straight through that... >> 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 >> israel warns it will this continues a long fight against gaza if hamas doesn't stop firing rockets. turkey, the first direct elections to choose a president. more u.s. air strikes in iraq. president obama warns the fight against the islamic state group may be a long one the nigerians

determined to eat wild animal meat despite warnings to the link to ebola. four more palestinians have been killed in attacks by israel. primary minister benjamin netanyahu said they are prepared to continue with a long military fight and they won't go back to the negotiating table while rockets are being fired from gaza. he script is trying to help broker a new 72-hour truce. the previous one expired on friday, and since then, there have been attacks from both sides. palestinian negotiators say they will abandoned efforts to achieve a long-term cease fire unless israel resumes talks without conditions. >> at no stage did we declare military's military offensive was over. the operation will continue until it's objective, the restoration of quiet over a protracted period is achieved. i said at the beginning and throughout the operation, it will take time and stamina is

required. >> andrew simmons is in gaza city. we will go there in just a moment. first, to kimberly halkett in west jerusalem. kimberly, i guess we must talk about what's happening in cairo and whether there is any prospect of more talks for a cease-fire. >> reporter: indeed. we are talking about what's not happening in cairo right now. >> that's that the two delegations are not even speaking via a mediator, the palestinian delegation is still in cairo. as you pointed out at the start of the program, there are threats to return to ramalah because the israeli delegation is simply failing to meet and to discuss via the egyptian mediator. so the view is, according to our sources, that there may be a return to the west bank of the palestinian delegation to consult with president macmum abbas on

further steps. having said that, the israeli delegation has maintained for a number of days as long as there is the rocket fire from gaza that they will not return to kairo and we can report to you that as recently as even in the last hour, there has been a continued sounding of sirens. there has still been some very small-range rocket fire into southern israel. and the view of the israeli delegation is as long as that continues, they will not be returning. i can tell you in spite of all of this, there is also another report coming out of the egyptian state media in cairo saying that the palestinian negotiation despite threats to leave does have a planned meeting on monday with the arab league in cairo so there is some feeling that they may stay and try to consult with members of the arab league on further steps to try to break this deadlock. >> kimberly, i understand the authorities are saying very little about what's going on israel. what are the people saying? what kind of pressure are they put okay their government?

>> there is tremendous pressure being put on the government. >> that's why we did hear from, in a statement from benjamin netanyahu, the prime minister earlier today reaffirming from what we have heard, the standard statements that have really not changed, that as long as there is rocket fire, the military offensive will continue, that the campaign is not yet over, and he reiterated? >>, and this is for domestic consumption, i think, the fact that it's going to take some time, but eventually, quiet will be restored. calm will be restored. now, the reason i say this is for domestic consumption is the fact that he is under tremendous pressure from those border communities in southern israel along the gaza border who are angry right now. they left their homes for many weeks when the cease-fire was in place for three days, they did go back, then it was not extended. now there is rocket fire and they are very angry, in their words, you know, the job is not completely. it's not finished. it's only half done. consistent with some of the statements coming out of the cabinet that the military

offensive needs to continue. so tremendous domestic pressure for the israeli cabinet, for the prime minister right now. >> kimberly halkett in west jerusalem, thank you. let's take a look at the human toll since israel began its military assault on gaza more than a month ago. 64 israeli soldiers and three civilians, a thai national, have been killed. gaza sez attacks have killed 1,917 palestinians of those, the u.n. says almost three-quarters are civilians. and 449 were children. almost 10,000 palestinians have been injured. as promised, andrew simmons is live in gaza city. andrew, firstly, i have to ask you: what is the general feeling there in gaza for the palestini palestinians? >> one of really a forlorn, distraught feeling amongst the majority of palestinians and

gaza right now. you've got to remember that a humanitarian catastrophfee is still playing out here. it may have been a three-day cease-fire, and it may have been some respite. there may have been sometimes a restock the hospitals to some degree for some people to go back to their homes. the majority of whom found that their homes were all but destroyed, it has to be said. we have spoken to so many of them. and now, of course, what some describe as low-grade violence compared with what was happening prior to that three-day cease-fire, but nevertheless, the death toll keeps increasing every day. another four dead confirmed today, and a feeling in many areas of what next? what can happen next? in terms of the cease-fire, we asked a number of people who were homeless in an area near the main hospital in gaza city where people have just got

