>> the violence has continued just a couple of miles from here >> just a short while ago we heard a large air strike very close by... >> people here are worried that this already serious situation may escalate. >> for continuing coverage of the israeli - palestinian conflict, stay with al jazeera america your global news leader. >> this morning, an international investigation is underway after a passenger plane is shot down over ukraine, killing everyone onboard. now airlines around the world are scrambling to change their flight paths and american experts are stepping in to find out who's to blame. >> boots and tanks on the ground, thousands of israeli

troops inside gaza. israel's prime minister threatening significant expansion of the military offensive. we're live in the rapidly escalating strike zone. >> good morning and welcome to aljazeera america. i'm stephanie sy. >> i'm del walters. there have been significant developments overnight on both major stories. that airlines disaster in ukraine and israel's ground invasion of gaza. we have reporters stationed around the world with the very latest. >> in ukraine, rescue workers are pouring over the crash site of flight 17. u.s. officials say the jet was shot down, killing all 298 onboard. russian accept claim they have recovered recording devices from that plane. >> meanwhile in israel, prime minister benjamin netanyahu said his nation could widen its ground offensive in gaza. overnight, 19 palestinian were killed along with an israeli soldier. >> nick schiffron is live in gaza. what is the very latest there?

>> good morning. this is the first ground offense of israel into gaza in more than five years and all morning and night we heard and saw that escalation on this side. that's the coast. we saw gun boat ships firing into gaza, on that side we saw flares all night illuminating the space where troops come in. on the north, we saw tanks on the border and one particularly loud strike literally just a few hundred feet away from here. >> 7:30 a.m., downtown gaza city, the building is used by media companies, one owned by hamas. israel might have declared a ground war but so far the strikes are still mostly from the air. >> this was the first strike in downtown gaza city. the missiles hit all the way toward the top of the this and down here, a large field of debris and windows. this is in the middle of a

residential and commercial district, and every single one of these buildings shook violently when the missiles struck. >> a few hours later and a few blocks away, the family was given a few minutes to evacuate his home. the father pauses to see what was left of his house. it was pull veryized by a single israeli air strike. thanks to the warning, everyone survived, but his children are terrified. across gaza, hundreds of thousands of children are terrified. a big sister tries to console her little brother to no avail. the israeli's moved in ant10:30 last night. their main objective, seize tunnel's under the border. fighters use them to smuggle themselves and arms to attack israel. now that the israeli army is inside gaza, the operation could expand. >> this military operation has one main goal, to restore peace

and security to the state of israel. we will do so by targeting the terrorist infrastructure, the tunnels that are used to infiltrate israel. >> the targets are in residential areas. that means as the ground fighting increases, casualties will continue to stream in and families' anguish will continue to rise. >> this morning perhaps at expected, hamas is releasing statements sounding defiant saying the ground offensive does not scare us, we pledge to drown the army in gassen mud. that thud was an israeli strike into gaza. >> the strehl government says they are targeting hamas. clearly from your piece there have been civilians, children caught in the crossfire. are there safe places for gazan families to go? >> the israeli military has sent text message, voice mail, even

dropped physical things on to the roofs of houses trying to get people out of the neighborhoods where most of these strikes are happening. a lot of people here consider gaza a prison. there's a wall around it that israel uses, egypt blocks anyone leaving from the out, the mediterranean to the south. people are here in gaza city about three or four miles south of where those strikes are. as you can see, a lot of the targets are in the middle of those residential neighborhoods. >> live in gaza for us, thank you. >> we want to turn now to our other top story, the malaysian airliner blown out of the sky en route from out asia from amsterdam. all aboard dead. debris litters the ground where it went down. aljazeera was one of the first reporters on the scene. >> these are emergency service personnel who have been on the scene for a couple of hours this morning. they are holding sticks with

white cloth on the top of it. they are marking bodies. they've been walking through these fields, coming on this side. this is a road, a farm road that divides the debris field. they've been in there and you can see the stakes out there where there are remains. what's interesting is one of these gentlemen walking past this debris field, he said there are too many bodies, we don't have enough sticks. the tail ses aircraft here, the tail fin is over there. this part is here, and then back up the road, you have even bigger debris fields. you have one on this side and you have one further down that seems to be the biggest debris field. you can see the landing gear, both engines are there, there's even a bit of a groove in the earth where clearly there was some kind of impact. these gentlemen are marking with the bodies are, but the most important thing right now for

the international community, because this is an international incident is that the investigation as to why these men are looking for bodies. >> lisa stark is in washington, d.c. you have covered a lot of these aviation disasters, how will the u.s. get involved in this malaysian airlines crash? >> the president promised full american cooperation into this investigation, but as one top former ntsb investigator told me the key right now isn't the crash puzzle, but the diplomatic crisis. the question is who controls the wreckage and who controls the investigation. >> as rescue crews in the eastern ukraine sift through debris and try to locate remains of those onboard the doomed jetliner, the white house is calling for a ceasefire between ukrainian forces and pro-russian separatists that have been at war for months, hope to go get unfettered access to the crash site for investigators. president obama and other odor leaders are calling for an immediate probe into how

malaysian airlines flight 17 was shot down and who may have been responsible. some including british prime minister tony abbot of placing blame on pro-russian separatists. >> this is a grim time for our country and our world. malaysian airlines 117 has been shot down over the eastern ukraine. it seems by russian backed rebels. >> u.s. intelligence officials believe the jetliner was shot down by a surface to air missile, using a powerful launcher like this one. >> the separatists could only have gotten that capability from russia, therefore the culpable party here is vladimir putin. >> with moscow and kiev blaming each other, a recording surfaced that ukrainian intelligent said was made by the russian rebels. we have just shot down a plane said r. says the man.

less than an hour later, the ukrainian security service recovered a phone call between a military leader and fighter at the scene. how are things going, the man asks? the other man acknowledged we are 100% sure that it was a civilian plane. further in the conversation, the man asks are there any weapons? he answers nothing at all, civilian belongings, medical scraps, toilet paper. >> we'll know within the next few hours, but if it is separatists or russian actions staking and believing this was a ukrainian war plane, i think there's going to be hell to pay and there should be. >> there are reports this morning that the rebels claim they have retained, gotten some of the plane's black box, but this has to be taken with a huge grain of salt, because they are saying they have eight of the 12 boxes, there are only two recorders that they care about, the cockpit recorder and flight

recorder. we have to take with a grain of salt whether they truly have the black boxes. rebels will allowed unfettered access to the crash site to international investigators, so that is very welcome news. finally, they are also saying this morning that they do not have the type of missile that could have brought down this plane. they are claiming it was not them, the pro-russian separatists, who shot down this jetliner. del. >> lisa, also abc reporting this morning that the investigators are now on their way to the site of the crash. what are you hearing? >> it is clear that f.b.i. and ntsb would be involved to help out with the crash site. the ntsb tells me it is still trying to determine whether it will go to the crash site or help here in washington. they have sophisticated labs here in d.c. it appears that decision is

still being made. >> lisa, thank you very much. >> let's go to phil ittner in london with the international response to this disaster. phil, this morning we heard from the ukrainian prime minister calling for an international investigation. >> we ask all respective governments to participate in this investigation and to support the ukrainian government to bring to justice those who committed this international crime. this is the crime against humanity. >> a crime against humanity. the u.n. is holding a security council meeting at great britain's request. any idea what we may hear added this meeting? >> first and foremost, there is going to be a request for a full investigation, clearly.

