thank you both very much for joining us this evening. coverage of the breaking news stories, shooting down of malaysia airlines flight 17 in ukraine, and israeli invasion of gaza, continues now with michael holmes and rosemary church. holmes and rosemary church. i'm don lemon. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ukraine, a ground incursion in gaza. we are following two breaking news stories right now. hello, i'm rosemary church. >> and i'm michael holmes. we welcome our viewers from the united states, and indeed, all around the world. it is 7:00 a.m. in ukraine. officials are blaming pro-russian separatists for shooting down a malaysian airline with 298 people onboard. video from that crash site showing parts of the flight still smoldering, as you see there.

rescue workers and firefighters trying to put out the flames. >> the boeing 777 was flying from amsterdam to kuala lumpur. it disappeared from radar over eastern ukraine. >> the jet exploded midair, fell to the ground in pieces. the charred wreckage stretching for kill pleerts. >> a senior u.s. official said radar detected a surface-to-air missile right before the plane went down. the u.s. is analyzing the trajectory of the missile to try to determine where exactly it came from. >> the self-proclaimed prime minister of the donetsk people's republic visited the craft site late on thursday. there is him there in the middle of that picture. pro-russian separatists denying firing a missile at plane. >> russian president vladimir putin said the military offensive against rebels in eastern ukraine is to blame.

but ukraine's president said this is a terrorist act. >> translator: i've just finished a conversation with the prime minister of the netherlands, and expressed my condolences. on behalf of ukraine, i invited professionals and experts from the netherlands to investigate this terrorist attack transparently. i want to point your attention to the fact that we call it neither accident nor catastrophe. it's a terrorist attack. >> cnn's nic robertson is in ukraine's capital kiev. he joins us now live. nic, let's start with the intercepted phone call between the separatists and just how significant it might be in the investigation of this downed plane. >> reporter: well, at the moment, this is what the ukrainian government is saying confirms in their belief that the aircraft was shot down by separatists in the donetsk area.

they say that they've intercepted what they say are phone calls from separatists to people they say are their russian handlers. they say that these conversations show quite clearly that the separatists shot down the aircraft. these are the recordings that they've released.

>> we cannot independently verify these tapes that were released by the security services here in ukraine. certainly, the ukrainian government would have every reason to paint the separatists in a bad light. however, the government also points out that if you look at the past couple of days, several of their military aircraft, an army transport aircraft was shot down a couple of days ago, following that a fighter jet was shot down. the pilot parachuting out into

ukrainian territory, picked up by ukrainian authorities safely. but they do point to these attacks on aircraft in that area over the past couple of days as well, rosemary. >> nic, it is an extraordinary exchange. as you point out, we cannot independently confirm the authenticity of that discussion, that exchange. but of course, the big questions here, who did this? why did they do it? and where did the buk missile system that could have been involved come from? >> reporter: well, there was, according to officials here in ukraine, a tweet by a separatist leader. they claim that said -- or the original tweet claimed that they believed that they've shot down another army transport aircraft. then they discovered that that was incorrect, that they shot down a civilian airliner.

that tweet has subsequentlily been removed. but if that is correct. then it would indicate that potentially, again, we cannot independently verify this, this would hold up the government's claim that the separatists shot it down, in this case it would seem by mistake. where did they get the weapon system to do that? the separatists did get a buk antiaircraft missile system when they overran a military base a few weeks ago. however, the defense ministry subsequently said that system was inoperative. but that would potentially be one place where they could have got this weapons system from. the government here also pointing the finger at russia saying all sorts of military supplies are coming across the border. but it's generally understood, that type of weapon system is sophisticated, and needs an

operator familiar with the controls of it, and how to use it. it's not a simple piece of equipment is what we're told, rosemary. >> we have to point out to our viewers, this is very early on in the investigation. all of these little pieces trying to bring them together to form some sort of picture here. but our nic robertson reporting there live from kiev. many thanks to you. michael? >> let's talk for a minute about the boeing 777. it's got a wing span of more than 60 meters. it is almost 64 meters long. now, a jet like this will typically cruise at a speed of around 900 or so kilometers an hour. that's about 560 miles per hour. so you can imagine the horror that witnesses experienced as they heard and watched this huge aircraft fall from the sky. here's some of their accounts. >> translator: i was in my house and heard a rumble, explosions. there were two explosions. i ran out of my house and there

