>> tech know, every saturday go where science meets humanity. >> this is some of the best driving i've every done, even though i can't see. >> tech know. >> we're here in the vortex. only on al jazeera america. >> this is al jazeera america. i'm richelle carey in new york. israeli soldier thought to be kidnapped was killed in action. in washington, d.c, thousands of protesters march to the white house. , and a doctor who corrected ebola in west africa. what it means to us in the u.s.

and a water emergency in toledo, ohio. thousands of people being told their water is toxic. the fighting in gaza shows no signs of letting up. israeli tanks began pulling out of some of the palestinian territory but the israeli army will continue its offensive as long as it's necessary even after border tunnels has been destroyed. >> hamas mistakenly believes that the people of israel will not have the heart to fight them. hamas will learn that israelis will do whatever they are called to do. i call on decent people everywhere to stand with israel now. stand with israel as it confronts hamas. stand with israel as it defends

itself against hamas deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on our citizens. >> hamas spokesperson says netanyahu's speech shows the determination in gaza. >> an attempt to repair the israeli spirit following defeat before palestinian resistance, the targets netanyahu claimed to have bombed were actually hundreds of women and children. >> the fighting is now in its 26th day. 26 israeli soldiers have been killed as well as three civilians. israeli military now confirmed the soldier believed captured yesterday was in fact killed in battle.

1200 palestinians have been killed, more than 9,000 have been injured, two and a half,000 much -- two and a half thousand of those are children. charles stratford has this report from khan unis. >> three-year-old's mother was killed in the town of rafah in the southern gaza strip. in another bed lice isra, both of her legs amputated after her house was burned also. >> i was trying to leave the house when a rocket exploat exploded -- >> legs amputated as well. another daughter has suffered serious burns. three members of the family were

killed in the attack. >> translator: there are many injured in rafah. there isn't sufficient hospital facilities to treat them and we can't bring them here. >> reporter: these pictures were shot by a journalist in rafah, by reuters. , we drove south from gaza city in convoy with other journalists. there were almost no one else on the road. behind me four kilometers to the town of rafah where we've seen the intense bombardment of munitions over the past days. it is literally too dangerous to go down at the moment. this ambulance is one of the two blackstock ambulances at khan unis. >> it is impossible to coordinate with the israeli military to get our balance he in. it is very dangerous.

>> abdalla says a colleague was trying to coordinate when his ambulance was hit. >> in rawfs there is no security for anyone -- in rafah there is no security to move. the ambulance drops people off at the hospital. that's when the strike happened. the vehicle took a direct hit. >> reporter: these medics say they will try to keep getting into rafah to help the injured. innocent children who have no role in what israel claims is hamas' terror campaign. ing charles stratford, al jazeera, khan unis. >> the rally made its way straight to the white house. protestors calling for an end to financial aid to israel.

kim berlkimberlying halkett rep. >> out of proportion in comparison to the number of rocket attacks from hamas. there have been almost daily protests inside the white house. this is by far the largest as public anger over the high number of palestinian civilian casualties continues to rise. >> this is really a genocidal massacre going on in gaza and people who believe in freedom and justice need to be standing up not only here but around the world, demanding that somehow, human dignity be respected. >> there is frustration over historically unconditional

support of israel. he blames hamas for breaking friday's fragile 72-hour truce. >> it's going to be hard to put a ceasefire back together again. if israelis and the international community can't feel confidence that hamas can follow through on a ceasefire agreement. >> it is this view proisrael supporters tried to inject into the issue, unsuccessfully. proisrael position of their government. >> this is not a muslim issue it is a humanitarian issue and we have to be here and we have to support it. >> i do not want to be on the wrong side of history and i think president obama is being on the wrong side of history. killing women, killing children, killing innocent people is justifiable in any way whatsoever. >> it is unclear if anyone is

listening. the u.s. congress has just left for a month-long recess and president obama was playing golf and celebrating his birthday, away from the protest outside the white house. kimberly halkett, al jazeera, washington. >> john terret from washington. >> the egyptians will host what they hope to be something meaningful. a palestinian contingent will be present but not israel and not hamas. maybe the two main players will come together in egypt. now remember egypt shares a border with israel. it's mrs. the only arab nation to ever sign a peace deal with tel aviv.

