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U.S. Moves Libyan Embassy from Tripoli; Russian President Under Pressure of Threatened Sanctions; Families Displaced by Violence in Gaza; Terrorist Threat to Commercial Air Flights Examined

Aired July 26, 2014 - 14:30   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.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ana Cabrera. Fredricka is enjoying her day off today, but we have some breaking news we want to bring to you. No ceasefire extension just announced by a Hamas spokesman. Now, there had been a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza for those 12 hours. Now that ended at 1:00 p.m. eastern. Israel had agreed to extend the ceasefire by four hours, but again, we now know that Hamas did not agree.

And just moments after that 12 hours wrapped up, Israel says that mortar shells from Gaza had landed in southern Israel. World leaders still calling for a much longer truce. Secretary of State John Kerry has been in Paris today working on a deal for a ceasefire for seven days.

Now, all of this comes as the Gaza health ministry says there have now been more than 1,000 people killed there sense the start of the Israeli operation, and a majority are innocent civilians, primarily Palestinians. On the Israeli side four more soldiers were killed since last night, bringing the total number there to 40.

Right now the Israeli security cabinet is meeting. They're talking about this ceasefire. I want to bring in Sara Sidner live from Jerusalem. Sarah, has anything come of that meeting? Do we know specifically how Hamas and Israel are reacting to the ceasefire, I guess, ending?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At this point we know how Hamas is reacting. We have just gotten word that there are more sirens going off in southern Israel in the regional council area. They were the ones that got hit just minutes after the ceasefire ended with four rounds of mortars. Now we understand that two more rounds of mortars have come into that area. So far, no injuries or deaths being reported there, but certainly people have been killed in this latest conflict by mortars coming over from Gaza.

So we are seeing the violence begin again. Now we don't know what the kind of reaction will be from Israel. Usually the reaction is strong and Israel has warned that they will strongly react to any more rocket fire coming out of Gaza. Hamas has not claimed the responsibility for that mortar fire, but you just reported now, which is the breaking news, that Hamas has rejected this new extension, if you will, of the ceasefire. Israel had agreed to it, saying that they would extend the humanitarian ceasefire another four hours, which had meant a 16-hour ceasefire. Hamas rejecting that outright at this moment.

That should mean that the fighting will continue and we will have to wait and see how Israel responds to these mortars that have come over the border. They have been trying to rid Gaza of its tunnel network which brings in, Israel says, much of the weaponry into Gaza that is used against Israel. But we know from me having been there and our reporters on the ground that it is where a lot of goods come into Gaza as well. And so the people there suffering quite a bit.

And if you look at the damage that is there, people were going through rubble in the ceasefire, trying to find loved ones, trying to find any semblance of their lives to bring them to a safer place. And as you mentioned, the numbers have gone up dramatically. Now we're talking about more than 1,000 people in Gaza are dead and 40 in Israel, Ana.

CABRERA: Sarah Sidner, thank you. We do know John Kerry is working, Secretary of State John Kerry is working with his counterparts with a sense of urgency with some sort of deal to extend the ceasefire or at least implement a new ceasefire in that conflict. So make sure you tune in for "STATE OF THE UNION" tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. eastern. Between now and then we'll continue to follow the latest developments. But Candy Crowley actually will have a live interview with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so that should be very interesting.

Now to a major story out of Libya this morning. Just this morning the United States evacuated everyone from its embassy in the capital of Tripoli. About 150 people in all. The U.S. state department says this move was triggered by intense fighting between militias in this area of the embassy. The embassy workers drove out of the country to neighboring Tunisia. This marks now the second time in a little more than three years that Washington has closed its diplomatic outpost in Libya. Secretary of State John Kerry talked about this situation earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: 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: Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has been following this story very closely for us. Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Ana, by all accounts, the evacuation of the 150 American personnel from the embassy in Tripoli, Libya went smoothly. That actually included about 80 marines who had already been at the embassy for security duty. The Americans made their way to the Tunisian border. They were driven out in a convoy. But there was plenty of American firepower nearby.

If that convoy had come under attack or run into trouble, we now know there were two f-16 aircraft overhead. There was a drone flying, following the convoy. There was an American warship offshore. And there were also several dozen marines flying overhead in their V-22 aircraft, ready to move in, land, and get the Americans out if that convoy had come under attack.

