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Cease-Fire Between Israel and Gaza Appears to be Over; Americans in Libya Advised to Leave; Flight 5017 Went Down Thursday Killing More Than 100 People; Villagers Witnessed Malaysia Flight 17 Crashed

Aired July 26, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right. Thanks, Tom. We learn something new every day, don't you?

Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Ana Cabrera. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right now with Miguel Marquez in New York.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Miguel Marquez in New York. We would like to welcome our viewers watching around the world on CNN international.

We're keeping close watch on major developments in three troubled areas around the globe. A faltering, perhaps dead, in cease-fire in the Middle East, send evacuation of Americans from Libya and signs of new fighting in Ukraine. Very close to the site of the Malaysian airline flight 17 that went down there.

The fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appears to be over. And hopes to an extension appeared to been dashed the official cease- fire ended two hours ago. Israel appeared to agree to a four-hour extension. Moments ago though, a Hamas spokesperson rejected any cease-fire extension. Israel's army has reported that more rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel as soon as the truce ended.

Here's what we know right now. The temporary cease-fire gave both sides time to survey the devastation. Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble in Gaza. The increasingly bloody conflict has claimed more than 1,000 lives, mostly civilians. At least 40 Israelis soldiers have also been killed.

Now, to Libya, Americans are being warn to get out now. The U.S. evacuated the embassy in Tripoli due to heavy militia violence ranging across the city. About 150 people including 80 marines were driven to neighbor in Tunisia. I want to read you part of the state department, a blunt warning to Americans.

Travelers should be aware that they may be targeted for kidnapping, violent attacks or death. The U.S. citizens currently if Libya should exercise extreme caution and depart immediately.

Here's how the state department explained the embassy evacuation to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARIE HARF, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN: So this really was a decision made based on the fact that our embassies in proximity of some pretty serious fighting and we felt that our people were at risk. This is a temporary relocation. We will go back in with our people as soon as it is safe to do so. This is really a generational fight in Libya. And we're going to be there right alongside with them. But of course safety and security of our people has to be our top priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Now, the United Nations and other international groups evacuated staff from Libya earlier this month.

In eastern Ukraine, meantime, government troops appear to be advancing on the rebel-held city of Donetsk. Thousands of residents are leaving the city because of heavier fighting causing huge traffic jams outside the city. Intense battles are reported east of Donetsk not far from the crash site of the Malaysian airliner.

There were also reports of heavy shelling overnight on the city's outskirts. All of that fighting has forced European crash investigators to stay away from the site of the downed airliner today.

Let's get more from the area right now near the crash site from Michael Bociurkiw. He is the spokesperson for OSCE and a small team of European investigators trying to understand what happened at this crash and on that site.

Michael, thank you very much for joining us.

If you could just bring us up to date. I think there is a lot of frustration around the world at what you guys are dealing with out there right now. What can you actually do? Can you guys go to the site every day and have free and unfettered access?

MICHAEL BOCIURKIW, SPOKESMAN, ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE: Sure. Thanks for having us.

Yes, today the front lines seem to be moving fairly rapidly. In fact, it is probably about 10 miles to that direction right in front of me. So that's a consideration. There were reports as well of people wanting to come here, being delayed by train travel that was disrupted by heavy fighting.

And indeed, some new arrivals to our team had to go through a lot of security to get here. But yes, today, we spent the day reconfiguring logistical planning, strategizing. But if we have had startling good access for the last week or so that we've been here, in terms of time, in terms of geography covered. And then yesterday was a very good day in a sense of, there was new information on the ground that we found, as you may recall, we also found, the investigators with us found new identification documents. And we had a better look at the bigger pieces of fuselage as well. And one more thing, of course, very, very difficult for us, all of us is we did discover evidence of human remains. So what happens next is more investigators from Holland, from the

Netherlands and from Australia are going to add to the numbers already here on the ground. And we intend to take them out to the field tomorrow.

MARQUEZ: And will they be able to do their work and get done what they need? How long will it take? And what is the ultimate goal? To have enough forces from other countries to basically secure the entire crime scene? How long do you need to do the work necessary to recover those victims that are still out there and to understand what happened to that plane?

BOCIURKIW: Right. Well, it is a very complicated situation, obviously. We're here very operational on the ground. We go out there day after day. And of course there's a lot of discussions at the very high diplomatic levels.

