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Israel Continues Its Offensive in Gaza; Raging Battles Between Rebels and Ukrainians Keep Investigators from Crash Site; Israel Rejects Hamas Cease-Fire Call; Israel Defends Gaza Offensive; Cage Fighter Rejoins Israeli Army
Aired July 27, 2014 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Ana Cabrera. These are the top stories news this hour.
Israel goes on being offensive in Gaza after enduring what it called incessant rocket fire from Hamas. Is the cease-fire within reach? CNN is on the ground across the region. Live coverage is just moments away.
A major setback for the MH-17 crash investigation, raging battles between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces are keeping investigators from the crash site. Hear how the situation could get even more dangerous in the days ahead.
Plus, fugitive hunter John Walsh opens up to CNN about the most painful moment in his life, the kidnapping and murder of his young son, Adam.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN WALSH, CNN HOST, THE HUNT: It's a very bittersweet day for us, you know, but it's day we sort of reflect on what a wonderful beautiful little boy that 6-year-old boy was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: John Walsh reflects on the impact of losing his son on the 33rd anniversary of his abduction.
We begin in the Middle East where there is doubt whether or not a new cease-fire can hold. Hamas says it has agreed to a 24-hour cease-fire and now diplomats of the United Nations are working to create what they call a humanitarian pause.
Yesterday, Israel said it was unilaterally extending the cease-fire that began on Friday. But then Hamas rejected that Israeli extension. Overnight, Israel resumed military operations in Gaza after mortar fire from Gaza reportedly killed an Israeli soldier.
Israel also said they were also responding to what they call, quote, "incessant shelling" throughout the humanitarian window. Now earlier, our Wolf Blitzer spoke with the U.N. special envoy and heard his appeal. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT SERRY, U.N. SPECIAL COORDINATOR FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE: An appeal on both sides to where we now show utmost restraint for this humanitarian pulse to become effective, I hope, as soon as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: White House officials tell CNN that secretary of state John Kerry is also continuing to make calls on how to reach a cease-fire. He is back in the U.S. now. His earlier attempts, of course, to broker a seven-day cease-fire failed.
What are we expecting to happen now? We have full coverage of this developments story. Atika Shubert is at the Israel-Gaza border and Sara Sidner is in Jerusalem.
Atika, let me start with you. You are there in the border, set the scene for us. What have you seen happened today?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, earlier, we were much closer to the border, just a few hundred meters away. And there, you could really hear the booms and explosions, what was really the sound of the cease-fire failing. Rockets arcing overhead and being intercepted by the iron dome missile system. And then, at the same time, strikes from Israel going into Gaza, presumably artillery but possibly other strikes as well. And so, we -- and they were specifically trying to target those rocket launchers that we had been seeing launched all day.
So this has been the sound that's been continuing. And, in fact, we're now just a few kilometers away from the border near where an iron dome battery is. An iron dome is the anti-missile system that whenever a rocket is in the area, it tries to shoot it down and often intercepts it. So that's the situation on the border.
What it seems to mean is any hope of a cease-fire has completely faded at this point and residents here are expecting operation protective to edge to go ahead.
CABRERA: Sara, let me ask you. We heard a little bit of Wolf Blitzer's conversation with the U.N. envoy earlier and his appeal for a humanitarian pause. Does one side have more to gain or lose than the other if there were to have a cease-fire?
SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, maybe it depends on who you ask. I mean, look. Obviously on both sides the civilians have a lot to gain. I can tell you the numbers now are ratcheting up. The fighting is, you know, has been going quite strongly, especially earlier in the day. About 56 rockets or mortar shells have come over into southern Israel. We know three houses have been damaged. One woman has been severely injured in one of those houses. We also know the IDF has pounded Gaza earlier in the day, hitting 40 targets there and also trying to target what they call terrorists, so members of either Hamas or Islamic jihad as well, also trying to get rid of some of those tunnels. But this is an extremely tense time for the civilians, never mind
those who were fighting on the either side, people extremely worried. The sirens in Israel have been going off again and again. And of course, in Gaza, total fear on the part of the civilians there because they feel like they have nowhere to hide -- Ana.
CABRERA: I understand you just got a release from the idea of Israel defense forces about that bombing at the U.N. school. What can you tell us about this?
SIDNER: Yes. I just got off the phone with Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner who is a spokesperson for the Israel defense forces. And I want to read you exactly what he said so there is no confusion.
Here's what he said when he was talking to journalists, including myself, on the phone moments ago. He said as far as that attack on (INAUDIBLE), a single errant Israeli mortar land in the courtyard in the school. He also added they have footage of what happen and the footage shows the courtyard was empty at the time. It is extremely unlikely, he said, that anybody was killed by that mortar fire. However, he said, there could have been injuries from the shrapnel from that mortar fire. He said it was not targeted. The (INAUDIBLE) school was not targeted by Israel.
