lost its influence in the world? have you lost yours? >> yeah, look, this is a common theme that folks bring up. apparently, people have forgotten that america, as the most powerful country on earth, still does not control everything around the world. and so, you know, our diplomatic efforts often take time. they often will see progress and then a step backwards. that's been true in the middle east. that's been true in europe. that's been true in asia. that's the nature of world affairs. it's not neat and it's not smooth. but if you look at, for example, ukraine, we have made progress

in delivering on what we said we would do. we can't control how mr. putin thinks. but what we can do is say to mr. putin, if you continue on the path of arming separatists with heavy armaments that evidence suggests may have resulted in 300 innocent people on a jet dying and that violates international law and undermines the integrity -- territorial integrity and sovereignty of ukraine, then you're going to face consequences that will hurt your country. and there was a lot of skepticism about our ability to coordinate with the europeans for a strong series of sanctions, and each time we have done what we said we would do, including this week when we put in place sanctions that have an impact on key sectors of the

russian economy, their energy, their defense, their financial systems. it hasn't resolved the problem yet. i spoke to mr. putin this morning, and i indicated to him just as we do what we say we'll do in terms of sanctions, we'll also do what we say we'll do in terms of resolving this issue diplomatically if he takes a different position. if he respects and honors the right of ukrainians to determine their own destiny, then it's possible to make sure that russian interests are addressed that are legitimate and that ukrainians are able to make their own decisions and we can resolve this conflict and end some of the bloodshed. but the point is though, bill, that if you look at the 20th century and the early part of this century, there are a lot of conflicts that america doesn't resolve. that's always been true. that doesn't mean we stop trying. and it's not a measure of

american influence on any given day or at any given moment that there are conflicts around the world that are difficult. conflict in northern ireland raged for a very, very long time until finally something broke where the parties decided that it wasn't worth killing each other. the palestinian/israeli conflict has been going on even longer than you've been reporting. you know, i don't think at any point was there a suggestion somehow that america didn't have influence just because we weren't able to finalize the israeli/palestinian peace deal. you will recall that situations like kosovo and bosnia raged on for quite some time. and there was a lot more death and bloodshed than there has been so far in the ukrainian

situation before it ultimately did get resolved. and so i recognize with so many different issues popping up around the world, sometimes it may seem as if this is an aberration or it's unusual, but the truth of the matter is, there's a big world out there, and as indispensable as we are to try to lead it, there's still going to be tragedies out there, and there are going to be conflicts. our job is to just make sure that we continue to project what's right, what's just, and, you know, that we're building coalitions of like-minded countries and partners in order to advance not only our core security interests but also the interests of the world as a whole. >> you think you could have done more? >> on which one? >> on any of them. >> well, look, i think, bill,

that the nature of being president is that you're always asking yourself what more can you do. but with respect to, let's say, the israeli/palestinian issue, this administration invested an enormous amount to try to bring the parties together around a framework for peace and a two-state solution. john kerry invested an enormous amount of time. in the end, it's up to the two parties to make a decision. we can lead them to resolve some of the technical issues and to show them a path, but they've got to want it. with respect to ukraine, i think that we have done everything we can to support the ukrainian government and to deter russia from moving further into ukraine.

but short of going to war, there are going to be some constraints in terms of what we can do if president putin and russia are ignoring what should be their long-term interests. right now what we've done is imposed sufficient costs on russia is that objectively speaking they should, president putin should want to resolve this diplomatically. get these sanctions lifted, get their economy growing again, and have good relations with ukraine. but sometimes people don't always act rationally and don't always act based on their medium or long-term interests. that can't deter us, though. we've just got to stay at it. wendell? >> mr. president, republicans point to some of your executive orders as reason they say they can't trust you to implement

