we are following breaking news in the middle east, where as of this minute a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire is in effect. both israel and hamas agree to this truce, but we are waiting to see if this one will hold. thank you for joining us for this special coverage on cnn, i'm natalie allen. >> good to have you with me, natalie. i'm still errol barnett. coming up for you this hour, we're going to get you live to gaza and jerusalem to follow any developments in this minutes old cease-fire now. cnn investigates claims that hamas has been using human shields in this conflict. an experimental serum steams to have improved the chances of

survival for these two americans with ebola. an inside look at why there still isn't a vaccine for this deadly virus. if all has gone well if all goes well, a new cease-fire has just begun in the middle east. >> it's a humanitarian truce -- i know we've said that before. it's supposed to hold for 72 hours, it's just after 8:00 a.m. in israel and gaza. we're told the cease-fire was agreed upon by the israelis and palestinian factions including hamas. >> the truce comes with the conflict in its fourth week now, both sides under increasing international pressure over the mounting death toll. >> success of the cease-fire will depend on the other, listen to this. >> we've destroyed, located and destroyed those terror tunnels that allowed hamas to send into

israel death squads to kill our people. and so our operation will cease at 8:00 tomorrow morning. but will be -- to be frank, will be watching very closely, we want to see if this is going to hold this time. there have been about eight cease-fire proposals on the table. hamas has rejected or violated them all. you can't blame us for being a little skeptical. we'll be watching closely, the army's not going to be relaxing, they're going to be watching carefully to see if hamas does in fact honor the cease-fire. >> everybody, all factions in gaza are on board. everybody is on board. i hope that the israelis will also be fully on board will not use any excuses tomorrow, we need to give this a chance. we need to give this a chance. sustain the hour, every hour for 72 hours and then we're going to

have to extend the 72 hours. but at the same time, what we need to see is a very, very, very huge humanitarian relief to alleviate the suffering of the 1.5 million people who are in full national disaster. >> we've been there throughout this conflict. cnn correspondents continue to be in the region following developments this hour, our carl penhaul is live in gaza, we'll go to him live in a moment. we want to begin with matthew chance in jerusalem. with yet another cease-fire pending, are there any signs that this is going to hold? >> we'll have to wait and see to see whether it holds or not, but in the past four weeks, the record on is cease-fires holding

has not been good. ahead of the cease-fire taking root, the israeli military saying 20 rocketess were fired from the gaza strip into areas, particularly in southern israel. also toward jerusalem as well the military describes as a massive barrage of rockets minutes before the cease-fire began at 8:00 local time. so about six minutes ago, we'll have to get from our teams in gaza, what the situation is there, but from an israeli point of view, there's been no suggestion at this point of any casualties as a result of that massive barrage of rockets, it puts pressure on the israeli military to respond, the hope, of course, is that these rockets are the parting shots in this conflict which has lasted now

nearly four weeks, natalie. >> what will it take to get the talks going in egypt. egypt helped broker this pause. any signs of that going to pick back up any time soon? >> that's certainly the hope, part of this egyptian proposal isn't just a 72 hour cease-fire, that's the first part of it. that is now in force, we don't know to what extent it's holding, the second more crew shall part of the proposal is that all the parties gather in cairo, they try to hammer out a more permanent arrangement. israel says it wants to see a return of security to the citizens of israel. what it means by that, of course, is an end to the tunnel digging and carry out atalks. and rocket firing we've been seeing over the past several minutes. >> what the palestinians say

they want for a more permanent solution is for an end to israeli troop activities in the gaza strip. they want their borders to be opened again and they want an end to the blockade, an end to the restriction on goods that go into the gaza strip from israel, these are the negotiating points that both sides have in and when they finally get around the same table to try to hammer out an end to this extremely brutal conflict we've been witnessing. >> matthew chance, we'll stay in close contact with you as the minutes tick on here, right now we'll turn to karl penhaul. we just heard matthew tell us there was a barrage of rockets that came from there toward israel in the minutes leading up to this cease-fire hour, what have you witnessed?

>>natalie, as matthew said, a barrage of 20 rockets. lamas and other militant faukss on the ground announcing by their tv station announcing it was seven rockets, those being fired out before the start of the cease-fire only minutes before. we heard at least four rockets flying sky ward, what we also heard, of course, in the last 15 or so minutes before the cease-fire began were approximately four israeli air strikes as well. one very large just on the southern edge of gaza city. perhaps this is the last hoorah in terms of military activity and i think what will also tip hamas' hand, it will pull back all of its ground troops from

the gaza strip and move into defensive positions outside the gaza strip that in the past cease-fires has been a red rag to the militant factions here that israeli ground troops are allowed to be in place in the gaza strip. israelis seem to think that is mission accomplished in terms of tunnel destruction. they clearly, of course, haven't achieved their aim of destroying all the rocket launching positions, certainly now it looks like things are moving into the talk phase. >> that would be a good sign and significant as well to see the ground troops moving out of that area. now it comes down to the sevi e civilians and what they have been through, you've seen it firsthand, you've talked to them been all over the hospital situation. it's hard to say what the people are feeling there if they have the confidence to come out and

