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Israel Agrees to Extend Ceasefire; Homes, Buildings Destroyed in Gaza; U.S. Evacuates Embassy in Tripoli; Hundreds Flee Fighting in Eastern Ukraine; Can a Ceasefire be Reached?; Interview with David Gold; Americans Fighting, Dying for Israel

Aired July 26, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and thank you for spending part of your weekend with us. I'm Ana Cabrera in for Fredricka Whitfield this weekend.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Martin Savidge in Jerusalem.

CABRERA: Topping our news at this hour as we tag team our coverage over the big news out of Israel, right now a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas was expected to end after 12 hours. But just a short time ago, Reuters reported that Israel has agreed to extend the ceasefire in Gaza for an extra four hours, so that will make it until 5:00 p.m. Eastern. It's still not clear, however, if Hamas agreed to this extension.

To date, Palestinians did have a chance to go out and survey some of the damage during those moments of quiet. People found homes destroyed. Only piles of rubble in their place. And under a lot of the brick and the stone and cement, there are bodies.

The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 1,000 people have now been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel operation. A majority of those deaths, innocent civilians, primarily Palestinians. And there on the Israeli side, four more soldiers were killed just since last night bringing the total number there to 40 from Israel.

Diplomats from seven different countries are calling for this ceasefire to be extended. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Paris as we speak working on a deal for much longer. Perhaps a seven-day ceasefire. And he has been working on this, we know, all week long in Egypt and has not had any luck just yet.

But, Martin, you've been staying on top of the latest developments there on the ground. Is it official now? Has this ceasefire been extended?

SAVIDGE: Well, Israel certainly is saying that it's willing to extend it by a couple of hours. It's just after 8:00 in the evening here. They say they're willing to go until midnight so you've got four hours there. We have also reached out to a Hamas representative in Lebanon who is saying, that yes, it appears that Hamas will also agree to the extension of that ceasefire, but again only for a couple of hours -- Ana.

CABRERA: What are the sticking points from each side?

SAVIDGE: Well, when it comes to extending a few hours, that's one thing. When it comes to extending for, say, a week, then it becomes, well, what are the particular restrictions? What are the particular ways at which it's going to be carried out? Israel would like to keep its troops in Gaza. And it would like to continue to destroy the so- called terror tunnels it blames on Hamas. Hamas, it would be feared by Israel, might use the downtime to re-arm and re-prepare for another onslaught once the ceasefire is -- or lifted. So I think right now it is under what conditions would seven days of the ceasefire be negotiated, and right now both sides don't seem to be willing to reach those conditions -- Ana.

CABRERA: And Martin, we know today Secretary of State John Kerry is in Paris as we mentioned. He's working with other world leaders there on a longer deal. They want something more than just 16 hours as far as this current ceasefire is extended. Their goal is seven days.

SAVIDGE: Yes. So far that really hasn't happened.

Isa Soares is live in Paris where the negotiations have been going on, and I'm also joined again by our global affairs correspondent Elise Labott.

And Isa, you know, have you heard of any progress being made at those meetings?

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: None whatsoever, to be completely honest with you. The meetings began early this morning. A busy day of meetings for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. He was expected to start meetings with the Qatari foreign minister. We're told he arrived late to Paris. That really delayed everything else.

We have been told they did meet, though. The Qataris and the Turkish foreign ministers met twice today. On one of those occasions they actually met at the Turkish ambassador's residence here in Paris. But nothing has really come out of it. We know they've met, we know this is crucial because, really, you know, they -- both Turkey and Qatar are the main conduits for talks with Hamas. They both wield a lot of influence with Hamas but so far nothing has come out of it.

What has been said, though, is that European foreign ministers are meeting here including the French foreign minister who spoke today who's basically calling on all parties to really extend the humanitarian ceasefire for longer than the 18 hours and more of the week. Now the U.S. secretary of state, of course, he believes that they've got a framework for a truce, but obviously they have little kinks, so to speak, to iron out.

Take a listen to what he has to say a bit earlier on today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: These are important considerations. Each side has powerful feelings about the history and why they're where they are, and what we're going to work out is how do we break through that so that the needs are met and we have an ability to provide security for Israel and a future, economic and social, and otherwise development for the Palestinians. That's what this is about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: There you go. So with more than just terminology, they're really trying to iron out both sides that you were mentioning there earlier. Hamas wants an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza. Israel wants really -- wants to be free from tunnels and rockets. So really, a day, a busy day of talks, but so far nothing has really come to fruition.