was black smoke. i thought my nephew was affected. i ran out and saw the black smoke. >> translator: i saw a plane falling, and then there was another plane that fell on the other side of the river. there was a flash. i couldn't tell if that was a plane or not. but there was a flash and an explosion. i didn't see anything else. >> translator: there was some shelling heard, there were a few shots, then there was a big flap. i got scared because it felt very close. i looked out of my car and then i saw a plane appearing from clouds and falling into pieces. parts flying in all directions. i ran here quickly. there was fire. that's all i saw. >> extraordinary stuff, isn't it. let's talk a little bit about that missile system that may have brought down malaysia airlines flight 17. >> yeah, ukrainian interior ministry adviser claims a buk surfa surface-to-air missile hit the plane. it's a russianmade

self-propelled missile fired from a launcher on a vehicle like a truck. >> up to 35,000 meters in the air, around 82,000 feet, if you like. roughly double a commercial jet's maximum cruising altitude. according to defense analysts, both ukrainian and russian military do have these weapons in their arsenal. tom foreman with more on the buk missile system. >> reporter: if you want to figure out what could have hit this plane, you have to think about the circumstances of the plane at the time. it was about 32,000, 33,000 feet in the air over ukraine. it was about 30 miles away from the russian border. so you cannot hit this with some shoulder-fired antiaircraft missile. they're just not strong enough. what you would need is something much more like this. this is the buk anti-missile system. it's one of those that's being talked about in this case. it is a four-man unit.

it has four ready-to-fire missiles up on top. it can set up and fire very quickly, and it can move away after firing very quickly. and those missiles have a tremendous amount of power. let's bring one in here and talk about that. each one is about 16 feet long. we're showing them a little bit smaller here just to make it all fit. it will weigh about 1,500 pounds. and it has a 154-pound warhead on it. that means 154 pounds of high explosive. it doesn't actually have to hit the target, it just has to get close to it. but with electronics guidance systems, it can get very close, and it can do it in a short period of time, 22 seconds from the time its radar achoirs the target and it can be launched. it travels at a speed of 2,684 miles per hour, even if it were fired from 30 miles away, it could have hit a plane like this in 40 seconds or less.

that means people onboard would absolutely never even see it coming. >> tom foreman there. let's go to bob, former cia operative and cnn security analyst, joining us now live from los angeles. good to see you, bob. russia trying to maintain de facto control of this part of ukraine. of course, by the separatists, and sometimes directly. what harm is done to vladimir putin, given his support for their rebellion if it does turn out to have been the separatists? >> oh, i think we have to look at this as a huge setback. i don't think anybody shot that plane down on purpose. most likely at this point with the information we have, they probably thought it was from the ukrainian air force. this is a huge, huge defeat for putin. you're going to see a lot of diplomatic pressure on him. you know, to give up trying to hold on to eastern ukraine.

putin looks at this as part of the near abroad. he stated privately and public, he's not going to let it go. there are a lot of russians there. he's already annexed crimea. i think his plans are going to quickly come apart. but how stubborn is he, what's he going to do from here on out. >> the separatists did apparently claim on social media, they had gotten hold of a buk from one of the ukrainian bases they overran. there was the chatter, if you like, social media posted that was removed hastiliy indicating that they thought they were shooting down a ukrainian plane. from your experience, how helpful is that sort of evidence from the standpoint of those investigating this, and trying to find a source of blame? >> well, i'm not sure we're ever going to get a good answer on what happened. but you have to keep in mind that with these -- even the sophisticated surface-to-air missile systems, they're not

