see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. we continue our breaking news on two fronts on cnn international and welcome to our viewers in the united states. first, the crash of a passenger jet over eastern ukraine and the israeli grounds offensive in gaza now under way. we start with that apparent

downing of a commercial airliner. it is 9:00 a.m. in ukraine now where government officials are blaming pro-russian separatists for shooting down a malaysia jet with 298 people on board to be precise. video shows parts of flight mhfine still smoldering. you see it there on your screen as firefighters and rescue workers try to put out the flames. witnesses say the jet excloed in midair and fell to the ground in bits and pieces, radar detected a surface-to-air missile system turn on and just before it went down, leading them to believe it was shot out of the sky. the u.s. is analyzing the trajectory of the missile to determine where it came from. it was traveling from amsterdam

to kuala lumpur. the tra jekory, it was last seen on radar, four hours into the flight the radar disappeared right there over estern you crane of course, this is a human tragedy at heart. families gather to get updates on the flight. the malaysian prime minister says the plane never made a distress call. analyst noah schneider was talking to witnesses, he shared what he saw and heard with my colleague dawn lemon. a warning, some of what he describes is quite disturbing. >> people are trying to identify bodies, mark the spots where bodies have fallen. there is three fires and about four search and rescue team vehicles lined up along the

road. the way it seemed that night is not system matic by any means. they're basically tying little white cotton ribbons to sticks and putting them in the ground where there is a body. there are sort of rebels wandering the field they're as stunned as anyone else. i think the overwhelming mood here, will is even darker perhaps in daylight you can see everything. >> in the initial moments within you were witnessing what happened, take us back to that. >> reporter: sure, we heard the news when we were in donetsk, which is about an hour-and-a-half drive from here there were a few news flashes on the wires that a plane had been brought down, a civilian plane, potentially. so we drove out here and found a

sort of strange theme of smoevg e smoke rising over the hillside, tebl rebels raising us through the checkpoints, which they don't normally do. and we count sound i think what -- found what i said last night still stands, it's a total disaster and a tragedy. looking at it now in day lite, you wander on to these fields, you pretty much have to watch every step because if you don't, you could step on a person's organ. it's like it was raining body parts. >> noah sneider is a freelance journalist. you can imagine the horror as they saw the huge machinery fall from the sky. here are some of the witness

accounts. >> i was in my house and heard a rumble, explosions, there were two explosions. i ran out of my house. there was black smoke. i thought my nephew was affected. i ran out and small the black smoke. i saw the plane falling. 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. >> there was some shelling heard, there were a few shots and then black flap. i got scared because it got close. i looked out my car, i saw a plane falling into pieces, parts falling in all different directions. i saw a fire, that's all i saw. >> there you hear from a few of the witnesses on the ground. the malaysia airlines released a partial list of the people on board flight 17.

the vast majority dutch, 154 from the netherlands, 45 are malaysian, including all 15 crew members, 27 australian, 12 are indonesian the list also includes nine britain, four germans, four bellups. three from the philipines, one from canada. three infants are among the dead we understand according to this release. authorities are trying to confirm the nationalitys of the remaining passengers. we are talking 41 remaining passengers, so far, for the persons are on this list. this is, of course, as many of you know the second tragedy involving malaysia airlines. flight 370 disappeared in march. we don't foe kwhand to that flight. andrew stevens joins me with the reaction. andrew, we have heard from the airline. what is the latest where you are, andrew? >> reporter: i'm at the airport

here in kuala lumpur where family members and a mix of kin are gathering. they are in a holding area of the airport. what we're hearing at the moment is really council's available for those family members, representatives from the malaysia airlines are on hand. at this stage they have not released the name of the passengers on board, which has been a source of some anger here, people are obviously desperate to know to have concerns that their family members were on that plane, sudden think i will, they have some understanding of what they're going to be dealing with. generally, you can imagine, it's very, very quiet here. i should point out it's in the middle of ramadan, which is a religious holiday.

it is very quiet here. about two hours ago, the prime minister gave a press saumpbs conference. he summed it up by saying this is another tragic day if what has been a tragic year, referring to disappearance of mh 370 133 days ago. so lots of very distraught relatives here, as i said, it's being kept away from the area set up in a differ hotel where professional counseling is provided for the family that's gone there. hala. >> we have been reporting there are 41 unverified nationalitys, no names released. when can we expect more information at this stage? >> we're not getting any clear indication of when the names will be released. >> reporter: what the malaysian

airline authorities have been saying is about checking, rechecking the manifest making sure there are no mistakes when the names are released. we are expecting information from the transport americanster in less than two hours from now. we will get some information. we corner foe exactly what, how often they will be able to tell us. the malaysians have learned from the tragic loss of mh 3 seven. you remember there was a lot of anger, a lot of frustration exhibited by the family members, particularly the family members, also here in kuala lumpur and seeing the family member's reaction. malaysians are very, very sensitive to the family, are very, very aware of how to deal with a situation like this, obviously, they have very -- they have a lot of experience in this now. as far as when that information will be released, i can't tell you at the moment. you can imagine this is being