nothing but blankets and mattresses and just sheltered there because it seems safe. this is what they had to say about cease-fire talks. >> translator: there is no hope of a ceasefire anymore. they are saying it's hopeless. the palestinian resistance isn't willing to give up the blood of nearly 2,000 people any vain. the negotiations in egypt are impotent. they don't address the humanitarian requests. the real needs we have. it's hopeless. >> andrew speaking here, there is a lot of despair and kimberly was telling us, it seems like more ceasefire talks aren't necessarilyforth coming right away. tell us about the situation there regarding people's fears of more airstrikes and recent israeli airstrikes. >> well, right now, we have had

persist ant airstrikes right through sunday. it has to be set not intention but certainly persistent and a death in a place in the central part of the gaza strip, a teenager was killed by an airstrike there. also, strikes in jabolia, beytanun, rafa, right across the strip really. another three dead and many injured, also, so we have a situation now where people are expecting more of this. some are still hoping that these reports of a possible 72 hour cease-fire by the egyptians do actually pan out to be something more than reports. and the situation really is, as i say, forlorn and distraught. >> let's hope something positive happens. something very distressing for people there. thank you very much, and simmons in gaza for us.

well, you can always get more in depth analysis of what's happening on our website. there it is on the screen for you. find that at aljazeera.com. there is a live blog and plenty more other information. turkey where polls have closed in the first direct presidential elections there. up until now, it wasn't the public but the parliament who chose presidents. three men are competing for the post. the current is erdowan. he has been in power for more than a decade and cretted with improving the economy. he wants to change the largely ceremony post of the into a more powerful one. his main challenger is al retired diplomat, ihsanoglu, and there is a 41-year-old lawyer, seen as parts of a new

generation a much kurdish politicians, demirtas. live in the capital, polls have closed. what's been the mood there? has there been much enthusiasm and part israelpation in these polls? >> this is an election campaign really that's been dominated by erdowan, the incumbent prime minister. it's his face you sigh on the posters in istanbul and you have seen him across the country. he's dominated the airwaves as well. the opposition have complained that they didn't get as much of a fair shout on the public blitzty front on air time, particularly that erdowan. nevertheless, this campaign has seen him at the forefront. he is a very popular prime minister. he's got a lot of passionate supporters. but he's also devisive. he is polarizing. you either love him or you hate

him here in turkey, delia. >> tell us about the other two candidates. do they stand up of a chance? >> well, this was always going to be a difficult campaign for anybody coming in to stand against erdowan. the main opposition candidate. the seventy-year-old retired former diplomat, he was chosen by a group of opposition parties more than a dozen of them because they believed he had the conservative religious cred credentials that would appeal to a lot of the matses of erdowan supporters who are also religious muslims. they hoped they would help bring support away from erdowan to them. but fact is, erdogan is a very charismatic politician. and ihrdulu is a retired diplomat and doesn't have the street fighting skills that will erdogan has in buckets.

>> bernard, let me throw a little bit. he is largely planning to make it more than just a ceremonial role. does he have the support to do that in will he be able to make the president's position far more powerful than it is? >> because this is the first time that turks have directly act elected the president -- it used to be the parliament. erdogan hopes the popular mandate will give him the ability to make the presidency much more of an executive role. essentially, in recent president's past goal, the outgoing president is amongst them. they have used the role as a more ceremonial sort of role. erdogan has made no secret that he wants to have more power as president. if he wants to really make it an executive presidency, he will need to change the constitution and need parliament to back those changes. so, it's not going to be that easy for him to make those big

executive changes but turks can certainly expect to enter choppy, uncharted political waters in the coming months and years. >> bernard smith live in ankora. as polls close there? >> engine failure suspected to caused the crash of an iranian plane. the iranian media says 39 people were killed. another nine survived. plate came down after takeoff from iran's busiest airport. they said the plane had crashed and just said, come quickly and receive the bodies of your children. >> we should thank god the pilot could move the plane away from residential buildings by all means. unfortunately, it did not crash on them. otherwise, we would have been dealing with a much more worse crisis now. >> an iranian journalist has

more from tehran. >> due to the sanctions that the company did not give the iranians airplane parts so the iranians were forced to use refurbished models and refurbished parts, special electronic parts for the plane and four of these planes fell down until now. mainly the cause was malfunction, the malfunctioning of the motors of these planes. sot as the eyewitness and the news now say one of the motors of this plane did not function well and it was burning before the plane fell down and mainly, the reason of the plane may have been because of this issue. >>ays demanding the release of