legislation as they've passed. even if you don't buy that argument, do you hold yourself totally blameless in the inability, it appears, to reach agreement with the republican-led house? >> wendell, you know, let's just take the recent example of immigration. a bipartisan bill passed out of the senate cosponsored by not just democrats but some very conservative republicans who recognizes that the system currently is broken, and if, in fact, we put more resources on the border, provide a path in which those undocumented workers who have been living here for a long time and may have ties here are coming out of the shadows, paying their taxes, paying a fine, learning english, if we fix the legal immigration system

so it's more efficient, if we are, you know, attracting young people who may have studied here to stay here and create jobs here, that all is going to be good for the economy. it's going to reduce the defi t deficit. it might have forestalled some of the problems we're seeing now in the rio grande valley with these unaccompanied children. so we have a bipartisan bill, wendell. bipartisan agreement supported by everybody from labor to the evangelical community to law enforcement. so the argument isn't between me and the house of republicans. it's between the house republicans and senate republicans and house republicans and the business

community. and house republicans and the evangelical community. i'm just one of the people they seem to disagree with on this issue. so that's on the kpcomprehensiv bill. they say we need more resources. we need tougher border security in this area where these unaccompanied children are showing up. we agree, so we put forward a supplemental to give us the additional resources and funding to do exactly what they say we should be doing. and they can't pass the bill. they can't even pass their own version of the bill. so that's not a disagreement between me and the house of republicans. that's a disagreement between the house of republicans and the house of republicans.

the point is that on a range of these issues, whether it's tax reform, whether it's reducing the deficit, whether it's rebuilding our infrastructure, we are consistently put forward proposals that in previous years and previous administrations would not have been considered radical or left wing. they would have been considered pretty sensible, mainstream approaches to solving problems. i'd include under that, by the way, the affordable care act. but that's a whole other conversation. and in circumstances where even bas

basic, common sense, plain vanilla legislation can't pass because house of republicans consider it somehow a compromise of their principles or giving obama a victory, then we've got to take action. o otherwise, we're not going to be making progress on the things that the american people care about. >> on the border supplemental, you're going to act alone? >> i'm going to have to act alone because we don't have enough resources. we've already been very clear. we've run out of money. and we are going to have to reallocate resources in order to just make sure that some of the basic functions that have to take place down there, whether it's making sure that these children are properly housed or making sure we've got enough immigration judges to process their cases, that those things get done. we're going to have to reallocate some resources.

but the broader point, wendell, is that if, in fact, house republicans are concerned about me acting independently of congress, despite the fact that i've taken fewer executive actions than my republican predecessor or my democratic predecessor before that or the republican predecessor before that, then the easiest way to solve it is pass some legislation. get things done. on the supplemental, we agreed on 80% of the issues. there were 20% of the issues that perhaps there were disagreements between democrats and republicans. as i said to one republican colleague who was down here that i was briefing about some national security issues, why wouldn't we just go ahead and pass the 80% we agree on and

we'll try to work to resolve the differences on the other 20%? why wouldn't we do that? he didn't really have a good answer for it. so there's no doubt that i can always do better on everything, including, you know, making additional calls to speaker boehner and having more conversations with some of the house republican leadership, but in the end, the challenge i have right now is that they are not able to act even on what they say their priorities are. and they're not able to work and compromise even with senate republicans on certain issues. and they consider what have been

traditionally republican-supported initiati s initiatives. they consider those as somehow a betrayal of the cause. take, for example, the export-import bank. this is an interesting thing that's happened. this is a program in which we help to provide financing to sell american goods and products around the world. every country does this. it's traditionally been championed by republicans. for some reason right now the house republicans have decided that we shouldn't do this, which means that when american companies go overseas and they're trying to close a sale on selling boeing planes, for example, or a ge turbine or some

other american product that has all kinds of subcontractors behind it and is creating all kinds of jobs and all sorts of small businesses depend on that sale and that american company is going up against a german company or a chinese company and the chinese and the german company are providing financing and the american company isn't, we may lose that sale. why -- when did that become something that republicans opposed? it would be like me having a car dealership for ford and the toyota dealership offers somebody financing and i don't. we will lose business. and we'll lose jobs if we don't pass it. so there's some big issues where i understand why we have