You know, it is a vast area. It has been calculated just today in the vicinity of about 35 square kilometers. And also, there is a lot of different times of terrain there. There's heavily wooded areas. There are villages. And the debris, you know, one of the things that we've been shocked with over the last few days is the randomness of where things fell. There are even, you know, parts of the cockpit that are several kilometers away from each other.

From day one, we have also said that the area has not been secured. Again, very difficult to do so. So, I mean, it really remains at the high political levels in term of what arrives here. But operationally, I can say that most days we go out there with about 20 to 25 people and that seems to work in terms of mobility and in terms of what the armed escorts are comfortable with.

MARQUEZ: Well, you paint an even more frustrating picture. Given the size and scope of where that debris is, I mean, if you look at the Air Algerie crash, investigators are already there. They have all recorded off. They are already looking for remains. They've already found the black boxes. All things that you would expected would have happened on day one where you are sitting right now. You're in the city of Donetsk. That's the closest city to the crash site. What is happening there now? Are you seeing any signs of fighting?

BOCIURKIW: Correct.

Well, at this moment, and I do emphasize it is only at this very moment it is quite calm. But I can tell you at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, very, very loud shelling from the distance. And it was sustained. It wasn't just for five or ten minutes. It was sustained. And I know that a lot of foreign journalists staying here in our colleagues were woken by that. It is not the first time that it's happened.

So, you know, of course, everyone here has their contingency plans in case things escalate but I'm quite confident that tomorrow we can go ahead with our plan and get to that crash site. Because we have had -- it takes about 90 minutes to get out there. And we are rushed through all the various rebel checkpoints to get there. And again, once we're there, we have pretty good access to everything.

MARQUEZ: Mr. Bociurkiw, thank you very much for joining us. I get the sense that you are dealing with some very difficult politics and personal situations out there. Good luck and we home for good news soon. Thank you.

Let's talk more about developments in the Ukraine and the struggle to run a crash investigation in the middle of that war zone. I want to bring in aviation analyst Miles O'Brien. He has some questions for our expert quests -- Miles

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Miguel, thank you very much. I'm joined by our CNN safety analyst David Soucie, formerly with the FAA who has a lot of experience with the crash investigations. And in Aspen, Colorado, our CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier.

Kimberly, good to have you here with us. I want to begin. But let's just talk a little about your best sense of the situation there on the ground. Is there any chance, first of all, any sense that the Ukrainian government, the Kiev government, not the rebels, will make some sort of effort to seize control of this turf and perhaps protect the integrity of this crash site?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, at this point, there is been some limited access to the site. But fighting on the ground goes back and forth. I feel a little reluctant to describe what they might do next as I'm not right there. But what I can tell you is that U.S. intelligence officials and U.S. military officials are watching closely. They say they're getting most of their intelligence from the Ukrainian military. Though they're also using their own methods, satellites from above, infrared trackers that can track where artillery fire is coming from and going to, to see where those rebels are moving, how much access they're allowing to the site, and whether the Ukrainian forces are maneuvering in a way that can help them secure the area.

O'BRIEN: You know, I suppose, you know, my first reaction when thinking about this is kind of, almost in no man's handled. But really, it is kind of one man's handled. It is all about Vladimir Putin. I suppose with one phone call, everything could change here. And investigators could come in there and do a proper investigation. Would you say that's accurate?

DOZIER: Accurate. And that's why U.S. officials are publicly talking about Putin's latest moves as changing the game for U.S./Russian relations permanently.

The chairman of the joint chiefs, Martin Dempsey, was speaking this week, talking about how this is the first time that Russia has fired into another sovereign nation, possibly since 1939. And he said that Russia is doing other things, asserting itself, not just in Ukraine but with its military, just pushing in various directions. He said it threatens not just Europe but eventually the United States. And from the Pentagon's perspective, they are looking at things like, aircraft traveling, sea lanes, things they haven't looked at in decades, not since the cold war. O'BRIEN: Well, let's pick up on that cold war point for just a moment

here. It is kind of shocking and almost nauseating to think we're getting back into that kind of environment. But this reminds me very much of what happened after the Korean airliner was downed in 1988. Are we really getting back into a cold war mindset?

