happening now. who shot down malaysia airlines flight 17? this morning, new evidence mounting against russian separatists who refused to hand over the crash scene to investigators. russian president vladimir putin breaks his silence as the families of the victims plead for the bodies of their loves ones to be returned. we have live team coverage on the angles of this major, developing story. death and destruction in gaza. sunday marked the deadliest day

day. the u.n. declaring great concern over the violence there as secretary of state john kerry heads to egypt to help broker to cease-fire. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. a lot going on. monday, july 21, 4:00 a.m. in the east. one by one, the innocent victims of flight mh17 are being removed from the crash site. pro-russian rebels piling the bodies into refrigerated rail cars. this is triggering outrage. vladimir putin thinks it should unite it, not divide it. is he doing the dividing? that is the key. he's slamming drunken separatists controlling the crash site now. the same separatists claiming

they have recovered the downed jet liners data recorders. a lot to discuss. i want to bring in ivan watson from ukraine. give me the latest. >> reporter: that's right. we are hearing intermitt tant thuds of artillery from donesque. it's a stronghold city. officials from leadership are telling us they believe ukrainian government tanks and armored carriers are trying to punch through north of the city in the direction of the railroad station. the mayors, the city mayor's website put out a warning to residents online saying stay away from the north of the city from the railroad station area, which is only four or five miles from where i'm standing right now. in the meantime, the separatist movement here, credibility getting a blistering attack from

one of the world leaders, when the leaders of one of the countries whose citizens died aboard malaysian slight 17 coming from the prime minister of australia who described the recovery and investigation effort in the crash zone, which is controlled by the separatist fighters. take a listen. >> there's no doubt that at the moment, the site is under the control of the russian backed rebels and given the almost certain culpability of the russian backed rebels in the downed aircraft, having those people in control of the site is like leaving criminals in control of a crime scene. >> reporter: criminals in control of the crime scene. now, the australian prime minister and other world leaders from countries like malaysia, the netherlands whose citizens

died have been in direct communication with vladimir putin publicly urging him to use pressure on the rebels who control this city and the crash site to open the way for investigators and to rush the bodies of the dead to representatives from the various countries so they can identify and repatriot the bodies. the australian prime minister saying vladimir putin said the right words, but he has to match the words in deeds. sunday night, vladimir putin said this is a tragic event. he urged for international investigators to take control of the crash scene but he also had a warning that various parties should not try to take political advantage from this disaster. john? >> it's now nearly four full days since the plane was shot from the sky. you speak to impartial international observers, the

people who investigate these type of events and they say it is outrageous at this point that professional investigators have not been allowed access to the site. vladimir putin said it should be open to international investigators. is there a sense that this is a genuine call that will be heeded and it may open the door for the right kind of investigation to finally happen? >> reporter: well, you know, the separatists who control this city and again the crash site, they say hey, the investigators are welcome to come here. we have invited them, but they haven't showed up yet and accused the ukrainian government of holding back the investigators. there is a team from the esce, the international monitor who is have been allowed daily visits to the crash site. they are accompanied by several experts and hundreds of workers

from the ukrainian government emergency. emergency ministry have been working at the crash site. some access has been provided. here is one area where the separatists have not been transparent or forthcoming. the black boxes. the flight recording devices. the prime minister of this self-declared republic spoke to chris cuomo last night and said hey, we have taken some technical objects, but we are not experts and we don't know whether or not they are the black boxes. at the same time, he's not sharing images of the technical objects and the osce monitors haven't been able to see these possible black boxes. that led some countries to openly accuse the separatists of trying to whitewash the crash zone, trying to stage a cover up. of course the ukrainian

