bombs hit a hospital in gaza as the death toll soars for palestinians and israelis, but now hopes for a cease-fire. also, pro-russian separatists finally release victims' bodies and the black boxes. welcome to "consider this." those stories and much more straight ahead. >> the bombs in gaza got more

ferocious. >> israeli tank shells struck a hospital in gaza. we can, according to international law, take out those rockets. >> there is no way we can come to any peace agreement unless it abandons its terrorism. >> hamas militants sneaking into israel through a series of tunnels. >> they're used by militants to launch attacks. now is the focus to bring about a cease-fire that ends the fighting. >> the united nations security council calls for an international investigation into the crash. >> finally the plane's black boxes and the victims' bodies are on the move. >> the two black boxes will be handed over. >> those bodies will be taken to the netherlands. >> in the meantime russian-state backed television telling a different story the -- sure that the truth is out. >> we begin with a soaring death toll and diplomatic moves towards peace in israel's

struggle with hamas fighters in gaza. more strikes targeted gaza on monday night after rockets, bombs and naval ground artillery battered people and buildings to the al aqsa hospital. hamas rockets continue to pummel israel. israeli losses include 27 killed, all but two of them soldiers, and more than 100 injured. at the white house president obama said that while israel has a right to defend itself from hamas rocket and tunnel attacks, the administration is concerned with the rising number of deaths on both sides. >> it now has to be our focus and the focus of the international community to bring about a cease-fire that ends the fighting and that can stop the deaths of innocent civilians both in gaza and in israel. >> and while secretary of state john kerry arrived in cairo on

monday to work on a cease-fire, it was after he had to defend himself from mocking israeli claims of mounting a pinpoint operation in gaza. >> it's a hell of a pinpoint operation. it's a hell of pinpoint operation. >> right. it's escalating significantly, and it underscores the need for cease-fire. >> we have to get over there. i reacted, obviously, in a way that anybody does with respect to, you know, young children and civilians, but war is tough. >> today kerry announced $47 million in u.s. humanitarian aid for palestinians displaced by the fighting. for the latest let's go to gaza and nick shifrin. nick, good to have you with us. the israeli attacks are still going on, and israeli tanks hit the al aqsa hospital on monday. what actually happened there? >> reporter: yes. this was in the afternoon, 2:00

or 3:00, at least three shells according to officials in the hospital we spoke with landed inside the hospital, destroyed one of the walls, one of the tours. one of them landing right in a post-surgical ward in a room killing one to two people. the hospital says that it was targeted. israel says that there was a nearby cache of anti-tank weapons. it took about three or four hours for the israeli military to respond, but finally they said that the target was legitimate. it was those anti-tank weapons, and that they were in the immediate vicinity, unquote, of that hospital. that's why it was targeted. and there is no apology from israel. they blame hamas for putting the weapons so close to the hospital, but those of us at the hospital we saw scenes of absolute chaos. dozens of patients have to be spirited out of the hospital. the hospital basically ceased to function.

the top floor was really decimated. not only two killed but dozens wounded and nurses 40, 50, 60 feet away from the first shell that came in had shrapnel in their legs. really a bit of a war zone inside a hospital inside the e.r. of that hospital. they tried to get all of the patients out and moved to another hospital, the central gaza hospital where so many people are already. that hospital is already overwhelmed sp short of supplies. i'll give you a sense of how difficult it is right now for the medical professionals who are trying to cope with the thousands of wounded palestinians. >> just a hospital completely overwhelmed by what's going on. on the other side, israeli forces lost seven troops on monday, four when hamas fighters entered israel through a tunnel. the conflict is just clearly continuing to escalate. what is the hope now for the diplomatic efforts? >> reporter: there's a lot of

pressure on both sides to find some kind of cease-fire. as you mentioned secretary of state john kerry is in cairo, and so is secretary-general ban ki-moon. all of them are getting together trying to do two things. one, convince the israelis to stop the bombardment and convince hamas to accept an egyptian cease-fire proposed last week. hamas sees it as a loss if they accept a cease-fire, which would not give them anything they ask for including opening the borders and lifting of the israeli siege. on the israeli side they have vowed very publicly both the politicians and the military professionals have vowed that they will not finish this operation until all of the rockets cannot leave from gaza to israel and all of those tunnels -- this is key -- all of those tunnels that hamas used to get into israel and kill all those israeli soldiers, until all of those tunnels have been removed, antonio, that is not something that takes a few hours. that's something that takes days

