you can find us on twitter @ajconsiderthis. we'll see you next time. >> welcome to aljazeera america, i'm del walters, and these are the stories we're following for you. investigators on the way to the crash site. but pointing the fingers at each other for the downed airliner. >> these are emergency personnel who have been on the scene for a couple of hours this morning, and as you see, they're holding sticks with white cloth on top of them. and they're marking bodies. >> and they're running out of sticks. who and why are the questions to be answered, but the reality for many families, their son or

mother or daughter will not be coming home. and for israel, preparing to widen that offensive in gaza. >> we continue to follow those two major stories for you, including israel's offensive in gaza, but we begin with the ukraine. where observers are at the crash site. and they will be followed by malaysia's assistance team. the plane was travelin travelinm amsterdam to kuala lampoire yesterday when it was believed to have been shot down in the ukraine. we have more on the investigation. >> these are emergency service personnel who have been on the scene for a couple of hours this morning. as you see, they are holding sticks with white cloth on the top of it. they're marking bodies. and they have been walking

through these fields here, coming on this side. and this is a farm road that divides the debris field. they have been in there, and you can see some of the stakes out there with their remains. what's interesting, one of these gentlemen, when they walked past the debris field, they came up a couple of minutes ago, he said there are too many bodies, and we don't have enough stakes, and they are moving onto a different area. this is the tail section of the aircraft. the tail fin is over there, and this is here. and back up the road, you have even bigger debris fields. you have one on this side. and one further down. it seems to be the biggest debris field. you can see the landing gear, and both engines are there, and there's even a groove in the earth where clearly there was some impact. these gentlemen are marking the bodies, but the most important thing for now, for the international community, this is

an international incident, the investigation into why these men are marking the bodies. >> with so many people and so many countries onboard, this disaster is affecting people from all over the globe. several countries are now joining the crash investigation, and the president, who will be speaking later and when he does, he will carry it for you live, he's asking for help from the ntsb and the fbi. and lisa stark has been tracking the developments, lisa, what can we expect over the next few days? >> well, the key, del, is to get the investigators, people who know what they're looking for, and as you mentioned, there are 30 experts and diplomats for the organization and security and cooperation in europe. but they're not crash investigators. the fact that they have been allowed? a very good sign, and it means that the rebels are holding to their promise of allowing open access to the site.

and it means in the next few days that we'll see a lot more crash investigators in that. meanwhile, the u.n. security council has been meeting about the situation in ukraine, calling for a full, open investigation, and we heard moments ago from a u.n. ambassador, samantha powers, and here's what she had to say. >> as we stared at the passenger list yesterday, we looked at three of the passenger's names, the capital i. and that stands for infants. to the families and friends of the victims, it is impossible to find words to express our condolences. we can only commit that you that we will not rest until we find out what happened. >> and obviously, a very somber speech there from samantha powers, and there's in fact

condemnation coming from around the world, as you can imagine, about the downing of this jetliner. we heard earlier today from the malaysian transport minister, here's what he had to say. >> should it be confirmed, it will be against international law and an outrage against human decency. malaysia condemns it in the strongest possible terms and calls for them to be brought to justice. >> now, the international civil aviation organization, has offered to put together an international team of investigators, and this is probably critical, because there are so many sides to this conflict of course, and folks who have aligned themselves with one side or another, there really truly needs to be an international effort to give credence to this investigation to make sure that people believe what investigators say. so they have offered to do that.

and we'll see how this unfolds in the days ahead. >> and samantha powers bringing home the reality that these are parents, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers onboard the flight. but there are reports coming out that the fbi and ntsb investigators are traveling to ukraine. >> the ntsb will send at least one investigator to ukraine, possibly more if needed and the fbi will be sending at least one investigator. at this point, we believe that they will both be going to kiev. they will not be going to the crash site yet, mainly because of security concerns. >> and once those investigators do arrive on the scene, all of they will, what is the first thing they're going to do? >> the first thing is recover the black boxes, the flight data recorder and the voice recorder. there have been conflicting reports about the pro russian separatists of whether they have

gotten ahold of these, but there's no confirmation that that's the case, and for the family members, the remains need to be recover the properly. and then they will start mapping out the debris field. and see where it landed where, and start looking for actual evidence in the debris of some sort of a missile strike. >> lisa stark today, thank you very much. who is to blame? that's one of the questions that has no concrete evidence at this hour. the first response is to blame russia. >> so many questions surround what happened to flight mh70. that it was shot down is not being dispute but who shot it down? that's 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 forensics, but if there's evidence pointing in that direction,ent equipment had to come from russia. what more the russians may or may not have done, we don't know. >> there were nor survivors from the crash. 298 lives lost as this plane traveled over what is effectively a war zone. >> . >> i have just finished a conversation, and i want to point your attention to the fact that we call it neither an accident nerey catastrophe, 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. the ukraine agency said that it intercepted a phonecall from a lead commander from the people's republic and his fighters, and in this they talk about a downed passenger plane.