CABRERA: I want to bring in our Elise Labott.

I know you've been in touch with the U.S. State Department. We heard Secretary Kerry there kind of laying out what the endgame is, security for Israel and giving the Palestinian folks there in Gaza a little bit more freedom and better economy and so forth. He's been working on this deal all week long. So far they haven't been able to really work anything substantial out.

What would be some of the specific things that Kerry would be seeking in trying to broker a deal?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Well, Ana, first he wants to get a stop to the fighting. I mean, you can't talk about some of these things on either side that they're looking for until both sides are stopped fighting. Certainly Israel is not going to relax the border crossings with Gaza when they feel that Hamas is still throwing rockets, or trying to get across the border to attack Israel.

And on the Palestinian side, on the Hamas side, they really don't feel that they're going to need to stop fighting when Israel is going to continue to start digging at their tunnels. So I think the first thing is to get a cessation in fighting and you have the Eid al-Fitr coming up, the end of the holy month of Ramadan coming up, and diplomats that I'm talking to here at this Aspen Security Conference said that it would just be really bad on both sides, both on the human suffering side of the Palestinians but also for Israel's world image if that fighting continued through the Eid holiday.

So the initial is to get a cessation in fighting and then what Secretary Kerry is talking about is about addressing some of these underlying concerns of the conflict. How do you demilitarize Hamas and make sure that we're not doomed to repeat ourselves in the next three years? You know, get -- take care of Hamas' stronghold on Gaza and on the Palestinian side, how do you start to address this dire, dire humanitarian situation in Gaza that really feeds into the hopelessness of the Palestinians, not only the anger and frustration of all Palestinians but certainly Hamas is using that as part of its resistance against Israel.

CABRERA: Well, we know we've seen this violence escalate. A lot of people are afraid that this could be the verge of a third intifada. So I know that is shoring up that violence, the first and foremost goal.

Isa Soares and Elise Labott, thanks to you both.

SAVIDGE: Ana, we should point out there appears to be developments right now going on. There are reports coming from the southern part of Israel near Gaza, right next door, actually, of rockets now being fired from Gaza apparently in the area of Ashkelon. We're still waiting to get confirmation of course. The Iron Dome would be effective there. But that is the report. If true it would appear that all this discussion about extending the ceasefire may suddenly become annulled.

Let's move on now and talk about what has been happening in Gaza. People there, at least during the time at which the ceasefire was in effect, were able to get out of their shelters and assess some of the damage, and correspondent Ian Lee is in Gaza City and he shows us the devastation in the neighborhoods.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When the clouds were 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's not just this house. As you can see, there's other buildings down here that have been damaged, devastated and 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's being used in this area. This hole has to be at least 10 meters deep. And if you look, there's slabs of concrete that looks like a 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 ceasefire, this sort of devastation is likely to continue.

Ian Lee, CNN, Gaza.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Ian Lee, thank you very much.

We'll continue to monitor events here. Let's go back now to Ana Cabrera in Atlanta for other stories that we're following today -- Ana.

CABRERA: Thanks, Martin.

Now to the major developing story in Libya this morning. The United States evacuated all personnel from its embassy in the capital of Tripoli, about 150 people total. Now the U.S. State Department says this was a result of the intense fighting between militias in the area of the embassy, not a direct attack at the embassy, but that's what prompted the urgent removal of staff there, as they put it. The industry workers were driven out of the country to neighboring

Tunisia. They had a military escort. They had aircraft overhead. A U.S. warship on standby just in case. Secretary of State John Kerry, he talked about this situation earlier and said that removing these personnel is not going to mean it's closing the embassy and certainly not giving up on this country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: We are deeply committed and remain committed to the diplomatic process in Libya. Our envoy will continue to be engaged with the British envoy, and other envoys, and we will continue to try to build out of the election the legitimacy of the government formation and the efforts to end the violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Now the State Department is also being very clear in its message to Americans who may be living in Libya. Here's part of the warning posted today. "Travelers should be aware that they may be targeted for kidnapping, violent attacks or even death. U.S. citizens currently in Libya should exercise extreme caution and depart immediately."

Let me bring back in our global affairs correspondent Elise Labott and Erin McPike there at the White House.