However, he said, there was some rocket fire coming from near the school, according to the IDF. They say they will show even eventually some pictures of exactly that. I do not think what we're showing on our screen right now is that video. So to be clear, they're going to be showing some video shortly that gives a real look at exactly what happened there according to their video from planes hovering above -- Ana.
CABRERA: All right. Thanks, Sara.
Atika, Israel has been talking about next phase of its offensive, but they aren't really giving as many details. What are the folks on the ground expecting to happen?
SHUBERT: Well, the big question is are they going to expand the operation. We know that they've already had basically three phases of the on operations initially where they were pretty much just lobbying the artilleries, softening up the areas around the cities and then the next ground operations phase and a third phase was when they expanded it further into urban areas.
So the big question is are they are going to going even further into Gaza city, deeper into those urban areas where they would effectively be controlling all of the Gaza Strip at that point. And that's what many people are wondering. Because the only way, frankly, to stop the rocket fro, coming over it is for Israel to either completely take over the Gaza -- is really to completely take over the Gaza Strip and completely dismantle Hamas which is the state objective of Israel and military. But that would be an extremely long operation and it would result likely in many more lives being lost not only hundreds of civilians that we've seen already die in Gaza, but 42 soldiers killed on the Israeli side. So if this operation continues and goes and escalates, we are likely to see a much, much higher civilian death toll.
CABRERA: All right. Atika Shubert and Sara Sidner. Thanks to you both.
Both sides in this conflict between Israel and Hamas are speaking out today. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hamas is responsible for breaking this most recent cease-fire and all the other ones, he said. Here's what he said to Candy Crowley on "STATE OF THE UNION" earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Well, Hamas doesn't even accept its own cease-fire. It has continue to fire at us as we speak. Israel has accepted five cease-fires since this conflict began, five. We accepted them and we implemented them including two humanitarian cease-fires in the last 24 hours which Hamas rejected as they rejected all the other cease-fires and they violated them.
So you say Israel resumed its offensive. No, we didn't resume our offensive. We had a cease-fire, they violated it. And now they're violating their own cease-fire. And obviously, we'll take whatever action is necessary to protect our people including against (INAUDIBLE) that they are trying to against us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: So let's get the Palestinian perspective here. Also appearing on the "STATE OF THE UNION" today was Mohammad Shtayyeh. He is an advisor to Palestinian authority president Mahmoud Abbas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMAD SHTAYYEH, ADVISOR TO PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PRESIDENT: If the Israeli army is going to be stationed where it is and continue shelling of just the Israel is very much endangering whether it is the humanitarian cease-fire, whether it is a timing cease-fire. Whether it is a long lasting cease-fire, the Israeli army should not stay where it is now because the Israeli army now is nearly occupying 50 persons of the total area of the Gaza Strip.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: We will hear more from both sides there in the Middle East in just a moment.
But first some new developments to tell you about today.
The group responsible for kidnapping more than 200 school grills in Nigeria has struck again, this time in Cameroon. According to Reuters, the militant group called Boko Haram stormed the vice prime minister's home in the northern part of this country. They killed at least three people, kidnapped the vice prime minister's wife. And in a separate incident a local religious leader was also kidnapped at his home. Heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine is keeping the investigators from
getting to that crash site of the Malaysia Airlines flight 17. Find out what a Russian rebel commander is now telling our reporter there at the scene about the fighting that is going on in the area.
A little later, her is a professional cage fighter, but it is the deadly fight that is going in his homeland that has his attention now. We'll have his story and why he says he's dropping his glove and picking up a gun.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CABRERA: Deadly violence raging today in eastern Ukraine. And this is now preventing some investigators from getting to the crash site where the Malaysia plane was shot down. The fighting between pro- Russian rebel and Ukrainians government forces has killed at least 13 people including two children just today. The bloodshed comes more than a week after flight 17 crashed, killing all 298 people on board.
A proper investigation hasn't even started. Some bodies are still lying in the debris. And Malaysia officials say that investigators have only been allowed into certain areas of the crash site. And a spokesman for Ukraine's national security also says the site is still under control of terrorists.
Senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is in Ukraine and he's joining me now by phone.
Nick, investigators, they still aren't able to get to the site. Could we soon see some armed forces going on there? I do understand that, at least, the Dutch have sent some armed military there, police. And bodies still need to be recovered, of course.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Not a suggestion at this point that any of the nation involve in the inspection mission here, (INAUDIBLE). Frankly, it would be unwise as we're significantly outmanned here.
