals, but as one party much more credible than the other.

And the other is a terror organization.

LEMON: Ambassador Dermer, thank you.

DERMER: Thank you.

LEMON: And coming up, with an Israeli soldier missing, possibly dead, and nobody claiming responsibility, who exactly is in charge in Gaza?

And, later, as the death toll mounts, which side do you support? It may depend on how old you are. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back. Here is the breaking news on CNN. Reuters reporting that, just moments ago, the Islamic University in

Central Gaza hit by a large explosion. They are saying it is Israeli artillery fire.

Joining me now is Lanny Davis, a former White House special counsel during the Clinton administration and author of "Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping With Crisis in Business, Politics and Life," Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Corn, who retired from the U.S. Army, currently a law professor at South Texas College of Law and author of "The Law of Armed Conflict," and then Bobby Ghosh, who is the managing editor of Quartz.

Again, Al Aqsa is reporting that this is an Israeli artillery strike. Reuters is reporting that it hit the Islamic University in Central Gaza.

First to you, Bobby.

Bobby, you have been to this campus. What can you tell us about it?

BOBBY GHOSH, MANAGING EDITOR, QUARTZ: It's been some years, but I have been to that campus. It's quite a substantial campus.

The name is a little misleading. It's Islamic University, but it's not simply Islamic studies, although it has a faculty for that as well, but there is also engineering, science, the arts. It was hit in 2008, I believe, by multiple Israeli rockets.

At the time Israel, said that Hamas was using some of those science laboratories to develop Israel -- Hamas' missiles, particularly the Kassam rockets. Hamas does have connects to the university. Hamas has connections to almost everything in Gaza.

The founder of Hamas was instrumental, I believe, in starting up that university in the late 1970s. But it's a very large campus, over 20,000 students. It takes up a very large portion of Central Gaza.

LEMON: I just had the Israeli ambassador on, Lanny Davis. And I asked him, I said, what is Israel going to do next? Does this mean a ramping up of the military actions? And he says, you don't have to ask. You're seeing it in action now.

Would you consider this part of that after the alleged kidnapping of that soldier and the breaking of the cease-fire earlier?

LANNY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Well, it appears so that there will be a ramping up in the horror on all of us, as the ambassador pointed out, to see children and civilians killed, children in Israel hiding from missiles intentionally aimed at, and children in Gaza.

So there is horror on both sides. But the Iran-backed terrorist organization still is Hamas that broke the cease-fire, that won't allow a cease-fire with humane goods entering into Gaza as long as there are no military supplies. That's the only deal. Israel has offered over and over again. So this is a tragedy, and it is truly heart-rendering to see what is going on.

LEMON: Lieutenant General Geoffrey Corn, this is no accident that the university was hit?

LT. COL. GEOFFREY CORN (RET.), FORMER ARMY LAWYER: No, I don't think so.

Listen, this is almost certainly what military planners would call a deliberate -- a deliberate attack. In other words, there has been careful analysis of what the military value of whatever it was that was there would be if it was attacked. And that analysis would have involved military legal advisers.

And one thing that people have to understand, if you're fighting in an urban area where your enemy is deliberately trying to shield its vital military assets by commingling them in civilian areas, the law authorizes the attacking commander, the attacking force to conduct those operations, so long as they do so in a manner as best they can under the circumstances to mitigate the risks to the civilian population, which may explain why you're seeing this at a very early hour in the morning, ideally, when most people would be at either in cover or in bed, to avoid civilian casualties.

LEMON: When you see the size of this explosion -- as I say, Al Aqsa, which is an Hamas-affiliated television station, is saying that this is Israeli artillery.

What can you tell us about the size of the explosion, what it might be, what type of artillery, if it is indeed that, Geoffrey Corn?

CORN: Well, I think, based on the video, that's totally speculative. It could have been an airstrike. It could have been a Hellfire missile strike.

It could have been a coordinated attack using artillery and air assets. This is what military planners do. They identify the target. They look at the capabilities the commander has to bring to bear, and they figure out the best way to achieve the tactical objective while mitigating the risk to the civilian population.

And, look, let's not forget in your reporting today, the incident that broke this cease-fire occurred when Israeli forces were in a home that was hiding the entrance to a tunnel. This is the point they have been making all along, that this is why they're compelled to attack what on the surface appear to be civilian objects, which, their view, in their view, have been converted into military targets.