the british prime minister came out this morning after he had an emergency cabinet meeting. he said that if indeed this plane was brought down and david cameron saying that increasingly it did look as though that is what has happened, that those who committed the crime must be held accountable. there is a sense here in europe, a growing acceptance that this was some sort of missile strike. we're beyond that point here, certainly growing opinion is that it was a strike. there is now a series of finger pointing, the blame game begins, of course russia saying it was the ukrainians, the ukrainians saying it was russia but right now, there's still the massive sense of sorrow at the loss of life. at least nine brittons were on that plane, americans, the dutch, and increasingly a lot of anger. >> how are airlines around the

world responding to this incident? >> well, they are not flying over that corridor anymore. that's going to be a difficulty for a lot of these planes, because that is the air corridor that a lot of european carriers go through to get to southeast asia. they're going to have to now do a detour. we do know this is an air space that was not absent. there were about 300 flights the same days a the malaysian airline came down that were in that air space. this is a commonly used air corridor. given what has happened, pretty much every air carrier has now said we are going to avoid that air space, you know, completely. they are now going to have to adjust the air industry has taken a hit. we are hearing about that, as well, but certainly given what happened in the ukrainian skies yesterday, airplanes are not going there. >> phil ittner in london, of

course a lot of questions about whether that air space should have been open during this conflict. >> in washington, we go to action to the plane being shot down. we are joined by randall pinkston. the president talking to ukraine's president right after the crash. >> the president was on the phone talking to a lot of people, to the prime minister of malaysia, the president offered condolences and assistance of the u.s. in the cause of the crash, the point being it's not clear where the ntsb or the plane's manufacture, bowing will be allowed to the scene since it is in a conflict zone. the president spoke to the netherlands and offered condolences. the president offered u.s.

assistance to investigate the incident. >> turning to israel and gaza this is on the charlie rose show about why hamas is refusing to accept a ceasefire. >> hamas may feel totally corner. al sisi on one side and israel not willing to and i don't blame them at all for suffering missiles, so hamas may feel they have nothing to lose. they have to be convinced they do have something to lose. >> that was the former secretary of state hillary clinton expressing the same point of view that other american officials are holding about hamas' actions.

>> randall pinkston live in washington, d.c. this morning, thank you very much. >> let's go to southern israel, live on the ground near the border with gaza. tell us about the shelling and violence you have seen. >> we are here just two or three kilometers from the north gaza strip. gaza city is right behind us. we have been hearing shelling. there are tanks, israel army tanks that are based here that have been shelling different targets and we've seen black smoke, gray smoke sometimes and hearing a lot of that shelling and a lot of thumps. i'm going to pan to show you what is going on. right there in the middle of gaza city, tanks based here

where i'm standing, shelling somewhere in the heart of gaza city. as you can see, that smoke is coming out, so that's just a fresh round of shelling that we've just been able to witness while we're on air. >> southern israel has often -- >> that's another one coming from over there. >> just heard another one, it's going on as you speak. i see you have your flak jacket on. have you been receiving rockets out of gaza in southern israel since the assault began? >> >> yes, since this ground operation began late on thursday night, the army has confirmed that tens of rockets have been fired from the gaza strip into southern israeli territory and central israeli territory. we understand a number at least of these rockets, at least 25 of them have been intercepted by the iron dome defense system. as you can see, the fighting is still on going.

there has not been a cease in rocket fire since this operation started. another round of shelling from over there that you can just hear. >> reporting live from southern israel, thank you. >> let's go now to mike ryons joining us from washington. israel said it's targeting hamas operations and tunnels. this is one of the most densely populated areas of the world. do they know they will have civilian casualties? >> yes, they are looking to demilitary rise the entire zone, first they'll go after these tunnels, go after the methods of resupplying themselves from happening. i think they'll drive west

towards the ocean there, towards the beach and likely go on with very large numbers. >> doesn't that present a lot of risks, even for the strongest, most powerful army in that region, given the urban environment they may be going into if they go beyond border? >> no question. they're going to have to be very careful. they'll use their vehicle to say protect themselves. protection of the force will be an important aspect of the military operation. they'll likely suffer casualties themselves. they'll be under terrorist attacks, low technology attacks. the question is if israel decides to destroy things along the way, a scorched earth mentality. if the whole world is watching, they've got to be careful. >> you have to wonder what the end game here is. in 2008, there was also an israeli invasion into gaza. it seems rocket fire died down

after that, but what you just said is they are looking to completely demilitarize hamas? >> i think that's got to be their objective. they've got to get to the point to close off the tunnels, keep them from refitting themselves, seal offer the southern border with egypt and take away the means of hamas waging war against israel. i don't think they're going to stop until they're confident they've done that. >> i want to switch gears to the downing of the passenger jet in ukraine. is in fact malaysian airlines 17 shot down by pro-russian separatists, how did they get their hands on these weapons? >> russians were involved with that operation. there's no way inexperience operators could have used and fired from that weapons system from that firing platform. that system is very complex, radar detection, it has fire direction control, multiple people involved. there's no way if they had

captured something from the ukraine government that they could have fired that up in a week and had that working. clearly investigations are going to show that the russians were involved. their fingerprints are going to be all over it and i think that's going to have ramifications for putin down the road. >> the u.s. and nato have monitored the border for months. what would that in tell tell them about the location from where this missile was fired and could it tell them who fired it? >> that air defense system kicks up a lot of dust. they'll know where it is, that's a very heavily watched area from radar perspective, from satellite photo perspective. the question is if that was fired from outside the ukraine border inside russia, that changes the stakes completely, as well, if it came from inside russia. very clearly, we know likely who. the question is why, was it an accident, were they tracking it? it's not something, not a fire and forget weapons system where somebody pulled the trigger and walked away. they clearly were painting that

aircraft and knew what they were shooting down. >> as you have been discussing, the downing of malaysian airlines flight 17 raising questions about that missile system. >> this is not the first time one has brought down a passenger plane. the question is how many are out there and whether they have fallen into the wrong hands. >> we'll talk about who shot down the plane and if the u.s. already knows the answer to that question. we are following all those developments this morning. room, americans are baking on sharing for a little extra cash, but is there a downside to this new 26 billion dollar sharing economy? >> the stream on al jazeera america

>> honoring the victims of malaysian airlines flight 17, memorials have been set up, including this one outside the dump embassy in kiev. our coverage continues now with more on that airliner shot down over ukraine. >> the u.s. said it was a russian built missile that hit the jet. the separatists in eastern ukraine say they did not fire it. >> while we do not yet know who

is responsible for the shooting of the downed malaysian jetliner, this is the third plane this week to be shot down in the on going war. july 14, the separatists took credit for shooting down a ukrainian military cargo plane flying 20,000 feet above the region. the crew reportedly parachuted to safety. two days ago, a ukrainian military jet was shot down, this time by a russian fighter jet. the pilot ejected safely. that happened in the same region, the malaysian passenger plane went down, much closer to the russian border. through social media, a russian commander claims that another ukrainian aircraft had just been taken down, in the area, we have just shot down an airplane. it is scattered about somewhere by the progress coal mine, adding we warned them don't fly in our sky. he included a video confirmation of the latest quote "bird drop."

that video shows the plume of smoke from the crashed malaysian airliner, later removed drop the fight. the separatists deny any involvement with the crash of this bowing 777 and say they are fully cooperating with the investigation. >> with so many regional conflict around the globe, this incident raises questions about who controls surface to air missiles. also we report, it's not a new concern. >> regardless of who brought down the malaysian airlines bowing 777, the deadly crash renewed old concerns about civilian air travel in global hot spots. the specter of surface to air missiles has long loomed large in places like afghanistan and libya after the fall of muammar gaddafi's government. there shoulder mounted anti aircraft missiles and grenades have been smuggled into chad,

somali and tunisia. at least 35 civilian aircraft have come under fire, leaving more than 500 people dead, according to the congressional research service. since 1970's, more than 700,000 surface to air missiles have been manufactured across the globe, mostly by the u.s. and russia. they are then sold and at times stored in leaky government arsenals, prone to theft and export. >> groups like al-qaeda, according to a study are believed to hold a stockpile. >> i think it's definitely a cause of concern. in those areas where there are hot conflicts going on, you have non-state actors that can easily get these weapons. they have been proliferating. >> officials say the aircraft was intentionally shot down by a surface to air missile. analysts say the attack would likely not have been carried out by these shoulder devices found circulating in the $1.1 billion

illicit arms trade in the world. >> this is not what they call in the military a band pad, surface to air missile. this is a tracked vehicle with a whole missile system on the back of it. it's a very large vehicle, and it's something very hard to just smuggle across a border. >> shoulder mounted anti aircraft missiles usually pose threats to commercial aircraft only during take off and landing due to their limited range. so the use of larger, more sophisticated weapons would limit culprits. >> jacob word will show us the technology behind the missile system, including the built in safety feature designed to prevent civilian aircraft from being shot down. >> let's turn to jim walsh, joining us this morning from massachusetts. jim, the u.s. saying the plane was shot down with a russian