if not weeks. so it's not clear if either side is really willing to entertain a cease-fire. >> we're going to talk more about those tunnels coming up. nick shifrin reporting from gaza. thank you. for more i'm joined from jerusalem by israeli defense forces spokesman lieutenant colonel peter lerner. great to have you with us. reports out of gaza are that the aleast five people were killed and 60 wounded at the al aqsa hospital in gaza when israeli shells hit nearby. we have pictures of heavy damage from the shelling, and our reporter, nick shifrin, in gaza just told us that the idf has said that anti-tank missiles were stored in the immediate vis isn't of that hospital and that that's what you were targeting. what can you tell us? >> nick's got it right. actually, this situation where hamas, this terrorist organization, places its munitions and offensive capabilities, its rockets in the

vis isn't of civilian areas, in the vicinity of internationally recognized secure and safe -- supposed safe sites is a thing that they do. indeed, we are targeting anti-tank missiles that were in a close vicinity in a storage place in the close vicinity of the hospital. it's unfortunate, but this is what this organization does. they have no regard for human life, and that is what they're doing. >> the question, i guess, is where do you draw the line? i know that rockets have been found at a u.n. school. that homes have been used for rocket attacks, and that they've also been used to hide entrances to tunnels into israel. but if you are risking the safety of civilians at a hospital, how do you make the choice to bomb? >> the israel defense force does not target civilians. we go out of our way to avoid civilian casualties. we have dropped leaflets in towns where we've asked people to leave telling them on a specific day.

so monday morning at 8:00 please leave the area. please go to such and such place. there is a safe zone where you can you will be safe. unfortunately, hamas is telling them not to go. what that ultimately means is we're actually setting ourselves up for ambush by the enemy, by hamas. we come in, and they're waiting there with an ambush and attack us because they know where we're coming to because we make the announcement. we make phone calls and send text messages and tell people, please vacate the premises because we're going to attack the control in the same building as you. it's an absolute tragedy, but it's absolutely at the responsibility of this organization, which is holding the people of gaza hostage. they are holding them hostage so they can strike us with inskrim nature rockets launched at our towns. as i was sitting in jerusalem, i was getting reports that the

heart of israel, the center of israel is once again bombarded. >> i know that hamas has not been willing to engage in a cease-fire. egypt had a proposal, and there are others from the u.n. there's attempts to make them stop firing the rockets, and they have refused to do that. let's talk about what prime minister netanyahu said to secretary kerry. he talked about pinpoint attacks that you were trying to really go after specific targets in gaza. secretary kerry yesterday somewhat controversially in a comment caught when he thought he wasn't on camera, he seemed to ridicule the pinpoint attacks referring to them as, you know, they're really not pinpoint at all. how do you respond to him? >> well, as i said, we have a huge effort going on trying to strike the terrorists in their hiding places when they're planning to carry out further

attacks, and i would say, yes, we do have precision capabilities, extensive operational, extensive intelligence. we know where they're hiding. we know where they're going. i would also point out that when we feel that there is an unacceptable collateral damage, we cancel the mission. we might even phone up and tell the perpetrator that we are intending to strike the command and control position and give up on this terrorist. we'll not strike him at that time just so to save human life. >> a spokesman for hamas military wing has claimed the troop has taken an israeli soldier captive. he added that he is a prisoner, and if zionists light about the dead and wounded, then the fate of this soldier is their responsibility. again, the idf has denied the claim. it's also said that it's being investigated. has hamas captured an israeli soldier?