abdel fatah al-sisi says these peace are meetings do stand a real success. >> the crisis in gaza and end the bloodshed. >> one of the reasons the 72 hour ceasefire broke down was the capture of israeli soldier second lieutenant hadar golden and the prime minister who joined president al-sisi at that news conference said the resolution of that issue around second lieutenant golden is important for going forward. >> i call for the immediate release of the israeli soldier who was kidnapped yesterday. >> and just a reminder that the two key players, hamas and the israelis will not be present as these peace negotiations get underway in cairo nor will the united states. i think the u.s. has probably done all it can for the time

being. we've seen secretary kerry shuttling around the region trying to come to some conclusion or resolution to this crisis and yesterday president obama in his impromptu news conference hinted that this has been going on for a very long time, which hints he's aware that any resolution could be a long way off. he hinted that the two sides of have to want it meaning hamas and the israelis. he hinted to the northern ireland process where april years, have the two sides found something to agree on and they calmer together in a peace process. no sign of that happening any time soon in the middle east. >> john terret from washington. for nearly a month our correspondents have been on the ground in the middle east covering this latest conflict between israel and hamas. they've seen the violence firsthand. tonight a look at this best reporting during this 25-day

conflict. gaza witness to war, airs at 11:00 eastern, 8:00 pacific. the first victim of ebola from the united states arrived in atlanta today, he was able to walk into the building on his own power. dr. ken brantley, is quarn teend in emory university. robert ray picks up the toy from there. >> a private chartered jet landed at dobbins air force, base just outside atlanta carrying one of the american aid workers infected with ebola. dr. kent brantley got out of the

airplane in his own, got out of the ambulance walked into this isolation unit that the cdc and emory built 12 years ago, where he will be treated over the next weeks to stabilize his condition even more. yesterday a press conference at emory university, one of the infectious disease doctors explained why this unit is capable of taking the patients in. >> we have a special containment unit from the centers for disease control and together we have developed a unit which can safely care for a patient with a serious communicable disease delivering the highest level of care are required, including intensive care unit. >> emory doctors say they are going to manage this situation

very carefully. some sort of fluids they're going to be putting into patients, we'll have to wait to see when they come out to talk to us. the first aid worker has already left dobbins air force, headed to maine to refuel and headed to liberia. her name nancy riteball will be expected next week. she'll probably be landing here on monday then brought to the isolation unit in atlanta. one thing that doctors are stressing is they feel because of the modern health care they have here and the ice laitionz unit they can actually --ize laition unit that they can actually -- isolation unit, they just don't have the systems in place to treat these patients. as we speak right now there are more than 1300 people sickened over in west africa and more

than 700 killed, dead, in the most deadly infectious disease of ebola in history. one last note. this is first time any patient stricken with ebola virus has been brought to the united states. >> the virus does have the entire world on alert. quarantine inspectors have been assigned to 13 stations in the u.s. togo, a passenger who later died from ebola transferred. doctors are screening passengers in and out of togo airport. 60% moralityity rate, right now there is no -- more tallit mort.

>> reporter: uniting against ebola. sierra leone's capitol freetown are on a campaign to spread the word. >> we need to join the government to make sure we fight against ebola. because ebola there has no remedy. >> reporter: a killer that's now taken more than 700 lives in sierra leone, liberia and guinea this year. the heads of those west african nations have agreed to create an isolation zone. they have been meeting with the world health organization chief. >> you must support the extraordinary measures by the experts reporting capacity, protective comploating and other resources, including tps -- protective clothing and other resources. including financial resources. >> ebola is highly contagious

and spreads through direct contact. yet outbreaks have largely been restricted to africa. >> it's really only a threat to dhawns sort of have weak -- countries that have sort of weak health systems, disease systems that can break down. >> ebola is one of the most life threat nirng diseases to humans. -- threatening diseases to humans. lack of financial incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop and one that they say needs to be addressed. jerald tan, al jazeera. >> join us in a few minutes as we take a deeper look at the ebola outbreak in west africa and the efforts to contain it. in about 12 minutes. ing residents in toledo, ohio are warned to not wash from water from the tap.