believe this thing could stick, what do you sense is the mood there now with this one? >> just by sheer necessity, and after four weeks of intense bombardments, to some extent they've lost their fear, people will come out, they need to come out, they need to get food and water, they don't have any at home. they need to stand in long lines for bread again today. and if they get an inkling this cease-fire is holding for a few hours, then they will be heading into their neighborhoods to try to salvage what is left in their homes and certainly the answer to that is not going to be easy for them, as they move to neighborhoods, especially those closer to the israelly border, they're going to find nothing but rubble, natalie. >> we can see it there on the screen, and we have seen it, that has to be a hard thing to

come home to. karl penhaul, matthew chance we will stay in close contact with you to see what happens in the next hour or two, thank you. >> as we see the cease-fire begin, we're seeing reports of rockets being fired into israel and being destroyed. there's one thing we have to keep in mind the current conflict has left 2,000 people dead, the vast majority of them palestinians and civilians, palestinian officials say more than 1800 people have been killed in gaza. it's the u.n. that say civilian deaths have been accounted for 70 to 80% of the casualties. nearly 10,000 people have been wounded in gaza. israeli officials say 64 soldiers have been killed and 3 civilians have also died. >> israel accuses hamas of trying to gain international support by driving up casualties.

>> we've seen that, haven't we? the idf says hamas deliberately puts civilians in harm's way. as randi kaye is about to show you, we have proof. >> a u.n. school in gaza hit by an israeli air strike. this employee rushes inside to get a look at the body count. at least 20 people are killed. as many as six other u.n. run shelters in gaza schools have taken a hit from israel. this is exactly what hamas militants want you to see says the israeli military, accusing hamas of hiding rockets in if facilities like these. using human shields to garner international sympathy. hamas' political leader denied that charge. >> hamas sacrifices itself for its people and does not use its

people as human shield to protect soldiers. these are lies and hamas does not seek international sympathy through its own victims. >> if that's true, how does hamas explain this. they found this hamas training manual in gaza, we can't confirm its authenticity, it explains how civilians can be used in urban warfare the manual includes the benefits for hamas when civilian homes are destroyed. and there's more to suggest hamas may support human shields, another of the group's political leaders said this during the tactic tactics. >> they have formed human shields of the women, children and elderly in order to challenge the zionist bombing machine. >> israel's prime minister talked about it during an interview on cnn. >> we develop anti-missile

systems to protect our civilians, they use their civilians to protect their missiles, that's the difference. >> hamas has been accused of deliberately firing rockets into densely populated areas. charges they denied. even encouraging their own people to ignore israel's leaflets. listen to what a spokesman said in july. >> translator: stay in your homes as we promised you, and do not comply with the war of rumors and psychological warfare that the zionist enemy is waging on you. moments after the warning shot, civilians emerge on the rooftop, acting according to the idf as human shields. in gaza, believing hamas' word could mean the difference between life and death. randi kaye, cnn, new york.

>> that is something that will need further exploring as they hopefully move on with this. a second american infected with ebola is on her way to the united states. why doctors and scientists are having a difficult time dealing with the virus. crowd cheers!

at this moment, a second american ebola patient is flying

back to the united states from liberia, nancy writebol is to arrive later today, it's expected she'll be here around midday local time. she will join fellow relief worker and ebola patient kent brantly. you can see him here arriving at the atlanta hospital on saturday leaving the ambulance under his own power. both americans have been treated with an experimental serum, it may be working but it is not available to other ebola victims. sanjay gupta explains why. >> usually these things go through a clinical trying where it's tested for safety first and then efficacy. this was given to them at an early stage. one thing as well, this is happening realtime, i mean people are asking why isn't this more widely available? it wasn't supposed to be available at all yet, until it went through this clinical trial process, but they decided to

give it a shot with dr. kent brantly and nancy writebol as well. how it plays out, how more widely it may become available, we don't know. >> and that serum, it's only days for it, they're not sure if it is the aren't one u.s. patient has improved. what you're seeing now is something we put together based on what the world health organization have told us, a tally of the ongoing deaths. 887 so far, more than 1600 confirmed cases since the outbreak began in march. the world bank is pledging up to $200 million to guinea, liberia and sierra leone. the president of guinea told cnn just how badly all this funding is needed. >> it takes about $500 million to develop a vaccine. and laboratories aren't going to develop a vaccine unless it can be sold widely, unlike the

