minister of israel making a statement, saying once the tunnels are destroyed, he says israel will begin the process of redeploying presumably, begin the process of removing the ground forces who have gone into gaza and the defense minister, by the way, of israel is now speaking, but a significant statement from the prime minister saying that he believes most of the operation, military operation against the tunnels, against a lot of the missiles, missile launchers, rockets have been successful. he says israel will complete the operation and then he expressed hope that gaza, the palestinians and gaza will be able to get international support to rebuild that gaza strip right there. he also praised president obama for the strong expressions of support that the president made yesterday. i don't know if we want to listen now to the defense minister. let's listen a little bit.

this is the defense minister of israel. >> very important job done by our soldiers and officers. it was very difficult and complicated operation. we used excellent intelligence that we have and it is important to praise those people who brought this intelligence. during this work, operation against the tunnels, many of our excellent soldiers and officers were killed in order to bring peace to the settlements, the towns near the gaza border. we continue destroying different offensive capabilities of the hamas organization, especially the actions of our air force. hamas is paying a very heavy price. we act in a most resolute way to destroy the tunnels, kill the

terrorists, and destroy their capability of missiles and rockets. yesterday our army destroyed a campus of islamic university in gaza where under the guise of activities they develop explosive device. we continue hurting the hamas. we will not compromise the security of israeli people. this operation continues for a long time. hamas suffers and actually created this problem for themselves. we will continue and we are supported by you, citizens of israel, and they, the leaders of hamas will know that we will continue acting against those goals until the goal will be

accomplished. i am very pleased with the operation by the soldiers and officers who are defending israeli citizens. our soldiers and officers, members of the general security service, male and female soldiers, men and women, people in active service display strength and resilience, do excellent job. we understand the dangers and the soldiers understand the very position they have. therefore, we will not desist until the peace and calm are restored for citizens of israel. hamas is a murderous terrorist organization which lies time and again, uses its citizens as human shields. we are very sorry about average

citizens that was killed, but hamas is actually a terrorist state which uses israeli schools and hospitals. they are places of terrorism and we destroy those places without compromise. this operation is conducted under leadership of the prime minister who see the whole picture, including the international picture. it is important that you, citizens of israel, will know that we do all that is possible in order to bring peace and calm to you. it is very important to behave now in a calm way and in a responsible way in order to accomplish our goals. the family spoke to the press and explained that they think

that the army is withdrawing from the gaza strip, thus abandoning the soldiers. i understand them, but i am not saying what they're going to do, when they're going to finish these operations. we do not have any obligation apart from our obligation to the security of the people of israel. it is our joint decision, my decision and minister of defense and chief of staff, we will regroup and arrange our forces in such a way that will enable us to defend our country. we will continue this operation until the goal will be achieved. and all that we are doing will be done in accordance with this goal. i will speak to goldin family later tonight, and think i

personally understand their suffering. we would like to share with them all that we know. this is a question to the defense minister. is qatar directly engaged in financing the terrorism in strip of gaza and are there iranian forces in gaza which support and help hamas launching missiles against israel? you ask me or minister of defense? >> both of you. >> translator: qatar is the main funder of hamas and also head of the hamas is in qatar. we expect that they will use their influence upon -- for example, the last cease-fire, it looked like they did just that, by the way, according to those

obligations, we were supposed to continue destroying the tunnels. we did not agree without any cease-fire to stop those activities. so qatar actually probably deceived us or they did not achieve what they told that they achieved. they brought an answer that was not satisfactory. it funds, helps, supports hamas, and doesn't have the pressure --. about iran, some of the missiles, other projectiles surface to air missiles were actually manufactured in iran. this is proof that iranians are

in the gaza strip. prime minister, the impression is that this part of the operation was accomplished. maybe the operation on the whole is being continued, but we are getting closer to the completion of this operation. what do you say at that point to the residents of this council that there will be no more missiles. well, i can tell you one thing, they can actually develop in different directions and we actually keep all opportunities open. the very significant work was done. the tunnels were significantly harmed by our soldiers and our

soldiers acted heroically. the activities, when we hear from the army that this mission was accomplished, then we will decide. there's another side to this, our defensive capabilities which we are currently developing and i don't think we should go deep into this issue, but we are strengthening defensive capabilities on all israeli borders. for example, the wall that i initiated, we are the first country in the world that understands that we should act against other ways of infiltrating, and we will invest necessary resources and our intellect, of people that are

actually geniuses and who would apply themselves to resolving this issue. we will not -- we are not going to accept the continuation of fire. we act in order to bring peace and calmness to our citizens. maybe hamas will understand that, maybe it will not. so no matter how much time it will come, but we -- you should understand that hamas is paying extremely heavy price. i think that there is very important international constellation now, especially in our region which actually enables us to create some new reality. and i am interested to reach both of these operations militarily or politically, of course i prefer to reach those goals in a political way, but if it is not possible, we will employ all the means that we have in our disposal.