made as i say mile. ifs russians themselves didn't do it, who did and would they need special training to do so? >> well, i think that you would bet on the rebels, the ukrainian rebels and yes, they would require training, as early interview suggested this morning, these are complex systems involving radar, multiple missiles, required multiple people to handle the system. it requires training. either the russians, assuming this was fired by the rebels, that's the assumption, that either the rebels got training from the russians, and or the possibility is that there are russian nationals who are part of the rebel group, who directly participated in this. both those possibilities are live. >> i want to cu cut to the chasn this system being monitored. from what you know about the national security apparatus in washington, d.c., with a missile system this large, is this something the united states

frequently monitors and if so, do we know this rocket was launched, did we see it launched and do we have digital tape of it being launched? >> i think there are two separate questions, both important. one, would we have known if russia transferred this weapon system to the rebels? >> certainly we've been able to monitor the transfer of tanks, artillery, armored personnel carriers, all the rest, so this is an armment of a certain size that he would you can spect would show up on satellite photography. the russians may have tried to engage in camouflage or hiding the transfer but certainly we would have been watching, have been watching and have seen them transfer large amounts of equipment to the rebels -- >> did we see -- >> as for the launch itself, i think you'll get a pattern of different types of evidence. the recordings so far suggest we certainly saw a rocket hit the plane. the question is can we pinpoint

the origins of where it was fired on the ground. i'm sure people are working on that. as with the syrian gas incident back last september, what you're going to see is different types of intelligence brought to bear. there will be satellite reconnaissance, communications between people on the ground from citizens, other sorts of intelligence will all be brought together for a fuller picture. it won't be just one thing. >> which is why it's so important to get to that crash site. jim, thank you very much. >> israel threatening to expand its ground invasion in gaza. >> we'll tell you what the prime minister it is he is hope to go accomplish and how this show of force could actually embolden hamas. we'll have a live report. >> plus, there were 298 people on m.h.17. where were they from? we'll take a closer look.

>> you're taking a live look at gaza where the bombs have been falling throughout the morning as israel continues its ground invasion.

we have reporters stationed around the globe on that and our other major story. good morning, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. >> i'm stephanie sy. >> in ukraine, rescue workers are pouring over the site where a malaysian airlines jet crashed, killing all 298 people onboard. pro-russian separatists in the area claim they have the recording devices from the plane and promising unhampered access for investigators, including f.b.i. and ntsb teams who are on their way to ukraine. >> israel said it's prepared to expand it's ground invasion into gaza, prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying israeli troops had to go in because air strikes alone weren't effective in destroying the tunnels hamas uses to move supplies. nick schiffron is on the ground

and joins us live from gaza. despite troops on the ground, it seems the air strikes continue. what are you seeing? >> we're absolutely seeing the focus of air strikes. you might be able to hear the buzz above me. these are israeli drones conducting air strikes. they want to take out the tunnels that get palestinian fighters from gaza into israel, weapons from gaza into israel. the others are rocket launchers, thousands have flown from here zoo israel. you hear netanyahu talk about expanding the operation, and heard the communication minister last night saying they want to demilitarize the gaza strip. that is a huge massive operation and very difficult to succeed. perhaps the israeli intentions is somewhere in the middle. we asked the army spokesman this morning. he said we have no intention or aspiration to rule the gaza strip, this is somewhere in

between going after tunnels and rocket launchers and spreading throughout gaza, trying to attack hamas. >> hamas doesn't have the as i am military equipment. will they run out of rockets and in fact, some of those are handmaid. will they run out anytime soon? >> yeah, i think it's important to compare the two sides in this sense. those thousands of rockets, they're crude, the homing devices, the technology that they use are very, very weak, and they basically just fire them off at will. the israeli side, of course, has a lot of u.s.-funded munitions, f-16s dropping 200 to 400-pound bombs. you can see that building right there, very precisely hit with a small missile. the israeli military has a huge amount of weaponry. they believe hamas maybe rung out of the rockets, but that's just a guess.

>> let's bring in del waxman, company directors of middle east center for peace and diversity at northern university. experts we spoke to at the beginning of the week did not feel a ground invasion was in the cards. it was too risky for israel they said. what changed in israel's calculus this week? >> the major factor was the failure have the egyptian ceasefire proposal and the apparent attempt of hamas to reject that. it seemed to israel, hamas wasn't interested in a ceasefire. in addition to that, just yesterday, 13 hamas militants tried to infiltrate israel through one of those tunnels. those two factors together convinced those within the israel cabinet on the fence about a ground operation to support it and prime minister netanyahu in particular. >> israel wants to target these tunnels. based on the air strikes that

led up to this, does israel have bigger ambitions? do they want to reoccupy gaza? >> i don't think they want to reoccupy gaza, but i do think there is a border ambition beyond simply the tactical one at striking at these terror tunnels as they call them in israel. the first thing is increase the pressure on hamas so hamas will eventually agree to a ceasefire on terms that are favorable into israel as opposed. >> israel wants to send the message that it's not afraid to enter gaza, not detoured by hamas threats and that contrary to the impression that israel was being very cautious and did not want any ground operation, i think they want to signal to hamas that they will be willing to go in at will and they're prepared to go all the way if necessary. in sending that signal, i think they hope to restore israel deterrents. >> is this a replay of israel's

2008 invasion of gaza or are there differences? i think the difference is exactly that they don't want a replay of that. they're likely to keep this operation more limited than that. that went on three weeks, involved over 1,000 palestinian casualties. it led to the gold stone report. israel is careful to avoid something like this. my guess at this point would be that we're likely to see the ground operation be of a limited scope. >> mr. waxman, thank you. >> we want to turn to the crash of malaysian airlines 17 shot down over ukraine. crews are at the crash site, the associated press saying that the rebels now say they have collected most of the recording devices. we want to turn to roy challenge in moscow this morning. what are you hearing about the status of the black boxes?

>> well, i think it's telling, that quote there, prom the rebels, we recovered most of the black boxes, indicates that the rebels don't really know what they're looking for. there are only two flight recording devices on a plane such as this, the data recording and cockpit voice recording device. it doesn't make sense to say they recovered most of them. the latest i heard, this is going around on the russian news agencies, interfax, et cetera is that the initial claims that the rebels had discovered the black boxes are now discounted. they obviously don't quite now what they're looking for and announcing they don't have them. >> vladimir putin pushing back against kiev which blames russia for shooting the plane down, is that pushing the entire situation closer to all out war. >> this is certainly a watershe had moment and could go in many

different directions. russian foreign minister earlier not talking about the crash, but shells coming over from the ukrainian side into russian territory and say if russia could ascertain that was done deliberately, russia would strike back against the launch sites in ukraine. that's the sort of thing that could in flame this further. maybe it's a moment of insanity that makes people realize how things ever gotten here and that this could get very, very nasty, indeed. >> thank you very much. >> m.h.17 departed am at her dam's main airport with 173 dutch citizens onboard. families of those passengers have been gathering at the airport, and that is where

aljazeera is, as well. good morning. what is the dutch government saying about the downing of this flight? >> firstly, the dutch leadership expressed shock and outrage about the loss of dutch citizens in this crash. 173 dutch nationals were killed on flight m.h.17. we've started to see the first floral tributes placed outside the airport here. this of course the point of departure for what was meant to have been that long haul flight from amsterdam over to kuala lampur. the real anger from the dutch people right now, very strong comments being made by leaders across the continent, as well. the german chancellor angela merkel calling for an immediate investigation into the downing of this aircraft. dutch officials have also joined germany and the united states in saying that they also believe that this plane was indeed shot