differences. on taxes, you know, republicans want to maintain some corporate loopholes i think need to be closed because i think we should be giving tax breaks to families that are struggling with childcare or trying to save for a college education. on health care, obviously their view is that we should not be helping folks get health care, even though it's through the private marketplace. my view is that in a country as wealthy as ours, we can afford to make sure that everybody has access to affordable care. those are legitimate policy arguments. but getting our ambassadors confirmed. these are career diplomats, not political types. making sure that we pass legislation to strengthen our

borders and put more folks down there, those shouldn't be controversial. and i think you'd be hard pressed to find an example of where i wouldn't welcome some reasonable efforts to actually get a bill passed out of congress that i could sign. last question, michelle kosinski. >> thank you. you made the point that in certain difficult conflicts in the past both sides had to reach a point where they were tired of the bloodshed. do you think we're actually far from that point right now? and is it realistic to try to broker a cease-fire right now when there are still tunnel operations allowed to continue? is that going to cause a change of approach from this point fwra forward? >> keep in mind the cease-fire would have given israel the capability to continue dismantling these tunnel

networks. but the israelis can't dismantle these tunnel networks without going into major population centers in gaza. so i think the israelis are entirely right that these tunnel networks need to be dismantled. there's a way of doing that while still reducing the bloodshed. you are right that in past conflicts sometimes people have to feel deeply the costs. anybody who's been watching some of these images, i'd like to think should recognize the costs. you know, you have children who are getting killed. you have women defenseless who are getting killed. you have israelis whose lives are disrupted constantly and

living in fear. and those are costs that are avoidable if we're able to get a cease-fire that preserves israel's ability to defend itself and gives it the capacity to have an assurance that they're not going to be constantly threatened by rocket fire in the future. and conversely, you know, an agreement that the palestinians need to be able to make a living and the average palestinian's capacity to live a decent life. but it's hard. it's going to be hard to get there. i think that there's a lot of anger and there's a lot of despair. that's a volatile mix. but we have to keep trying.

and it is -- you know, bill asked earlier about american leadership. part of the reason why america remains indispensable, part of the essential ingredient in american leadership is that we're willing to plunge in and try where other countries don't bother trying. the fact of the matter is in all these cry says that have been mentioned, there may be some tangential risks to the united states. in some cases, as in iraq and isis, those are dangers that have to be addressed right now, and we have to take them very seriously. but for the most part, these are not -- you know, the rockets aren't being fired into the united states.

we recognize we have some special responsibilities. we have to have some humility about what we can and can't accomplish. we have to recognize that our resources are finite. we're coming out of a decade of war, and our military has been stretched very hard, as has our budget. nevertheless, we try. we go in there and we make an effort. when i see john kerry going out there and trying to broker a cease-fire, we should all be supporting him. there shouldn't be a bunch of complaints and second guessing about, well, it hasn't happened yet or nitpicking before he's had a chance to complete his efforts. because, i tell you what, there isn't any other country going in there and making those efforts. and more often than not, as a consequence of our involvement, we get better outcomes. not perfect outcomes, not immediate outcomes, but we get

better outcomes. and that's going to be true with respect to middle east. that's going to be true with respect to ukraine. that's going to be certainly true with respect to iraq. and i think it's useful for me to end by just reminding folks that, you know, in my first term, if i had a press conference like this, typically everybody would want to ask about the economy and how come jobs weren't being created and how come the housing market's still bad and why isn't it working. well, you know what? we did work and the economy's better. when i say that we've just had six months of more than 200,000 jobs that hasn't happened in 17

years, you know, that shows you the power of persistence. it shows you that if you stay at it, eventually we make some progress. all right. i thought that you guys were going to ask me how i was going to spend my birthday. what happened to the happy birthday thing? i will address two points. i'll address -- hold on, guys. come on. you're not that pent up. i've been giving you questions lately. on brennan and the cia, the rdi report has been transmitted. the declassified version that will be released at the pleasure