Elise, again, walk us through about -- how this evacuation happened and any more information about the timing of this?

LABOTT: Well, they're calling it kind of temporary relocation of the embassy staff, Ana, but anytime you have a -- full military protection to take staff out of a country, I would call that an evacuation. These diplomats, well, some of them will go to neighboring countries in the region. Some of them will come back to Washington.

Yes, it is a temporary move, but once you take the staff out of an embassy, you may not be shuttering it for good like we did in Syria and we still don't have an embassy there during the civil war, but you are destroying equipment. You're burning documents, you're really kind of making sure that nobody can penetrate that embassy. And so you're really come closing up shop for the foreseeable future and that really sends a very dire message about how the U.S. views the situation in this country -- Ana.

CABRERA: Erin McPike, I know you are standing by at the White House. What are you hearing from there?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, at this point that it's just temporary, something that Elise and I have been hearing behind the scenes from the White House and the State Department all morning. That it is temporary, but they don't seem to have any sort of next steps that they're telling us about.

We did get a statement from a White House official today that said, "The president approved the recommendation of the State Department that due to the ongoing violence resulting from clashes between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, we temporarily relocate all of our personnel out of Libya."

It seems to suggest that they want to make the point that the president has been involved and they are on top of the situation that they learned lessons from two years ago in Benghazi. Most likely to avoid criticism, but we are already hearing criticism from a number of Republicans. In fact, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce, a Republican, of course, also put out a statement saying, "This was the right move, but he also said, unfortunately, this development was predictable, given the lack of direction and leadership from this administration since it ousted Moammar Gadhafi. Our diplomatic absence will make the hard task of achieving political stability in Libya even harder."

So again, already some criticism by Republicans.

CABRERA: And given what happened in Benghazi, nobody wants to take any chances there.

Thank you to Erin McPike and Elise Labott, we appreciate it.

Let's turn now to the growing frustration over how much access is being given to investigators at the crash site of a downed Malaysia plane. It was shot down more than a week ago, and now Malaysia's prime minister says investigators are only being allowed into certain areas. He's demanding both the pro-Russian rebels and Ukraine's armed forces cooperate. So the investigators can get in there and get full access to not only the evidence on scene but to the remains that remain.

Meanwhile, fighting in eastern Ukraine is also preventing a Dutch forensic team from reaching the scene. People who live there are fleeing this area in droves.

These are pictures taken by our CNN people on the ground. You can see all of those cars stuck in traffic trying to get out of harm's way.

CNN's Kyung Lah is in Kiev, Ukraine and Saima Mohsin is in the Netherlands.

Saima, to you first, more bodies we know are arriving there today. What will happen next?

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, yes, again another day of extraordinary pictures as 38 coffins, 19 in each plane, the C-17 and C-130 from the Dutch and Australian military landed at Eindhoven military base, and yet still, although we have now received 227 coffins here in the Netherlands, they are hold back. Family and loved ones don't have all their loved ones back from onboard MH-17. Those -- the passengers and crew that were lost more than a week ago.

A week ago today, Ana. Prime Minister Mark Rutte from Holland said that it was downright disgusting the way the bodies and the crash site was being treated. And yet one week on, still no ability for investigators to make it to that site. Last night, 14 military police officials were sent out to Ukraine, but they're unarmed. So the big debate this weekend here in the Netherlands and across the EU, really, has been whether or not to send armed security personnel.

Now we don't know, Ana, if that means that they're going to send military officials or troops in or whether that will be police, but the discussion here has been on, some politicians asking whether they should send snipers in, and this is a country that is peace-loving and wants to discuss things with a consensus. But really the consensus is very much that they want tougher action against Russia, tougher sanctions as well.

The EU just today had raised the number of sanctions increased those sanctions against various individuals and entities bringing the total number of sanctions to 87 people with frozen assets and visa restrictions and 20 entities or companies as far as Russia is concerned with that volatile area in eastern Ukraine where the crash site is.

And all the while, while this politicking is going on, while they're trying to negotiate with separatist rebel groups or Ukraine or Russia as to what the rules of engagement might be to get to eastern Ukraine, to that crash site, as you rightly point out, there are still remains there that need to be brought home -- Ana.

CABRERA: Right. And we want to bring Kyung Lah in here because she is on the Ukrainian side of things.