>> well, we can't confirm that at this time. as soon as we have a confirmation either way, we will make an announcement. indeed, in the tragedy and in the gunfight of two nights ago, there was extensive damage, and it is difficult to determine at this time the status of this report. as soon as we can, we will make an announcement. >> at least seven more israeli soldiers were reported killed on monday, more than two dozen have been killed so far in this fighting. that's more than israel has lost in the past in its struggles on the ground with hamas. what do you think -- how far are you going to go? are you concerned that israeli public opinion will turn against you as more israelis die? >> the public do not want to live in a reality where there are threats of rockets, where there are threats of infiltration, where there are threats of these terrible acts of

indiscriminate attacks. today we had four people killed inside israel, four soldiers killed inside israel. indeed, it is a tragedy, but our job is to put ourselves there before the civilians, before the people and do that. if it means giving your life, that is what is expected of us. >> a very quick final question. will you stop before you have taken care of all the tunnels? >> well, you know, it would be difficult to say that we could expect to even erase 100% of these tunnels. we are trying to locate them. we're trying to deal with them. we are trying to explode them. nd relieve us from this threat as quick as possible and as much as possible. to date, we've exposed 16 tunnels like this that lead into

israel or are leading into israel or are at some stages of construction towards israel. we are determined to deal with this threat. we're not willing to wake up with them in our backyard. we want to meet them in their backyard and take away this capability. >> israeli defense forces spokesman peter lerner. thank you. for more i'm joined from the hague of the netherlands, senior fellow for palestine studies and co-editor of an independent online magazine produced by the arab studies institute. we saw the terrible deaths on monday at a hospital in gaza. we just talked to the israel defense spokesperson who said they were targeting nearby anti-tank missiles and he repeated that hamas is hiding munitions where people live. is that not the case? >> these claims are routinely made by the israeli

governme government, and they're routinely examined by independent organizations, by human rights organizations. there's a whole slew of united nationsreports with virtually now exception. they've been exposed as self-serving propaganda. i think all needs to look at the casualty figures according to the united nations. three-quarters at least of the 550-plus casualties are civilian non-combat tants. more than a quarter are children. so, i mean, at some point one has to seriously examine these preposterous claims and stop taking them at face value and demand verifiable evidence. you can't just make these claims and kill people by the dozen without providing any evidence. >> last week didn't we see in one case where missiles were

hidden at a u.n. school? >> that's correct. the u.n. rightfully condemned the placing of, i think they said, 20 missiles in a school. it's noteworthy that the same press release explicitly noted this was the first incident of its kind that the u.n. had found. basically meaning that all the previous claims that israel had made in that respect were absolutely groundless. the u.n. also said it was an evacuated school. in other words, there was no question in this case of human shielding, of deliberately placing missiles in the building full of civilians and preventing those civilians from leaving. >> as you said, we have seen hundreds of palestinians who have been killed, thousands of others that have been injured. israel was willing to accept a cease-fire days ago.

why has hamas refused and continued to fire rockets into israel? >> well, hamas' position is that this was an assault on the gaza strip that was initiated by israel. and that the background of this israeli assault on the gaza strip is the continuing blockade, siege, whatever you want to call it where palestinians in the gaza strip are basically prevented from living even a minimal, normal, dignified life in terms of import and export of essential goods in terms of passage of persons and so on. in terms of full israeli control of the territorial waters, the air space over gaza and so on. therefore, hamas' position is that while they don't reject a cease-fire in principle, that

the cease-fire must also include guarantees for the lifting of the israeli blockade on the gaza strip. >> clearly the israeli blockade has made life very difficult for gaza in many ways. but is this cynical on hamas' part? hamas has lost popularity by all accounts. it's been a terrible failure at governing. so is it just hoping to gain support in gaza and in the broader arab world by fighting israel? >> well, what's interesting in the past two weeks is that hamas has actually gained support among palestinians in the gaza strip, among palestinians generally, by insisting that any cease-fire agreement must include a lifting the blockade. i think for many, particularly the gaza strip, it's become a choice of, you know, a quick death by f-16s versus a slow death by blockade.

so, in fact, you know these issues you pointed out about hamas losing popularity and so on, this attack on the gaza strip has actually allowed hamas to pose in a much more -- as a much more national rather than factional actor. >> do you think it could win an election at this point? >> well, conventional wisdom is if elections were held today, hamas would win in the west bank, and haata would win in the gaza strip. which is an ion yir becaus fatah is in charges of the west bank and hamas in gaza. >> exactly. after this conflict and given that people tend to rally around those that seem to be actively resisting a foreign colonial power and sticking up for their interests, and also looking at the conduct of the palestinian authority, you know, things could change.