DOZIER: Well, U.S. officials are talking about the Kremlin stepping up its military maneuvers, making improvements to its military to enable it to be more of a threat worldwide. And that's partly what has got them concerned. That is what has finally galvanized the European Union to step up and consider harsher sanctions against Russia, to start sending a message.

The concern of officials, both European and American that I've spoken to is that if Russia isn't answered now, forcefully, in various different ways. If the aggression isn't checked, that Putin will see this as a way to continue to shore up his support at home, but also, signal to the wider world that Russia is back in a major way. And that Ukraine won't be the last place we see Russian forces helping out and possibly taking territory.

O'BRIEN: All right, Kimberly. Those are scary words. Lots to think about there. Let's hope it doesn't continue on that path. Thank you very much.

Kimberly Dozier in Aspen, Colorado.

Let's send it back to Miguel in New York.

MARQUEZ: Thank you there. Thank you, Miles, very much.

I want to bring in David Soucie. He is analyst or former analyst, safety analyst for the FAA.

David, we've been watching these pictures in the situation in Ukraine so long now. What needs to happen on the ground for how long? What do they need to get the job done?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Right now, they need to get it secure enough for the families and the victims that are there. They need to expand the area. They're not even looking outside of maybe, a two or three-mile radius. There could be victims further than that. I have looked at satellite images that I got from all source analysis. There's clear evidence that there is debris that was not there before the accident and is now. It is not even being looked at yet.

MARQUEZ: It sounds like they need hundreds of people in there, of outside the Ukrainian --.

SOUCIE: In my investigations, I usually count three people per victim and that's about the right number of people. We're not anywhere near that.

MARQUEZ: Nearly 1,000 people there. My God.

All right. Thank you very much. Stay with us, though. Coming up, the cease-fire between Israel and Gaza appears to be over

but there was a 12-hour window for Palestinians and Israelis to bury their dead and survey the damage. We will show what they found coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Now, back to our breaking news and the coverage of the collapse of the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. The temporary halt bloodshed is now a thing of the past. Hamas sharply rejected any hopes of extending the cease-fire for a few short hours.

Israel's army has reported that fresh rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel almost as soon as the truce ended.

My colleague correspondent Sara Sidner now joins us from Jerusalem to help lead our coverage of this increasingly bloody conflict -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Miguel, I just wanted to give you a quick update on breaking news. We are hearing now that there are sirens going off also in Ashkelon and Ashtod. So people hankering down there.

Here's what we know right now out of Gaza. More than 1,000 people have now been killed. The health ministry in Gaza saying most of them are civilians. Thirty seven Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians have lost their lives so far in this conflict.

In Gaza, hospitals are simply overwhelmed. Some doctors say they've been almost 24 hours straight trying to remove shrapnel and save lives. The Gaza ministry of health spokesman told CNN the Palestinians found more than 100 bodies in areas that had been too dangerous to enter in recent days, because of the Israeli bombardments.

I want to bring in now our correspondent Ian Lee who is in Gaza City. He has been covering this conflict from the beginning.

Ian, what are you seeing there on the ground? Can you give us some sense of just how vast this damage is? And what people have been doing during this 12-hour cease-fire that has now ended?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sara, you're absolutely right. The damage is quite extensive. Right now, we're monitoring the situation. We saw two rockets go out toward the north. That's toward Ashkelon and that area.

It is still relatively quiet compared to other nights we've seen. And during this 12-hour cease-fire, I was able to go out to certain areas that were really the front lines of the fighting, (INAUDIBLE). And these areas were utterly destroyed. Take a look at what we saw.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: When the clouds of war cleared, this is the devastation that was left behind. We have a child's mattress. We have clothes, we have pots and pans. This area completely destroyed. And it is not just this house, as you can see, there are other buildings down here that have been damaged, devastated. We've seen some people come through here and try to pick at little things they can take back with them to their shelters.

This crater just highlights the massive amount of fire power that being used in this area. This hole has to be at least ten meters deep. And if you look, there are slabs of concrete. It looks like the building was here. And what we're hearing is that this was likely the result of a 500-pound bomb.

Neighborhood after neighborhood, house after house has been reduced to rubble like this. And really without any permanent cease-fire. This sort of devastation is likely to continue.