of the senate committee. i have full confidence in john brennan. i think he has acknowledged and directly apologized to senator feinstein that cia personnel did not properly handle an investigation as to how certain documents that were not authorized to be released to senate staff got somehow into the hands of the senate staff. and it's clear from the ig report that some very poor judgment was shown in terms of how that was handled. keep in mind john brennan was the person who called for the ig report. he's already stood up a task force to make sure that lessons are learned and mistakes are resolved. with respect to the larger point of the rdi report itself, even before i came into office, i was

very clear that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. we did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. we did some things that were contrary to our values. i understand why it happened. i think it's important when we look back to recall how afraid people were after the twin towers fell and the pentagon had been hit and the plane in pennsylvania had fallen and people did not know whether more attacks were imminent and there was enormous pressure on our law enforcement and our national security teams to try to deal with this. and, you know, it's important

for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks had. a lot of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots, but having said all that, we did some things that were wrong. and that's what that report reflects. and that's the reason why after i took office, one of the first things i did was to ban some of the extraordinary interrogation techniques that are the subject of that report. and my hope is that this report reminds us once again that, you know, the character of our country has to be measured in part not by what we do when things are easy but what we do when things are hard.

and when we engaged in some of these enhanced interrogation techniques, techniques that i believe and i think any fair-minded person would believe were torture, we crossed a line. and that needs to be understood and accepted. and we have to, as a country, take responsibility for that so that hopefully we don't do it again in the future. i gave you a question. we've got a u.s./africa summit coming up next week. it's going to be an unprecedented gathering of african leaders. the importance of this for america needs to be understood. africa is one of the fastest growing continents in the world. you've got six of the ten

fastest growing economies in africa. you have all sorts of other countries like china and brazil and india deeply interested in working with africa. not to extract natural resources alone, which traditionally has been the relationship between africa and the rest of the world, but now because africa is growing and you've got thriving markets and entrepreneurs and extraordinary talent among the people there. and africa also happens to be one of the continents where america is most popular. and people feel a real affinity for our way of life. and we've made enormous progress over the last several years in not just providing traditional aid to africa, helping countries that are suffering from malnutrition or helping

countries that are suffering from a.i.d.s. but rather partnering and thinking about, how can we trade more, how can we do business together. that's the kind of relationship africa is looking for. i've had conversations over the last several months with u.s. businesses, some of the biggest u.s. businesses in the world, and they say, africa, that's one of our top priorities. we want to do business with those folks. and we think that we can create u.s. jobs and send u.s. exports to africa, but we've got to be engaged. so this gives us a chance to do that. it also gives us a chance to talk to africa about security issues. because as we've seen, terrorist networks try to find places where governance is weak and security structures are weak. if we want to keep ourselves safe over the long term, one of the things we can do is make sure we are partnering with some

countries that really have pretty effective security forces and have been deploying themselves in peacekeeping and conflict resolution efforts in africa. and that ultimately can save us and our troops and our military a lot of money if we have got strong partners who are able to deal with conflicts in these regions. so it's going to be a terrific conference. i won't lie to you. traffic will be bad here in washington. i know that everybody's been warned about that. but we are really looking forward to this, and i think it's going to be a great success. now, last thing i'm going to say about this because i know it's been on people's minds, is the issue of ebola. this is something that we take very seriously. as soon as there's an outbreak anywhere in the world of any disease that could have significant effects, the cdc is

in communication with the world health organization and other multilateral agencies to try to make sure that we've got an appropriate response. this has been a more aggressive ebola outbreak than we've seen in the past. but keep in mind that it is still affecting parts of three countries, and we've got some 50 countries represented at this summit. we are doing two things with respect to the summit itself. we're taking the appropriate precautions. folks who are coming from these countries that have even a marginal risk or infan tes mall risk, we're making sure they're doing screening on that end. we'll do additional screening when we're here. we feel confident of the procedures we've put in place.