government, the u.s. government, now australia directly accusing the separatists themselves of shooting down the plane and killing 298 people. accusations the rebels deny. >> if you listen to the evidence, increasingly so from u.s. intelligence sources, that is where they are pointing. ivan watson, thank you. >> get those bodies out of there, a heart breaking plea from a mother torn apart by her 23-year-old son and his girlfriend. the family members pleading, pleading with the rebels to allow access to the crash site. they are sickened by the thought of what's being done to the remains of their loved ones. listen to drew trying to stay strong after losing his brother and sister-in-law. >> it's difficult to lose loved ones. i'm not kidding saying we are

hurting a lot. we feel confident that they are in a better place. we are going to church. it's going to be tough because we'll have a lot of people. it's very difficult when it becomes personal. >> our coverage of the attack of flight 17 continues with erin. the families from around the world trying to hold things together here. even as the bodies of their loved ones, they have no idea whether they are on the train cars, in the field and they just see how barbaric the situation is on the ground. >> reporter: that's right, christine. i talked to mothers who have lost their children. i have talked to communities who lost entire families. you can see a whole range of emotions. there's anger, outrage, but there's also confusion as well

as this intense sense of sorrow and grief. yesterday, i spoke to one woman who lost both of her young sons to mh17. she said i wish it was me who was on board that plane instead. horrible for a mother to have to think those thoughts. the families, yes, of course they want the bodies back. yesterday, i also talked to one woman who was here at the airport. she was laying flowers and signed a condolence book, a makeshift memorial growing behind me over that way. she lost her son and his girlfriend to mh17. she had this message for russian president vladimir putin. take a listen. >> mr. putin, take care of my son and my daughter. >> who knows where they are. who knows where the bodies are. where did they take them? >> do you have any idea where

your son's body and his girlfriend? >> no. >> they took it. maybe it's there. maybe it's in one piece, maybe 1,0 0 pieces. no one knows. >> reporter: you can really sense their pain and confusion. we understand that's the dutch government is going to lead the forensic investigation to help identify the victims and get the bodies. they have the majority of the victims on board mh17 were dutch. the prime minister yesterday saying that at that point, those forensic investigators had not reached the crash site. they were hoping to arrive today. christine? >> so unbelievable. erin, thank you so much for that. >> the flight data recorders could be critical in determining who shot down flight mh17 and the role russia may have played.

pro-russian separatists said they have recovered the black boxes. the official government charging they seize them on orders from russia. >> there's a lot of criticism for flying over ukraine. they insist proper protocol was followed. >> malaysia airlines does follow advice from the international civil aviation authority on what are safe corridors to fly and what altitude. we, along with other airlines have flown that route safely for quite some time. now that that happened, we will reassess that. >> let's go to london and bring up the next guest. thank you so much, under these circumstances to talk about aif yaugs security again. unbelievable there's an unsecure crash site and unbelievable the families are mourning and have no idea when they are going to

get evidence where their loved ones are. let's talk about the protocol and whether this flight should have been flying over this zone, anyway. there is a war going on. there have been planes downed by the russian backed separatists before. military transport planes, helicopters from the ukrainian military. should this plane have been over that area? >> in retro spect, not. it should not have been. i think it's taking the easy route, the line of least resistance to rely on the international to provide information. each country should make their own decision whether or not their civil airlines are safe to fly on those routes. some airlines in the west, some of the american airlines, british airlines have been

avoiding that route as the troubles there got worse. you know, i'm not convinced that, you know, one can just fall back and say well, everything is okay because they say the route is open. if you think about it in other ways, no international organization can tell an individual state it is safe to fly over a country. take for example airlines in the middle east. take israel, for example. would an international organization be able to advise israel whether they could fly over every middle eastern country? it's not possible. in this case, the malaysian authorities should be questioning their decision making here. >> talk to me about the black boxes at this point. ukrainian separatists, the rebels are claiming they have them in their possession. what evidence might be on them? at this point is it the absence

of data that could be revealed or the absence of discussion that you are in any kind of danger? >> well, we are talking the flight data recorder. it records the various instruments and controls on the aircraft and the cockpit voice recorder that records the soupds and conversations on the flight deck and between traffic control. what the voice recorder would presumably record a sound that would be the sound of say, an explosion or missile going off and also what was said on the flight deck at the moments leading up to it. in a way, it would rule out technical problems that may have caused this. we are assuming it was shot down, it probably was. i think that's what most analysts believe. until we get the data, we cannot say that was the case. that's why it's so vital to get these two boxes.