perfect. in 1988 the u.s. shot down an iranian airbus. they couldn't tell it was an airbus. they thought it was an f-15. this is very easy to do. the problem is putin has put too many weapons in that part of the world, in europe, and i wouldn't say it's inevitable, but the violence will spread if this conflict continues, and the russians continue to arm the eastern ukrainians. >> i think you're probably right there. one of the things is if this crash happened anywhere else in the world, there would be a protocol in terms of the investigation. this is rebel-held territory. who knows what's being done at that site. that's obviously a big issue, too. >> well, who can trust the russians at this point. i mean, this has been all sort of a covert policy. 1998 the united states did a report and compensated the iranians. i don't think we'll see that from the russians. it's not the way that country

works. >> all right. bob, we'll leave it there. thanks so much. former cia operative and cnn analyst, thanks so much. malaysia airlines has released a partial list of nationalalities of the 298 people onboard flight 17. 154 of them are dutch, 45 are malaysian, including all 15 crew members, 27 are australian, 12 are indonesian. >> that also includes 9 brittons, four germans, four belgians as well, three from the philippines and one so far from canada. three infants among the dead. authorities still trying to confirm the nationalities of the remaining passengers. >> and here are pictures of one of the passengers who died in that crash. glen thomas was among a group of world health organization employees onboard that flight

heading to the 20th international aids conference in melbourne, australia. thomas was a former bbc journalist. >> a lot of people on that plane heading to that conference. the families, of course, of those onboard, they want to know exactly who's responsible here. >> more on the investigation. so far, coming up, on the special coverage, plus, israel sends tanks into gaza. and calls tens of thousands more troops into the conflict with hamas. we will go live to jerusalem. but i've managed. ♪ i got to be pretty good at managing my symptoms, except that managing my symptoms was all i was doing. ♪ when i finally told my doctor, he said my crohn's was not under control. ♪ he said humira is for adults like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. and that in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. and many achieved remission.

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let's get to the latest now on the crash of malaysia airlines flight 17. the united states says the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over eastern ukraine. there's no word yet on who was responsible, but ukrainian officials blame pro-russia separatists. the boeing 777 was flying from amsterdam to kuala lumpur with 298 people onboard. wreckage was strewn across fields near the russian border. the crash prompted a change in flight routes for other commercial airlines, which are now being routed away from air space over eastern ukraine. now to the other major and still developing story, that is israel's invasion of gaza.

officials say the immediate goal is to destroy tunnels used by militants to infill rate the jewish state, but also to stop hamas rocket fire targeting israel. the night sky lit up over northern gaza as this invasion was launched on thursday night. israel had warned residents to clear out ahead of time, difficult for many of them who didn't have anywhere to go. the israeli military says it is hitting hamas hard by land, sea, and air, and that this they say is only the beginning. the onslaught drawing quick condemnation from hamas. a spokesman telling cnn this, quote, the beginning of the israeli ground invasion of gaza is a dangerous step with unknown consequences. and goes on to warn israel will pay a heavy price for it. now, for the latest on this expansion of israel's operation protective edge as they're calling it, joining us live from

jerusalem, becky is joining us. let's talk about the specific aims of this operation, and any indication how long it might last. >> reporter: no indication as to how long it may last. the specific aims, though, to destroy these tunnels between gaza and israel through which the israeli defense force says hamas operatives can sort of run the gauntlet of the border, pop up as we saw yesterday, thursday, and this seems to have been the straw that broke the canal el's back, as it were, when we saw these operatives coming up, and went back into the tunnels. and actually striking the ground, at which they came up. so there may be as many as ten or more of these tunnels, the israelis say there are something like nye on 18,000 reservists called up in order to act for this ground incursion to destroy

these tunnels. we have had a statement from the israelis that reads in light of the despicable and relentless aggression by the hamas and dangerous infiltration into israel. israel is obliged to protect its citizens. and you see the video of what happened on thursday. as i say, this video is what is believed to be hamas militants coming in over the border. so this is the story as it stands at present. it will be the front page of the main newspaper here. it simply says inside gaza today. this decision, to launch the ground invasion, apparently taken at an israeli security cabinet meeting on tuesday. and if you just step back and think what happened this week, that was after the egyptian initiative to stop what is going on, was rejected by hamas. the decision then taken at that point by the push, as it were, only on thursday.