minister, what is your answer to local government leaders, mayors, ministers in your cabinet which say that the mission was not accomplished and that the gaza strip should be conquered. all options are fairly on the table. everything is open in order to bring peace and calm to the citizens of israel and we are acting in this way on very serious manner, very responsible manner as prime minister of israel, i bear responsibility for all the decisions taken by the government and for these decisions socially. and i am always reviewing all risks and all opportunities, and that is what i do, together with the minister of defense.

that is how we advance. i am not reckless, i do not behave in a reckless way especially when the lives of our soldiers and citizens are at stake. i really see the life of every soldier in front of me, but in order to defend you, your families, your children, each one of you, i make decisions that in my view are necessary in a very responsible way. i am not just talking, i take those decisions in a very responsible way together with chief of staff, together with minister of defense, in order to secure the peace and calmness for the people of israel, as i already told you. all the options are on the table. >> so there you hear the prime minister of israel making a very forceful statement, benjamin netanyahu, saying the israeli

military in his words made very significant progress, destroying most of those tunnels, hamas tunnels from gaza to israel. he said they destroyed hundreds of hamas rockets and missiles, the launchers that have gone into israel. he says that there will be a new phase in this military operation, once the current phase is completed. didn't want to spell out when that would be. but you did hear the defense minister also echo what the prime minister says, that they think they are well on their way. they say hamas has suffered significantly in the course of these four weeks of this war, and that they will -- this will result one way or another in a peaceful environment for the citizens of israel. i want to bring in reza sayah, listening carefully to what the prime minister of israel was saying, joining us from cairo, where the egyptian government is getting ready to receive a palestinian delegation, coming there to try to achieve a

cease-fire. reza, you listened carefully to prime minister netanyahu. you heard him repeatedly criticize, blast qatar, which has a very close relationship with hamas funding hamas, but he also was reaching out to what he clearly saw as other arab leaders in the region who have a more distant relationship with hamas. >> reporter: yeah, i think when you look at the airport world and the landscape, qatar is the only arab nation that's backing hamas at this point. otherwise, hamas is very much isolated. you have saudi arabia, the egyptian governments, united arab emirates, they seem to be backing off the support from hamas of course, here in egypt that has a lot to do with change in leadership. couple years ago last time they fought, november, 2012, it was the muslim brotherhood leader, mohammed morsi, as president. he was ousted by the current

president, which considerably changed the dynamics. i think a lot of people in egypt, maybe around the world, they were disappointed in this speech. they didn't want to hear statistics. they wanted to hear prospects of the reviving of talks, of the cease-fire talks, the cease-fire proposal. that didn't happen. obviously that's going to disappoint a lot of people who want to see an end to the bloodshed. that aside, i think it is easy to guess what the reaction from the arab public is going to be to this speech, and it is important to distinguish the arab public and so-called arab street and the arab governments. a lot of people on the arab street are going to view this speech as israeli propaganda that's designed to distort the reality on the ground and push forward the israeli narrative. and that narrative is that hamas is a dangerous terrorist organization, that israel is doing all it can to protect its

citizens, and it has to take these sort of measures to protect its citizenry. obviously that's a narrative the arab street completely rejects. they point to the staggers death toll in the last particular conflict, more than 1600 people killed in gaza. many of these civilians. they point to the disparity in death toll between the palestinians and the israeli soldiers, and the three israeli civilians to point to israel as being the aggressor, and i can tell you there's a couple of comments that are going to outrage the arab street as well. i recall one time the prime minister netanyahu described the operation as calculated. the military operation as calculated. and i know, wolf, that many in the arab street are going to be wondering if in mr. netanyahu's calculation was this high death toll. but the bottom line, no talk of the cease-fire talks, truce talks resuming in cairo.

and i think that's going to disappoint a lot of people who were hoping these two sides stopped their fighting and get here to cairo to hammer out some lasting truce. >> clearly the israelis at least for now, reza, you're right, the prime minister making no mention of going into a cease-fire, saying hamas was responsible for the breaking of yesterday's proposed 72 hour cease-fire. and he did go out of his way to praise president obama for the statement made at the white house yesterday, basically supporting israel's stance on who is responsible for the rupture of the cease-fire. sara sidner is in israel, not far from the gaza border. what's it like there today, more rockets and missiles coming in? sirens still going off, sara? >> reporter: yes. actually just as prime minister netanyahu was speaking about getting closer to the completion of this operation and having destroyed so many tunnels, we heard the boom of artillery fire going from israel into gaza.