more broadly, the cdc and our various health agencies are going to be working very intently with the world health organization and some of our partner countries to make sure we can surge some resources down there and organization to these countries that are pretty poor and don't have a strong public health infrastructure so that we can start containing the problem. keep in mind ebola is not something that is easily transmitted. that's why generally outbreaks dissipate, but the key is identifying, quarantining, isolating those who contract it and making sure that practices are in place that avoid transmission. and it can be done, but it's got to be done in an organized, systematic way. that means that we're going to have to help these countries accomplish that. all right?

okay. there you go, april. that's what i was talking about. somebody finally wished me happy birthday. although, it isn't until monday. you're right. thank you so much. >> president obama speaking there in the white house briefing room, wrapping up some comments there on a briefing on ebola and an african conference. the big headlines from the white house today, what we did worked. the president trying to push forward a message on economic progress and jobs, even as all eyes have been on tensions in the middle east, which he was asked about. the president also definitely making some news in this press conference saying, quote, we tortured some folks, speaking to the fact that he retains full confidence in his cia director john brennan after brennan apologized to the senate over spying on senate investigators. let's go right to our team coverage from our political folks and folks on the hill. nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing there on the north lawn. luke russert following a wild day on the hill.

and dana milbank with us as well. chris, let's start with the fact the white house was on a completely different page than a lot of the reporters on the room. opening remarks on the economy, taking some questions on gaza. he almost left the press briefing, chris, before he got those extra questions all shouted out. he wanted to make some extensive remarks as well about the cia. >> yeah, that was a choice obviously that he made and that might have been coming, obviously, were there more questions being taken. but he talked about that report that came out, which was a vindication, by the way, for california senator diane feinstein, who said back in march that the cia was inappropriately spying is on members of her committee. but i think there was a larger theme attic thing that came out of this 45 minutes or so, ari. that's that you can hear this sort of combination of frustration and determination from this president. frustration with congress, obviously nothing new. although, the white house would certainly say it hit a new low

yesterday, last night, overnight when republicans in the house were fighting with republicans in the house. nothing got done on even the most watered down of the border bill. and even though there's likely to be a vote tonight and obviously luke will speak to that, the senate has already gone home. also, i think the determination that he is showing on some of the overseas issues. just a few hours after the u.s. helped to broker that cease-fire, you saw the killing of two israeli soldiers and the kidnapping of a third. but the defense of john kerry, who has come under fire in israeli media and from some people at home. twice him bringing up what john kerry has done. also referencing a phone call he had with vladimir putin. i think one of the things we're going to be watching for with congress going home for next five weeks besides those crucial issues overseas are these executive orders because here you have a republican congress that has essentially said we're going to sue you over executive

orders, and then john boehner saying out of some frustration of his own that the president is going to have to do what he's going to do. so you'll see those executive actions in the coming weeks, ari. >> yeah, to your points there on john kerry, the president clearly making the argument that the u.s. has nothing to apologize for, even if this cease-fire broke down. echoing what kerry said earlier today, blaming hamas, calling for the return of that captured soldier. and then to your second point, going out to luke russert on the hill here, take a listen to the president speaking about house republicans just this hour. take a listen. >> and this is on an issue that they all insisted had to be a top priority. now, our efforts administratively so far have helped to slow the tide of child migrants trying to come to our country. but without additional resources and help from congress, we're just not going to have the resources we need to fully solve the problem. that means while they're out on

vacation, i'm going to have to make some tough choices. >> luke, that was the president's prediction of what he'll be left with based on what the house is doing right now. you're there. your thoughts? >> well, i think the president is essentially speaking the truth in the sense that the only way to deal with the border crisis between now and september 8th, because the senate will not take up this house-passed bill because they're too far to the right, will be some sort of executive action. this is something john boehner himself yesterday and other gop leadership encouraged the president to do when it looked like the house was going to skip town without passing their solution to the border issue. all that being said, though, ari, i found it fascinating that you're starting to see this dynamic. the house stayed back, putting the finishing touches on their bill. it's a bill that goes very far to the right. the leadership trying to do that to placate the more conservative members in an effort to move forward. it has massive changes to daca. it has funding for an increased national guard presence on the