john kerry has responded to what is going on. he has said this mission should be a precise operation to target tunnels as described in this statement from the idf. but certainly, an awful lot of activity, frightening nor both sides, michael. >> ben wedeman describing earlier how heavy the bombardment was, when it all began. becky, i've got to ask you. the complication for israel, of course, politically and otherwise, is the fact that israel really wants hamas to stay in power in gaza, partly because they're a known enemy and because israel fears what could replace it. other more extreme groups perhaps, and an anarchy. >> yes. and islamic jihad we believe may be operating in the area at the moment. look, let's step back, 2005, the israelis pulled out of gaza. that was after a 38-year occupation.

2006, operation rave. to release wlafs what was a captured soldier. these operations have been ongoing. the israelis at every stage has said this is not about an invasion to retake the strip. this is an incursion. it is targeted, albeit with an awful lot of power, from air, sea, and ground, as you have rightly described. this is, they say, a targeted operation to destroy these tunnels through which these militants are coming. the fear is the militants will come in through these tunnels, into israel, around about a number of military bases on the border, the possibility being they could capture a soldier as they did back in 2006. and then they go back in. this is, they say, targeted, it is an incursion, not an invasion. perhaps that's splitting hairs somewhat. but certainly that's the message that we're getting on the ground

here. it could take a week or two, and we know that that is around about the time these operations have lasted in the past. but no real indication as to how this will go from the israeli side, nor how many people will be injured or killed or how much property will be destroyed as it is ongoing in gaza, of course. mike? >> becky anderson in jerusalem, thanks. later this hour, we'll have more on all of this. and the horrible price being paid by innocent palestinian civilians. many of them far too young to understand this war. and still to come on our special coverage, we will hear from a friend of a flight attendant who was onboard malaysia airlines flight 17. celebrate your love of crab with gthis year's largest variety!.

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welcome back. the ukraine blaming pro-russian separatists for firing a missile that destroyed malaysia airlines flight 17. >> they say a missile brought down the plane. 298 people onboard are presumed dead. >> u.s. president barack obama speaking by phone with his ukrainian counterpart, who called it a terrorist attack. mr. obama directing his national

security team to offer whatever help it can in this investigation. let's take a quick look at the timeline involving this plane. malaysia airlines flight 17 took off from amsterdam at 12:15 thursday local time, that's in the afternoon, as it does every day, heading for kuala lumpur. the plane flying at 10,000 meters altitude. now, when the airline says at that point ukrainian air traffic controllers lost contact with the flight, it was four hours after the aircraft, the plane crashing 50 kilometers from the ukrainian/russia border. >> they're searching for clues as to what happened. the u.s. believes the plane came down after it was hit by a surface-to-air missile. the families of those onboard will want to know exactly what happened, and why. it's the second major disaster to beset malaysia airlines in the space of just 132 days,

after flight mh-370 disappeared on its way from kuala lumpur to beijing. cnn asked the partner of a passenger on that flight how she reacted to this latest tragedy. >> my daughter called me on my mom's phone. she had gotten the news on twitter. and then pretty soon the news started coming out. it was like all the wounds just opened right back up again. i'm so sorry for all those families. >> i'm so sorry, sarah, to have this -- that this does make you relive something that is, i know, ongoing for you, that you still don't have answers. do you think you're going to start to get some of those answers? >> well, i hope so. i mean, the world has to wake up, that these kinds of things are happening. and we still don't know what happened to mh-370. for all we know, it also was shot down. and either covered up, or just

totally went astray so they haven't been able to find it. it's just not an acceptable situation that we haven't fixed that problem yet. now we have a whole new one to deal with. >> malaysian prime minister said the plane did not make a distress call. still to come this hour -- >> we will continue our breaking news coverage of the crash of flight mh-17. >> we'll also hear from one of the first people on the scene, and what he saw. it makes for chilling listening. we'll be right back.