I know you were talking with a family, Kyung, earlier who really desperately wanted to see the site for themselves and what we're hearing investigators can't get in there. This family made it to the crash scene. Right?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They did make it to the crash scene, as George and Angela Dyczynski. Now you've heard Saima talking about the international outrage. The disgust at how this crash scene is being treated. There is a lot of skepticism on the part of the family members. A lot of rage. And you can certainly understand that the shock and the grief that they're feeling.

Well, what George and Angela Dyczynski have chosen to do is they live in Australia. Their daughter Fatima was heading to see them. They've chose to head here on their own. They don't have diplomatic passage. What they've done is come here, carried only by their shock and their sorrow and they made it. They made it through rebel checkpoints, through increased shelling these last 24 hours.

They laid flowers at the crash scene and still, Ana, the thing that that is really heartbreaking about this is that they don't want to believe that their daughter is gone. They remain in that area. I've been texting with them back and forth. They say they don't know how long they will be here. They will check back tomorrow, but they say they're going to stay and they want to keep going back to that site.

We should stress, Ana, that if other families are thinking about doing this, the international community is warning you roundly to not do it. Is not advisable. This is a conflict zone. A conflict that is worsening -- Ana.

CABRERA: Yes, it's heartbreaking situation for those folks.

Saima Mohsin and Kyung Lah, thank you so much.

We'll head out to -- breaking news from the Middle East. So Martin Savidge, fill us in.

SAVIDGE: Yes, Ana, we are just about 20 minutes after the ceasefire, the original one, was set to expire. Now there have been a lot of talk it was going to continue at least another four hours. Hamas and Israel supposedly agreeing. But now we are being told from the Eshkol region, which is in the southern part of Israel very near to Gaza, that four mortar shells have struck. Those mortar shells coming from Gaza and hitting into Israeli territory.

There were no reports of injuries. No reports of damage, but, of course, this could have a huge impact now and whether Israel will immediately respond, remains to be seen, but it does not appear that the extension of that ceasefire will hold, at least not in the first few minutes. We'll have to see -- Ana.

CABRERA: We'll let you break away so you can gather more information.

And also coming up in the NEWSROOM, as the body counted keeps rising, is there any hope that Israel and Hamas can reach a longer term deal to end the bloodshed in Gaza?

We'll go back live to Martin with more on that region, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: We have breaking news from the Middle East where we are getting reports rockets have been fired. Martin told us that this happened just moments ago. Even after Israel had reportedly agreed to extend a temporary humanitarian ceasefire with Hamas for an extra four hours.

So, Martin, it may be the obvious question. I suppose this means this whole ceasefire is over?

SAVIDGE: Well, you know, it could do. We'll have to wait and see. We haven't heard what the response is going to be from Israel, although I admit that Israel tends to respond very quickly to these sort of things. And again, just for clarification on this end, what we're hearing is that it's not rockets but mortar fire. It was mortar that killed one of the Israeli civilian casualties several days ago. So it's four rounds of mortars that reportedly fell in the Eshkol region.

There's no reports of damage, no reports of injury but the devastation to the ceasefire could be significant. So, you know, let's bring in CNN's global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier who also writes for "The Daily Beast."

And you know, Kimberly, things are changing very fast on the ground here in the Middle East. What do you read of these reports of now what appears to be fire coming from Gaza and what do you think the impact is going to be on any ceasefire?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, if the mortar fire did come from Hamas -- probably did -- it shows that they are sticking to their normal tactics of continuing to fight until it's not possible to fire anymore, which is part of Israel's reasoning behind the incursion. I think why you saw Israel extend the ceasefire today is that it's responding to this international criticism, the images of houses of civilians entirely destroyed. Images of children dead in Gaza hospitals.

And it's trying to say, we are trying to conduct this war in a humanitarian fashion. Of course, that's not playing so well in the Arab world.

CABRERA: Well, especially when you consider the Palestinians have said that, know, we want Israel to give us a little bit of freedom, to some degree, and not be there on the ground with their military while Israel says it's going to keep up the attacks on those tunnels, and one of the reasons they wouldn't agree to a longer term ceasefire, and that their goal is to crush Hamas.

We all know Hamas is recognized as a terrorist organization, but you brought up a great point about the civilian casualties. Is Israel now getting more pressure to back off?