i think, again, elections are very difficult to predict on the basis of developments just in the past week. >> what's the role of the palestinian authority, of fatah? can they get involved here and help lead to some sort of cease-fire? >> the problem is that each of these parties also wants to make sure that any agreement that is reached either doesn't weaken their own factional position or at least doesn't strengthen the factional position of the rival. this underscores once more the need for a much farther going reconciliation between fatah and hamas where there needs to be integration on the basis of the plo, the national movement, and more importantly on the basis of a common national political program. >> final question for you. world opinion in these conflicts in the past turns against the israelis fairly quickly, but

many world leaders have come out in favor of the israelis now and there's much less support for past. how do you see this playing out? will we have an agreement soon, or will we keep seeing more people getting killed? >> i think you need to make a distinction, of course, between world leaders and politicians, many of whom have taken a position on this issue that can only be described as come police city on the oned hand and public opinion on the other. there are all sorts of reports making the rountds now there may be an imminent breakthrough in reaching a new agreement. the problem for the palestinians is you having basically hundreds of people being slaughtered, and that is an unacceptably high price to pay for gaining the sympathy and support and the solidarity of the world, particularly when these are simply recurring israeli

assaults on the gaza strip. someone was saying the other day, anybody person in the gaza strip 6 years old will have experienced three israeli wars. >> a senior fellow at the institute for palestine studies. pleasure to have you with us. thank you. >> thank you. coming up, big developments in the malaysian airlines investigation involving the victims' bodies and the black boxes. also, britain's prime minister warns the world is watching vladimir putt tin as he faces tougher sanctions from the west. and the crazy propaganda about the plane's crash that moscow is feeding its people. >> israel's invasion of gaza continues tonight. >> we have been hearing a lot of tank shelling coming from where we are, here. >> every single one of these buildings shook violently. >> for continuing coverage of the israeli / palestinian conflict, stay with al jazeera america, your global news leader.

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the bodies of 282 of the passengers who died on malaysian flight 17 are making their way home from the crash site after days of obstruction by pro-russian separatists. the malaysian government says the two block boxes from the downed jet have now been handed over in good condition. the breakthrough came after furious world leaders and grieving relatives of the victims demanded russian president vladimir putin use his influence to persuade the separatists to allow

investigators full access to the site. on monday president obama asked why the site had been blocked and evidence tampered with. >> all of which begs the question, what exactly are they trying to hide? >> the president saved his harshest words for putin, warning graver consequences if his support for the separatists continues. >> russia will only further isolate itself from the international community and the costs will continue to increase. >> putin said monday he supports full access to the site by investigators but warned that no nation should exploit the tragedy for political goals. secretary of state john kerry and other diplomats have described the crisis as a moment of truth for the russian leader, who received searing messages from a sea of tribute flowers left at the airport in amsterdam for the 193 dutch victims of the crash. joining us now for the latest via skype from eastern ukraine is harriet salem, a freelance

journalist reporting for "the guardian." she saw them ganl greater access to the crash site and was there for the transfer of victims' remains to a train that will transport them to amsterdam. good fov you with us. you were there when the bodies were loaded onto this train. i can only imagine it was an awful sight. how did it unfold? >> well, the situation has been very, very difficult on the ground. the mh17 flight essentially crashed into a conflict zone, which has presented a lot of problems. the emergency service workers, firefighters, police officers, medics worked very hard. two days ago we saw the first of the bodies being moved. they were transferred to a refrigerated carriage, train carriage in three carriages. they

were there while more bodies were collected and moved. the situation at the crash site is now very different. human remains are gone, but personal possessions that belonged to the victims have been piled at the side of the road, many of them. there was a hope that these will be returned to the families in the upcoming days. the good news that came today was that train with these human remains on them has finally left. it has moved, and as you said, hopefully onwards from there to the netherlands. >> other good news is that the rebels handed over the black boxes. again, a small improvement. is an independent investigation, do you feel, starting to come together there? >> reporter: well, the access to the site has certainly improved over the last few days. when they first tried to access the site, they were given very partial access, a warning shot