down bay ground to air missile. the fear now, though, is that clear cut answers are not going to be given anytime soon, the worry coming from friends and families of those killed is at the site in eastern ukraine, the crash site may well have been contaminated and the key evidence may have been lost. >> reporting from amsterdam, where they are mourning the loss of many, many dutch nationals. thank you. >> let's go to william taylor, the former u.n. ambassador to ukraine now with the u.s. institute of peace and joins us from washington, d.c. this morning. the united states saying that a russian made missile was responsible for taking this plane down. what does that say to you? >> that says that the russians have lost control of the russian-supplied and directed

separatists causing the trouble in eastern ukraine. the russians have led this operation, they have provided equipment and training, the separatists are both ukrainians and russians and are almost certainly responsible for this tragedy. >> does losing control resolve russia from any culpability in this in to answer? >> absolutely not. the russian government has the ability to stop this problem, this fight, this conflict immediately by shutting down the border between russia and ukraine. russia support for these separatists is coming across the border every day and they, the russians control that border. they could stop this immediately. >> now, all sides calling for an investigation, but there is a bottle for control of the plane's black boxes. can there be an independent investigation if russia or

ukraine holds the black boxes from the site? >> i think the answer would be yes. the information will be interesting, but even more so, the intelligence from satellite photos that will be able to track with great decision the point of launch of this missile. independently of the black boxes, the other information will be available to determine where these missiles were fired from. >> i want to switch gears, because we have two major stories today and talk about gaza. you also played a key role in the past negotiations between israel and the palestinians. what does this ground invasion now do to the on going or now dead peace process? >> i think it emphasizes the need for a revision, a revival of that peace process. the only way this is going to be resolved is when both sides can get something that they want. the israelis want security for their people living close to the west bank and also in gaza,

close to gaza, and the palestinians in gaza, as well as the west bank, want to be able to trade and deal with the outside world. this ought to be possible in negotiations. >> with that being said, where should the united states weigh in on this and should the united states weigh in at all. >> the united states has been very active on this and made great progress up until recently, when the negotiations stalled. there is still scope for u.s. and international support for these negotiations, wimp in the end is going to be the answer to this conflict. >> ambassador, thanks for being with us this morning. that is william taylor, the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine. >> the question this morning, why were civilian aircraft allowed to fly over a war zone. >> we'll check in with our aviation experts to weigh in on the key issues of the downing of flight 17. >> this has happened before.

we look at other passenger jets taken down in the middle of violent conflicts.

fault lines the deported only on al jazeera america >> these are just some scenes of griever and despair at kuala lampur international airport, devastated family members weeping for lost loved ones onboard a malaysian airlines flight 17. ukrainian officials are saying 181 bodies have been recovered in the crash site, 298 people were onboard that plane. >> as marry snow reports, this is not the first time that a commercial airliner has been shot down. >> september, 1983, korean airlines flight 007 originating in new york stopped over in a

anchorage on its way to seoul. all 269 people killed onboard. the soviets at first refused to admit the incident, but later said they believed the airliner was a spy plane. it escalated cold war tensions. >> i'm coming before you tonight about the korean airline massacre, the attack by the soviet union against 269 innocent men, women and children aboard an unarmed korean passenger plane. this crime against humanity must never be forgotten here and throughout the world. >> a 1978 incident, korean airlines polite 902 veered into soviet air space. the soviets opened fire, the plane was forced to land on a frozen lake. two passengers were killed. in july of 1988, it was the u.s.

that was behind the downing of iran air flight 655, killing 290 passengers and crew. the u.s. navy ship was in the persian gulf, ships exchanging gunfire. shortly after the flight had taken off at a nearby airport. the u.s. said it mistook it for a fighter jet with that iran called it an international crime and marks the anniversary of the downed plane each year. marry snow, aljazeera. >> let's bring in now todd curtis, the founder of airsafe.com and aljazeera america contributor. he joins us from doha this morning. todd, this is a crash scene, but it is also a crime scene and it's in rebel territory. who needs to take charge immediately to give this investigation some credibility?

>> by international agreement, long standing international agreement, the country where the event took place is in charge of the investigation. the ukrainian authorities, as soon as possible should be on scene. >> colonel layton, what does it say at a separatists are in charge of this scene. in fact right now, they say that they will allow investigators to come in. what does it say that they are in charge of the scene, does it mean they are necessarily culpable for bringing it down? >> that's interesting, because it's an interesting question of international law. when lawyer looking at a separatist movement that by definition at least by local definition is illegal within the borders of ukraine, then who actually has the authority there. the de facto authority will reside with the separatists, but the legal authority is with the ukrainian government, the way the current legal agreements

week. >> as far as the scene itself, todd, obviously the ntsb from the u.s., which tends to be often the lead agency when it comes to crash investigations, especially if there were americans onboard, but does the cia come in, does law enforcement have to coordinate on this scene together forensics as far as where this missile came from and who fired it? >> ultimately because it is a ukrainian investigation, it is up to them to allow those out torts at the site. typically the ntsb and f.b.i. may show up. back in the states, there could be other u.s. assets brought into play, but not directly into the investigation. >> the u.s. and nato have had satellites trained on the border area between russia and ukraine for months. what kind of intel do we have that is not made public yet.

would they know exactly where this missile was fired from? >> it's a distinct possibility, because the way the intelligence process works is once you have a missile launch, you can detect that launch, you can detect the signatures from the missile itself, the radars that track that missile from the air defense weapon. you can tell where that occurs, who's doing it and you can also tell the time frame in which everything has occurred. once you've got that, you can almost determine what units were involved. it's easier to do that with a regular army as opposed to a separatist group that probably fired this missile, but nevertheless, you can tell who's doing it and you can use various sources of intelligence to delve deeper and establish culpability and at the very least a chain of custody for the missile, the firing of the weapon and determine how that actually worked within that system. >> ukrainian officials had said

earlier this week, two separate ukrainian aircraft had been taken down by rebels. was there a failure among international aviation regulators to not have blocked the air space over this conflict zone from commercial flights? >> well, that will certainly be part of the investigation. there were some areas which were off limits, for example, where the airline was flying, euro control wouldn't allow planes at 30,000 feet. a thorough review of the procedures for determining air space should be started. >> several airlines had already decided not to fly in that air space unilaterally. colonel, do you know if airlines have their own intel? clearly they have their own protocols when it comes to what they feel comfortable having their flights fly over.

>> well certainly from my perspective, i know that, you know, several of the major u.s. carriers have an intel like capability but not as robust as a government would provide. when you look at the different way in which each organization, each airline works, they have different sources of information, some of them get information directly from intelligence agencies within their country, and that is what they use then to determine the threat picture they're flying in. that makes the difference in terms of how they react to it. >> todd curtis, aljazeera america transportation contributor, and retired u.s. air force colonel sedric layton. thank you for your insights. >> we are learning more about the bowing 777 that went down. the plane had a clean maintenance record, last check on july 11. the aircraft had 17 years in

service, recording more than 75,000 flight hours and had a seating capacity of 282 passengers. also a dutch passenger, apparently made a verier refacebook post before boarding flight 17. he took this picture of the plane at boarding gate and posted it on to the social networking site, saying if it disappears, this is what it looks like, in reference to malaysian flight 370 that disappeared in march. his girlfriend with him reportedly on that flight for vacation. >> opening old wounds for the passengers' families on flight 370. many of them now asking if the plane from kuala lampur may have also been shot down. there were 239 passengers onboard when the flight vanished back in march. ahead, ukrainian and russian officials taking a part in the war of words after the downing of malaysian flight 17. what this could mean for

relations between the two countries. >> we are talk with one resident holed up right now in her home during the israeli invasion. >> we are back in just two minutes. we will see you then. en. >> al jazeera america presents >> i'm pretty burnt out, if i said that i'm perfectly fine, i would be lying. >> 15 stories one incredible journey edge of eighteen coming september only on al jazeera america >> the violence has continued just a couple of miles from here >> just a short while ago we heard a large air strike very close by... >> people here are worried that this already serious situation may escalate. >> for continuing coverage of the israeli - palestinian conflict, stay with al jazeera america your global news leader.

