you are watching cnn's continuing breaking coverage of

the crash of malaysian airlines flight 17. a plane reportedly shot down by a missile with almost 300 people on board. i'm hala garani, where militants have claimed they have shot down the plane and apparently realized it was a commercial airliner. and we'll look at the weapons that could have done this. i would like to welcome our viewers from around the world as well as in the united states. malaysian airlines flight 17 will be our focus this hour but there are two major international stories we're also following. israel has begun a ground operation following days of bombardments in the gaza strip. and ten million people could face hurricane-force winds. the typhoon has made landfall. we begin, though, in ukraine, in

eastern ukraine where pro-russia separatists say they will allow national and international investigators safe access to the site where that malaysia airlines flight 17 crashed. officials say they believe the airliner was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. we're not sure where that missile came from. that plane was flying to amsterdam from kuala lumpur, and by the way, you're seeing smoke from the crash site, 298 people were on board that plane. ukraine's government said it intercepted a phone call between alleged pro-russia separatists discussing the downing of this flight. the english sub-titles, the identities of those speaking and their photos are provided by the ukrainian government. cnn cannot independently confirm the authenticity of this release.

but listen to the exchange. [ speaking in a foreign language ]

>> there you heard it. this was released by the kiev government. they say that these are pro-russian separatists leaders in eastern ukraine discussing what happened and acknowledging, according to this recording that we can't independently verify that they brought down with a surface-to-air missile a malaysian airliner, it was a passenger jet, not a military transport plane. now witnesses say the debris from the plane and bodies fell right from the sky. they came to rest in a rural area of eastern ukraine. a freelance journalist, noah schneider, says it was a gruesome scene that shocked even hardened fighters. listen. >> people are trying to identify the bodies and mark the spot where is bodies have fallen.

and there three, about four search and rescue teams and vehicles lined up around the road. but the way it is being done, it 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 is a body. and there are sort of rebels wandering the field. they're as stunned as anyone else. and i think the overwhelming mood here is that this is even darker perhaps in daylight. you can see everything. >> in the initial moments when you were witnessing what happened, take us back to that. >> sure, we heard the news. when we were in donetsk, it 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 a sort of 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. it still stands, i mean, it is a total disaster and a total tragedy. and looking at it now in daylight you wander through the fields and you pretty much have to watch every step because if you don't you step on a person's organs. it is like it was raining body parts. >> well, one can only imagine what the relatives of the people who were killed on the flight are feeling. you see the pieces of fuselage, it reminds you of the human

dimension of this tragedy. and it is the second one involving malaysian airlines this year. flight mh 370 disappeared this year, as well. andrew, i understand you're at the airport and there are family members, relatives, friends there waiting for word? >> reporter: that is right, hala, 43 malaysian nationals, including the crew on mh 17 when it was brought down over ukraine. and there are now two holding areas here in the capital, kuala lumpur, one of it as you say is at the airport where i am. the family members, the next of kin are being kept away, as for obvious reasons being shielded by the media. and they are working with counselors and staff, the malaysian airlines are offering what support and condolences and what information, most importantly, they can at the moment.

they actually have not yet released the passenger manifest, the names of the passengers on that flight. they're still checking and double-checking before they release any names. we're now waiting for a press conference to begin, probably 50 minutes or so from the transport minister. so we're getting information there. the prime minister has already held one press conference in which he spoke about the need to find the perpetrators and bringing them swiftly to justice. and the time and mood of this country, it is a tragic day in what already has been such a tragic year for this country, referring of course to the disappearance of malaysian flight 370, with 279 passengers on board, the prime minister referred to that, also saying that -- emphasizing that mh 170,

the plane that crashed in ukraine was in unrestricted air space, there were no restrictions, there were four commercial arieirliners in the a where it came down, so this is a very popular route, some 300 flights a day, we're being told, travel on this route. obviously all airlines are moving away. they're not continuing on that route. and we're now waiting for further information where we are here, hala. >> okay, andrew stevens, in kuala lumpur, as andrew mentioned, importantly, flights diverted away from the ukrainian air space, understandably so. and the ukrainian interior minister said it was what hit

the airline. the missile. and whoever fired the missile, it is more than capable of bringing down a jet. >> if you want to figure out what could have hit the plane you have to think about the circumstances of the plane at the time. it was about 32, 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 anti-aircraft missile. they're just not strong enough. what you would need is something like this. this is the buk anti-missile, it is one of the ones being talked about in this case. it has a four-man missile, it can set up and fire quickly and can move away quickly after firing quickly. and those missiles have a tremendous amount of power. let's bring these in and talk about it. each one is about 60 feet long.