we'd like to welcome back our viewers in the united states, and of course, all around the world. and take a look now at the latest on the crash of malaysia airlines flight 17. >> the jet carrying 298 people over eastern ukraine was shot down. that is not yet determined exactly by whom. the crash site is in an area controlled by pro-russian separatists j now, it's believed mh-17 flew further north than usual. and that's because of thunderstorms in the area. the tragedy has prompted commercial airlines to avoid that air space altogether. >> the people are wondering why they were poefr a war zone there. ukrainian authorities for their part, they're blaming the pro-russian separatists for shooting the jet down. they say they actually intercepted a phone call between

separatist leaders who were discussing that very situation. >> chief u.s. security has more on this horrific incident. >> the malaysian jet fell from the sky over eastern ukraine in a fireball, and a black cloud. pieces of burning debris visible, trailing gray smoke. on the ground, wreckage littered the landscape, spread over a large area, evidence ukrainian officials tell cnn that the boeing 777 came apart at high altitude. ukrainian officials quickly blamed a missile strike by pro-russian separatists, a foreign minister telling cnn, quote, it is clear as day, they have been hunting our planes for weeks. ukraine's newly elected pro-western president petro poroshenko -- >> we do not call it an

incident. >> the u.s. does not know who is responsible. russian president vladimir putin is already laying his own blame saying the state over whose territory it happened, naming ukraine, is responsible for this terrible tragedy. putin delivered the news of the crash to president obama during a phone call to discuss new u.s. sanctions against russia. sanctions sparked by russian support for ukrainian militants, including supplying weapons and fighters. >> it looks like it may be a terrible tragedy. the united states will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why. >> reporter: president obama has since spoken to ukraine's president and malaysia's prime minister, pledging u.s. support to determine exactly what happened. >> the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be

brought to justice. >> reporter: ukrainian officials not just blaming pro-russian separatists, they are in fact blaming russia. and as evidenced, they've released what they say is an intercepted phone call between a pro-russian militant and a russian intelligence agent, as this plane was shot down. i spoke with the deputy foreign minister of ukraine and he said, russia arms terrorists, they are murderers, the world must stop putin. it's easy to see how the shootdown can escalate the conflict between ukraine and russia. jim sciutto, cnn. >> one of the flight attendants was holding out hope that her friend would return. >> she just told me that she would have a transparent, and said it would be all right for you to come pick me up.

i said, why not. i told her, i'll wait for you to come back. and she'll never come back. >> does it seem real to you at this point? >> what? >> does it seem real? >> i just hope it is false. i try to message, but no answer. >> the majority of the passengers were from the netherlands. at least 154 of the 298 onboard. recovery crews have already reached the scene where the shower of debris fell to earth. it's a pretty rural area, fields, small villages and farms. a journalist was there and spoke to don lemon about an hour ago. we have to warn you, that some viewers may find what he has to say disturbing. >> people are trying to identify

bodies, mark the spots where bodies have fallen. there's four sort of search-and-rescue teams lined up along the road. but the way it's being done, is not systematic by any means. they're basically just laying little white cotton ribbons to sticks, and putting them in the ground, where there's a body. and there's sort of rebels wandering the fields. they're as stunned as anyone else at the overwhelming mood here, that this is even darker perhaps than daylight. you can see everything. >> you appear to be more matter of fact. at least the way your description of what's going on. and earlier when we heard from you, you appear to be devastated. i want to read something you earlier tweeted.