LEMON: And we're going to talk much more about that right after this break.

So stay with me, everyone. Up next, we will get to the heart of the group that is ruling Gaza, and that's Hamas. But who is in charge of them? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back, everyone.

We're following the breaking news here on CNN. This is a live shot from Gaza, where, about a half-an-hour ago, the Islamic University in Central Gaza was rocked by a very large explosion.

This comes hours after Hamas had agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire that was supposed to begin this morning, but it all fell apart with the killing and capture of an Israeli soldier. An Israeli soldier. So who exactly is calling the shots for Hamas in Gaza? Paula Hancocks has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what Israel is up against, a secretive group of well-trained killers who will stop at nothing to destroy a state they believe should not exist. But this is not Hamas. This is the al-Nasr Salahuddin (ph) Brigades, one of more than half a dozen different militant groups in Gaza.

This group says it helped kidnap Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit back in 2006. They have been training to kidnap more. A perfect example of why Israel and its allies should be worried by far more than just Hamas.

But with an Israeli soldier now gone, the blame is on Hamas.

OSAMA HAMDAN, HAMAS SPOKESMAN: We can't confirm, we can't deny unless we have solid information. This is a real position. If that soldier was captured by any other organization, we don't have -- we don't have any information.

HANCOCKS: Sounding as baffled as anyone, the Hamas political leadership is not even in Gaza. It's based in Qatar. They say the occupation prevents them from going home. The reality is Israel would likely target them if they did. Leader Khaled Mashal has only been to Gaza once back in 2012. To effectively run Gaza, you have to be in Gaza.

Another problem for Hamas, logistics. Imagine an area the size of Detroit with no power, little water, 1.8 million residents who can't leave being run by a group that's a shadow of its former self, with a military wing worried about using cell phones that can be tracked by Israel.

KHALED ELGINDY, FELLOW, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Internal communication within Hamas has been disrupted. And so they have a hard time each getting on the same page internally, much less bringing outside groups into line.

HANCOCKS: Despite this, Israel says Hamas rules the strip with an iron fist. So whoever breaks the ceasefire, Hamas is accountable.

But the reality is more complex. Islamic Jihad, al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Army of Islam, just a few of the better known groups. The question is how many more splinter groups are there that, until now, may have been operating under the radar? ELGINDY: We know that there are jihadi groups in the Gaza Strip.

This is the sort of environment that jihadi groups tend to thrive in.

HANCOCKS: Israel blames Hamas for sparking this latest conflict, perhaps to try and force concessions. The longer this lasts, the more this becomes a life or death battle for Hamas as well as the people of Gaza.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, Paula, thank you very much. Appreciate that.

So far attempts for a truce in Gaza have failed, and ceasefires have been broken. So what happens next? I'm here with Lanny Davis again, Geoffrey Corn and also Bobby Ghosh. Thank you, guys.

In light of what just happened, we're going to continue to follow that breaking news. But let's talk more, Colonel, about no one claiming responsibility for the capture of an Israeli soldier that broke the ceasefire. What does it tell us about who actually is in charge in Gaza?

CORN: Well, I think -- I have to think that the ambassador's comments are directly on point. I don't know why Hamas at this point would claim responsibility if they captured him or if they even had them because the No. 1 asset they have right now is this perception of a heavy-handed response from Israel. And if the Israelis are going to ramp up the military operation as a result of this, then that would play into their hands. And they want to distance themselves, in my view, from the justification for the Israelis ramping up the operation.

I suspect that, if this officer was captured, they have knowledge of it, even with the disruptive communications. This would be such a vital move for Hamas and for their agents in Gaza that it's almost unbelievable to me that, if somebody has captured this officer, the leadership of the organization and especially the military wing is unaware of it at this point.

LEMON: I'm going ask you about that, Bobby, because I spoke with a Palestinian representative earlier. And then it was 16 hours. Instead, it's been 16 hours. Now it's been about 18 hours. And you still don't know. He is saying they lost communications.

And I think the quote was "We believe that our men were killed in the Zionist shelling." And then he said, "We also believe the Zionist soldier was killed, as well."

Do you buy that they don't know what happened here, Bobby?

GHOSH: Not really. Hamas does keep a very, very close tab of what goes on everywhere in Gaza. It is true that there are other groups operating, and sometimes they operate independently of the Hamas command structure. But that doesn't mean Hamas doesn't know what's going on.