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>> they will continue looking for survivors... >> the potential for energy production is huge... >> no noise, no clutter, just real reporting. the new al jazeera america mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now >> shot out of the sky by russian-made missiles, a malaysian airlines jet goes down in ukraine, killing 300 people onboard. u.s. officials are scrambling to see if there were americans on the plane. >> israel prime minister benjamin netanyahu preparing to expand israeli's ground offensive on gaza as the u.s. calls for calm. we have the latest on the military invasion. good morning, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters.

>> i'm stephanie sy. >> there are no developments on the crash of malaysian airlines flight 17 and israel's ground invasion of gaza. >> at this hour, rescue crews are picking through the rubble in ukraine where that passenger jet was blown out of the sky, killing all 298 people onboard. there are questions about who has the black boxes and who was responsible. >> we're going to get to that in a moment with you begin with the unfolding crisis in israel and gaza. prime minister benjamin netanyahu today of israel saying his nation may widen its ground offensive on the gaza strip. >> nick schiffron is on the ground right now. we have been hearing the bombs blasting around you throughout your reports. what is the latest on the ground? >> that constant thud, boom of israel strikes continues. it continued all night, is definitely continuing into this afternoon. it's about 3:00 here and we see

it from a few directions. that's the sea, we see it from gun ships, from that side, it was a big f16 strike. those are two, three, 400-pound bombs usually directed at homes or rocket launchers and also from the south there, there are troops who have moved into gaza there. definitely, absolutely, very much still an operation that's going on. the plan according to israel officials time talking to is to get troops into gaza, they hold some ground and then begin to destroy tunnels that palestinian fighters use from gaza into israel to smuggle themselves for attack or to smuggle weaponry. this operation absolutely at this moment is ongoing. >> new this morning as we have been reporting, the prime minister vowing to expand the operation. what is the justification? >> what the military says tactically, they are going after the tunnels and rocket

launchers, the more than 1,000 rockets have been flying from gaza into israel. that is the main goal. you talk to them strategically, they want to demilitarize the strip, benjamin netanyahu warning of escalation on the ground. the rhetoric suggests that the israel military will be on the ground for a while. the fear as we talked about is for gazan civilians. over half of all those killed have been civilians, well over half of the wounded have been women and children. we are talking about more than 2,000 people wounded, 200 dead. the fear is as the escalation continues or increases, then the risk to civilians increases, as well. >> that is nick schiffron live in gaza. behind him was a hotel bombed out. that is where some journalists were stationed. >> to our other top story, the malaysian airliner shot down in ukraine. >> crews are pouring over the crash site, killing all 298

people onboard when it went down. >> separatists promise unhampered access to the site for investigators, but were those rebels responsible? we have more. >> so many questions surround what happened to flight m.h. stephan, that it was shot down is not disputed, but who shot it down, that is what the world wants to know. >> who could have shot it down? who had the equipment, and there does seem to be some growing awareness that it probably had to be russian insurgents. how we determine that will require some forensics, but then if if there is evidence pointing in that direction, the equipment had to have come from russia. what more the russians may or may not have done, we don't know. >> there were no survivors from this crash, 298 lives lost as this plane traveled over what is effectively a war zone.

>> i've just finished a conversation with the dutch prime minister and expressed condolences. i have invited experts from the netherlands to investigate this attactransapparently. it's a terrorist attack. >> it was high in the sky, a target for only the most advanced of missiles. both sides blame each other. ukraine says it intercepted a found call between the prime minister of donetsk and its fighters. they talk about a downed passenger plane.

>> meanwhile, russia's defense ministry is saying it picked up radar activity from the ukrainian controlled missile system the same day m.h.17 was shot down. >> we on behalf of the russian authorities and on behalf of the government in the russian federation expressed condolences to the bereaved families and government of those countries whose nationals were on that plane. i ask you to honor their memory. in this reward, i want to emphasize that this tragedy would not have happened if there were peace on that land and in any case, if the activity had not increased that in region. >> a doomed flight, whose sabotage has led to a major international incident. aljazeera. >> let's bring in lisa stark now from washington. you've covered a lot of these aviation disasters, you're

familiar with the recovery of black boxes. talk to us about these reports that separatists have devices in their possession. >> there are reports that they have recovered what they call black box, but they seem discredited, because they are saying they have eight of the 12 black boxes. there are only two black boxes on aircraft, a flight data recorder and cockpit data recorder. those boxes are bright orange. they're called black box, but they're orange. i spoke with the former head of aviation safety for the ntsb. he told me often they would get to crash sites and say here is the block boxes and they hand them a box that is black and they are aren't the black boxes. until we see the boxes, we don't know if they have them or have even access to them. >> how significant would these black boxes be in an investigation like this where it seems clear the plane was shot down. would they have a lot of

information? >> definitely, especially even the cockpit voice recorder. i was told by investigators that in fact, there are distinctionive sounds that you would hear that would sound different than a rapid decompression. the black boxes will definitely add to the picture of what happened to this airplane. >> there were initial reports that the f.b.i. and ntsb investigators were on their way to ukraine. what are you hearing? >> well, it is clear that both the f.b.i. and ntsb would be involved in any american effort to help figure out what exactly happened here, but the ntsb is telling me as of now, no decision has been made as to whether to send investigators to that crash site. there is a huge security concern, as you can imagine. they have to be assured that there will be safety precautions taken. that is the first assurance they want. the ntsb, the f.b.i. will be

helping, whether they'll be on scene at this point, we cannot say. >> lisa, thank you. >> we want to go now to phil ittner in london for the international response. phil, this morning, we've heard from german chancellor angela merkel. let's take a listen to what she had to say. >> we need to start an independent investigation as quickly as possible. a ceasefire is needed for that and it's responsible those responsible are brought to justice. there are many indications that the plane was shot down, so we have to take things very seriously. >> the united nations is holding an emergency session of security council at the request of great britain. any idea what we might hear? >> well first and foremost, there are calls for a full scale investigation, to get investigators on the ground at the site, as we've discussed, that's a problem, because of course this is a war zone. now, ukrainian separatists from

the people's republic said they will let them on the site but there is not a ceasefire. unless the shooting stops, do you want to send in a team to look at this site. the europeans say absolutely and there is a team apparently en route to eastern ukraine to take a look and find out exactly what happened. that's first and foremost to figure out what happened and if in deed it was a missile, who fired it. >> people want to know why a plane was flying over a conflict zone. how are airlines around the world responding to this incident? >> they are not flying there. pretty much every international airline carrier has said we are going to divert around the air space over ukraine. the area there did have warnings for about a 31,000-foot area, and this plane was just skirting

over it. there are a lot of questions about why it was so low, but as of now, they are no longer using that air corridor. it is an important air corridor, because that's where a lot of europeans fly through it to get to southeast asia. there are about 300 scheduled flights just yesterday, the same day as this incident, so international air carriers are now completely avoiding the ukraine. >> live in london this morning, phil, thank you very much. >> thursday's incident markion the third plane shot down in ukraine this week. monday, kiev says moscow shot down one of its cargo planes. two days later, a ukrainian military jet, fire jet was downed in the region, and yesterday, of course, the malaysian airliner, blown away, killing all 298 passengers onboard. >> let's go to jim walsh with mitt security program, joining us from watertown, massachusetts. jim, the rebels now say they

have taken out two ukrainian military planes in recent days. is that an indication that most people believe they were responsible for this plane going down, as well. >> i think it's a strong piece of circumstantial evidence. the counter claim that the russians are suggesting, but quite haven't pulled the trigger on is oh, it's the ukrainians and their missile system that shot down the plane. you know, that's going to be a pretty hard case to make. it's possible, right, the ukrainians did shoot down a siberian jet a few years, abbut it was the ukrainian rebels going off the the government's air force, not the other way around. the rebels don't have an air force, so i think despite those implications, this certainly looks like the rebellers russians helping the rebels. there's still a question here to the extent that the russians were actively involved in this if this is what happened, that remains to be seen, as well. >> based on your knowledge of u.s. spy satellites and security

measures involving missile launches, is it your opinion that the united states already knows who did it? >> yeah, i think they do. now, you know, you need to dot your i's and cross your t's. remember, we have 16 different intelligence agencies, one for defense, the c.i.a., n.s.a., state department has its own in tell agency, all those folks are watching and working that one little area. we know that they saw or have evidence of the missile striking the airplane, and so it's a matter them -- >> when you say they have evidence, what is that evidence, what is it that they see that we don't see? >> there are any number of types of intel here. people think intelligence is satellite or spies. there's all sorts of ways to collect data, who has radar flipped on and off, the picture