DOZIER: Well, they certainly are from U.S. officials, who are watching this with great concern and have spoken here at the Aspen Security Forum about their fears that these images are going to feed jihadist networks across the Middle East, that young people are going to be watching this and saying, even if they can't get into Gaza to help there, they'll sign up for other militant groups, and that that will fuel a constant threat, a growing threat, throughout the region.

Meanwhile, from Israel's point of view, this is a persistent threat to all of their civilian population. So they're doing just what they did the last time they invaded Gaza, when at that point 1600 Palestinians were killed. They're trying to eliminate the threat at least for the foreseeable future.

SAVIDGE: You know, Kimberly, it might be said that Israel could be perceived as losing the PR war. I'm sure Israel would say, you know, we don't care about the PR war, we care about the real war and protecting our people. Do you think that Israel does act totally independent of world opinion?

DOZIER: Well, they act in defense of their population, and their government is answering first to their own people, and their own people are -- when incidents like this happen, they get increasingly radicalized, and the liberal voice inside Israel that pushes for peace talks pretty much gets silenced. What U.S. officials are worried about is that this Gaza conflict will spread to the West Bank, and make any eventual return to peace talks even more unthinkable. There were demonstrations that pretty much went under the radar this week in the West Bank. One U.S. official told me it was 10,000 people in Ramallah. They

haven't seen that in years. They were worried about the fact that the Israelis did open fire on some of that crowd, and they're worried about this turning into a two-zone military confrontation.

And we did hear what you just mentioned when we spoke with Mister -- I forget his name, but the Palestinian representative who we spoke to just an hour ago on our air mentioned those peaceful protests that were broken up with violence earlier.

So thank you, Kimberly Dozier, for lending us your insight and we know you spend a lot of time covering that region.

DOZIER: Thank you.

CABRERA: The crash site for Flight MH-17 in eastern Ukraine still isn't secure today.

Up next, I'll tell you what Dutch authorities are now going to do to try to change that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: This is a picture right now, I believe it's a live image actually of coffins arriving again in the Netherlands. This is in Hilversum, Netherlands. Seventeen coffins expected to arrive with the remains of more victims from MH-17, the flight that was shot down over eastern Ukraine. And you can -- you can see people clapping in honor of the lives that were lost, in honor of their memories. And children greeting these coffins as they stream by.

This is a very tough day for this small town. Three entire families were on that plane. That came from this town. There was also the son of a fourth family. Just 84,000 people live in this town. This is just 23 miles southeast of Amsterdam.

And a reminder, this is in addition to the 198 coffins that were flown back to the Netherlands earlier this week. The coffins being taken now to a forensic lab so that experts can identify the remains, and that's a process we're told that could take weeks, possibly even months.

Just giving a moment to pause and really take in the gravity of this scene as those coffins roll by. We'll keep watching for new developments from the Netherlands this morning.

Meantime, back at the crash scene, the frustration is growing there because of the devastation of Flight 17 and the fact investigators can't get in there. There are reports that human remains are still lying in the debris and investigators say they haven't been given full access.

Again, we're more than a week after the crash. Fighting in those areas also posing a security threat. This also comes as observers with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe say rebels in this region are losing patience and may not be cooperative much longer. Officials are concerned about this, saying, a proper investigation hasn't even started yet.

Joining me from New York, CNN safety analyst and former FAA inspector, David Soucie.

David, good to see you.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Hello, Ana.

CABRERA: So this crash scene we know is massive. It's also in the middle of a war zone. It's unsecure at this point. How difficult do you think it is right now for investigators to do their jobs?

SOUCIE: Well, it's so difficult that they can't even get there, to be honest. Right now, Ana, I just spoke with some of the investigators myself a moment ago. They're frustrated, they can't get through where they need to be. They need to get there quickly but they just can't. The quickness of it, here's the challenge is the fact that their rebels are giving them a certain amount of time to be there. They want this wreckage out of there and they want it cleared up within a week. And it's just simply not possible. So their hands of tied.

What they're hoping to do is get in and get as much information as quickly as possible that they can. There's some key pieces of investigative material that they have to find, that they have to look at, for example, the transponder, to find out if the Friend or Foe Network which is on the transponder tell any military action that it is a friendly aircraft. They need to confirm and make sure that that was working. We suspect it was but we just don't know at this point until you can prove it. So it's incredibly challenging.