was fired and that was very concerning that people did not have this full access. >> you wrote today that part of the problem was actually the ukrainian army that seemed intent on disrupting some of the expert work on monday. how did that happen? >> reporter: the ukrainian army? today the situation was that they were fighting across the region. there was an assault that appeared to take place at donetsk airport and the train station today. it was very unclear about exactly how that erupted. but across the region fighting is continuing to spark the tragedy of mh17, and this is limiting international experts' ability to come to the site and do the job they need to do. we need to see cooperation from both sides, not only from the rebels but also from the

ukrainian army in allows safe passage for these experts to move into the area. they need to be given full access to the site to continue their work. >> it's a terrible tragedy made worse by the people there. harriet salem, pleasure to have you with us. thank you. for more we're joined by ambassador roman pupaduke who was the first ambassador to the ukraine after the breakup of the union. he's currently a principal at bingham consulting. he's in washington, d.c. as is ambassador kurt volge voelker. ambassador, i start with you. president obama warned vladimir putin it's time to get serious about reining in the rebels and resolving the ukraine conflict or else. the uk is push the eu for tougher sanctions. the u.n. security council approved a resolution for around

international investigation and an end to the fighting around the site. as the u kuk's david cameron put it, the world is watching and putin must change his course. do you think this will change putin's aggressive stance in ukraine? >> no, i don't think it's going to change this at all. it will cause him to change tactics a little bit. he needs to demonstrate he's trying to be cooperative and wants to create an image of himself and russia and the insurgents inside ukraine suggesting they have nothing to do with what those insurgents are up to. i don't think it's incredible, but the attack is on. he will try to help this investigation proceed now that they have a few days to remove the vehicles that fired the missiles to remove evidence that points to the insurgency so it can remain an unknown. meanwhile, his objectives of disrupting the government of ukraine and trooifing to assert russian control over time will continue.

>> ambassador, do you agree with every day that passes world public opinion is screaming that putin has blood on his hands, australia raised the prospect of banning him from the group of 20 of the world's most powerful nations. what is putin's end game? >>le well, putin's end game is very clear from the outset. he's trying to destabilize all of ukraine. he zeroed in on eastern ukraine because he doesn't garner the type of support throughout the rest of the country as he's solicited in eastern ukraine. right now he's trying to destabilize the country as much as possible to get a negotiating process started between the government and the rebels and reach a situation where the rebels will be able to carve out a greater sense of autonomy and freedom in that part of ukraine, which will give him a strong influence in not only that particular region of ukraine but in also of ukraine. in other words, to continue the destabilization both politically

and economically in ukraine. irng that's his overall goal and the tragedy of the mh17 has created a new scenario in which the international community as we have seen over the past few days has become very involved in zeroing in on what's going on in that part of ukraine and in that region. i think there's a chance here to move toward a more positive outcome with the international community taking the forefront in terms of greater pressure against russia. >> that's the question. what will the international community do? europe has always had the greatest leverage on russia but hasn't been willing to go as far as the u.s. has. they're threatening new sanctions as soon as tuesday. do you think europe will take a harder line even though this risks hurting their economies? >> first off, i think europe should. i think what we're seeing here is evidence of how when you leave a problem unaddressed can get worse and worse and worse. we've seen now this disaster the result of inaction over the past

few months. that being said, i think what putin is trying to do is show enough coops right now including with the investigation with the u.n. vote and so forth it will give a justification to those in the eu who don't want to impose sanctions for their own reasons, and they'll use that argument to try to prevent the eu from making that decision on tuesday. i suspect what we're going to see, although i hope i'm wrong, is another threat from the eu. that if russia does not continue to cooperate, then they will look at further sanctions, but not to take that step right now. instead i believe what is needed is tough action now to cause russia to want to negotiate a way forward. otherwise, i think it will play for time, and then it will go back to business as usual. >> as sanctions do increase, assuming that europe goes a little further than just a threat, won't this affect -- at what point does it start affecting putin's popularity internally in russia? at least the u.s. sanctions must be taking a bite out of his

popularity. >> it depends on the type and the extent of the sanctions. right now if the europeans and the united states move towards introducing broader secretarial sanctions in terms of energy sector as well as the financial sector, two sectors talked about, that will have great ramifications throughout the russian economy. you have to stand back and take a look at the situation in context. they want to think they run a type of government. there are a lot of divisions within the government. there's a strong nation pro-democracy movement taking place in russia, and you should not also forget that one of the main reasons why putin has been so hard on trying to kill the democracy movement in ukraine by destabilizing the country is his fear it will have ramifications or reverberate back into russia itself and give stimulus and