[ foreign dialogue ] >> meanwhile, russia's defense ministry said that it picked up a lot of activity from ukraine an missile system the same day that it was shot down. >> we, on behalf of the russian authorities and on behalf of the government of the russian federation express condolences to the bereaved families and condolences to those on the plane. i ask you to honor their memory. in this regard, i want to emphasize that this tragedy would not have happened if there were peace on that land. >> this was a tragedy with

innocent victims, the passengers not involved in the war 10 kilometers beneath them, a doomed flight whose sabotage has led to an international incident. >> and the focus is turning to those who lost loved ones onboard flight 17. in the town in malaysia, friends and family gathering to await information on the tragedy in ukraine. they knew crew members onboard the flight. many offering up prayers and hope that those who were responsible for the downed plane would be brought to justice. as you know, this was the second fatal crash of a malaysian airliner this year. the shares in the airliner dropped 18% today. and it's expected to take a big hit in ticket sales. the biggest loss in 23 years. and today we're learning that indiana university said a

doctoral student was onboard that flight, 17, the 25-year-old was getting her doctorate in the chemistry department. she earned her masters in indiana. she was said to be part of the university's rowing team in 2011. just the beginning of the ground assault. israeli soldiers are on the ground and hamas continues to fire rockets at israel. and israel's prime minister is warning of a significant military expansion on the ground. >> it is not possible to deal with the tunnels, only from the air. our soldiers are also doing it from the ground. there is no guarantee for 100% success, but we're doing our best to achieve the maximum. >> meanwhile, the death toll is climbing. one israeli soldier and civilian are said to be dead. more than 270 palestinians have been killed in what israel is calling its operation protective age. most of those dead, civilians.

nick schifrin from gaza. >> this is the first israeli grounding in five years, and we're constantly hearing the shells. from that side, israeli gunships firing into gaza from that side. and in israel, we have seen troops coming overnight. and a lot of the rockets have been coming from there, and therefore, the israeli strikes have been hitting that area hard. we heard one particularly loud strike just a block behind here. 7:30 am, 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 airplane. this was the first strike in downtown gaza city since the ground operation began. the missiles hit all the way up to the top of the building and down here, a large field of debris and windows. to giving you a sense of where we are, this is in the middle of

a residential and commercial district. and every single one of these buildings shook violently when the missile struck. just a few blocks away, the family was given a two minute warning to evacuate their home. the father pauses in his alley before seeing what's left of his house. it's pulverized by a single israeli airstrike. thanks to the warning, everyone survived but his children are terrified. across gaza this morning, hundreds of thousands of children are terrified. a big sister tries to console her little brother but to no ave ail. the soldiers moved in last night. their main objective, seize the tunnels it under the border. arms to attack israel. and now that the army is inside of gaza, the operation could expand. >> this military operation has

one main goal, to achieve safety to the sate of israel. and we will do so by targeting the terrorist infrastructure used to infiltrate israel. >> that means as the ground fighting increases, casualties will continue to stream in, and the family's anguish will continue to rise. hamas has released a statement in defines, and they said that the ground offensive does not scare us. we pledge to drown the occupation army in gaza mud. and they indicate that the israel troops will likely hold their ground for a while and start destroying those tunnels and that's not an easy proposition, it could take days and weeks. >> historically, the united states has played a key role, brokering negotiations between the israelis and the palestinians. making trips to the region, affirming their commitment to a peaceful resolution. we are, by the way, awaiting the

president of the united states, he will be speaking at 11:30. this is the briefing room from the white house, and we expect the president to speak. when he does, we'll bring that to you live. and meanwhile, we have randall pinkston live in washington. we have been talking about this relationship between the united states and israel and the palestinians, and what are officials doing now concerning this latest crisis? >> across the board, president obama, vice president biden, and john kerry, all of them urging diplomatic talks. casualties, and they also defend israel's right to use force to stop hamas from firing those rockets. the last israeli-hamas conflict, the secretary of state was able to work through morrissey who

who had close ties to hamas. it makes it difficult for kerry to get anything done through egypt. >> one of the dangers that the united states faces in sending the secretary of state to the middle east is they walk out empty-handed. and at this time, do we know whether secretary kerry is going to travel to the region? >> the u.s. officials say that kerry is willing to try yet again. last week, before israel launched it's ground action in gaza, secretary kerry made a number of phonecalls, and each one of the calls, he offered to travel to jerusalem or cairo and both of the nations said no. and apparently, it would not make a lot of sense at this point for kerry to go, but he's still offering. so far, no takers from egypt, from israel, and certainly not

from hamas. >> randall pinkston for us live at the white house, and as we just mentioned, we are awaiting word from president obama. will he be speaking about ukraine in 14 minutes, 11:30 eastern time. when that happens, we bring it to you live. in the meantime, we continue to follow our other to story, the downing of malaysian flight 17. some want to know how many are out there, and whether they have fallen into the wrong hands.