officials say there are dangerous levels of a toxic called microare christen in then in the water. national guard is trucking in water from other parts of the state. bisi onile-ere is on her way to toledo. bisi, what's the latest with the situation? >> reporter: good evening, richelle, the city of toledo issued the warning around 2:00 this morning. toxic levels of microsisten was found in the water supply on friday evening. the governor issued a state of

emergency for the residents of the area. residents started flooding grocery stores for water. the national guard is trucking in water as you mentioned and there's real concerns that there could be a shortage. residents are going to great length as you can imagine to get cleaning water even crossing state lines to michigan. toledo's mayor has are cautioned to not panic. the tests on the water, still no word on those findings. toledo's mayor michael collins spoke about what's planned over the next ten hours. take a listen. >> right now we have short term plans, we're going oget on for the next ten hours. if it's needed beyond that ten hours we're going to accomplish that too. >> bisi, i have a question for you. i know you're headed to toledo

now. is this something that's made people sick or? >> it sounds like the treatment plant, they caught this. they knew there was concern over algae about a year ago but it didn't reach toxic levels that it has now. so as we know right now that there have been more than 100 people that have come into area hospital. they have been concerned because they drank some of this water and suddenly showed signs being ill. i can tell you some of the signs shows being dizzy, are having an upset stomach. restaurants in the area have been ordered to close. >> bisi, thank you very much. residents in eastern ukraine say they have recovered more remains. their investigation could take more than a week. the remains of an estimated 80

passengers still have not been recovered. more than two weeks since that jet was shot down. is the fight for eastern ukraine is still raging. russian separatists are still fighting and people who live there are trying to get out of war zone. western border away from ukraine, russian pair troopers are loading, into trucks forest toafor inestonia. at this time ahead on al jazeera america. the death of a man who was held 92 choke hold. criticism aimed at the nypd. a deeper look at the ebola outbrak, now that it's --

outbreak. we'll separate fact from fiction.

is

>> welcome back. time to take a deeper look at the ebola outbreak. the ebola virus made headlines this week. two american health workers contracted the disease while work in west africa. tonight we take a deeper look at ebola and the challenges it poses. across west africa more than 700 people have died from the disease. latest from the nigerian capitol, abuja. >> the leaders of nigeria, gi nay and countries in west earve. fears of the -- africa. governments are scrambling a response. in nigeria one man has died from one of the affected cubs.

government has placed more than 70 people under observation. two have been quarantined. there are reports of patients who have left hospitals and moved into the community. consumption of wild animals or bush meat is widespread in many areas and taking that off people's menu may prove to be very, very difficult. there is also the problem of large movement of people across countries, across borders in the west africa subregion which is causing a lot of concern for government and health workers. now some governments are even thinking about putting additional restrictions on people coming from areas affected by ebola into their own countries. >> that is ahmed edris from abuja. the outbreak primarily occur in central and west africa, in

remote villages, the virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads from human to human. through contact with blood secretions and other bodily fluids. contaminated environments for example touching something that has been contaminated earlier. earlier i spoke to dr. joseph ferry, united states consultant to the ministry in sierra leone. i asked him what the situation was like on the ground there in the fight against ebola are virus. >> currently active transmission of the virus is growing and growing obvious not at a particularly rapid pace but we are seeing more case he coming in. frankly we do not have it under control at this point. we are very aggressively trying to do so.