from the satellites, listening to conversations. there's a whole wealth of data. when you bring different types of data together to bear on a particular moment in time, and then work backwards, i think you're going to have pretty high confidence about your conclusions. >> briefly, knowing who did it and a governmental standpoint is one thing, being able to prove who did it to the international community is at another. how important is it that they secure this site where the plane went down? >> i think very important. the best evidence would be the material evidence from the crash site itself. it sure looks like it's going to be compromised. we have reports of people showing up and taking particles of the plane away at souvenirs. you talked about the black boxes and the rebels saying they have block boxes when really the boxes are orange. the other thing, piece of that report that's important is they said if they find them, they're going to give them to the russians. my guess is the russians are on the road speeding to this scene

as we talk. they're probably going to get there first. i think there will be a question of chain of evidence here and integrity of the evidence. we'll have our intel but how much is going to be released to the public. i worry about the security of the scene right now. >> we'll have much more on the downed malaysian airlines flight over ukraine, including a closer look at the fateful path that plane took through a war zone and precautions other airlines are now taking. >> at investigators look at how the plane went down, we take a closer look at the missile u.s. investigators think is responsible. >> the tragedy is the latest to hit malaysian air lines following the disappearance of flight 370. what this disaster will mean for that companies survival.

>> ukraine and russia finding themselves in a war of words after a malaysian airlines flight was shot down in the

eastern part of ukraine. >> investigators are on their way to try to figure out what happened. >> airlines have been warned not to fly over ukraine. the ukrainian government issued a warning. why was that flight flying over a war zone? we have that story. >> the u.s. federal aviation administration and other agencies around the word issued advisories, special notices to pilots, even warnings, but planes were still flying over the area where malaysian flight m.h.17 was reportedly shot down. ukrainian officials knew of the risks of ground to air attacks. the state aviation administration of ukraine had i should warnings and march 12 shut down airports and closed lower air space over the crimea area. >> knowing where the conflicts are doing, they do that generally. >> on july 8, it announced the

closure of air space in eastern ukraine below 32,000 feet. if an that flies high enough, there are no restrictions. the european equivalent of the f.a.a. said when it disappeared, m.h.17 was flying at 32,000 feet, a mere 1,000 feet above the closed zone. in a statement, the european cockpit association representing 38,000 pilots in 37 european countries said the route flown is the most common route for flights from europe to southeast asia, the path officially known at l.980, flights going to london, singapore, mumbai and hong kong, all follow the same route. airlines are now begin to go voluntarily avoid this area. >> you have the f.a.a. and the airlines themselves making those risk determinations all the time. i think there's a new risk determination being made about the ukraine area now.

>> lufthansa said: delta, k.l.m., air france and other airlines are now following suit. >> that route over ukraine was called the equivalent of a super highway from asia to europe. rerouting expected to cost millions of dollars in fuel. >> let's bring in the former counsel of the russian if he would reaction. >>less director of the american institutes in ukraine. i want to beginning with you. the u.s. said that was a russian-made missile that brought down the passenger plane. what's your reaction? >> it's quite possible, you know, russia is selling weapons all over the world. americans are selling their weapons all over the world.

>> this was in a place that we knew was an active conflict zone with all eyes on russia. >> no, no, no-- >> are russian fingerprints on this disaster. >> no, absolutely not, i think, because you can't jump to these kinds of conclusions, because when soviet union collapsed, all these armments were left in areas like ukraine, bell la russia, kazakhstan and other places, which meant ukraine army had several of these missiles. >> the inventory will be important over the next couple of days. i want to bring you into this conversation, anthony, the ukrainians have called this a terrorist act. have they jumped to conclusions here? do they have real evidence? >> it's certainly a terrorist act if it was deliberate efforts to take down a passenger plane and the knowledge that this thing is not military ordinance, it is a passenger plane, that would obviously be an effort to

terrorize. on the other hand comes the question what would be the motive. what is believable is that somebody on the ground, you know, mistook the profile of this thing for a troop transport, as you know and you have been reporting in the past few days, pro-russian separatists have been taking down ukrainian planes. they've been part of the whole process, here comes another one, it looks -- and they didn't have the professionalism or something and mistook it. an act are terror would be we deliberately want to take civilian life and knock down a plane to terrorize. >> they are inadvertently pointing the finger in some ways at moscow especially by bringing out these recordings between what appears to be a rebel and what appears to be military intelligence. >> right. >> in moscow. >> first of all, those recordings have been playing, we've seen that, but -- >> i want to take out any sense of national pride out of this

debate. the bottom line is there are 298 people dead, most of them probably on their way to kuala lampur for some type of vicks. troop transport and missile sales are one thing, but sales to a country in the middle of an active conflict zone is a different thing. >> well, listen, as i said, it's in the a missile sale on behalf of russia or a transfer, no, no, because as i said, soviet produced missiles are everywhere in former soviet space. by the way, in the region, three batteries are you are not the control of ukraine and military forces. >> what i'm saying is -- >> but this -- but. >> was this weaponry transferred during the middle of this conflict. >> nobody knows that. that's why russia's position is very clear, let's have independent investigation before jumping to conclusions. only thing which is for sure for us is that 13 years ago,

ukrainian military shot down russian passenger plane, killing all the people onboard, and because of incompetence and because they were organizing their drillings and exercises and they killed tens and tens of people over there -- >> is there any validity. >> and might be, who knows -- >> could the ukrainians have had any reason to try to shoot down a plane? >> the ukrainians would have had no particular motive to take down an airliner. >> let's say it was an accident that they shot down the -- >> they didn't have any intention to bring down russian -- >> but -- >> the ukrainians also, even if they thought that was a military airliner, the ukrainians have no motive, because the ukrainians know the pro russian forces have no aircraft, so the ukrainians

would have had to motive for going after this thing no matter what they thought it was. >> we're going to have to leave it at that. both of you, thank you very much for being with us. as this controversy continues, we invite you both back, because this is only the beginning of the debate. it will go on much longer. thank you very much. >> the other top story now, israeli troops may move deeper into gaza. prime minister benjamin netanyahu is ready to expand the ground operation, going after rocket launchers and tunnels used to move weapons. one israel soldier and 19 palestinians have died since troops entered gaza thursday. washington is closely watching what's happening. former secretary of state hillary clinton says hamas is on notice now about its rockets. >> hamas my feel totally cornered. they've got egypt under sisi on one side, they've got israel not

willing to and i don't blame them at all, for suffering missiles and so hamas my family they have nothing to lose. i think they have to be convinced they do have something to lose. >> we are joined by our washington correspondent, randall pinkston. how are other u.s. leaders reacts to the israeli invasion? >> well of course, the u.s. has remained a very, very close supporter and defender of israel's right to defend itself against rockets coming from hamas. secretary of state john kerry expression that had support to benjamin netanyahu, calling for israel to be very targeted going after tunnels. of course, kerry is calling for resumption of the 2012 ceasefire, that assumes that hamas will be willing to abide and return to that agreement. >> the current secretary of

state john kerry spoke with israel's prime minister last night. do we know what he said to mr. netanyahu? >> indoors expressing support for israel's decision to defend itself and calling for precise targeting, kerry is expressing concern that care be taken not to hurt innocent civilians, care taken on both sides not to hurt in cent civilians. kerry is offering to go to the middle east to try to get some sort of ceasefire negotiations going. we should point out, however, that all week, secretary kerry has made that offer and israel so far has rebuffed his overtures. kerry has spent a lot of time during his tenure as secretary of state trying to get the palestinians and the israeli's together, to no avail at this point. >> live for us in washington, randall, thank you. >> we're going to break away from our coverage of the mideast and ukraine and cover a major

weather situation, typhoon killing several people. more than 26,000 people have been evacuated ahead of the storm, which has claimed 54 lives in the philippines. >> let's get the latest on the track of this super storm with our meteorologist, nicole mitchell. good morning. >> good morning. this is one of the strongest storms to ever hit china at its landfall strength, going back historically. this is a major, a super typhoon, still winds 135 miles or 155 miles per hour, 135 knots, that puts it at what we would consider in the united states a strong category four. you can see it really developed a very well defined eye, skirted on the northern side of haiyan, and now is making its next landfall on the peninsula just north of there all into china. this small island about the size of maryland land wise,

population of 9 million, so that puts it ahead of countries like austria that are much longer. this is a densely populated part of the world and this is going to continue to make that impact. unfortunately, looking probably at a large death toll here. >> that's a big storm. nicole mitchell, we'll continue to follow it, thank you. >> we continue to follow those deadly clashes in gaza as israeli forces begin a major ground operation, expanding it. we are live in israel with the latest and we'll talk to a resident there about violence taking place outside her home. >> ukraine's prime minister calling the downing of a passenger plane in his country an international crime. how the crash may fuel further tensions with russia and its separatist supporters. >> the relatives of those onboard malaysian airlines flight 17 search forego answers. what they are saying as they try to come to grips with this tragedy.