>> you're looking live right now at the white house briefing room, that's the door that the president usually emerges from as he's about to address reporters, and the president will be speaking to reporters at 11:30 eastern time about the crisis in ukraine. and meanwhile, in ukraine, the number of world leaders are speaking out about the downing of flight 17.

and angela merkel is calling for a ceasefire. add to those voices, vladimir putin. tracking the international developments for us from london, phil, tell us about what president putin had to say. >> well, vladimir putin did say that there needs to be a ceasefire. and he agreed that there needs to be a full investigation, an impartial investigation, and that's what world leaders around the globe, but certainly here in europe, where many of those who were killed come from. those leaders, european leaders, calling for a full, impartial investigation and a ceasefire. we heard it from david cameron, and angela merkel, who said that it's the russians who need to take initiative, and in particular, vladimir putin. let's take a look.

[ speaking german ] >> events have once again shown that we need to work toward a political solution, and this is above all about russia's responsibility and what's happening in ukraine. and that's why i'm making another clear appeal to the russian president and the government to make a contribution toward political solutions. >> for his part, vladimir putin said that actually it's the west who is at fault in ukraine. the russians have said that it's the ukrainian military who had those kinds of assets in the country that had the capability to bring down that plane. so there's a lot of finger pointing going on here, del. and the ukrainians saying that these were russian separatists clearly, and moscow saying that this is the ukrainians, the separatists don't have either the capability or the training to have pulled this off. so return the blame game has begun. >> and you've also been talking to representatives from the airline industry concerning this

particular flight path,. >> clearly, nobody is going into that airspace, but this is a corridor used by european airlines to get to southeast asia. even on the day when the downing happened, 300 flights were scheduled to fly in that airspace, so this is not an unusual airspace, but what has been agreed upon, a 32,000-foot ceiling, and below that, it's too dangerous to fly in, and that was established months ago. so the question that's now being leveled, why was this malaysian airlines flight flying just 1,000 feet above that air ceiling, at 33,000 feet? so a lot of questions that are going on, but there's also the argument that's coming out of the ukraine, and they have seen other flights come down

recently. and they think the separatists or russian agents are in eastern ukraine with new capabilities, including this new missile system. >> tracking all of it today. and thank you so much. with so many regional conflicts taking place around the world, this raises questions on who has and who controls those surface to aramisles. and those concerns are not new. >> reporter: regardless of who brought down the malaysia boeing 777, they have new concerns about civilian air travel in global hot spots. looming large in places like afghanistan and more recently, libya after the fall of moammar gadhafi's government. there, the rockets and grenades have been smuggled intolation places like chad and indonesia. over the past three decades, at

least 35 civilian aircraft have come under attack from the launchers. leaving people dead. since the 1970s. more than 700,000 surface to aramisles have been manufactured across the globe, but mostly by the u.s. and russia. they're then sold and at times zord in leaky government arsenals. iran is believed to hold a stockpile. >> it's a concern. in those areas where there are hot conflicts going on, you have non-it state actors who can easily get these weapons they have been proliferating. >> they believe that it was shot down by a surface to air missile, and if that's true, the attack would not have been carried out by these kinds of shoulder-mounted devices, found circulating in the 1 billion dollars arms trade. >> this is not what they know in

the military, surface to aramisles. 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 that would be very hard to just smuggle across a border. >> shoulder mounted antiaircraft missiles usually pose threats to commercial aircraft only during takeoff and landing, due to their limited range, so the use of larger, more sophisticated weapons, would likely limit the number of possible culprits. aljazeera, new york. >> and a reminder that we continue to wait for president obama. he will be speaking shortly about the crisis in ukraine. our white house correspondent, mike viqueira told us that that will probably take place closer to 11:50 when that happens.

>> welcome back to aljazeera, the headlines at this hour,

three investigators from europe have arrived at the crash site in ukraine, and malaysia is sending it's own investigators. and the ground strikes continue. and hamas still firing rockets at israel. one israeli soldier and a civilian are dead. and 270 palestinians have been killed in operation protective edge. we're also following -- . >> i'm dave warnen. we're following china closely. a super typhoon, a rapid intensification went through very favorable development. and we're clearly seeing the eye here, surrounded by a solidarity of thunderstorms, winds over 150 miles per hour at least. and this is beginning to push to the east. it's affecting parts of southern china. look at the wind picking up here, a lot of trees down, and

storm surge the way it's tracking but we're waiting to see a lot of damage reports coming in. a lot of people affected by the storm in southern china. after it affected the philippines, it's affecting hainan and china. you are going to get a storm surge in the lower sections of the peninsula, so that will be the story in the next 24-48 hours. the latest from the typhoon warning center, we have the winds over 155 miles per hour moving northwest at 13 miles per hour. and it will affect northern vietnam and southern china. over 12 million people affected in china, and the storm surge over 12 feet. >> and that's a cat 3? >> no, a cat 5. >> we continue to wait for president obama, he will be speaking shortly about the crisis in ukraine, and we're

going to bring you his address live when that happens, for now, thank you for watching aljazeera america. i'm del walters in new york, and "inside story" is next. i can check us out 24 hours a day by going to aljazeera.com. [♪ music ] >> maybe you've already been feeling that way, but now you've got data. a report that liberals and conservatives are moving further apart it's the inside story.