>> i heard you say the word epidemic. is that deliberate? >> yes, it is a multiclusterred epidemic. several centers of the epidemic where we see active transmission and a number of cases. so focal point may be a better term, focal points, sierra leone, liberia, less so in gi nay, some pockets in gi nay that will not grow back in that area. >> is this a matter of the world not having been prepared for this or is there a way to be prepared for something that is basically pretty rare? >> no, i have to say, this has been somewhat of a wakeup call to the international public health community. it is dramatic how ill-prepared we were to respond to an epidemic of this size, especially considering the amount of money that is being spent on being prepared to

respond to epidemics. and there are multiple reasons for that. this particular outbreak has posed unique challenges which we have not yet encountered before. arone being multiple countries t the time. that has to do with the colonial borders that exist between gi nay and sierra leone and liberia. they don't exist. families living on one side or the other that are in constant movement to see one another, et cetera. and then wand then we also havee situation where we are experiencing now urban transmission in urban centers in these countries. so sierra leone, for example, an urban city third largest in sierra leone and we have active

transmission there. the outbreaks have mostly been located in rural remote locations and it was just a matter of fact even on a normal day it wasn't easy to travel. but now, it is easy to travel and people do so often. >> doctor, i understand you have lost some colleagues very close to you who were treating ebola patients. tell me about your friends? >> yes, we may have lost quite a bit of our research, and clinical family. especially in for some of us i myself have worked in that area for quite some time. around the last decade. dr. khan who just recently passed i had known for a decade since 2004. and he was a bright and brilliant sierra leoneian physician had just finished his infectious disease fellowship.

he was a tragic loss, in addition to the are nurses that worked with him. hemorrhagic fever, which is endemic in this area. we have lost family members, because of a few of us having very long history in this particular area. >> experts at emory university say this offers them the best shot for recovery. >> the critical component of caring for a patient with ebola virus infection is supportive care. the reason we are bringing these patients back to our faferlt faf facility is because we feel they have the highest level of care offered for their treatment. they have gone over on a humanitarian mission. they have become infected through medical care and we feel that we have the environment and

expertise to safely care for these patients and offer them the maximum opportunity for recovery from these infections. >> joining me now is dr. stephen morse. the director of the infectious disease epidemiology certificate program at columbia university. and marty, joining me on skype, we appreciate both of you stepping up to have this conversation because so many people are focused on it now. dr. morse my first question is going to be to you. i know you know dr. joseph bear who we just heard from a moment ago. his analysis was that the world was not prepared for this. do you agree with that? >> yes, do i. particularly in this region where the virus has been around a long time but there really haven't been identified cases. we haven't had an outbreak

there. so it probably got much further than it normally would have simply because it took people a while to see what they were dealing with and are able to recognize -- and be able to recognize this. it is a frightening disease. >> dr. marty would you like to weigh in on it? >> dr. fair and dr. morse, i'm in violent agreement with both of them. absolutely. this situation that's complicated by the way that the countries were broken up during colonial times, the fact that two of those countries use english as a dominant language, one uses french, even though they are overlapping tribes they are not all the same tribes. so you have a lot of very interesting cultural issues that you have to deal with and logistical issues to deal with. makes this a much more complicatethink to resolve.

>> let -- complicated thing to resolve. >> let me pick up on dr. marty's point. this is much more complicated than this. having said that where do you start? >> well, the social factors are really the dominant factor here. so under ideal circumstances, it would be good if we'd had early recognition of some of these cases. and then, be able to control the infection in the hospitals. with good infection control, measures and of course good supportive care as you'd already heard. once it gets this far it becomes like putting out a major forest fire and it requires a lot of people doing basically the same thing. putting these patients into isolation, so they won't come in contacts with other uninfected people and of course very good infection control. personal protective equipment for the physicians and for the other workers. >> do they have enough of these equipment and these basics that