there have also been more than 65 rockets through the day that have come over into israel today, but certainly the fighting hasn't stopped completely, nor did they offer that or or say there was going to be a cease-fire. but it did sound like, wolf you mentioned this, from the defense minister and prime minister netanyahu that it sounds as if they're getting very close and that we're going to see some action, some backing off, if you will, of these very strong fighting that we have been seeing both from the air and the ground. and the ground operations also trying to get rid of the tunnels because they're saying it is almost complete, hearing that from both the defense minister and the prime minister. there is definitely an interesting dichotomy here. you'll hear the prime minister and defense minister talking to citizens of israel, saying look, this is not as though we are leaving something undone. we are going about this in a calculated way.

we will get the job done. but they also know the international community is watching and there has been a great deal of condemnation for the numbers of people, citizens in particular, that have been killed in gaza. we are talking about more than 1650 people killed and the united nations says many of those are citizens, regular citizens, trying to get by in their lives. also the destruction there. you heard the prime minister talking about rebuilding, that they would let international organizations that would need to be able to go in and help gaza rebuild, but of course not giving hamas a chance to go out and get more or build more weaponry, but to build for the people of gaza. so hearing from them, it does sound like, wolf, correct me if i'm wrong here, that there's going to be a change in this operation. it sounds like it is going to be as the prime minister said regrouping. when that happens? we have to ask the army, the

army will tell us when the mission is complete and then we'll take action. wolf? >> you're absolutely right, sara. it looks like about -- even though the prime minister didn't say, a change in israeli strategy now, they're going to start removing some of the ground forces because they think destruction of the tunnels near complete and destruction of a lot of missiles and rockets near complete as well. they also -- he is also making clear if there's quiet coming from gaza, there will be quiet going into gaza from israel. i want you and everyone else to stand by. we're going to continue our breaking news coverage right after this. celebrate your love of crab with gthis year's largest variety!. 'cause it's crabfest at red lobster! dig into a succulent selection of crab entrées. like new crab lover's trio! with sweet snow crab legs, split king crab, and jumbo lump crab over savory shrimp. crab three ways! all on one plate. or try new jumbo lump crab over wood-grilled salmon.

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welcome back. following a lengthy statement coming from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who said that his forces have accomplished work on the hamas tunnels. i want to bring in erin mcpike

and lieutenant colonel rick francona. to you, erin, is the prime minister saying it severely hurt strategic systems of hamas, what it has built, and that its military is regrouping. >> reporter: fred, we are awaiting reaction from the white house on benjamin netanyahu's statement just now. however, we did hear from president obama just yesterday. he says he is in constant consultation with netanyahu, but of course this has gotten tense. we heard from israeli officials, also the israeli media, they're criticizing john kerry for not doing enough, even though he has been on the phone with people from the region day-in and day-out since this began. but essentially we're hearing from the israeli press that they think that some of the obama administration is being naive in trying to force this truce. there was an ap report that came

out just this morning in which essentially netanyahu has said to the obama administration don't second guess me on what i am doing with hamas, fred. >> all right, colonel francona, what does it mean when the prime minister says the military is regrouping? >> that means they're going to change their strategy from what i gather from the prime minister's words, it looks like they're probably going to be shifting from concentrated ground operations, pulling back a bit, continuing the air strikes, drone strikes and the artillery and pulling troops out. they accomplished i guess what they thought they were doing with the tunnels. they have destroyed the tunnels they could find. if they can't find more, no reason to have the engineers and ground forces in there if they're not moving further into gaza and occupy that territory. so they're pulling back. it is important he made the point he was going to be in touch with lieutenant goldin's

family. when you start to pull out ground forces and still have someone in captivity there, you could be accused of breaking faith with troops, abandoning one of your soldiers who is missing in action. he was careful to make the point he was not doing that, and that they're going to keep up the pressure. i did not hear any indication they are going to unilaterally have a cease-fire and stop operations, so they need to continue what they're doing. >> obvious absence of discussion about cease-fire. but you did of course underscore netanyahu saying he would talk to the goldin family later this evening. colonel fran cone a erin mcpike, and wolf blitzer and reza sayah and sara sidner. i am fredricka whitfield, more from the newsroom next with poppy harlow and john vause. what if a photo were more than a memory?

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so you can commit to your education with confidence. get started at phoenix.edu hi, everyone, you're in the cnn newsroom. i am poppy harlow here in new york. >> i am john vause, reporting in gaza. >> this hour, we are explaining the two biggest stories this weekend, the chaos in gaza and the arrival of an ebola patient in the united states. first in the mid east, whatlet led to the struggle. the leader of world health organization says the ebola outbreak is moving faster than they can control it. now an infected patient is in the united states for treatment. how concerned should everyone here be? our experts weigh in so you know