you said bodies everywhere, organs splayed out, too gruesome to post photographs. this is an absolute disaster. you #ukraine. in the initial moment, when you were witnessing what happened, take us back to that. >> sure. we heard the news while we were in donetsk, which is about an hour and a half drive from here. there were a few sort of news flashes on the wires that a plane had been brought down, a civilian plane potentially. so we drove out here and found sort of a strange scene of smoke rising over this hillside. rebels kind of waving us through, checkpoints which they normally don't do. and we found i think what i said last night -- i mean, it's a total disaster, hand a total tragedy. looking at it now, in daylight, you wander through these fields

and you pretty much have to watch every step, because if you don't, you could step on a person's organ. it was like it was raining body parts. >> that was journalist noah snider describing the scene of that crash. we want to get some analysis now from a former accident investigator. allen deal is the author of "air safety investigators." and he joins us now via skype from albuquerque, new mexico. thank you, sir, for talking with us. just how quickly do you think investigators need to get to this crash site? we mentioned some have gotten there. but whole teams of investigators, to assess what actually happened, and how big a problem do you think it is, the fact that inexperienced people are actually already there sifting through the debris? >> yeah, that's -- rosemary, that's a big problem, especially if there's any pilfering going on. i'm not suggesting that is happening. but that has happened at other crash scenes. in this case we pretty much

think we know what happened. our the soviet air missile brought the aircraft down. of course, the bigger mystery is probably going to be whether or not the aircraft could have been flown obviously with a large warhead that these radar-guided missiles have. probably made it difficult. we'll want to get the recorders. i understand the separatists have those recorders. hopefully they cannot read those recorders. only a handful of labs in the world can read them. hopefully they'll either turn them over to the russians, or preferably to the ukrainian government, which is in charge of the investigation, as you know. >> the separatists are saying they don't have them at this point. i guess that's yet to be determined. but you mentioned that you're pretty sure how this happened. of course, the big question is, who did this, and why. we have seen those tapes -- the

taped kmpgs between the separatist leader and other separatists. we can't be sure that's reliable. it was supplied by the ukrainian side at this point. >> well, certainly we have to accept everything with caution right now. about the only thing that i can tell you is i'm -- i used to be an investigator for the u.s. air force also, and i have reason to believe there's a lot of assets that are looking at that part of the world. u.s. assets. and they may be able to actually find out the location of the missile battery, and depending on whether or not that missile battery is surrounded by russian type trucks versus the type of trucks that might be being used by the separatists, may provide a clue as to just how much russian versus separatist involvement. of course, i suppose no one is totally eliminated the ukrainian government, although i believe

they said they, of course, had no involvement. and there would be no incentive that i can think of for them to shoot down an airliner. as a matter of fact, rosemary, i can't think of any incentive for anybody to bring this airliner down. you know, it's a non-aligned country. i have to believe this is some kind of horrific accident. we've seen this before, when the u.s. navy shot down the iranian airbus back in 1988. we also saw it, of course, when the russian air force shot down a korean 747 over the north pacific in 1983. so these accidents do occur. automation is tricky. and my specialty is human factors. oftentimes we find out that crew coordination breaks down in these combat information centers, and people do the wrong thing accidently. >> yeah. indeed. of course, when the ukrainians, the russians and separatists at this point, the narrative is, we

didn't do it. of course, the investigation very much in its early stages. alan diehl, thank you for joining us and bringing your perspective to this story. we do appreciate it. >> thank you. >> a lot of the evidence pointing toward the separatists. i spent nearly a month in ukraine when the crimea thing was going on. a lot of these guys are not very disciplined. some of them are. there are russian regulars there and special forces. but you get the inexperienced guys with high-tech weaponry they don't have any need to use them. we'll continue our cover of the malaysian plane crash. an israeli strike on gaza claims the lives of three palestinian children. we talked to the heart broken families they left behind.

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welcome back. >> let's get an update on mother major story we're following. that is southern china, bracing for one of the biggest storms ever to hit the country. >> in just a few hours' time, a typhoon it expected to make landfall as a super typhoon. a red typhoon warning is the highest level, hong kong also with an alert in place. >> the storm strengthened after it battered the philippines on tuesday and wednesday, leaving