we're showing it a little smaller, just to make it fit. it will weigh about 150 pounds with a 154-pound war head on it. it doesn't actually have to hit the target, just has to get close to it. but with electronics guidance systems it can get very close and do it in a very short period of time, 22 seconds from the time the radar acquires target to the time it can be launched. and look at the speed, it travels at 184,000 miles per hour, more than 3 times the speed of sound meaning if it were fired more than 30 miles away it could have hit a plane in 30 seconds or less. the people on board would absolutely never even see it coming. >> tom foreman there. the acting ambassador is live with me in the studio, ambassador, thank you for joining us. you're blaming pro-russian

rebels for this? >> yes, for sure, from the point of the military logic, the ukrainians had nothing to do with that. this is the last thing we needed, to shut down the civilian aircraft at the moment where the attention of all the world is diverted to ukraine. >> okay, because you're saying you have no strategic -- there is no strategic logic to the ukrainian military even though it possesses this type of surface-to-air weaponry to take down anything from the air. >> there is no strategic logic nor the capability of the military, with the anti-aircraft systems against the rebels, due to the defenses. they simply don't have the aircrafts, at least now. >> what about the surface-to-air missile capability. do you think it came directly from russia? >> well, it is hard to say from

this studio. however, under the official investigation of the ukrainian minuistry of defense, they did not take possession over the ukrainian buk system, previously located at the area. we don't have that as i told you at the -- disposal of the meanwhile units and national guards. >> so if it is not in the zone that we're talking about, and the rebels are in possession of it, according to the kiev government then the implication is that they got it from russia. >> it is very suspiciously -- with the conflict. just a few days ago the

information about shooting down the aircrafts started to appear, simultaneously with information, that the buk system is in the possession of the terrorists. and that information was proved by multiple pictures on the internet. >> okay, now, let me cask you about the investigation, because there is some concern that there has been tampering of the crash site. that people have been able to walk through. that no official investigation securing the area has even started. are kiev officials able to access this area? it is controlled by the rebels? >> the ability of kiev to react was very fast, immediately after the information on the tragic event, the president of ukraine ordered it, to create the commission for transparent and further investigation at what is very important, it will be the

international commission, including the representative of the malaysian side and the international civilian organization. we are interested in effective investigation. of course, it will be necessary to have the access to the site. and the suspicious activity over the black boxes -- >> do we know where the black boxes are? >> we don't know, or at least we don't have the official information about it. but sudden resources already gave out the information that the black boxes were reportedly found by the terrorists and to be brought to russia. >> when you say terrorists, you mean the pro-russia rebels? that there are reports they may be in possession of the black boxes? >> they are not rebels, they are terrorists. >> all right, ukraine's acting ambassador to the united kingdom. thank you for joining us in the studio today to talk about this

tragic crash of mh 17. you're watching cnn, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. coming up, casualties mount in gaza, as israel ramps up a ground operation. we'll get the latest live from jerusalem coming up. stay with us.

distraught relatives waiting for word on their loved ones. what is a military tragedy. the increase in political tension at the heart of it is also a very human tragedy. the latest on the crash of malaysian airlines flight 17. a second black box has apparently been recovered in the

wreckage. reuters has reported it was found by rescuers today, after the first black box was found yesterday. u.s. officials say according to them and their calculations, a surface-to-air missile downed the commercial airliner in eastern ukraine. they're analyzing the contents to see where it came from. all members on board are presumed dead. the majority of the passengers were dutch. 154 from the netherlands, 45 are malaysian, including all 15 crew. 28 australians, that toll was updated by the prime minister of australia himself, tony abbott, 12 from indonesia, nine from the united kingdom, four from belgium, three from the philippines. one from canada.

there are still four unaccounted for. we do not have names released unofficially. authorities are still trying to fill in the blanks, according to the information there were three infants among the dead. we'll have a lot more on the crash of mh 17 in the news cast, including a live interview with a journalist in ukraine. also a look at similar air san andre disasters in the past and what they can tell us. now to israel, we learned that at least one has died, israel is hitting hamas fighters hard by land, sea and air. and this is information confirmed by the reporters in the gaza strip. the immediate goal, the military says is the destruction of the tunnels that the militants use to enter israel. but the wider mission, they say is to stop the stream of rocket