border. but this basically puts the onus on the president. it's going to be fascinating to see what he does in terms of executive action while the house is away. now, in terms of him name calling congress, nothing here goes unnoticed. house republican speaker john boehner said the president has been awol during this entire border crisis. the senate has gone home. we're still here finishing our work. so -- >> i love the way they turn that into a positive, luke. >> absolutely. they're aware of how bad it would look had they left yesterday. that's sort of the reason why they stayed around and giving the president his bully pulpit as you saw it. this is going to be some sort of executive action. i can confidently tell you even though they said move along, you have the resources to deal with it, there will be outcry here from the house gop conference when it happens. >> dana, we saw this report in the last few days suggesting the executive action might entail work permits for millions of currently unauthorized immigrants, which is sure to be

received poorly by republicans. is that part of the white house's strategy here? do they like the frenzy that they are sort of able to whip republicans into over immigration? >> boy, josh, it doesn't take a whole lot to whip republicans into a frenzy these days. in fact, they were whipping themselves into a frenzy with no assistance whatsoever from the white house or democrats yesterday. i think what you saw the president doing just now is serving note. he said, i am picking up the pen right now while you guys leave town. house republicans gave him that opening with the fiasco that they had yesterday. it's obvious that whatever they cobbled together this evening is a complete nonstarter. so i think he's saying they have left me no choice but to take action. now, that doesn't necessarily mean he does the full monte and does what republicans would call amnesty. there's a lot of political backlash that could occur for some democrats on the ballot in november. clearly he's saying he's going

to take some serious moves, at least in regards moving funding around. i think that's the big domestic headline. >> dana, with regard to this press conference, to this statement today, he called this a message bill that the gop was trying to put together. saying that they came up with something that was extreme but it still couldn't pass, so they came back to pass something even more extreme. the thing i've been thinking about, the whole point here, this bill is not going to pass. it's not going to do anything. yet, they're arguing about the nitty gritty technical details in it, which is just absurd. but the whole goal here for republicans was to have a talking point as they go home on recess back to their districts to talk with constituents and regardless of whether they actually pass something here today or not, it seems to me like they've basically undermined any sort of talking point that they could have potentially possibly had. >> well, they sure did because part of what they're doing, part of this legislation is saying there are no more -- the president no longer has the

executive authority to declare these so-called amnesty to defer deportations. they've implicitly recognized he does have the authority to do that right now. so they stepped all over their message that way. of course, the house is going to say, well, the senate hasn't come up with a bill. that's largely because republicans in the senate have had a filibuster there. so i think the president saw an opening here. republicans in both chambers, but particularly the house, have tied themselves in knots. particularly after the good jobs news today, he could come out and say, look, i'm doing everything i can, and i'm justified in taking further steps because of the inaction here. >> yeah, and luke, as you were alluding to earlier, the members in the house are not taking his comments lightly. he was hitting pretty hard on house republicans, sometimes almost laughing at the facting they can't even pass a bill that's going nowhere any way. one of the reporters asked president obama if he should take any of the blame for this. he said there's no doubt i could do better on everything,

including more calls to speaker boehner and some of the house leadership. i want to get your thoughts on that. i mean, how would the leadership respond to that comment? what would more calls actually do? what would that accomplish? >> well, i think you often have seen this sort of criticism, and it's come from elder folks in the press corps, that it the president is aloof when it comes to dealing with congress. that criticism, to some degree, is well warranted, especially when you talk to older democratic members who say he's not had the hands-on presence as previous presidents. all that being said, though, i think where the house gop conference is right now with their new leadership team yesterday essentially having their first moment pushing forward a bill that was very far to the right of anything that any democrat would ever support either in the senate or in the white house, i don't think john boehner and barack obama hanging out with a few glasses of merlot would have fixed the differences they have over immigration right now. however, i do think it is telling that if you look at