CABRERA: And it sounds there is some valuable time being lost?

SOUCIE: Yes, there really is. It's just getting -- too hard because, again, the material is being moved around. It's being contaminated. The site is contaminated. But most importantly is the deceased that's still on the site there. There are still a lot of people missing that they haven't found. The search, as you remember, they said that they can only go to certain areas, which really hampers the fact that there are bodies that are located throughout that site, could be two or three miles in one direction or the other.

So typically what we'll do is secure the entire possibility of debris which in this case could be six or seven miles. So we really -- it's going to be an incredible challenge to retrieve and provide the dignity to the deceased in a way that they deserve.

CABRERA: And in just 30 seconds what would be the priorities for investigators getting in there, especially if they have a limited amount of time?

SOUCIE: Well, I think that we already have good documentations through the reporters and the CNN reporters, they've been out there with GPS locations in a lot of the equipment. So the focus would be on the cockpit, as I mentioned, the electrical system, because you can determine those and correlate those against the Flight Data Recorder we do have and there is good data on that. So we can compare those and I think that's the place to start.

CABRERA: All right. David Soucie, again, thanks.

SOUCIE: Thank you, Ana.

CABRERA: Up next, back to our coverage of the conflict in Gaza. You've heard about Israel's Iron Dome? Well, our Tom Foreman exactly what it is and explains better how it works.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Mortgage rates held steady this week. Take a look.

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CABRERA: We're following the latest news out of the Middle East where Israeli officials now say four mortar shells were fired from Gaza just a short time ago. Almost exactly after that 12-hour ceasefire was due to expire. There are no reports of injuries or damage at this point, but it's still a developing situation.

Now many of the rockets that have been fired by Hamas over the last couple of weeks are taken down by Israel's Iron Dome. Now in this video taken before today's temporary ceasefire you can actually see Hamas rockets and the white smoke as they trail across the sky and then simply disappearing. And then exploding high above the ground after it's hit.

And our Martin Savidge has been in Jerusalem and has witnessed the Iron Dome in effect -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Yes, I have. Actually it was on Thursday and there was not one but two barrages of rockets that were fired against central Israel. I was at the airport and I saw at least five of those rockets were intercepted.

Danny Gold is the man who developed the Iron Dome system and he's joining us now from Tel Aviv.

And I congratulate you on the success of that system. Did you expect that the system was going to work this well?

DANNY GOLD, CREATOR, IRON DOME: It work very good, more or less at this level, I'm sure that even it become better.

CABRERA: Is the Iron Dome intercepting, do you know?

GOLD: Excuse me? Again?

CABRERA: What percentage of those rockets that are being fired into Israel is the Iron Dome intercepting?

GOLD: The Iron Dome shoot only on the missile that are going to hurt civilian or protected area. Iron Dome is not dealing with the missile in the open areas or in the state. Out of the (INAUDIBLE) they want to intercept around 90 percent as published in the media, around 90 percent. This is the rate of success. Of course, out of all of the rocket shooting Israel only is 97 percent or 98 percent. I didn't calculate it.

SAVIDGE: Do you continue to study? I mean, I imagine that you would, to improve upon the system? For instance, you know, there was one rocket that did make it very close to the airport. Some say that was the most damaging of all in the way that it stopped flights for at least 24 hours. Do you know what may have happened there and why that one rocket got through?

GOLD: Presently I'm not in the business anymore. I left the defense force system, the Ministry of Defense, a few years ago after finishing the Iron Dome. But the Iron Dome itself a very robust system, a very strong engine, there is uncertainty, still of course they're working all the time to debrief every error, every mistake, and do many things to correct it to the next time.

Next time, a few hours or a few days, and the system designed to cope with very, very fast changes. Yes, I believe they're working on every, every missile, not have many, but a few. It's not 100 percent system, of course.

CABRERA: Of course. Well, Danny Gold, it certainly seems like it.

(CROSSTALK)

GOLD: By the way, the main issue of the system --

CABRERA: Certainly seems like it has done some good work.

GOLD: Protecting lives, protecting --

CABRERA: In saving lives over in Israel and in the Gaza area. Thank you so much for your time today.

Now back here in the United States, gunfire rings out on a Chicago street. It's a story we've been talking about and it just keeps repeating itself, it seems like, over and over and over again. Again, another child falls victim. We'll have the latest on the violence, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Welcome back. Great you to have you with us. I'm Ana Cabrera. And here are some of other top stories crossing our CNN news desk right now.