encouragement to the pro-democracy movement in his own country. putin unleashed a lot of issues within his own country the world hasn't focused on yet. the pro-democracy movement and the split in the movement and in terms of how to proceed on the issue of ukraine. these are all issues that will come back and bite him in the long term. >> also unleashed issues internationally. according to a new article in "the new yorker" published online on friday, vice president biden met with pet tun in 2011. i'm looking into your eyes and said i don't think we have a soul. he looked back at me and smiled and said, we understand one another. i think these have changed a lot since the cold war, but much of the behavior is reminiscent of the world we lived in then. >> i agree with that and agree with what the ambassador said about putin's overall objectives

and they're not going to change. putin came into office in early 2000 talking about restoring russian greatness and talked about the collapse of the soviet union as being the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. i think he's intent on restoring russian power domestically including the authoritarian style of state he created, to have a say over russia's neighbors, particularly those part of the soefrt union and to restore russia's strength on a global stage. he's been going about that emphatically. what we heard from vice president biden is a little bit of domestic politics in the u.s. pointing out he's not naive in looking at russia, even though there's other criticisms of the administration to suggest when they were carrying out the recent policy, it was a bit naive. >> referring back to president bush who thought he had seen into putin's soul. ambassador, final question to you. do you agree with ambassador volker?

how close are we getting to the old soviet model with the way putin is behaving both domestically and internationally? >> well, i think ambassador volker outlined it clear. i would make a distinction however. i would not lump putin and russia as one huge conglomerate. i think this is a puti putin-personality driven type of policy. if you look at the recent polling, the it indicates that his popularity as that crisis keeps going on is starts to decrease. so i would make a distinction between putin the leader and the russian people. right now what you have is putin the leader trying to re-create a sense of the old soviet union of the soras empire, which is personality-based, but i don't think that's something that the russian people themselves are really pushing for. >> ambassadors, it's really a

pleasure to have you with us as always. >> thank you. with malaysian airlines suffering two major tragedies in four months, will it survive, and what will it have to pay the families of the victims? the network of tunnels under the gaza border that have proven deadly for soldiers. how was hamas able to build them in the first place? we're tracking the top stories on the web. >> in the narrative we hear most often about israelis and palestinians is they don't get along. people on both sides are using social media to paint a very different picture. i'll tell you more coming up. while you're watching, let us know what you think. join the conversation we're having on the show by tweeting to us @ajconsiderthis or share >> al jazzera america presents... documentaries from around the world that inform... >> they were bombarded with shells... >> inspire... >> we can deal with our

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after using passages dug underneath the border. ten palestinian militants were killed in the attacks, but so were four israeli soldiers. now the primary goal of israel's assault on gaza is to destroy these so-called terror tunnels. >> our goal is to end the terror attacks from gaza to israel. there shouldn't be rockets fired on our citizens and they shouldn't infiltrate slew the tunnels. just this morning two squads cam through tunnels and tried to attack two different areas where civilians are trying to conduct their daily lives. >> how is hamas able to build the tunnels and will israel be able to do anything to stop more from being dug under the fence that separates it from sgaz. >>. joining us is dan who has reported extensively from the

middle east including stories on gaza's tunnels. good of you to join us. in the first two days of the ground offensive in gaza, israeli forces discovered more than 46 entrances to 14 different major tunnels. the number has risen since then. hamas is arguing that the extent of the tunnels alleged by the israelis is not true. how widespread is that tunnel network between gaza, do you believe? >> it's hard to know. i mean, as you point out, hamas says, no, and israel says yes. i'm not sure i would necessarily believe either side on this. it's clear there are many tunnels. i think some of the pictures the israelis have put out are convincing, and it's quite natural that hamas wants an offensive capability, even if it's limited, into israel to try to even up the odds a little bit. >> now, the idf spokesman we spoke to earlier in the show today us that he doesn't believe the israeli army can find all the tunnels that are