repeated in several areas, in holland, 150 dutch nationals, 27 australians, nine from britain, four from germany, four from belgium. the list goes on. across the world at this hour, a mourning at many of these airports as people come to terms with what's happened. >> yes, absolutely. i want to tell our viewers what they are seeing on their screens. this is aftermath of the crash, andrew, it's always hor risk to see the effects. passports that seem intact based on the footage and big piece of fuselage strewn over eastern ukraine, personal tragedy after personal tragedy with big potential political implications. andrew stevens, we'll get back to you soon, for more there from

kuala lumpur. the big question now is, what happened to this plane? a u.s. official told cnn the united states believes the plane was shot out of the sky. the ukrainian government in kiev says this is the work of russian separatists, they used surface-to-air missiles, they intercepted audio of pro-russian separatists discussing the mh 17 crash. the identities of those speak and their photos, we at cnn can't independently confirm the authenticity of this release, but take a look at what the kiev government has put out there.

[ speaking foreign language ]

. >> if this is authentic, essentially, russian separatists are discussing having downed that commercial plane, clearly expressing the notion that it

was not their intended target. justin brock is a research analyst at the royal united services institute and he joins me here in london. justin, what do you make of this intercepted audio, the kiev government released there? >> well, i mean, whether or not it's accurate it's almost certainly representative of what would have happened immediately after this. it doesn't suit the separatists remotely to cause an instant like this. all shooting down an airliner would do and has done is put the spotlight on the military equipment they have been receiving from russia with the corresponding possibility that russia has to back off from that point i'm positive they did not intend to shoot down an airliner. this could be the panic afterwards when they realize what a mistake it is going to be. >> absolutely. what kind of weaponry to take down a commercial airliner at 33,000 feet, 10 kilometers in the air?

>> certainly it's an ad vans over the manned portable system we seen flooding ukraine in recent months. it's most likely an sa-11 book. i think the term is a gadfly. it's been around since the late ''80s, but it's a large system. it looks like a tank with four large missiles at the top. it's got its own radar internally. >> we are seeing there a rendering of it, i believe? >> it is perfectly capable of hitting an airliner of 33,000 feet. it has an effective range up to 72,000 feet. >> does it look increasingly likely that perhaps pro-russian separatists took this plane down by mistake, that they thought it was a military transport plane? >> yes, that's almost certainly what they thought they were shooting at. a few days ago, a separatist shot down a transport plane

about the size of a small airliner. it probably looks very similar on a radar screen especially with an operator not familiar with the system. so almost certainly they thought they were shooting at a similar target. they threatened to shoot down more transport planes if they fly over again. in fact, in the last couple of days, they shot down three israeli aircraft down as well. >> now the route, though that, this plane was flying, this flight was taking was declared saifrl safe by the civil aviation at that altitude which was 33,000 feet. where is that if there was this obvious risk? >> well, i mean, it's been accepted practice that, you know, airliners are krugz altitude 30,000 and above have been considered safe even though there are hot zones, for example over the middle east, over syria and iraq and ukraine because we haven't seen systems as heavy as

this in wrebl fighter hands up until this point in the conflict and unmanned portable systems which we've seen proliferate at this altitude. airliners continue to fly over the hot zones above 35,000. so this is fairly standard practice. it's only in the last couple of days there have been unverified reports and footage of sa-11 systems around donetsk in separatist hands and these would appear to be genuine. >> so, if, indeed, it is the case that russia provided this heavy anti-aircraft surface-to-air missile weaponry to the rebels, how is that changing the calculus of what's going on on the ground in eastern ukraine? >> of course, from the russian perspective, it's enormously diplomatic embarrassing. they are continuing to deny all involvement, but they're blaming -- >> where else would these rebels get this? >> exactly. these sorts of systems are not

something you obtain easily and smuggle through the international black park here. this is the sort of thing russia has been rolling across the boarder increasingly since separatists suffered these military setbacks, so, you know,py reading of it is that given rebels are on the back foot militarily and that the ukrainian military has been making increasingly aggressive use of their power and successful use of their power, they made the decision in the hope to keeping the situation under control as far as they are concerned in donetsk. >> certainly, if that pans out, with the revealing theory is that this has created a tragic situation is up as the one we are witnessing today. justin brown of the royal united services institute, thank you very much. if you can stick around, we will come back to you a little later in the program for more analysis on this story. a quick break here on cnn

international and cnn usa. still to come, a soldier is killed in the ground operations in gaza. we will take you thrive jerusalem for the very latest on that. and later this hour, another story as well we are following, one of the paths of one of the biggest storms ever to hit china, which is expected to make landfall within just a few hours. stay with us for that. we will get right back to that on knn. for your bravery. cnn. thank you daddy. cnn. cnn. cnn. cnn. cnn. cnn. the legacy of usaa auto insurance one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life.