Ian Lee, CNN, Gaza.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: And Sara, when we were in the (INAUDIBLE) neighbor, we were pushing further and further to the front line. We got to roughly about 100 meters from Israeli tanks. At that point, some men started yelling at us that, in Arabic, that they didn't want to see a single soul here. It was likely that these are fighters, militant fighters, militants from Gaza telling to us get out of there.

Things were very tense on the border. They didn't want to see a lot of media in that area because they're very suspicious of us. But right now, as we know, the cease-fire has ended. The fighting is continuing and it is unlikely that any sort of cease-fire will take place, will hold on unless the demands of Hamas are met. And then one of the major demands is what they say is lifting of the siege of Gaza. They want the borders opened so goods and services can flow in and flow out. They say unless that happens, no permanent cease-fire will take place, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much. Our Ian Lee there, live for us in Gaza City getting us a real look at just the extensive devastation that has happened there since this all began -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Thank you to Sara and Ian. Keep yourself safe out there. Thank you.

Coming up, one U.S. lawmaker says he has a solution that could keep planes from being shot out of the sky. But will the industry buy it? We will have that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Back to our coverage in Ukraine and the downing of flight MH-17 . It brings up a question, do commercial planes need to be prepare to protect themselves from missiles? New York A congressman is reintroducing a bill that would equip some U.S. flights with anti- missile technology. It would cost about a million bucks a plane, but he says it's worth it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVE ISRAEL (D), NEW YORK: Now, the airline industry has said that the cost of this system is about, as you said, a million dollars a plane. Guess what, the cost of an in-flight entertainment system IS a million dollars a plane.

Now, I'm glad that we have the ability to watch multiple channels including CNN at 30,000 feet. I also want the ability to land and take off from airports knowing that we're safe against one terrorist with one easily deployable shoulder-fired missile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Joining me now is David Soucie, author of "why planes crash," 777 captain Les Abend and former CIA operative Bob Baer, and CNN analyst Mile O'Brien.

Let's start with you there, Les. Would this be safer -- would the plane be safer in the air having this technology?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Only for what it was designed for originally which was shoulder fired missiles, man pad type stuff. And it was after, about 2003 this was considered and set forward by Congress. And by 2008, we had actually installed them on three of our airplanes as test pads and they work. They did work. But it was from $1 million to $3 million a copy. And about $300,000 per subscription per airplane to keep it up every year because that was the threat we thought.

MARQUEZ: And you're only protecting up to two miles out.

ABEND: In essence.

MARQUEZ: Takeoffs and landings basically.

ABEND: In essence, yes.

MARQUEZ: Bob Baer, is this going to deter these sort of attacks or is this going to solve the problems for carriers around the world?

ROBERT BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I'm not sure you need to cover the whole world with it. But if an American airline is flying into Tel Aviv, for instance, it would be a good idea to have one of these defensive systems on board. Simply because you look at the geography with all the tunnels going to Egypt where there are surface to air missiles man pads, it could come up to the tunnels and potentially hit Ben Gurion airport from Gaza. It is a bit of a stretch, but the Israeli airplanes have it so I think Americans should. At $1 million or even $3 million if you're going on fly anywhere near a war zone.

MARQUEZ: That seems to be the one, certainly the one place in the world would probably come in handy.

David, the anti-aircraft missiles use on 17 were supersonic. They wouldn't even have come close to having this technology be helpful, correct?

SOUCIE: As far as I know. I'm not a weapons person. But I like to step back and look at the whole situation. When I look at the whole situation, write that down and say I'm going to fly in an aircraft that has to have an anti-missile system installed on it. I mean, read that. That makes no sense at all.

If I'm going to get on an airplane for commercial use and go into a city, first of all, if it is not safe enough, don't go there. Is it really that important?

ABEND: Avoidance.

SOUCIE: Don't fly if that's the case.

MARQUEZ: And certainly with a case of the MH 17, plane should not have -- given what we know now, the plane should not have been flying over that air space at all. David, you agree with that?

And Miles, there are some planes that have been tested with this technology. The Israelis have them. Air force one perhaps has it. Do you think passengers deserve the same?

O'BRIEN: Well, are passengers, Miguel, willing to pay for it, you know? When you go on kayak and you start comparing fares, are you going to be paying a little extra for the one that has the ability to evade a heat seeking missile?