three journalists who have been imprisoned for 225 days. they were falsely accused of helping the outlawed muslim brotherhood. they were given seven year sentences. mohammed got an extra three years because he had a spent bullet in his possession which he picked up at a protest. more this news hour. we will tell you about the challenges faced by police as they deal with separatist supporters. also ahead: >> inc. dam yell lack in northwestern british columbia where were big energy projects are causing controversy on one of the most unique coastal wilderness areas. >> rory mcilroy, on course to win back to back neighbors. the latest from the championship in sports at least 16 people

including four children have been killed in aleppo. witnesses say a government helicopter fired on a residential neighborhood on saturday. caroline malone has details. >> one of the children killed at home by a barrel bomb. an internationally condemned weapon because it kills indiscriminately. witnesses say a helicopter dropped a bomb here according to a neighbor, many defendant casualties are from the same family. you. >> the boys were asleep. the grandfather is the only one who came out alive. at least he did, thank god. he has three married children. one has six daughters. the other, seven children. the last one has four. there is no sign of them, not even of their mother's. >> the neighborhood is under opposition control. people blame the government led by president bashar al assad.

>> there is not a single fighter here for god's sake, it seems the front line is safer than the city. there is clear evidence assad want to target civilians, wants to kill the children, the women and the elderly. young sisters are dying on all sides. rebel rockets hit another district on saturday. in february, united nations security council resolution demanded government forces stopped using barrel bombs in populated areas. the group say many more of the explosives have been used in the a last five months t-barrel bombs are cheap to make with scrap metal. we don't have a big final death toll. we are looking for survivors under the rubble. >> the effects of barely bombs can be devastating, something these civilians have now

experienced for themselves. caroline malone, al jazeera. the ebola virus killed nearly a thousand people in four west african countries since the outbreak began. despite repeated warnings, people are continues to go eat bush meat, animals such as fruit bat did and monkeys which are suspected of carrying the virus. this report from the nigeria. >> reporter: the family has been selling game meat for the last 30 years. she rungs this restaurant just outside lagos, the commercial capitol. on the menu today is monkey and antelope. she prepares the meat for customers that might not come. >> few come. before everybody survive. >> bush meat as it is called here is once again suspected to have been the bridge that caused the deadly disease to go from the animal world to the human.

all it takes is a single transmission from animal to human, mainly caused by handling fresh carcasses of infected animals to create a new victim. >> west africans say game meat is the the food of their ancestors and then consuming it for as long as anyone can remember. at times like this when the authorities are discouraging its consumption due to the ebola outbreak, it can still be found available in almost every street corner. >> the chairman of the national association of hunters, he is livid. >> it's aly. it's a purely. if they don't want bush meat, they should not eat it. but they cannot say we should not eat it. they cannot say the public not should be eating it. >> reporter: for now, it's only the brave and most ardent of game meat consumers who continue the demand for t for them, abandoning the tradition is out

of the question. >> i was raised with bush meet meat. i continue because i like it. it's my favorite and i have been enjoying it and i wish you to do so. >> superstition in rural communities, poor healthcare and cross border movements have contributed to the spread of ebola in west africa. there is concern here that the refusal by some to believe bush meat is unsafe may spread the disease. mohammed, al jazeera, lagos, al jazeera. >> at least four civilians have been killed in a suicide bomb that targeted a native convoy in afghanistan. they say the convey was traveling on a main road in kabul. at least 35 people were injured the. jennifer glasse has more flu kabul. >> the car bomb left a large crater on the main road here in kabul a couple of kilometers southeast of the city on a road that leads to the parliament.

there are several universities on that road. killed in that attack, four civil yajz, two children, a woman and a man and 35 afghans injured according to the chief of police here the target of that attack as nato convoy. nato is travelling heavily armored vehicles. even though the target was a military target as is so often the case here, civilians bear the brunt of that attack, the united nations saying civilian injuries and death in the first six months of 2014 are 24% higher than they were over the same period last year. this all happened in a large transition year even as there are fewer and fewer nato troops in the country. they continue to be a target for the taliban. as is so often the case here, civilians are the ones hubert the brunt for civilians -- four civilians killed and 35 injured

in an attack in kabul. >> dilling 44 people and new jerseying at least 11 others, a bus fell off a 10-meter high cliff after hitting two vehicles. the accident happened about 90 kilometers from tibet capitol. most of the passengers were from eastern regions of china. >> fighting in eastern ukraine city of donetsk has killed at least 4 persons. they say they want to present a humanitarian catastrophe. ukrainian forces say separatists are ready for a cease fire only if rebels surrender their arms. staying with ukraine and in the eastern city of slovyansk. police are investigating crimes wh when that may have been committed when it was under separatist rule. it's difficult for the police force that was chased out of the city.