influenza violence for example, or vaccine, that has a large market. the ebola vaccine market would be very limited despite the fact that we had many indications of deaths. the government needs to be more involved to make sure there is funding for developing a vaccine. >> again, researchers are desperately trying to understand ebola and how to fight it. >> even with this serum, it's only been tested up until now on monkeys and mice, so to see it in a human being is new territory, jim bolden spoke with a scientist who helped discover the ebola disease. he explains why it's so difficult to reign in. >> a vaccine won't help these victims of the ebola virus. and is unlikely to prevent the next outbreak. why? the man who helped discover the virus nearly 40 years ago says there are still many unanswered questions. >> we don't know enough how to treat someone with this viral

infection, with ebola. we don't know exactly how to prevent it through a vaccine, and we don't know also how exactly the virus causes death. >> some pharmaceutical firms are working on potential drug treatments for those who are infectsed. but these studies are only in the animal testing stage, and as of yet no human trials have been officially allowed. >> overall, the numbers are quite low, in terms of mortality world wide. the other issue, of course, is because you don't know when the next outbreak will occur, the vaccine would have to be stockpiled and held in some sort of secure situation where it didn't go off. most vaccines do have a shelf life. >> trials of vaccines on primates have been taking place, with a blessing of the national institutes for health in the united states. nih says it's closer to getting a vaccine into the early phases of trial. perhaps as early as next month.

allowing the vaccine to be available in limited form by the end of 2015. some of the money for trials of vaccines and treatments is coming from the defense department's of some western nations. >> the military and the defense regimes are certainly aware of this agent as a possible agent of bioterrorism and they're working on methods to control it. >> still, the challenges on the ground go way beyond prevention and cure. >> then we have the major issue of the zs trust in liberia, in sierra leone, particularly also. the government and health services. some people have even accused western doctors to come there to experiment on people. we have to deal with that as well. >> the most effective way to stop the spread of ebola at the moment, is early diagnosis and

quick isolation of those infected. not an easy task in countries where the health care system is already broken or nonexistent. jim bolden, cnn, london. >> hopefully this will be the time there are some breakthroughs in learning how to treat ebola. >> the serum is hopeful, it could mean something, the fight continues. still to come for you here on cnn, japan is bracing right now for more torrential rain, we'll bring you an update on when a dangerous typhoon could make landfall.

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a live look at the israeli/gaza border, which is at this moment, about 23 minutes into a 72-hour cease-fire agreed to between israel and hamas, brokered by egypt. it comes at a crucial time for the civilians of gaza, the death toll more than 1800, almost 10,000 people wounded. the u.n. saying there's a desperate need for security during the cease-fire, during this truce for the basic essentials, food, water and shelter. also, the development this past hour, israel saying it will withdraw all ground troops and there are reports as well of some rockets being fired from gaza into israel, being intercepted by the iron dome system, a system which in fact the u.s. president signed a deal for more funding just this week.

we're watching closely, our correspondents are there, we will update you throughout the morning as this story continues to develop. >> look at other news now, china's hunan province. the chinese premiere has made the operations a priority, according to the news agency, he's walked some five kilometers to survey the damage himself monday, the death toll now almost 400. more than 1800 people are injured. >> earlier in the week, tropical storm pounded southern japan. >> another typhoon is moving toward japan again. they don't deserve this, but pedram is here to tell us more.

>> japan seems to be dealing with what taiwan was dealing with last year. it began raining saturday afternoon and has not stopped raining since. they've tallied 32 inches of rainfall since saturday afternoon. all sorts of records going down now. we know one fatality, one serious injury here. a population of over 300,000 people, they've all been advised to evacuate. especially the ones due to the threat, those close to the rivers because of the threat of the rivers bursting their banks and you can see the amount of water that's come down, already causing issues there. especially with property damage and mudslides. a major concern. take a look at what we have here, 800 millimeters, 3200 inches. that will be nearly what the city of seattlep get in an entire year you go off to the

east. i've seen 600 millimeters of rainfall. they've seen it since saturday afternoon, the records, fifth wettest august on record, we're five days into the month of august, by the way. the single wettest day on record was across kochi. second wettest august on record, 26 days left in the month of augu august. it is about 800 kilometers east of luzan. only the outer bands of this are going to be impacting portions of the philippines. warnings have been put in place for flooding there. this is a category two equivalent. wind winds around the area, sometime thursday into friday, winds

should be in the general 100 plus mile per hour range. it would be a category 2 equivalent. the winds are going to be a problem, mudslides an issue, and extensive property damage also a concern with the storm system, guys? >> all eyes on japan for this one. >> thank you. other eyes are on the middle east right now, the question is, will it hold? a new cease-fire has just gotten underway in the middle east. the question is, will it last the full 72 hours, we will go live to the region for the latest straight ahead here. >> harsh criticism for israel from one of the jewish states closest allies. what the u.s. said about the shelling of a u.n. shelter in gaza after this. else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country,

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you are watching cnn's breaking coverage of the humanitarian cease-fire in the middle east. at this moment we are 30 minutes into a 72 hour truce. you're looking at live picture the of gaza city, this is much different to the scene that most residents have been waking up to over the past three