>> tomorrow >> prop 8, really made us think about this process of coming out. >> meet the committed couples >> gay marriages, straight marriages... have the same challenges. >> it's all about having the same options as everybody else. >> that fought for equality >> saying "i do" changed everything. >>every saturday, join us for exclusive, revealing and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. "talk to al jazeera" tomorrow 5 eastern only on al jazeera america >> you're looking at live pictures out of the netherlands of a report about the downing of

malaysian flight 17. >> investigators are racing to the ukraine to figure out what brought down the plane. the u.s. said a russian made as i say mile was responsible. welcome to al jazeera america. >> we will have much more on the downing of that plane, but first the ground invasion of gaza, israel's prime minister threatening to expand the operation. we are live on the ground right now in the southern israel portion near gaza. tell us about the shelling that you have been seeing all morning. >> we are standing here in a position that's only two to three kilometers away from the north of the gaza strip behind me. we're very close to gaza city. since we arrived here in the morning, we have been hearing a lot of thumps and shelling from tanks and pounding coming from

the opposite side to where i'm standing from israel territory, tanks stationed in this area, shelling targets inside gaza. we've heard these rounds of shelling throughout the day. they did intensify about an hour ago and we've been getting reports from the israel army that rockets are still being fired from gaza into israel territories. a number of rockets has been fired at least 20 of them intercepted by the iron dome defense system, the rest landing in open areas and causing no damage or injuries. this is just an indication that this fighting is still on going, different fighting groups in gaza are still fighting rockets at israel territory while this ground invasion is underway. >> i noticed this morning you weren't wearing the flak jacket, you are now. what is the issue concerning your safety and what does the

israeli military hope to gain by invading gaza? >> it was a bit quieter earlier in the day, but then when we started hearing much louder sounds of noises of shelling coming from where we were standing under the line of fire, we obviously had to take different security procedures. this kind of shelling intensified in the last hours, there are sometimes lulls throughout the day, but this is an ongoing ground operation and the prime minister of israeli, benjamin netanyahu, has given statements earlier this morning where he has ordered the army to be prepared to significantly widen this operation. he also said that strehl only ordered this ground operation after all options were exhausted. hamas rejected a ceasefire proposal, netanyahu said and because israel committed to a humanitarian pause in hostilities thursday.

the prime minister saying this operation will continue until it achieves its goals. chief among the goals is the idea of destroying the underground tunnels israel sees as a threat because palestinian fighters can use them to infiltrate style territory and use them against israeli citizens. thank you very much and stay safe. >> joining us via skype now is eva rezik in gaza, she lives there with her family, her mother and brother. thanks for being with us. tell us how you're doing and do you feel safe where you are? >> well, first of all, i think i'm fine, but this situation is getting worse and worse by the second. we've got more than 60 people killed, whole families wiped out. people have been evacuating

their houses, going to other houses with families and friends, and there is no place in gaza that is safe, neither your house or the street or the houses of your relatives. the schools were targeted not only with bomb or missiles. i asked people do you feel safe here and there is no place safe in gaza, these schools were targeted before, but i mean, what you're going to do? other people stay at their houses. they know that every place is targeted, every human being in gaza is targeted. >> it sounds like so you're just staying in your house, because you don't feel there is anywhere to evacuate to. you were speaking to our producer earlier and said you actually felt some comfort that your area has been bombarded. can you explain why you feel

that? >> when you're at your house and they have shelling or you can hear an explosion, that means you're safe. this is how we describe the situation and this is how we talk to each other. you're safe once you hear the explosion, because otherwise, you're dead. if you don't hear it, it means you're dead. >> you know you're still alive when you hear shells exploding. giving us a perspective from i'll inside gaza city. we wish you luck and your family a understand thank you for being with us. >> let's go to doug waxman at northeastern university. professor, let me just ask the question that our last guest raised. what happens -- and i hate to put it bluntly, but when the casualties start to pile up on bod sides of the border, how long can this go on? >> i think that's really there

is a countdown to this in terms of the amount of international and american support and israeli domestic support for this operation. as palestinian civilian casualties mound, israeli casualties mount, there clearly will be a clock ticking on how long this can last. reports suggest it could be a week to two weeks. a lot of depends on what happens on the ground in terms of palestinian and israeli casualties. at the moment, the international community and united states in particular has given israel some leeway, but i don't think israel has a blank check to stay in gaza for very long. >> what's the end game for israel in this military operation answered is that end game destroying hamas altogether once and for all? >> no, israel does not want to destroy hamas. it doesn't want to occupy the gaza strip for any length of time. at the end of the day, the israels recognize that hamas were not well rewarded, are

better off controlling the gaza strip than more radical groups. on the one hand, they want to deal hamas a significant setback, weaken hamas militarily, secure quiet for israeli civilians but at the same time don't want to occupy the gaza strip and want hamas to remain in control. i think they have to be cautious in trying to strike hamas, but not so hard hamas will loose its control. >> is there a chance this could backfire on israel, emboldening hamas. >> there are many risks that the israeli government are taking in this, not only the risks in terms of palestinian casualties, israeli casualties that can erode domestic and international support, if it's still able to fire rockets over the next days or weeks, it can emerge much as hezbollah did in 2006 when israel went into southern lebanon to strike at hezbollah,

hezbollah's ability to withstand that israeli onslaught allowed it to emerge and appear to be victorious in the short term. the danger is that hamas will try to repeat that, at least public relations accomplishment that hezbollah achieved. >> thank you for being with us. >> back at a our other top story, the crash of malaysian airline flight 17, shot down over ukraine, the u.s. says by a russian-made as i say mile. ukraine's prime minister is pointing the finger at moscow and calling for an international investigation. we are in moscow this morning. rory, kiev says this incident is an act of war. has moscow responded to any of these allegations that it's behind it? >> yes, it has, it's denied it, it said that moscow had nothing to do with the downing of this plane. it has pointed the finger straight back at ukraine essentially, and said that

ukrainian surface to air missile batteries were in the air, active on the plane was do you understand and far more likely this was a mistake or provocative act by the ukrainian military itself and the rebels fighting in the east and moscow simply weren't responsible. we have heard from vladimir putin in the last hour, saying something which he's called for before, but this, i think deserves to be given slightly more credence than other calls for a ceasefire. he said all combatants in eastern ukraine should stop fighting, cease hostilities and start immediate peace talks. >> that is a development. we are also hearing conflicting reports about the state of the plane's black boxes. what do you know? >> i think the amount of confusion there is over these black boxes indicates that

people who are controlling the territory, the pro-russian separatists have no idea what they are actually looking for. i don't think they know what black boxes look like. maybe they are looking for black boxes themselves where as flight recorders on planes are orange tubular devices. in the last few minutes, there has been a press condition presence where they say they don't have them, cricketing claims where they said they did. >> u.s. officials believe that the rockets that took down the flight were fired from a book missile launcher. we explain how the long-range weapon works. >> the missile system is the likely culprit here. it's really the only one that has the effective ceiling that could really have touched this plane at 33,000 feet. it can hit planes as high as 75,000 feet or above, which makes almost no civilian plane

in fact makes no civilian plane safe from it. it has an effective radius within 25 miles. the thing to understand that the system is that its designed to be a sort o of synchronized grop of trucks. you can split them up and use them in individual units. this is where it's really important to understand the system. the system, when you just are using it in one of these trucks and if we assume for the sake of argument that someone was using this who didn't know how to use it were using the one truck and not networking several, that one truck has what's called an auto detection system that can operate without a human operator. you can basically turn it on and it will automatically sense planes coming into its field of

fire, acquire them and engage them without a human involved. during the second gulf war, the u.s. had terrible problems with its operate treat systems and shot down a u.s. fighter jet and british jet. in this case, even though an experienced operator would have looked up and said it's at 33,000 feet, on l980, established busy airway and flight path is very straight and level, that experienced operator should have known. if it's not an experienced operator who simply turned on the system, that would be another matter entirely. >> the launchers lock on to targets with radar guidance systems. it is in the arsenal of the russian and ukrainian army. >> it does take some expertise to use them. passengers from at least 10 countries lost their lives when the plane went down thursday. >> a number of scientists on the way to a conference on aids.