you're talking about? >> no. not only that but they have a shortage as we all do of trained personnel. as joseph mentioned there just aren't enough people. everyone spread very thin and with an outbreak this big it's much worse because it spreads so far and so few people are really trying to do 18-hour days to take care of this large number of infected people. >> dr. marty how frustrating is that, if i can pick up on what dr. morse is saying, money can't cure it but it would seem money would make a huge difference, money and resources. >> absolutely, money and resources would add a huge difference. i want to add to what dr. morse is saying, they have alluded to it already, there are other very serious diseases that are not uncommon in those countries. and any given patient, even right now, even in the midst of

this ebola outbreak, may actually show up with a very severe case of malaria, yellow fever which can be confused or even lasa, which has been mentioned. a patient may have more than one of these. and when you are treating these patients you have to bear in mind that you have to do treatment modalities, but for whatever secondary diseases they may have. >> quite a task. dr. morse could you tell us the situation that happens for these? >> it happens with flu like, fever, muscle aches. at that point you may not know how serious the disease is and then usually very rapidly people start to develop bloody die re, abdominal pains, very often

vomiting, headache is very common and of course later on in the course of disease, every organ is affected. you have the leakiness of blood vessels and abnormal blood coagulation. what they're doing is for therapy is giving anticoo anticoagulation drugs. bleeding into the lungs or other vital organs often is fatal. >> people in the u.s. are terrified and get a little anxious that somebody with this disease is being treated in the united states for the first time. but dr. brantley was send to emory university for a specific

reason. can you tell us about the containment units? >> i did work at the u.s. army research station, we have a similar unit, a similar what we call bio-safety-level 4 patient isolation sweet and we nicknamed it the slammer. because is lam you slam the dood you're not getting out until you are healed, the patient that is put in there. these units are virtually identically inside -- identical to the ward at emory university. the reason we make them identical is when the health care workers go in to treat the patient they are already familiar with all the equipment is how the equipment works that's in there and that really facilitates patient care. the slammer there is about 182,

180 square foot patient rooms and a 300 square foot treatment room and it also has something that's very important for the viewers to know which is these hepa filters, clean the air constantly. the air in the suite is exchanged 15 times per hour or more. and then, any air that leaves the room also is filtered out by a double filtration system. and so we -- we all consider the air that leaves that room cleaner than your average city air. and in addition, any equipment that is brought out of the room passes through an autoclassify e machine. it burns off anything that gets through. >> two benefits i suppose, obviously it keeps it from

spreading. if a patient is in there does that increase their chances of gettings better? >> yes, in that you know, in a place like emory right now, in that special isolation unit, they'll have the latest technology in monitoring, in intensive care equipment, and so on. it's not fundamentally tremendously different from what's in africa. but the infrastructure is much better. and of course, the other thing is, these health care workers will not become a burden, another patient who has to be treated on their colleague's co- colleagues back in africa. >> i want to ask you about the health care workers that do this type of work that knowingly put their health at risk. they are special people. >> no, i agree and many people call them heroes and i would agree. you know they really are willing to go on to the front line,

essentially the line of battle or the line of fire, with these diseases. most of them, you know, really are dedicated to what they're doing and they're doing this for very idealistic reasons. they feel they want to help human suffering. this is why they went into the health professions and they feel they see people suffering and want to do something about it. >> and dr. marty, they go into this knowing what the risks are. >> i would assume they would know what these risks are, they are trained to handle these types of outbreaks. that would certainly be the case for the physicians that were there. that may not be the case for the missionaries that were there. >> well said. thank you both for this conversation dr. eileen pleart, dr. stephen morse, i'm sure we'll be calling on you until this is contained.

thank you for the work you do. >> you're welcome. >> still to come on al jazeera america. a man who died after being held in a choke hold by a new york city officer. the ripple effect by other police departments around the country.