I have a hunt people go for the low fare. So you know, a lot of this is the mentality of passengers as well. It is going to cost a lot more money to put these on airplanes and it would never do anything for the MH 17 scenario because there was a radar-guided missile requires what is called shaft (ph), little pieces of aluminum spit-out to try to evade the radar. And no one is talking about putting those on airliners.

So I think the pilots have it right here. If there is a hot zone, avoid it. If you have to go into specific place like Tel Aviv, you want to continue that service. Maybe you outfit those aircraft. And the airlines hate to have non-uniformity in their fleets. IT was just some that can do this. It makes it very difficult for them to dispatch.

MARQUEZ: All right. Miles and Bob and you guys, Les and David, thank you for joining us.

We'll turn to another air tragedy, that of the Air Algerie. The flight that crashed this week killing 118 people on board. Officials say the plane seemed to have disintegrated. I'll tell you why investigators may be closer to finding out why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: A freelance journalist who was abducted while for CNN in Ukraine has been freed. Anton Skiba called to confirm his release. And there are sources have confirmed it. He had been working with CNN only for a day when gunmen abducted him outside his hotel. Those gunmen were led by a senior official of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic. They accused him of terrorism at first but later dropped the charges.

Americans in Libya are being warned, get out of the country now. The U.S. evacuated its embassy in Tripoli earlier this morning because militia violence is raging across the city. American embassy staffers were evacuated with heavy military protection.

Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: By all accounts the evacuation of the 150 Americans went smoothly. It actually included 80 marines who had been at the embassy for security duty. The evacuation plan had the Americans driven out of trimly, heading west across the border in to Tunisia. But there was plenty of American fire power nearby to rescue the Americans if they got into trouble on the long drive.

We know there were two f-16s overhead, a drone following the convoy all the way to the border. A U.S. Navy warship in the Mediterranean nearby and actually several dozen additional heavily armed marines flying overhead in their v-22 aircraft, ready to move in, if the convoy had come under attack and get the Americans out.

The decision to evacuate the embassy clearly came after growing violence for the last several weeks. In recent days, the nearby Tripoli airport had been destroyed, shut down by rival militia shelling. There had been shelling in the neighborhood where the embassy was located. Once the airport had shut down, there was no way for the Americans to get out by commercial air which is usually what happens. They simply get on a commercial airliner. But with the airport shut down and no other way to get out, it became time for the Americans to go. Once the airport was shut down, there was no other way for the Americans to get out.

In Washington, I'm Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Thanks to our Barbara Starr.

Today in Mali, investigators at the site of the Air Algerie crash found the plane's second flight data recorder or black box. Flight 5017 went down Thursday less than an hour after takeoff killing more than 100 people.

Officials say bad weather may have caused the crash. France suffered the greatest loss of passengers, 54, including ten members of a single family. Today, French government officials met with victims' families and announce a three-day mourning period beginning on Monday.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas isn't just playing out on the battlefield. It is also playing out online on facebook news feeds and twitter accounts. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Now, Israel and Hamas aren't just fighting a war with rockets. They're also fighting a war with words and images, each side is trying to frame the perception of the conflict in their own eyes and they're hoping the perception becomes a reality in a battle where the truth is not always clear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, SITUATION ROOM: Another Israeli ground invasion of Gaza has been launched --

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Today's Mideast violence might seem familiar. But in this environment, traditional media, meeting new media, meeting social media, the horrors of war playing out as never before.

A Palestinian child riddled with shrapnel screams for his father.

Israeli parents and friends mourn the death of a 21-year-old soldier.

So many sorrowful pictures, right alongside them, images of resentment. Gazans cheer rockets headed toward Israel on a hill top overlooking Gaza. Israelis gather to cheer air strikes heading Gaza City.

BEN WALLACE-WELLS, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: When you see the gruesome aftermath of rocket attacks on both sides of the border, there is an anger that many people feel and a compulsion to help that many people that I think is Israel palpable.

MARQUEZ: The fight raging in Gaza, spilling over into the media. Both sides trying to win over hearts and minds worldwide. Both sides blaming the other for the violence. Both sides trying to demonstrate the other or monsters.

MARK REGEV, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: When Hamas wants to pile up the number of civilian victims for its own propaganda purposes.