where this border crisis has gone, as far as i have been able to calculate, there has not been a meeting amongst congressional leadership on both sides about it. we've known it's been going on for months. and perhaps could there be some sort of way for had there been more discussions? it's hard to say right now considering how far the house gop has taken this bill to the right. but i also do think that if you had democratic support, you could have had a bill that went right down the middle. they were willing to barter on this to some degree. they really were. but that 2008 law, nancy pelosi originally said there would be changes to that if it was part of something else more grander. she's now gone back and said, well, no, we're not going to change that under any circumstances. but abby, i will say this. from covering the hill for five years, president obama picking up the phone and calling john boehner, it probably helps a lot more than it ever hurts. >> all right. a view from the hill there. thank you, luke russert. we'll keep in touch with you on any developments. dana milbank from "the washington post" and chris

jansing at the white house. thanks to all of you. president obama making wide-ranging remarks, talking about john kerry, the break doub of the cease-fire in israel and gaza. we'll go next live to the region. stay with us. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something.

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humility about what we can and cannot accomplish. we have to recognize that our resources are finite and we're coming out of a decade of war. and our military has been stretched very hard. as has our budget. nevertheless, we try. >> that was president obama just moments ago addressing one of the worst days so far in the escalation between israel and hamas. fighting intensified tonight in gaza amid an intense search for a captured israeli soldier. the 72-hour u.n.-brokered cease-fire quickly unraveled this morning after only two hours. israel was searching for tunnels in southern gaza when hamas killed two soldiers and captured a third. only 23 years old. he was taken into hamas custody by being dragged through one of those tunnels. israel then started bombarding the area, and hamas launched more rockets towards israel. it has continued ever since. so much for that cease-fire.

nbc's ayman mohyeldin is inside gaza. what's the latest? >> reporter: abby, you could probably hear the sounds of fighter jets above us. it's been like that throughout the course of the day. although, the shelling has not taken place in gaza city, it has been very intense in the southern part of gaza in the city of rafah. that's where an israeli soldier, according to the israeli military, was captured today. this was during ongoing operations, according to the israeli military. according to them, in addition to that individual, the captured soldier, two other israeli soldiers were killed. since then, there has been a very intense fight taking place in and around the city of rafah. according to palestinian eyewitnesses in the area, the presence of israeli soldiers has now advanced to surround the town of rafah. the israeli military saying obviously that they're engaged in a rescue operation perhaps to try and limit any chance of the militants moving the soldier out of the city.

but more importantly, the people there, according to health officials and palestinian officials, are describing what is taking place there as a massacre. the death toll has skyrocketed today. nearly 160 palestinians killed according to health officials in rafah and here in gaza city. it gives you a sense the operation is in full swing. this shatters any kind of cease-fire that officials on both sides were trying to broker. it was supposed to go into effect and last for three days. but they are definitely back at the negotiating starting point, if you will from both sides with now the demands probably going to be higher. the stakes much higher as a result of today's developments. hamas has not officially come out and claimed responsibility or even identified the soldier and not provided proof of life that he was or is in their custody or is alive. there has been no confirmation of that. nonetheless, a lot of hamas

officials making public comments on local channels and pan arab satellite channels are saying this was a result of israeli violation and israel is countering that saying it was hamas who broke the cease-fire that was spoesed to go into effect early this morning. >> ayman mohyeldin, thanks for the latest and stay safe. not only has the cease-fire ended after two hours but this is probably one of the worst days so far and this is what you wrote this morning. secretary of state john kerry went to sleep thursday night having achieved a rare middle east diplomatic victory but like so much else in the middle east it turned out to be a bad dream. the u.n. has played a big role in this. how big of a blow is this? >> it's a huge blow in terms of middle east diplomacy. everybody is accustomed to having big blows and secretary kerry has been in engaged in negotiations over the peace