>> a new call for federal prosecution of a new york city police officer who reportedly killed a 43-year-old man using a choke hold. video of his arrest went viral. video of the choke hold. the today his wife joined a chorus of civil rights activists calling for federal charges. attorney general eric holder says the justice department is taking this up. reva martin, good to talk to you hate to say it's something like this, but thank you for joining

us. what do you see reva when you see that tape? >> it's very disturbing to see the choke holding used in this case. but particularly since the new york city police department has a specific ban on choke holds to detain suspects. the new york city are police department has a lot to answer for. >> let's talk about the choke hold. from 2009 to 2013 the police department got 1022 complaints about officers using choke holds. yes, they are not supposed to be doing this. they know it's recorded and still use the choke hold. does that mean officers are still being trained this way, there's confusion about it? what can that mean? >> i think it means a lot of things but the thing that's most glaring about this tape in the use of a choke hold richelle is

the ban that's put in place, what does the enforcement look like? what are the consequences? you make reference to those 1,000 complaints that were made to the new york police department. but what happened with respect to those complaints? you know how aggressive have the department been in investigating complaints and ensuring that were adequate consequences for any officers involved in violating that ban? >> reva, why the call for federal charges? is it a civil rights case? why federal civil rights charges william. >> so far no charges have been filed against the police or the medical providers who arrived at the scene who refused to provide cpr for eric gardner. if there were specific federal statutes that were violated by

excessive force, we'll see charges that could carry significant prison time. >> reva this is probably a tough question to ask but i'm going oask it. we know about what happened here because somebody recorded it. and it went viral. had mr. go gay gar inner died ao one -- garner died and no one taped it the outcome would have been different. >> with these cell phone videos that keep popping up again and again and again with police making arrests, the police are able to you know conclude investigations to make conclusions about crimes athat are being committed and you just have to wonder, you know police know that you know joe citizen is out there watching and taping everything that happens. so it's a little puzzling to me that the police knowing you know

the amount of technology that's being used that they would still engage in such behavior. >> how does a video like this further complicate -- make police officers' jobs more difficult because they do have difficult jobs and also complicate the relationship between communities that may rightfully already be distrusting of police? >> well, let's face it. no one wants to be recorded in the process of doing their job. you know you or i wouldn't want someone sitting in our offices with a tape recorder recording what we do. but that is the reality of the world we live in with cell phones and with smamps is that the -- smartphones is that police are under incredible scrutiny. and when a tape goes viral, it causes distrusts particularly among those of color or african american men are treated by police departments. this is going to resonate over

communities of color who are already somewhat distrustful of police departments. >> i'm sure you're right. why police departments across the country will be watching. ing thank you for joining us. >> thank you richelle. >> people are asked to get out of their home as, in california, a raging wildfire continues. what is it's test -- what is tesla proposing to replace its gigantic battery plant?

>> now available, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. a global perspective wherever you are. the major headlines in context. mashable says... you'll never miss the latest news >> 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 >> in california, fast moving wildfires have forced people from their home. at least 120 people have been

told to evacuate the area. firefighters are dealing with rough terrain and windy conditions as they try to contain the fires. kevin is here. hi kevin. >> you can see what we're talking about right here. northern california popping up right here in the afternoon heating of the day. that's what we're expecting to see tomorrow as well. look at the temperatures we are seeing in northern california. redding is 104. all the way up to seattle, seattle normally this time of the year we would see an average temperature of about 73, 74° and that is well above average. we're going to get a little bit of relief down here in southern california. can you see showers pushing through right here and with that we have the potential of flooding as well. you can see the areas of green there, flash flooding, nevada,

utah, arizona. four corners area is starting to push a little bit more over to the west. this is definitely not going to be a drought buster but more humid area into that area and it will help some of those firefighters over the next couple of days. here across the eastern seaboard it is been wet. out towards the west we have another line of thunderstorms coming in from west virginia and that is going to be a big problem especially for tomorrow, washington, d.c, you can see a very rainy day there, things are going to get warmer, tuesday, 92°, a little break in the summer heat is coming back. here across much of the northeast the rain is moving up here, getting a break there but also that same line of thunderstorms is moving through. here in new york sunday is going to be a very rainy day at 78. but richelle as we go to mid week we are back up into the mid 80s. back to you. >> it's summer, thank you kevin.