we have more on what is called the human toll of this tragedy. >> it's been widely reported 298 passengers have been killed onboard flight 17. that includes 283 passengers, 15 crew members, multiple reports from the scene say many children are among the dead. all of the crew members were from malaysia, a country that lost 44 of its citizens, the netherlands the hardest hit with confirmed reports of 189 killed. australia lost 27 and indonesia lost 12. you can see by this map that the home countries of the victims were concentrated in the indian ocean region and in europe, also confirmed to have suffered losses were the philippines, the united kingdom, germany, new zealand and belgium. a single canadian victim is the only confirmed north american victim. the nationalities of four victims remain unverified.

reports that there were americans onboard remain unconfirmed. there are unconfirmed reports that 100 victims were researchers or activists en route to the 20th annual international aids conference in melbourne, australia. the executive director of the u.n. program on h.i.v. aids tweeted that many passengers were en route to the conference. the am at her dam office of aids researcher confirms he is among the dead. his friends and colleagues are remembering him as a true giant of the profession. a full passenger list will be released once all families of passengers are verified. >> more on those personal stories will come out. thank you. >> sadly, it's happened before, malaysian airlines lost another jet, flight 370 still not found. >> what does this latest disaster mean for that airline

and can it stay in business? >> the violence has continued just a couple of miles from here >> just a short while ago we heard a large air strike very close by... >> people here are worried that this already serious situation may escalate. >> for continuing coverage of the israeli - palestinian conflict, stay with al jazeera america your global news leader. @

america mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device.

download it now >> this is a fascinating image. you're looking now at a map from flight radar 24, showing the air traffic around eastern ukraine. you can see large numbers of passenger jets avoiding that area around ukraine after the downing of the malaysian airlines flight there. good morning. >> normally a highly trafficked corridor there. malaysian airlines flight 17 was supposed to land in kuala lampur. victims' families have gathered to mourn. government officials are taking heat over the plane's flight path over a known war zone. >> the malaysian government has come under a great deal of fire as to why it allowed its

national carrier to fly over the ukraine air space. malaysia's transport minister fired back saying 15 out of 16 airlines in asia fly this route regularly and that international civil aviation experts allowed this route to be used. at the same time, we're hearing that as early as april, the u.s. government told its carriers, including american airlines not to fly over certain areas of ukraine using threats that possible civil planes could be shot down. it insist it trusted international airline authorities. this is the country's second airline disaster in four months. in march of this year, that makes 370, a flight bound from k.l. to beijing disappeared.

authorities continue to search for this missing plane and its passengers. the government has come under criticism for the perceived mishandling of that situation. there will be scrutiny this time around to see how they handle this international incident involving their national carrier. >> malaysia airlines confirms that flight 17 did not make a distress call before it crashed. >> this has been a brutal year for malaysian airlines, this coming 123 days after the disappearance of flight 370. >> more on how the airline ins responding. >> minutes ago, malaysian airlines announced it's working out logistics to fly victims relatives to kiev. earlier this morning, malaysian transportation officials held a press conference about this latest catastrophe, using strong language, they condemn whoever shot down the plane. >> should this be concern, it

will be contravenedding international allow and an outrage against human dignity. malaysia condemns any such action in the strongest possible terms and calls for those responsible to be swiftly brought to justice. >> justice has not been swift for the angry family members of those passengers who went missing four months ago. they blame the airline for losing the plane somewhere over the south indian ocean, leaving them to wonder what happened to their loved ones. even though flight 17 is a very different situation, the families impacted by flight 370 are holding the airline accountable. >> i just -- it just -- it just takes me back. it's just so shocking and i can't believe that, you know, they've lost another plane. we need to know why and i just hope malaysia and more force coming from the families on this end than they have been with us and they've learned from what we've gone through with m.h.37.

>> these back-to-back disasters taking the lives of passengers is something no airlines has faced in recent history. >> thank you very much. >> when the news came down, people thought not again. in march, through it 370, the plane disappeared somewhere over the south indian ocean. now, the russian president vladimir putin is blaming ukraine for the downing of malaysia airlines flight 17. they said it would not have happened had not ukraine conducted operations. >> all red lines have been already crossed. this is the deadline. >> ukraine is calling for an international investigation. kiev said the downing of flight

17 was a terrorist acted. >> an associate professor of international affairs at the new school, also the great granddaughter of kne kruschev. if those weapons are coming across the border from russia, do you believe moscow is culpable? >> absolutely. moscow is culpable, because moscow has been fomenting this unrest. it's clear that all this heavy machinery or any equipment comes from the russian side, so moscow is culpable. i think it's quite low of vladimir putin to start no pal gees, but explaining or even giving some recognition of the tragedy would first blame ukraine and only at the end of his statement going to well, we express con dole lengthses. >> based on your knowledge of all things russian, do you ever

expect the government there to acknowledge culpability if they are to blame? >> so far, they show no indication that they would, and that's why i think what putin is trying to decide how much leverage he can get out of this situation, rather than actually come out, because what i expected him, not him to do, but a leader to do is to be all over international networks saying we are going to assist in this investigation. so far, they've been very, very tight-lipped on how they are going to assist. are they going to create the corridor, provide all information possible. what i know of russia and before the soviet union, putin is a very soviet leader in this reward is that they try to keep as much information close to the chest as possible. >> has putin made a major miscalculation and has he lost control of these separatists that many say he is controlling and funding and instigating? >> i think he lost control of them a long time ago. if we listen to those

separatists, these are not people who are entirely very well trained or disciplined. >> you think he handed them this weapon, he didn't train them well and they didn't know how to use the radar -- >> i don't think he handed them, because once the -- the crisis going on since november when putin really got in and said ukraine should be with russia, not europe, and that's what it all started. foment a problem for so long, it does get out of control. >> one of our other guests said these weapons are holdovers from the old soviet union days and already in ukraine and ukrainian forces may have fired it. >> your previous guest does present the party line that putin has been toeing that he has nothing to do with that, it's all ukrainian problem.

that's another thing putin does hold over from the soviet times, you take the pressure from the intellectuals and they expand the party line. you have a doctor in front of his name, he must know. >> clearly you disagree. again, going back to what this means for putin now, does the international community, if it turns out this was a russian-supplied or russian-trained engineers who shot this missile, what does it mean for putin with the u.s. levees more sanctions? >> i think more sanctions need to come. it has become a much greater international cries. people who had nothing to do with the cries now got involved. look at holland, it lost so many, many people. putin should be held responsible, supplying or not, he started that crisis. >> thanks for coming in this morning. >> thank you. >> that's going to do it for us. i'm del walters in new york. >> i'm stephanie sy. the latest on the downing of flight 17 and the ground

invasion of gaza, coming up.

>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello and welcome to the news hour live from our headquarters in doha. i'm stephen cole, two stories dominate the headlines. israel says it may step up its ground invasion of gaza. at least 24 palestinians have been killed since the grand offensive began. ♪ and i'm lauren taylor in london with the latest on the pl