process and those have gone bad and previous efforts to negotiate cease-fires have fallen apart. here we are at it again. at this point it's been a really ugly week and high expectations this would be the beginning of a kind of diplomatic process. one of the things interesting about it, from israel's perspecti perspective, they've been getting hammered over the last few days and news are focused on them on the attacks and u.n. schools and narrative has shifted and u.n. secretary general condemned hamas, most of the international community is blaming hamas. and so the conversation is changing quite a bit. >> what leverage does the u.s. have left to pull here? the israelis and palestinians are dependent on human aid. >> it's hard to say what sort of leverage. one of the really interesting things about what happened today, hamas, the whole structure of the negotiations have been trying to come up with deal that doesn't reward hamas

and strengthens the palestinian authority. and that hasn't worked. because hamas is the one sort of carrying the guns. this morning, they captured an israeli soldier and that's a big, big deal in israel. there was kind of energy invested in the capture of the corporal and it provides hamas with a real asset, a real something that israel values that they can potentially trade with. it's going to alter to a certain degree the dynamics of any kind of negotiation that comes out. over the short term israel is likely to kind of keep pounding hard but at some point they are going to have to step back and decide, how important is it for us to negotiate the release of this soldier and are we going to have to make concessions to hamas, something they tried desperately not to do. >> speak also to the relationship between the u.n. and israel. the u.n. has lost eight of their own in this conflict, around 100

of their facilities have been fired on by the israelis, reportedly tensions are pretty high between the u.n. and israel. relations have always been quite difficult. and the u.n. is kind of not sort of monolivic entity, relations with netanyahu have been quite good. the u.n. relief agency on the ground in the middle east, their focus is on providing assistance to palestinians. there's a kind of natural affinity for what the palestinians are going through, on the ground with them. there has been a lot of suspicion by the israeli government that they are biased against israel. there have been a few incidents which i'm sure you reported on where the u.n. has announced they have found militant rockets in three of their abandoned schools and say they -- they put them there when they abandoned the place down the fighting and gone back and they are the ones

who alerted the world. these feed into israel's suspicions about the u.n. and u.n. feels like in a way that israel is kind of out to get them and all of these contacts, u.n. has a presence on the ground and often caught in the crossfire. it's a very, very difficult relationship but even the cease-fire, although it fell apart immediately, the u.n. has a sort of usefulness to the key players because it's difficult for kerry to negotiate a cease-fire and easier to have someone like the u.n. be the go-between and makes it easier for hamas to swallow it. they are still -- it's kind of complicated organization and the role is really -- >> still has a role to play. >> and they've tried to be that ar bitter and deal with the counterveiling pressures, the collapse of a cease-fire is always bad news and means more

loss of life. what the president alluded to in hamas blatantly violating it, is the concern from both sides, when the fundamentals aren't there, a patchwork cease-fire delays fighting. a lot more work to be done there in the region. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. a pleasure. >> a final word on another extraordinary week of a lot of news after we take a quick break. stles so brushing doesn't scratch gums and angled perfectly, to remove 90% of plaque for a healthier smile. trust the brand more dentists and hygienists use. oral-b. lactaid® is 100% real milk? right. real milk. but it won't cause me discomfort. exactly, no discomfort, because it's milk without the lactose. and it tastes? it's real milk! come on, would i lie about this? [ female announcer ] lactaid®. 100% real milk. no discomfort.

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it's about 4:00 p.m. on the east coast, "now" with alex

wagner starts right now. >> cease-fire crumbles in 90 minutes. this is "now" live from washington, d.c. >> i have unequivocally condemned hamas and palestinian factions responsible for killing two israeli soldiers and abducting a third almost minutes after a cease-fire had been announced. israel has a right to defend itself and israel committed to the 72-hour cease-fire and it was violated. trying to put that together is going to be challenging but we will continue to make those efforts. this administration invested an enormous amount to try to bring the parties together around a framework for peace. in the end it's up to the two parties to make a decision. we can lead them to resolve the technical issues and show them a path. but they've got to want it. >> i'm ezra klein