they are not black, they are orange. they are easy to identify. but, you know, if they are in the hands of the rebels, where will they end up? we have heard earlier they turned up in moscow. that is not the case now. how much control does moscow have over the russian rebels? clearly, they are flying russian flags. they have an allegiance with russia. i'm not sure it's as clear cut as people make out. >> we will see. we'll see if vladimir putin can step up and get those in the hands of impartial investigators now. thanks for being with us. >> we are following the latest developments on flight 17. first, the deadliest day in gaza. israel increasing. americans are among those killed. we are live with what's new there overnight after the break.

now to the other top story. the deadliest day in gaza. 96 palestinians killed on sunday. two of the casualties on the israeli side are americans.

a native of san fernando, california and another from texas. secretary of state john kerry calling for a cease-fire. israel is expanding. president netanyahu is showing no sign of backing down. >> i'm very sad. when i see that, we are sad. we are sad for every civilian casualty. they are not intended. this is the difference between us. the hamas deliberately hides behind civilians. >> let's bring in karl from gaza with the latest developments. you hear bitterness and you hear, you really hear a crescendo in this conflict, not a de-escalation. >> reporter: you hear that crescendo and see that we saw that building up over the weekend. we have seen it build up this morning. over my shoulder is eastern

gaza. we have seen the israeli military there pounding that area. on a point of order, if you like, what we can't really overstate enough is that the majority of the casualties on the israeli side have been military personnel. the majority of deaths are running at 500 palestinians dead, more than 3,000 wounded. now, couldn't the united nations between 70% and 80% of them are civilians. people that should be protected by the rules of war. we saucy vw civilians in a bombardment. they were getting out on foot. old ladies pushed out on the streets in wheelchairs. families loaded on donkey carts. they were trying to get out any way they could. this morning, no sign this violence is abbating and

overnight, we heard a statement from hamas' military wing they captured an israeli soldier. if this claim is true, they will look to use it as a bargaining chip in political and military terms. no statement from the israeli military to confirm if the claims are true. the military saying they are looking into this. also reports this morning from the israelis and from ha has that once again, hamas has managed to infiltrate on israel and combat with forces there. >> karl is live for us this morning. john kerry is on his way to egypt to broker a cease-fire. >> between who and whom? hamas will negotiate with egypt so there may not be all the sites needed. 21 minutes after the hour. s deadly wildfires burning out

of control in washington. nearly 1 million acres torched, more than 100 homes destroys. we'll talk about that next.

happening now, more than 20 wildfires burning across the pacific northwest. nearly 1 million acres in oregon and washington state burned. 150 homes lost in one washington

county. one person did die trying to save his home from the flames. some 35 hot shot crews are on the fire lines right now. they may get a break from the weather with cooler temperatures and lighter winds in the forecast. time for an "early start" on your money. fares of gaza and malaysian airlines putting a damper on stocks. european shares down this morning. asian shares also ending the day mostly lower. look at the u.s. stock futures, they are pointing lower. historically, shares have bounced back after global disasters. we are seeing that now. the dow almost gained back all that was lost on thursday. disasters like this one cause short term uncertainty. investors don't see a long term impact. throughout the course of history, it's short term. the trader short term reacts to things like what's happening in

ukraine and the middle east. long term investors tend to weather it well. >> 26 minutes after the hour. new developments in the investigation of the downed malaysian airlines flight 17. chaos, controversy at the crash site. what russian president vladimir putin said overnight and why families of those on board are so outraged. live team coverage, next. ♪ ♪ great rates for great rides. geico motorcycle, see how much you could save.