fire. the incursion drew quick condemnation from hamas with a spokesperson telling cnn that israel will pay a heavy price. now, the israel military says it killed 14 militants during the clashes on the ground operation. no word on the civilian casualties but we know there were many civilian casualties of the last several days during the operation, which was an air operation over gaza. what is the israeli military saying? what is the latest they're saying about this ground operation, becky? >> reporter: yes, we have some video and i'm going to show you that. let me just do the numbers for you just to bring people back up to date in what is going on. 260 palestinians killed now as some 2,000 injured. you're right to point out one israeli soldier is dead. there is an investigation

ongoing regarding that. two israeli soldiers confirmed injured. let me take you first inside gaza then i'm going to step back in a moment. these are the first reports we've received today from gaza, they are very disturbing, clearly, there are women and children civilians in the cross hairs of war. the u.n. saying today they believe that some near 60,000 kids in gaza have experienced death or injury in the last ten days and will require support. so again, these images are disturbing. but this is the reality of this conflict of what is going on in gaza today. however, you look at it and whichever side you agree with, let me -- step back from these for a moment, because we have got other video in this morning. one is from the ief, this video

that i'm going to show you now which is a tent rolling in to the gaza strip. the incursion as you rightly pointed out started last night. the decision to take that was actually we believe back on tuesday, the security cabinet in israel after the breakdown of the egyptian initiative, decided that they would start a ground incursion. it was just when the decision to start this ground incursion came on this thursday. and this is the evidence of that, the ground incursion, soldiers moving over the border. the reason that this started is -- is the following. this is video received from the israeli defense forces now which we've received yesterday, which shows as far as the idf is concerned, hamas militants coming in to israel through what they call these tunnels under the border. they believe there are some ten or more of those. and the pictures that the idf show you here are the reason

they say why this ground incursion began. this was a thwarted attack, they say from israeli -- from palestinian militants or hamas militants. so that is the story, the picture on the ground as we speak. our reporters on ground as we speak and on the border of ashkalon, and getting more information, the statistics really speak for themselves. and as i said when you actually step behind the statistics and you see the images, hala, of what is the reality of what is going on in gaza, it is terri terrifying, really, and very, very sad. >> all right, becky, thank you very much. showing us the images, grainy, black and white, the photos but also the very real impact of the operation on people in gaza, coming up, more of our breaking news coverage on the malaysian airliner, the question on everyone's mind, who is to blame?

more on the investigation just after the break. also another story we're keeping an eye on. super typhoon that is already blasting the philippines is gaining strength and beginning to make landfall in china. we'll see how prepared the authorities are when we come back. ♪ ♪ ♪here i am. rock you like a hurricane♪ fiber one now makes cookies. find them in the cookie aisle.

. all right, let's get you caught you on the breaking news out of ukraine where the malaysia airlines passenger plane has crashed. american officials say they believe it was shot down probably by a surface-to-air missile. now the ukrainian government is blaming the pro-separatist rebels, who they believe is responsible. this is video from a plume of smoke rising from where we

believe the plane went down and the wreckage is scattered in a large area in rural ukraine. now officials say they intercepted the phone call from the separatist leaders discussing the situation and acknowledging that they had brought down a commercial airliner. 298 people were on board, the amsterdam to kuala lumpur flight, no survivors. first, i want to bring you up to date on the super typhoon rammas rammasun. you can see it already made landfall there in hainan province, and given the rapid strength of the storm, it is unclear how prepared they are. let's get david mckenzie to talk about this. david, this area where the super typhoon, is it making landfall and do we know what the impact

has been already. >> reporter: well, so far the impact is unclear because it is very early days, hala, but the enormous typhoon, super typhoon hit the northern part of that island, in southern china about two hours ago. so it has been lashing out with strong winds and obviously heavy rain. the chinese authorities have called this a red alert typhoon that is the strongest level that china has. and it did seem like they were scrambling to get everything in order before this typhoon hit. the plans cancelled, planes delayed. theys to also took steps to mak sure there were no large ships in the region. also, hala, this is a very popular destination for tourists, and international tourists. they have cancelled all tour operators for the next 24 hours, even go to the specifics that

people should lash down billboards or the advertising to avoid any objects that could be tossed around in the full-scale winds that could hurt people. at this time it is unclear what the damage is in hainan, and also it could hit northern vietnam and move into the southwest part of china. this is a massive storm and the rain and the storm surge that could obviously worry the residents there. >> all right, david mckenzie, live in beijing, stay with us, we'll have more special coverage, the breaking news coverage of the deadly crash of malaysian airlines flight 17, including the mother and child who missed their flight home.