What we know is that the area of Tripoli where the embassy is located had come under repeated shelling in that neighborhood. The airport had actually been destroyed several days ago by rival militia attacks. Once the airport closed, there was no way for the Americans to get out as the violence grew, no way to get out by commercial air. So finally the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon made the decision it was time for the Americans to go. Ana?

CABRERA: All right, Barbara Starr, thanks.

Now just in to CNN, forensics experts have identified the first victim of the Malaysia Airlines flight that crashed more than a week ago. The person was a Dutch national. Authorities have notified next of kin as well as the mayor of the town where the victim lived. The Dutch government says they are not going to release the name at this time. A short time ago today 38 coffins carrying other victims of the crash arrived in the Netherlands.

This is expected to be the last transfer of coffins to the Netherlands, for the time being at least. They were received, you can see, with military honors. They're now headed to a forensic lab for identification.

But back at the scene of the crash know some bodies are still lying amid the debris. It has Malaysia's prime minister extremely frustrated. In a statement he said investigators were only able to access certain areas of the crash site. So he wants both the pro- Russian rebels Ukraine's armed forces in this area to cooperate so investigators can get to all of the important areas.

In Mali, a U.N. spokeswoman said the flight data recorder from that other crash, the Air Algerie flight that crashed there in Mali just a couple of days ago, has been found. Everyone on board that plane was killed, at least 116 people there. The plane disappeared from radar 50 minutes after takeoff after the pilots changed the flight path because of bad weather.

More evidence of the deadly gun violence in Chicago with two more shootings overnight. In one, a three-year-old boy is now in critical condition. He was caught in a cross fire on a neighborhood street. Police blame gang violence. In the other shooting, witnesses say a gunman simply got out of a car spraying bullets outside a convenience store. A 12-year-old boy, Samuel Walker was killed, six others were wounded. They include four teens and two adults. All their conditions range now from stable to serious. One victim was released from the hospital. This neighborhood is just in shock.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIJAH JOHNSTON, FRIEND: His stomach. His hands was just like this. He was gone. MARIBELL RUIZ, SAMUEL WALKER'S AUNT: He was coming from school. He

was going to get some chips like he normally does. And he got caught in the cross fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Chicago police have no motive for that shooting, still no one in custody.

Police in Philadelphia found a grim scene at the end of a violent carjacking, three children killed. Their mom is in extremely critical condition. Here's how it happened. Two men snatched a woman's SUV at gunpoint. But as they raced through city, they blew a tire, they lost control. The car careened into a car at a fruit stand killing seven, 10, and 15-year-old siblings and leaving their 34-year-old mother fighting for her life. The suspects then jumped into the car and ran off.

Coming up here on the CNN Newsroom, Vladimir Putin continues to deny Russia had any part in the crash of flight 17. But as western powers turn up the heat and the pressure, some observers say Russian's president might be reacting in a panic mode.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Western powers are turning up the heat on Russia President Vladimir Putin. He continues to deny involvement in bringing down flight 17, and now some analysts say what looks like political posturing could actually be a sign that Putin and his cabinet are panicking. CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bursts of white smoke, observers on the ground clearly agitated. At the scene of burning wreckage, armed men in fatigues pick up fragments of what is purportedly a Ukrainian fighter jet shot down in eastern Ukraine. Not yet confirmed, whether this was the work of pro-Russian rebels inside Ukraine or Russian forces themselves, and whether Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about or approved the operation. If Putin is behind the attack just days after the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17, the question, what is driving his aggression?

JOHN HERBST, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: His objectives are preferably to take control, at least informally, of a large swath of Ukrainian territory. He's failed with that. If he can't do that his lesser objective is to destabilize portions of Ukraine's east.

TODD: But some observers say Putin and his cabinet are in panic mode with intelligence pointing to Russian involvement in the Malaysia Air shoot-down and with crippling sanctions possibly imminent, they say Putin is deflecting blame toward Ukraine and NATO, accusing the alliance of building its forces in eastern Europe to threaten Russia. A NATO official scoffs at that, but Putin does seem to be using NATO's actions as a rationale for his military posture. PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (via translator): The scale of

preparedness and training is also increasing. It is important to prepare our defenses on schedule.

TODD: The body language of a guy who is panicking?

JILL DOUGHERTY, RUSSIA ANALYST: I don't think, again, he is panicking, but he is in really a hard place. He has enormous pressure coming from the international community right now. And domestically he's under pressure.

TODD: Pressure from business elites to avoid more sanctions, pressure from Russia nationalists to get tougher on Ukraine. So if he is not panicking, analysts say, Putin is at least in his judo stance.