And something as big a deal -- and for Hamas this would be a huge, huge deal -- something as big a deal as a soldier being taken, that -- word of that would get out -- get out very quickly.

It's a very small, very tight place. And you can get from one end of Gaza to another in very, very quick time. Especially now when there's no traffic in the streets because people are sheltering.

So Hamas would have had -- if Hamas indeed didn't order this capture, they would find out about it very, very quickly.

Now, that doesn't mean that they're lying when they say that particular group that took that soldier are now dead. Because after all, there was some quite ferocious artillery fire into that part of Gaza immediately after the capture. So it's -- it's entirely possible that that unit, including the captive, were killed. But if Hamas has that it knows that, that means it knows what's going on.

LEMON: It undermines their own authority, Lanny, if they're saying they don't really know what the soldiers in the field are doing. The question is, though, how entrenched, Lanny, is Hamas? Because you heard Ambassador Dermer (ph) saying, "We'd rather deal with the Palestinian Authority." Can that happen? And not so if Hamas is very entrenched?

DAVIS: Well, they're more than entrenched. The victims of their dictatorship and their horrible form of terrorism is that they're using Palestinians and children as their shields.

Remember, Hamas made war on Fatah and on the Palestinian Authority and took over Gaza violently. Hamas doesn't really represent the Palestinians.

I felt so badly for this Mr. Omer (PH) that we talked to, that you talked to. He doesn't recognize that he is a victim, not of Israel defending itself from missiles. He's a victim of people who took over Gaza, threw out the Palestinian Authority that believes in a two-state solution, and instead is led by a brutal dictatorship that celebrates death and that is intentionally using children and women as shields, now supported by Iran. That's the sadness here, is that the Palestinians living in Gaza are the victims of Hamas. Not Israel.

LEMON: Lanny, Bobby, Geoffrey, thank you all very much.

Coming up, we're going to continue to follow the breaking news here on CNN, including that explosion in central Gaza at the university.

And there is a large generational gap when regarding this conflict. Next we're going to find out why millennials are shaking up the conventional view of Middle East politics, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Breaking news tonight. This explosion in central Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(EXPLOSION)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Reuters reporting that that was at the Islamic University in central Gaza. We'll continue to follow that for you.

But I want to tell you this. According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, twice as many Americans blame Hamas for the fighting than they do Israel. But when you break it down by age, it is a much different story. Deborah Feyerick has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When a peaceful sit-in protesting Jewish groups ended in handcuffs this week, what bothered young people like Max Bergher was not the arrests so much as the older generation's response.

MAX BERGHER, PROTESTOR: I was more upset after the fact when they described us as being, quote, "insignificant."

FEYERICK: When it comes to Israel and Gaza, if you're over age 30, chances are you support Israel. But if you're 30 or younger...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enough!

BERGHER: ... chances are you're more sympathetic to the Palestinians, says a new poll by the Pew Research Center.

FEYERICK (on camera): How many you have been to Israel?

(voice-over): Jonah Lieberman on the left, Kara Segal and Max Bergher are peace activists with the group If Not Now, When?

(on camera): Is your support of Israel different from your parents' support of Israel?

KARA SEGAL, ACTIVIST: Certainly. I think my parents feel that the violence is more justified than I do.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Among Americans 65 or older, 53 percent blame the militant group Hamas for the violence in Gaza. That's compared to 21 percent of Americans under 30. Fifteen percent of Americans over 65 blame Israel, compared to 29 percent of Americans under 30. A divide reflected between children and their parents.

JONAH LIEBERMAN, ACTIVIST: I honestly understand where my dad is coming from, but I don't agree with it.

FEYERICK: Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is with the NYU Center for Global Affairs. He says the Holocaust in World War II directly influenced many older people's unyielding support of Israel.

DR. ALON BEN-MEIR, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: They see Israel as the final refuge, or the only refuge for the Jews. And hence, regardless of almost wrongdoing, they feel it is justified.

FEYERICK: Sixty-five-year-old Jerry Ostrov believes young people who question the military's actions do so because they lack context.

JERRY OSTROV: When they turn on the TV and the news media tells them about, you know, 58 percent negative, 85 percent negative, that's the way they react.

FEYERICK: Many young people, the so-called millennials, people born between the 1980s to the early 2000s, are more influenced by what they see on social media and news alternatives like "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.