out there. you know, it's not in the largest area there. hamas and gaza is smaller than new york city. so why is it so hard to find these things? >> well, i think there's one problem that clearly there's some tunnels going under the border into israel proper. there is also, i suspect now, an extensive bunkering and tunnels network in populated areas like gaza city, some of the refugee camps in gaza strip that are both for the military tactical uses of hamas that are escape routes for leadership, that are places to hide, that are rudimentary bomb shelters, if you will. to go in and find those sorts of things would require, i suspect, a very serious grounds campaign in which israel would take very, very serious casualties when they tonight want to do. as for the ones under the tunnel, you're right that gaza

isn't the biggest place in the world, but this is a population of people who have been honing their skills at clandestine tunnels for many, many years now. they have gotten quite good at it. >> they're built by the brick guyeds as part of hamas' military. reportedly very elaborate with multiple branches. why is the israeli army going into gaza to find the tunnel entrances? sometimes they go miles into neighborhoods to do this. they say some tunnel are booby trapped. can't they find them on the exits on the israeli side? >> i mean, i think there's a couple of reasons. yes, they can find the exits and work back. as you see, there's fears of booby traps. i also suspect going forward if they really do see this as the serious threat they're claiming that they're going to want to push people back further away from the fence than they have been so far to make this a more difficult exercise that has to

go longer distances because you're absolutely right that things are coming out on the israeli side. they can find them there. one more thing i'll say is that it's quite common to build a tunnel in these sorts of situations where you know it's 80% done. then you're saying you have the last little bit of work for when you really want to use it, and that's when you cross under the border. >> now israel for a while has blockaded construction materials from going into gaza. so one of the questions is, how do they keep getting built without cement and other materials? also, how does gaza afford this? some of these tunnels cost $1 million apiece and there's a per capita income of not much more than $1,000? >> there's a couple of things at play. the israeli economic blockade, you know, over the past three, four, five years has pulsed. they tighten up and relax. they tighten up. there's periods where more

things get through quote-unquote legitimately. until fairly recently also the smuggling tunnels near rafa under the border with the sinai peninsula, with egypt were going great funs bringing in construction materials, food, cigarettes and also bringing in weapons. so there were ways to get things. as to why so much money would be spent on these things and as you point out a relatively i am pov riched area, ij because of hamas that pretty much runs the gaza strip, they see having a defensive capability and some ability to strike out as an important issue for their movement and ultimately what they hope to achieve. they feel probably that if they were toothless that they would be ripe for the picking, that they would be assassinated more frequently and perhaps israeli insurgents, which they wouldn't have to fear, perhaps a tunnel

network and prepare defenders, would be more frequent and more effective. >> that's another fascinating and dangerous aside to this tragedy that's going on there in israel and gaza. dan murphy, pleasure to have you with us. thank you. time to see what's trending on the web. >> as the violence in the middle east continues, there are growing effortses on social media to find common ground between israelis and palestinians. last week we had a psa showing people on both sides that lost loved ones to the conflict. their message is we want peace. don't want others to suffer like we have. this week a hashtag is trending. interfaith couples, families and friends call for piece between the two groups using the #jews the

#jewsandisraelisrefusetobe enemies. claire shares this photo of her holding a sign says, whatever we suffer, hate makes it worse. journalist anderson who is half-lebanese kisses her new wish boyfriend and writing love doesn't speak the language of occupation. this adorable photo of a palestinian boy and jewish boy shaking hands is getting a lot of love online. the hashtag was started by two friends from hunter college in new york one. one an israeli and the other a syrian. they don't always see eye to eye, but it was important to them to diffuse the hate encited by jews and arabs. a refreshing counternarrative to the violence on the ground. >> it is. coming up, russia's dr. strangelove reaction to the tragedy in ukraine. malaysian airlines faces a