The United States has evacuated all personnel from its embassy in Libya's capital of Tripoli. About 150 people in all including about 80 Marines. The U.S. State Department says it decided to pull people out because intense fighting in this area of the embassy appears to be escalating. And this is fighting between militia groups. Embassy workers drove out of the country in a convoy to neighboring Tunisia. There were fighter jets, even an offshore U.S. warship that provided support. The State Department stresses that the embassy has just suspended operations temporarily and will reopen when it can. More evidence of deadly gun violence in Chicago. Two more shootings

overnight and one of them a 3-year-old boy is now in critical condition, caught in the crossfire on a neighborhood street. Police are investigating whether that attack was gang related.

Now there was another attack and witnesses say a gunman got out of a car, spraying bullets outside a convenient store. He hit a 12-year- old boy who died. Six others were wounded. The majority of them just children. No one is in custody.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heads down, heads down. Heads down.

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CABRERA: This dramatic cell phone video was taken by a passenger on a Sunwing flight as the SWAT storms in. This is at the airport in Toronto. You can see they had guns drawn. They forcefully removed a passenger who reportedly threatened the plane. Witnesses told CNN affiliate CTV that that man said he wanted to bomb Canada. The Sunwing aircraft turned around. It went back to the airport. No one was hurt.

Coming up in our CNN NEWSROOM, they are Americans who, by their own choice, decided to help Israel fight. Now some have paid the ultimate price.

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CABRERA: In the ongoing battle between Israel and Gaza, men from foreign lands are fighting and dying.

SAVIDGE: CNN's Alexander Field talked with some Americans who are committed to helping Israel on the battlefield.

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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice-over): Two Americans killed in the conflict in Gaza. They weren't obligated to serve Israel. They decided to. Now they're held as heroes by soldiers who did the same.

ARI PLATT, AMERICAN SERVING IN IDF: I was sad but also I was proud. I was proud to see two people who really -- who did something they really believed in.

FIELD (on camera): You weren't required to serve. Why did you choose to?

PLATT: I'm Jewish and I felt that it was really important.

FIELD (voice-over): Ari Platt was raised here and served there. He has dual citizenship with Israel and the U.S.. Foreigners who serve in Israel's army are commonly called lone soldiers, but often their decision to join is motivated by feelings they share.

PLATT: I chose the Israeli army because as a Jewish person, the threat, the imminent threat of destruction, of all the atrocities that happened our entire life, from the holocaust, from beforehand, it was something that I felt that if we have an army now that I have to help them out.

FIELD: More than 900 Palestinians have been killed in the latest conflict. At least 40 from the Israeli forces are dead including Americans Nissim Sean Carmeli and Max Steinberg.

ASHER ZLOTNIK, AMERICAN SERVING IN THE IDF: Max is from Los Angeles, from the San Fernando Valley. That's where my brother and I grew up, and though I didn't know him personally, it hits close to home.

FIELD: Asher Zlotnik, an American and Israeli citizen, served with the IDF for three years. His brother is on active duty now. His unit is in the conflict zone.

ZLOTNIK: You start imagining the worst. And on the one hand, each time that they release a name you breathe a sigh of relief because it is not him. Then you realize that that's someone else's son or brother or father.

FIELD: Zlotnik, a reservist, says soldiers from his unit have been called back to duty. So far his team hasn't.

ZLOTNIK: It's not something that I would want to put myself in. At the same time, this is what we have to do.

FIELD: Zlotnik and Platt don't live in Israel but both believe they share a responsibility to fight for it.

ZLOTNIK: It's easy to live in America and advocate for Israel. But if you want to take the next step and be active and stand up for what you believe in, it seemed the logical progression.

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SAVIDGE: That does it for me. CNN's Sara Sidner will be here next hour to continue to follow the prospects of watching cease fire in action here in the Middle East -- Ana.

CABRERA: And, Martin, we have enjoyed having you with me this morning and into the afternoon. We know you're working long hours over there in very dangerous and difficult situations. So thank you and keep up the great reporting.

We'll be back in the CNN NEWSROOM in just 30 minutes and we hope you will stick around.

Up next, a CNN special. "CITY OF TOMORROW," and that begins after a short break. Thanks for joining us.

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