DOUGHERTY: You can almost see it. His balancing, he does this when he talks. He is a judo expert and he is prepared, he is ready to parry, thrust, and protect Russia from what he expects are going to be the threats.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: And thanks to Brian Todd for that report.

Up next, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has left so much of Gaza in ruins and really destroyed the lives of hundreds of people who call it home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: People who call Gaza home are caught in the middle of the shelling. They have little left to return to. They have lost their loved ones, their neighbors, their belongings. CNN's Karl Penhaul went to one such neighborhood during a ceasefire. He shows us what it is like to find nearly everything you own destroyed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exodus from the front line. Almost nothing left to lose.

HANZA AL-MASHI, DISPLACED PERSON: Where do I live now? Where do I go now?

PENHAUL: Bits and pieces bundled on their heads, his mother's photo under his arm. He says he lost her in the 2009 war. Now he has just lost his home. "There is nothing left, nothing left. It is a massacre," he says. In the embers, these men can't save the family safe, their life savings up in smoke.

Amid the destruction, some creation lands minutes before the truce began.

We're only about 700 meters before the border between Gaza and Israel, and quite clearly there has been close quarters combat here. These are the cartridge cases from a light machine gun. Close by a race to drag the dying back from the brink as a masked militant gunman saunters off to a new position ready for when the battle begins again.

Four hours before the ceasefire, a massive bomb dropped here. Midmorning rescuers struggled to burrow in, residents unhappy with this filming and they pull out a survivor. "We pulled out seven bodies, one of them still alive, another still under the rubble," he says.

Next door, they tiptoe through the debris. Mohammed has rescued the family patriarch. "My granddad would say we're in god's hands. We've lost our money, but the most important thing is you're still alive," he says. He salvaged birth certificates, school diplomas, too. People with no state, desperate for every scrap of paper to prove they still exist.

In the hallway, a female relative begs us to feel her pain. Back in the rubble, a man gestures why. His neighbor believes the answer is simple.

Do you think there can be peace between Israel and the Palestinian people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Two countries, Palestinians, Israel.

PENHAUL: But for now all they can believe they can rise from their ruins.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Gaza.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Just haunting pictures there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will talk with CNN here live tomorrow on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley. That will be at 9:00 a.m. eastern so you'll definitely want to tune in for that or make sure to set your DVR. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say about this whole escalating crisis.

The downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 is raising concerns about the danger terrorists armed with missiles could pose to the flying public. The potential growing threat next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The missile that brought down that Malaysia Airlines flight over Ukraine and then then recent Hamas rocket that hit so close to Ben Gurion airport in Israel have focused attention on the growing terrorist threats to the flying public. Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look at all of the air corridors in use around the world right now, and now look at all the countries where the United States government says American carriers either should not fly at all or should be very careful about flying in and out of. There are two real reasons to be fearful this when you talk about the

possibility of a plane being shot from the sky. First, great big systems like what we've seen used in Ukraine. The Buk system, for example, is powerful, is technologically advanced, and it is very capable of reaching way into the sky and knocking down a plane at a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet or much higher.

There are, however, limitations to a plane like this. For example, you need a government to run one of these. They're too expensive too, hard to maintain, too hard to move around for an average group of terrorists out there. Secondly, the training involved is quite advanced. And thirdly, these things can be tracked. When a missile fires from a system as advanced as this, it is noticed by satellites and early warning systems, and governments around the world start saying we need some answers, who fired this and why.

Which brings us to the second threat which some people consider more important. Think about smaller, shoulder fired missiles out there called man-pads. These may only reach about two or three miles up into the air, nowhere near the high level, but every plane has to take off and land. And when it does, it goes through this threat zone.

What is the advantage to these for terrorist groups out there? Well, they're hugely portable. They only weigh 30 or 40 pounds. They can be concealed easily. The targeting element has vastly improved over the past 15 years. And thirdly, these things can be handled by organized groups and the groups are getting more organized. Think about ISIS out there.

These twin threats are the reason in the wake of Ukraine that aviation analysts around the world are carefully scrutinizing all air traffic in all corridors saying, are there vulnerabilities that have not been noticed, putting other passengers at risk?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: All right, thanks, Tom. You learn something new every day. Thank you for joining me. I'm Ana Cabrera. The next hour of CNN Newsroom begins right now with Miguel Marquez in New York.