tesla says it will partner with panasonic to build a $5 billion plant, the luxury car maker is waiting to see which company offers the best deal. >> for decades, new facilities in the city or state offering the best incentives. tax holidays, free land, infrastructure development and other perks can cause state and local governments of governments hundreds of millions of dollars and in the few instances in the billions. >> public officials think they have to om offer these deals. companies will take the deals when they're offered and everyone thinks this is unavoidable. >> tesla has sparked a war over the giga-plant, projected 1,000 acre plant could create up to

6500 jobs. in a letter to shareholders, tesla's are kerry, a lon musk said they broke ground on a location that could be the giga-factory. 9/11 assembly speaker marilyn kilpatrick welcomed the tesla factory, saying, any time we can lure new industry, that should be something we're looking at. but tesla is also leaving the door open for other states to offer more incentives. industry experts believe the company should be looking at 300 to 600 million in tax breaks. >> the company wants state and local officials to compete to bribe them, to put it in blunt terms to bribe them to invest in a particular location. >> watchdog groups say most companies that get these big tax

breaks don't really need them and would be better used for individuals or families in need. tax credits has exceed their tax liability then they sold the tax credits to a third party for a profit further reducing government's tax revenues. public officials are desperate to win these deals in the name of job are creation. a del computer plant in north carolina received more than $270 million in subsidies from state and local agencies. but dell later decided to shut it down and eliminated all the jobs created. evergreen solar plant in massachusetts is another example. the company received about $58 million from the state. then they shut down the facility and moved to china. in both cases small portions of the money paid out were recouped. courtney keely, al jazeera. >> coming up on al jazeera

america, american zoos are facing a tough decision which will have a dramatic impact on the lives of their elephants. ray suarez hosts inside story

weekdays at 5 eastern only on al jazeera america

>> the population of american elephants in zoos is declining. tanya moseley shows us how one zoo in seattle is dealing with this. >> all of these people eagerly waiting in line are about to get closer than they ever have before to an 8,000 pound giant. >> hi bamboo. >> add 47 years old, bamboo is the oldest elephant at seattle's woodland park zoo. >> hi pu pumpkin, hi sweetie pi. >> all of these have spent their lives here. but you'll never see all of them interact at one time. one is aggressive to the other. >> even when we have elephants that are sharing the space together, they oftentimes choose

to share the opposite side of the exhibits. >> a growing body of evidence shows that elephants thrive when they are able to socialize with a herd of three or more. increasing their herds or phasing out their programs and donate their elephants to other zoos. because of her aggressive nature that's what woodland park may soon do with watodo. it would allow the zoo to acquire another elephant who will get along better with the rest of the herd. but animal rights advocates say that is not enough. >> when i look at the elephants and see the elephants i think it's a very sad commentary on our humanity. >> the el foonts her elephants . >> what would you like to see for these elephants? >> i would like to have them retire to a sanctuary, where they can roam on vast acres of land, where they can swim in the

lake and heal from the arthritis and lameness that they have and become as much of an elephant as they can for the remainder of their lives. >> but curator martin ramirez believes that the sanctuaries are meant for elephants to live out their days, not to pro create. ramirez says with 96 wild elephants poached for their ivory each day -- >> if given a choice of a zoo and being being free roaming around in a wild, i would say elephants would be safer in the zoo because they don't have the threats they have in the wild. >> an up close and personal experience will inspire everyone to join the effort to save the elephants. tanya moseley, al jazeera,

seattle. >> i'm richelle carey. a program note, watch gaza, witness to war. 11 eastern, 8 pacific. "consider this" starts right now. >> israel's long struggle with palestinians has led to some surprising changes of heart. a former israeli soldier who has major reservations about the country's military joins us. hello, i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this," that story and much more straight ahead. >> for terror organizations around the world kidnapping is big business. >> this has become a cottage industry. >> a government report says the money is the main source of funding. >> and their pockets are lined with money from western governments. >> and