. . welcome back, the u.s. is now saying they believe the mh 17 plane was sought down by a surface-to-air missile over eastern ukraine. it is working to pin point the origin of the attack. ukrainian officials blame pro-russia separatists in eastern ukraine. they released an aude recording they say is separatists discussing the flight. this is aftermath video of a plume of smoke rising over what we believe is the wreckae of mh-17. the boeing 777 was traveling from amsterdam to kuala lumpur with 298 people on board. wreckage was scattered across

the russian border. they say separatists will allow national and international investigators safe access to the crash site but that hasn't happened yet. we are also following another breaking news story that is, of course the israeli military reporting that it has started a ground incursion into gaza and that one of its soldiers was killed. an extension of that campaign that the israeli military says is to stop a stream of rockets targeting israeli. officials say their immediate goal is to destroy tunnels used by hamas militants to enter israel. in the mentime we have seen many deaths of civilians. let's get the latest. what is the latest on this incursion, now, becky, into the gaza strip? >> reporter: let me get you the very latest pictures we are getting into cnn, hala, these from the idf showing tanks

rolling into gaza in what is now this ground incursion. they're calling it an incursion, not an invasion. they want to be specific about this. they say it is targeted, as you rightly point out, specifically to these tunnels as far as i can tell, from information i am getting on the ground. israelis believe there are ten of those, used by, they say, from terrorists from gaza from hamas to get into israel and to go back and forth. so these, as i say, are the latest pictures out of idf. i want to move on to other pictures again from the israeli defense force. the next pictures you will see according to idf show a strike on a tunnel used, they say, for terror purposes, a strike as a result thoof strike, hala, a rocket is discharged proving the idf says the ma plirns of this tunnel.

if you think back some what 24 hours now, we were showing on cnn, i will show them again, pictures of what the israelis say are militants popping up from tunnels on the israeli side. this was first now, popping up on the israeli side and them being targeted by the air force and it was this attack thwarted the israelis say by an airstrike, this attack that the israelis say really was the straw that broke the camel's back, it was the reason that the prime minister calls for this grounding incursion to start. we believe that the decision to start this ground incursion was actually back on tuesday after the egyptian and peace proposal was rejected by hamas, the actual button as it were was presd only thursday after this attack which the israelis, as i say, thwarted. look, i keep saying this is what the israelis are telling us,

hamas says you will understand we are getting reports from both sides. it's very difficult for us to do our own reporting extensively across the board. but we have our reporters in gaza and we have our reporters on the israeli side of the borders. in the hours to come, we will hear from them. as far as gaza is confirmed, 260 dead, a report from the u.n., which i think really sort of sums up what is going on to a certain extent behind these statistics from both sides, one israeli soldier killed, two wound. some 14 palestinians killed just overnight, some 260 killed outright in the last ten day, but is this statistic. the u.n. says that nearly 58,000 children in gaza have experienced death, injury or a loss of their home over the last ten days and they will need what is described as psychosocial support. again, it's a statistic, but i

think, perhaps, a humanizing one in what is the horror of this conflict, quite disturbing stuff. >> right. and unlikely they'll get that kind of support, but interesting figure there. >> reporter: right. >> thanks very much, becky anderson in jerusalem. up next, heart break for the loved ones of passenger and crew of flight mh-17 as vigils take place around the world. with ehear from a friend of one of the malaysian flight attendants aboard. we'll be right back. say with us. stay with us. .gaungdong

let's get you caught up on the latest on mh flight 17. now the jet crashed in eastern ukraine on thursday in an area controlled by pro-russia separatists. the united states believes it was brought down by a surface-to-air missile and is working to determine who fired it.

one official tells cnn the white house is pressuring pro-russia separatists to give them access to this crash site. along with the 283 passengers on board, there were 15 crew members. anderson cooper spoke to one of the flight attendants holding out hope her friend would return. >> did you actually take her to the airport? >> in fact the other day, she told me she didn't have a transport. she asked know pick her up. i say, why not, i take her to the airport and i say i will wait for you to come back and never come back. >> does it seem real to you at this point? >> sorry. >> does it seem real? >> no, i just hope it is a false him i tried to page her but for

the answer. >> and there you have it, a friend of one of the flight attendants on board, the majority of passengers on mh 17 were actually from the netherlands, at least 154 according to nationalitys released by the asia airlines were from the netherlands, 45 from asia. we will look at the russian-made missile capable of downing a big triple 7 yet, 33,000 feet above the ground. we'll be right back. you are with cnn. we're trying our best to be role models.dels. we don't jump at the sound of the opening bell, because we're trying to make the school bell.