HANAN ASHWARI, PLO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER: This is just cruel and heartless propaganda. Blame the victim, accuse them of using human shields, blame them for the loss of their own lives.

MARQUEZ: The control of information, propaganda, as old as war itself. This time around even celebrities like Rihanna caught in the fray. She tweeted the #free Palestine and then deleted it minutes later after being inundated with questions about whether she supports Hamas. She later tweeted, let's pray for peace and a swift end to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Is there any hope?

WALLACE-WELLS: You can't write a word about this conflict without getting just ripped apart from people I'm on both sides.

MARQUEZ: In social media, it often turns cheap and very, very nasty. Dehumanizing both sides turning destruction and horrible loss of life into mockery. On Twitter, the #hamasisresponsible and #hitlerwasright flow with the time, extreme anti-Palestinian and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

WALLACE-WELLS: We're talking about a conflict where the dehumanization of the other side from both sides. When you have Benjamin Netanyahu talking about telegenically (ph) dead Palestinians, when you have leaders of Hamas explicitly saying they are targeting civilians, it is no surprise that kind of dehumanization filters down.

MARQUEZ: The worry for many Israeli is Palestinians and Hamas are winning the argument making Israel look like the aggressor, not simply defending its borders. A war of words almost as important as the actual fight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Certainly as this drags on, I think we have all experienced our friends and family members on all of our social media getting into this debate. It is a very, very important debate as this is happening live on the ground, the military action in the Middle East.

But don't go anywhere. We're live from Jerusalem after a quick break to talk about the propaganda war being played out. And whether Israel is losing that war of public opinion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: The king of the animal world has a fierce protector. This week's CNN hero, Leela Hazzah is working to stop from being hunted to extinction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEELA HAZZAH, CNN HERO: Sixty year ago, there were probably half a million lions in Africa. Today there's less than 30,000 lions in all of Africa. If we don't do something soon, there may be no lions left maybe in 10 or 15 years. Who knows?

I spent a year living in the Maasai community to understand why people were killing lions. It brings a huge amount of prestige to the warrior, and they were killing lions in retaliation for livestock that were killed.

They started opening up and telling their stories. That's when it clicked. If we want to conserve wildlife, we have to integrate communities.

Our organization is Lion Guardians, and it converts lion killers into lion guardians.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

HAZZAH: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

When we first hire lion guardians, they don't know how to read or write and we provide that literacy and technical training. They track lions so they can keep very accurate ecological data on

lion movement.

The Lion Guardian model is founded on multicultural values and it is just being tweaked a bit to the 21st century.

We never really even imagined that we could transform these lion killers to the point where they would risk their own lives to keep other people from killing lions.

When I first moved here, I never heard lions roaring. But now, I hear lions roaring all the time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Now, my colleague, Sara Sidner, rejoins us from Jerusalem where the cease-fire is over. Israel and Hamas both accusing the other of undermining the temporary halt to the bloodshed -- Sara.

SIDNER: Well Miguel, look, moments after the cease-fire, literally three or four minutes after it ended, Israel reported fresh mortars that had come over from Gaza. We know at least six mortars have made it over into southern Israel and the regional council area.

Now, Hamas accused Israel of blocking removal of Palestinian bodies in the buffer zone. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza alone, mostly civilians. When both sides constantly point fingers at each other, any possible path to resolution becomes clouded. And we have to mention, you know, Israel has lost 40 soldiers and three civilians.

Joining to us discuss all of this is Kimberly Dozier of global affairs analyst and Bob Baer, a former CIA operative.

Kim, let's start with you. Considering the number of dead now topping 1,000 in Gaza, many, many civilians, as we mentioned, and the images that are coming out of Gaza, this huge and mass scale of destruction, and also seeing through to the hospitals in what is happening there, completely overwhelmed, women and children screaming.

Is Israel losing the public battle, the world opinion battle, I guess if you will, are they losing that public opinion battle?

DOZIER: Well, they've already lost it across the Arab world. These are the kind of images that they have played on a much smaller scale over the years.