JON STEWART, HOST, COMEDY CENTRAL'S "THE DAILY SHOW": I was saying it was last Thursday saw the start of a new ground offensive launched by Israel.

FEYERICK (on camera): Do you believe that the state of Israel, its existence is at risk if they don't do what they're doing?

BERGHER: I would almost say that the state of Israel is at risk if it continues doing what it's doing.

SEGAL: Yes, yes.

FEYERICK: A dilemma pitting old against young, and even those within the Jewish community against each other.

SEGAL: I think this is tearing a hole in the Jewish soul.

FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Deborah, thank you very much.

Coming up, are millennials challenging the United States' long- standing alliance with Israel? My experts get into that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back, everyone.

The events in Gaza sparking a very public debate over the conflict, and which side you support may depend on how old you are.

So joining me now is Rula Jebreal. She is a foreign policy analyst and the author of the novel "Miral." And then Ben Ferguson, CNN political commentator, host of "The Ben Ferguson Show." David Gergen, CNN senior political analyst and a former presidential adviser to presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan and Clinton. Quite a resume there.

Rula, I'm going to start with you. You know the U.S. is extremely polarized these days. Are you surprised that views on Israel might have less to do with politics and more to do with age? RULA JEBREAL, AUTHOR, "MIRAL": I would tell you it has more to do

with where you get your information from. If you have your information from mainstream media, probably you would believe what -- what you have, which is what the government is giving you, what the official Israeli politicians are giving you. Air time is mostly given to them.

If you follow the news on social media and you speak more languages, and you follow the news on independent media, then you have a different view. These views of the politicians are challenged there. And there's the pictures; there are evidence. There are reports. There -- there is journalists on the ground that are telling you different narrative.

LEMON: But David, you know, the counter argument to that is there's also no context and no history there. And it's no secret that younger Americans don't rely on the nightly news or cable networks or printed newspapers. Could that be the difference here?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think the main difference is the older generation -- and I'm part of that -- grew up with -- the Holocaust was very, very much at the forefront of our minds. Jews were seen as victims, as deserving of a state. They were seen as taking over a state and then others -- their neighbors tried to push them into the sea. And there was an awful lot of sympathy for Israel. And it seemed that Israel occupied the high moral ground.

And today the younger generation is no longer thinking about the Holocaust but is seeing these pictures of children being, you know, ripped apart in Gaza. They don't understand the context fully. That's true. But it's pictures, I think, have a lot to do with it.

College campuses are also -- the faculties on many campuses are less sympathetic to Israel and more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than they were 25, 40 years ago.

And there is also the religious factor. More religious people, people who practice religion tend to be more pro-Israel. The younger generation, you know, we have the rise of the nuns, as they're called.

LEMON: Right.

GERGEN: They're very spiritual, but they don't practice religion in the same way with the same numbers as the older generation.

LEMON: Ben, I want to put a poll up for you, because 23 percent...

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure.

LEMON: ... of 18- to 29-year-olds who were polled by Pew say they have been following the Israel-Gaza situation, quote, very closely. So to Rula's point, if they're only seeing pictures on social media, that would make them more sympathetic to Palestinians, wouldn't it?

FERGUSON: Sure. There's two parts to this. One is just flat-out laziness. They don't -- do not follow the news. They certainly are not going to look into the history of the context of this.

And the second part is they are easily pulled on this Israel looks sophisticated. Israel looks like they're bigger. Israel looks like, if you look at the pictures, like they're a bully. Like it's a not a fair fight.

But if you actually look into it, and you realize how Hamas treats people and how, as a terrorist organizations, they put these tunnels in the houses on purpose. They put innocent people's lives at risk on purpose, to make the other side look bad, then I think you start to see it.

But remember, we're also dealing with the same age group where the majority of them cannot tell you who the vice president of the United States of America. So it really goes back to an issue of, I think, really just ignorance on many younger people's -- you know, on the way they look at the world. They don't really know.

LEMON: In fairness, a lot of older people don't know either, don't know as well. So...

FERGUSON: Well, but more than the younger people do, certainly. I mean, they know who the Kardashians are, but they don't know who's running for president or vice president.

JEBREAL: I think they know about the occupation very well, Ben. They know about the occupation. They know about the siege for 45 years, the occupation of the West Bank. And the siege of Gaza for the last eight years.