emma hayward that this report from there? >> they are being given their orders for the day ahead receiving mug shots of people that the police want to find. each day, the station receives almost 100 calls from resident did reporting crimes committed duer separatist rule. there is a new man in charge of the police force which was chased out of slovyansk when the separatists arrived. >> the police never had to deal with such a situation. we are used to work and live in peaceful times. now, we are living in post wartimes. both policemen and citizens need psychological help. three months, we were under occupation. there was a constant threat of killing or kidnapping, especially for civilians. >> well, the police here tried to deal with the alleged crimes of separatists and supporters.

there are concerns in the community that people could be wrongly accused of being collaborators. >> outside the police station, we met vladimir and his mother. he filed a report saying he had been beaten up by men in military, not police uniforms, who he told us had wrongly accused him of being a separatist. >> i am innocent. i am just an ordinary citizen. they have beaten me and taken my car, even my driver's license. i don't know what kind of justice will be served. i hope they don't kill me and my car will be returned. >> the editor-in-chief of the local paper has returned to work. they stopped printing when the separatists arrived. he says even though they have now gone, they still wield some power here. >> the separatists came here and destroyed the infrastructure and houses and killed people. i thought the people who supported the separatists would change their mind. there were a lot of people who

changed their attitude. but i am amazed that there are also a lot of people who didn't learn anything from these events. they think the kiev government is a junta and they are illegal. they think the bp r are good. >> many people here are keen to try to move forward, forced to hold back their opinion, a trade-off for peace. emma hayward, slovyansk in eastern ukraine. >> kurdish forces have broken through the is or islamic state defenses and have retain the city of makmor, 40 kilometers south of the kurdish capitol, erbil. it is important because it's on the road to kirkuk. the u.s. launched airstrikes on sunday targeting is fighter positions. it is said to have struck around 40 kilometers south of erbil. there are said to have been multiple pi airstrikes notice region since being authorized by president obama on thursday.

>> over seeing aid delivery, representatives of the christians and yazitis in baghdad and erbil. >> part of a loan agreement with the euro zone partners, a court has rejected plans to privatize water, much to the relief of many greeks who were dreading a hike in-household bills. john saropolas has the details. >> reporter: this restaurant owner and his clients are celebrating a triumph. greece's top administrative court has told the government to keep a 1/3 stake in the athens industry. this will help keep bills low and this restaurant in business. the citizens action group say greek water thinks greece shouldn't sell off its assets. >> i think that the worst-case scenario is off of the tame now and we, of course, are still

aware of the pressure from the international lobby of water over the private players with the greek government. >> it's the first time a court has stopped a privatization demanded by grease's creditors. athens water started out as a private venture 80 years ago when an american company built and operated marathon dam. most people don't believe contractors would match this level of investment today and contractors would forfeit european public sector subsidies who paid for infrastructure like this sewage treatment plant for athens. >> people see water as a human right unlike telophony and, it is essential. the idea for a for-private company controlling access to it as a commodity is not acceptable to most greeks. >> many others agree. since 2000, 86 cities around the world have claimed their water works back from private contractors. this rate of failure doesn't

preturning metropolis who will heads the privatization program. >> failure doesn't mean private eyesathes was wrong. it just means that the buyer could provide a common good in the right way. >> that's why we have regulators creating a water regulator that will oversee buyers and impose rules in the public interest. >> greek debt stands at over $400,000,000,000. it's mandatory privatizations are worth about 13 billion. greeks may never be able to pay off the debt, but most can still pay the water bill. john seropoulos, agent edges. >> more in the stalled talks in gaza this news hour. we will have a report on the has arrestedous journey, the only travel option for thousands of people in bangladesh. ♪ ♪ . >> and stepping away from crime and poverty, we will tell you how ballet is helping children in south africa's poor

neighborhoods. and in sports, the william sisters renew one of the greatest sibling rivalries, the rogers cup final. ♪ ♪ hardships that forced mira, omar and claudette into the desert. >> running away is not the answer... >> is a chance at a better life worth leaving loved ones behind? >> did omar get a chance to tell you goodbye before he left? >> which side of the fence are you on? >> sometimes immigration is the only alternative people have.