The concern of U.S. officials is that these new fresh images, this fresh number of -- high number of dead will feed into the jihadist ideology of militants across the region, that young men watching this might not be able to get in to Gaza to help fight there, but they'll be able to join the fighters in Syria or other parts of Africa where Al Qaeda and other groups are taking root. From Hamas' point of view, fighting back continuing to fight back,

that's kind of their model for being successful, staying in power, being seen as the protector and defender of their people. So, while it might not make a lot of sense to people watching from outside the region wondering why they're fighting this battle that they can't win against a much stronger military, politically wherever they stop, they'll probably emerge stronger at least in the eyes of their own people because of this confrontation.

MARQUEZ: Bob, the information and pr propaganda is important in any military action. Is what we're seeing right now, certainly Netanyahu has support at home, he seems to have it in the U.S., but is it making it more difficult for leaders everywhere as they are trying to decide what to do about bringing this to an end?

BAER: Well, first of all, Kimberly is absolutely right. We've lost the battle in the Arab world. The United States is getting an enormous amount of pressure to put an end to this conflict, to lift the siege on Gaza. And you have to look at it from the perspective of the Palestinians. Having, you know, 35 losses on the side of the Israelis is a lot, a lot for them. And for Hamas it's a big victory.

So, they are -- I think they're winning this war in terms of propaganda. There's no doubt about it. And they will get jihadist support and the United States will be blamed and you'll see Muslims from Europe and the United States heading into the region. They're going to become radicalized. And unlike Hamas, these people are going to turn to international terrorism.

SIDNER: Bob, I do want to follow up on that, though, because there have been protests in London, for example, and France against the Israeli bombardment as well. You do have, you know, others looking at it. But also I want to talk about what Hamas looks like now to the world because they have mixed the cease-fire extension that Israel had agreed upon, a four-hour extension. And this is all for humanitarian reasons so that people can try and just a little bit recover. At least, have four hours of sleep if they can get any of that. What does it is do for Hamas' reputation in the court of public opinion?

BAER: Well. I mean, I think that -- I mean, Hamas, you know, was losing power and losing influence up until now. And I think this is one of the reasons they started rocketing Israel, they wanted to draw them into a conflict that they could fight on the ground in the Gaza Strip.

They knew very cynically that the Israelis would have to kill a lot of civilians. You can't go into Gaza and make pinpoint strikes on the Palestinians. So, they were counting on a large number of civilian deaths. You know, whether this pays off in the end, I don't know, but Hezbollah in 2006 did this, drew the Israelis into Lebanon. And fought them to a standstill and Hezbollah lost influence there somewhat, but not completely.

SIDNER: All right, Bob Baer and Kimberly Dozier. Thank you so much for joining us -- Miguel?

MARQUEZ: Thank you very much, Sara.

And be sure to watch "STATE OF THE UNION" tomorrow morning, Benjamin Netanyahu will be on with Candy Crowley starting and at 9:00 a.m. eastern and at 12:00 p.m. eastern time.

Now, coming up, when MH-17 was shot out of the sky, bodies and wreckage rained down on the village below, even into the playground of an orphanage.

Next, residents about -- talk to CNN about what they witnessed that tragic day and how it is still affecting them.

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MARQUEZ: Now more coffins bearing the remains of flight 17 victims arrived earlier today in the Netherlands. Each of those people getting the respect that they deserve. Officials say they've made the first identification of a flight victim. That person's family has been informed but the name has not been released.

Meanwhile, some of the victims' remains are still at the crash site and investigators do not have full access to the area.

When Malaysia flight 17 was shot out of the sky, villagers in a remote witnessed it. Some of those witnesses were just children who watched in horror as passengers including other children fell to their death.

CNN's Phil Black has more.

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PHIL BLACK, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The debris of MH-17 is scattered over a wide area. So is the trauma inflicted on local residents.

In the nearby village of (INAUDIBLE), the playground of an orphanage is empty and silent. The children who call this home had been sent away because on July 17 they saw too much.

Valentina teaches here. She says last Thursday the children were all outside when there was an explosion. She says the children started screaming. These are dead bodies.

Valentina shows me where the body of a woman fell on the edges of the field where children were playing. Another woman came down nearby and here she says the children saw the body of a boy hit the earth. She says they were terrified. Some screamed, some just sat and cried.

MH-17's cockpit now lies down the street. Valentina and other women who work at the orphanage have been coming here with pictures of children killed in the aircraft. They leave them toys, flowers for their parents.