at least 38 people dead and causing widespread damage. let's get an update now on the typhoon. we're tracking the typhoon from the cnn weather center. what sort of strength are we looking at now, ivan? >> when i left work this morning, we had a typhoon that was at 130 kilometers per hour. in just a matter of hours, it essentially turned into a monster here with 230 kilometer per hour winds, equivalent of 140 miles per hour. think andrew, katrina, that kind of storm here, and it is barreling, and we're running out of ocean now, barreling toward the china coast here. in 6 or 8 hours we're talking about landfall here. it has locked in. this is not going to weaken. if anything, it may get a little bit stronger before landfall here. look at this eye. this is the visible satellite imagery. this is the kind of eye that essentially birds can fly in. you can be on a boat in the

middle of it, look up and see clear sky. a very well-defined typhoon here. this is a radar from the southeastern part of china. you see that ring there towards the end? again, another indication of a very strong storm. what we're expecting is a significant storm surge here, and a wind field that is going to come in in just the next few hours. here's the clock hour by hour. 12:00 local time now, there goes the storm as it heads inland. two concerns i have here. this part of china, rosemary, that does not have essentially the preparation that other parts have, they usually don't get these types of typhoons. it's a very strong typhoon to be hitting china. because it intensified so rapidly, a lot of people did not have time to prepare. >> not good at all. >> huge storm. huge. isan, thanks for that.

. israel says one of its soldiers has been killed in its invasion of gaza. >> that's a new development. beginning late on thursday, the stated goal is destroying militant tunnels that go under the border between gaza and israel. and into israel. this follows ten days of aerial bombardments. israel sending missiles into gaza. the rockets coming out from gaza. health officials say that the exchanges have killed more than 240 people. wounded nearly 2,000. the majority of them civilians, it must be said. israel says it had no choice but to respond to the hundreds of militant rockets threatening their citizens. >> we are determined to restore the state of security for the state of israel. we have no interest in what's going on in gaza, as long as they're not attacking us.

as we've proven, we are required to deal with the threat. it is a potential threat, unbearable threat. >> now, on thursday afternoon, one of our cnn teams in gaza heard an explosion, believing that explosion to be a so-called knock on the roof. that's israel warning of an imminent strike. the team started recording. here's the tragic aftermath, children once again the victims of this conflict. >> reporter: alerted by an initial smaller explosion, cnn cameras began rolling. a few minutes later, this. children once again the victims in an israeli air strike. the israeli military says it's investigating. it is absolute pandemonium in here now. tempers are running very high.

outside gaza morgue, a mother learns she must bury her children before their time. bloodied feet and tiny hands, an 8-year-old, her brother was 6. and their cousin 8. >> these children are my children. i hope the attack will go back. >> reporter: their uncle said that they were getting hit on the roofs of their homes. they died in the first explosion just before cnn cameras began recording. an israeli drone fired the missile. cnn teams heard israeli drones over the area throughout the afternoon. they heard no fighter jets immediately before the strike.

mourners must literally run to bury the children before dusk. according to islamic ritual. they've just run about 500 yards through the neighborhood with the bodies of the dead children. they've now gone into the mosque for final blessing. as day fades fast, they head for the cemetery. the tears of a father over his dead son. and then the little girl whose name means beautiful meadow, time to say good-bye. karl penhall, cnn, gaza.ake in . so when my moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis was also on display, i'd had it.

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all right. we do want to get you caught up on the breaking news out of ukraine, where a malaysia airlines passenger plane has crashed. >> u.s. officials are saying it was shot down probably by a surface-to-air missile. ukraine's government blaming pro-russia separatists. >> 298 people were on board the amsterdam to kuala lumpur flight. there are no signs of any survivors. >> families gathered at the airport to get updates on the flight. can you imagine their grief. the malaysian prime minister najib razak said the plane never made a distress call. >> the ukrainian authorities believe that the plane was shot down. at this stage, however, malaysia is unable to verify the cause of this tragedy.

but we must, and we will, find out precisely what happened to this flight. >> the united nations security council meanwhile convenes about nine hours or so from now to discuss the crash of malaysia airlines flight 17. >> they're calling for a transparent investigation to determine who fired that missile that brought down the boeing 777. thanks for joining us this hour. i'm rosemary church. >> i'm michael holmes. our breaking news coverage continues after the break. ♪ so nice, so nice

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