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today we look at the turbulence surrounding malaysian airlines. two tragedy tlepten the future. the disaster in ukraine as the airline has no idea what happened to flight 370 that disappeared on its way to beijing from kuala lumpur. the airline was already in trouble posting financial losses totaling more than $1.3 billion the last three years. they're currently losing a reported 1 # -- 1$1.6 million a day. now they say they pay $50,000 to the families of each victim. that's the minimum. the home countries could demand payouts to their families leading to high six-figure costs per victim. when you group the liabilities with the loss of the plane, the airline could lose more than a billion dollars. twa went out of business soon after flight 800 crashed nearly two decades ago. pan am went bankrupt three years

after the flight 103 bombing in lockerbie, scotland. both companies are major financial issues before the tragedies. ironically malaysian airlines had won more than 1100 -- 100 awards for excellence over the last few years. this is a reminder of the >> al jazeera america presents >> i'm not a genius, but... i feel like that kid that doesn't need to go to practice. >> 15 stories one incredible journey edge of eighteen coming september only on al jazeera america

>> we're here in the vortex... only on al jazeera america the story surrounds the shooting down of malaysian airline flight 17 reported by russia's media are sharply different than what the rest of the world is hearing. in fact, so different that most russians would have no idea that russian separatists are believed responsible. the propoganda blames ukraine, malaysian airlines and a throwback to the days of the cold war. one russian reports suggests it's a vast american conspiracy to provoke a war with russia. joining me now is linda kinsler. linda, great to have you with us. you and the magazine have looked at all this. let's start with the russian

media itself. at this point how much of it is free and how much is controlled by the government? >>le with, in the past few months we've seen a marked increase in the kremlin's efforts to crack down on the media throughout russia. we've seen a number of essentially government take-overs of newspapers mostly and also some television stations. there's one television station in russia, which is legitimately independent they have been on the brink of shutting down for many months. they lost all the funding and advertisers. we've seen several high-profile take-overs when the kremlin basically puts some of their own former operatives in the editorships of prominent newspapers. >> it's one of the most dangerous places in the world fwor journalists. even what independent media exists needs to be careful. >> yes, exactly. it's one of the most dangerous

places for operate. many journalists say they're done with reporting in moscow and leaving the country. >> these reports are outlandish. one suggested that the plane was the same one, the same malaysian airlines flight that disappeared earlier this year and that it was recovered and that it took off with dead bodies in it and then blown up over ukraine. where do these reports come from? >> well, some of them start out on the internet. some of them are being reported by the mainstream media, like russia today or the first channel, which is kremlin-owned. what we're seeing a feedback loop between these kind of internet rumors that get started and what the kremlin-controlled media is coming out with. some of that is the ukrainians fired the rocket and mistook flight 17 for putin's private jet.

they're feeding off of each other coming from the direction on high that russian must deflect any kind of culpability. >> taking about on high, on monday russian generals held a press briefing to present their side of the story to use maps and radar imagery. it looked like something out of mr. strangelove. at one appoint she suggested the u.s. shot down the plane. it feels like we're back 40 years ago in the middle of the cold war. are the russian people really believing all of this? >> reporter: in fact several positives suggest that what the media is reporting in russia, there was recently a poll and interfax that said 70% of russians think that it's okay to for media outlets to manipulate the truth. many of them don't know it would

be misconstrued as propoganda, the human element of this catastrophe is really not being reported within russia. there are some rumors that the passports of the passengers were brand-new, and they had just been issued that they were faked and planted on the plane. so within russia it does very much seem like the kremlin line is the popular one. >> let's play a clip of an interview that shows pretty much what you're saying. >> so these women bringing up what you brought up that it could have been they were trying to shoot putin's plane down and the americans were responsible, in this day and age of the

internet, how can the russians not have access to more information that debunks all of this? >>. >> reporter: well, even the internet in russia is extremely controlled and has become markedly more so in the past year and past several months. just last year the kremlin said any bloggers operating in the russian language, not even necessarily within russia, would be subject the to kremlin oversight and formally register with the state. it's not as if within russia there are ample independent news sources for people to turn to. >> even on the internet. i guess the poll shows most russians get their news from television overwhelming and not from the internet. linda kinsler, great to have you with us to take a look at this very odd aspect of this tragic story. thank you. that's all for now, but the conversation continues on our website aljazeera.com/considerthis or on

our facebook or google plus pages and well despite their many differences the israelis and the palestinians have this in common, both get billions of dollars worth of aid from countries around the world, including america. i'm following the money in the middle east. and i'll tell you how big changes at the panama canal could shape bridges and harbors here in america for years to come. plus those are those who feel the economy is getting better and better, and those who feel like the recession never engineered. "real money." ♪