LEMON: Hold that thought, Rula, because I want you to weigh in on this. And it goes into what you're saying.

The Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, had this to say about how the media is covering this conflict. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON DERMER, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: People accuse Israel of genocide. Now, this is wild. And it's the wild rhetoric that creates these kind of blood lies.

You know, genocide is what happened in Rwanda, when you had 900,000 people who were killed in three months. It's what happened in Darfur. It's what happened in Auschwitz. In May 1944, you had 10,000 Jews murdered every day.

To call what Israel is doing in Gaza, defending itself when thousands of rockets are coming into the country and you're trying to actually do these strikes to keep their civilians. Everything that Israel does, the phone calls, the text messages, you name it, that we are trying to do that other countries would never do if their homeland was under attack. To accuse Israel is genocide is wild. It's a libel. And that's why I think people are so upset with the media coverage that you have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. So continuing on what you were saying. But listen, here's -- basically, Rula, he feels strongly that Israel is at a disadvantage in the media, certainly international media.

JEBREAL; I don't know what television he watch. But I think I saw Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu this Sunday on four networks. I mean, what more than this they want?

The fact that a native Israeli like myself or any others cannot even dream to become ambassador of Israel in the United States and Ron can be ambassador while he was born here, that tells you everything about the conflict.

Look, there's military occupation for the last 45 years. This is what young people talk about. Young people also talk about universal human rights. And they talk about the aspiration of the Palestinian. And they talk about one thing that was never mentioned, which is demilitarization of Hamas that we all want together with the occupation.

FERGUSON: Yes, but Palestinian people...

LEMON: Quickly, go ahead

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: ... happened.

LEMON: Ben and then David. Go ahead.

FERGUSON: Yes. The Palestinian people are refusing to stand up to Hamas. And they're allowing them to continue to dictate.

Remember, Hamas, you're dealing with a group that said, "We refuse to acknowledge the existence of Israel -- Israel or the Jewish people." How do you deal with a group of individuals like that?

JEBREAL: Well, then -- then you empower...

FERGUSON: You want to talk about human rights abuses?

JEBREAL: You empower...

FERGUSON: That is the definition of human rights.

JEBREAL: ... the moderates.

You empower -- Ron [SIC], you empower the moderates. Yitzhak Rabin, the ex-prime minister of Israel, used to say, "I fight terrorism while I'm negotiating, and I'm negotiating when I'm fighting terrorists." Double policy. Demilitarization and de-occupation. You can't go one way. There is no military solution to this, only a diplomatic solution.

FERGUSON: I strongly disagree. LEMON: OK.

JEBREAL: We can agree to disagree, Ron [SIC].

LEMON: Yes, yes. But we do invite -- listen, there are many times when we're doing this that we invite people on television, and they refuse to come on. So if they won't come on television, there's nothing -- you can't -- you know, you can't force them to do that, David Gergen.

GERGEN: Sure.

LEMON: Bauchs (ph) has been invited on television every day. He declined.

GERGEN: Sure. We -- listen, we can argue until the cows come home about who's right and who's wrong. From my point of view, the extremists are wrong on both sides. And we've had -- but we've had these kind of arguments every time a conflict breaks out.

The question at issue is why opinion has changed among the young. And I think it has a lot more to do with the nature of what we see about Israel today versus what we used to see. Which was a nation that, once it occupied the moral high ground. And the pictures make it look like the Israelis are the occupiers and the bullies. And that's what they're fighting. And I think it's -- you know, they -- I think the Israelis have to show more restraint. I mean, these pictures of hitting U.N. ...

LEMON: We've got run, David.

GERGEN: ... and all the rest. But they've also got to make a better case...

FERGUSON: But if you have missiles there...

LEMON: We've got to run, guys. It's a fascinating conversation. I promise I will have you guys back, because this is -- we need to talk about this. Thank you, Rula Jebreal, Ben Ferguson and David Gergen.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Time now for "CNN TONIGHT Tomorrow," the stories that you will be talking about tomorrow.

Homicide. That was the finding of the New York City medical examiner today in the chokehold death of Eric Garner. Garner died while NYPD officers were attempting to arrest him for selling illegal cigarettes. The death was caught on video and shows Garner lying on the ground motionless. The officer who put Garner in the chokehold was stripped of his gun and badge pending the investigation.

I'm Don Lemon. That's it for us tonight. Thank you for watching. "The Hunt" starts right now.