on this edition for sunday, july 13th, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu warns israel's operations in gaza might not end soon. >> the climax of the world cup. >> and in our signature segment from ohio thieves stealing valuable metal putting the public in danger. >> reporter: the would be thieves climbed up and cut the lines so it dangled over the interstate under thousands of volts of tension. when an suv got too close, there was a bright flash that blew out the windshield and knocked the driver unconscious. next on newshour weekend. pbs newshour weekend is made possible by the colemans, judy

and josh westin, josh v. hale, the wallack family, the millsteen family, bernard and irene schwartz, the citi foundation, rosslyn p. walter, mutual america designing customized, individual and group retirement products. additional support is provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you! from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> good evening. thanks for joining us. the conflict between israel and hamas continues to escalate. last night israeli commandos conducted a raid in northern gaza and today during a cabinet meeting prime minister benjamin netanyahu appealed for support for what he said could prove to be an extended military operation. translator: we don't know when

this operation will be over. it may take a long time and we need your support and also your discipline. >> for the latest we are joined once again tonight via skype from jerusalem by josef federman. your story today was about the people fleeing gaza. >> reporter: yes. overnight warning leaflets were dropped out from the sky telling people in the northern gaza strip to clear out. israel is planning heavy bombardment. we've seen a few airstrikes already. in the meantime somewhere between 15 and 20,000 residents of that area have cleared out on their way to shelters and u.n. schools in safer areas of gaza. >> we heard about the commando raid operation inside gaza, but we'd also heard there was a police chief's house that was bombed. >> reporter: yes. these were two separate incidents. the commando raid took place overnight. it's the first time that israel has sent ground forces into gaza. it was a very brief pinpoint-

type operation. they went after or they say they went after a rocket launching site that couldn't be reached through aerial attacks. so they sent in a small team of naval commandos. they were in and out. there was some light injuries actually on the israeli side. as for the police chief that was near strike last night, this was considered a senior target by israel. he was the hamas police chief of gaza. the airstrike hit the home where he was staying. 17 members of the man's family was killed, but the police chief is still alive. >> what about on the diplomatic front of, any news, any progress? -- front, any news, any progress? >> reporter: there seems to be a lot of behind the scenes movement. it's hard to figure out what is going on. secretary of state john kerry is in vienna meeting with his counterparts, called prime minister separate netanyahu --

prime minister netanyahu today. egypt put out a statement. they're in touch with the u.n. secretary general. other players ranging from qatar, turkey, france, tunisia, they're all involved. it's hard to figure out what exactly is going on. a lot of people are involved. >> josef federman of the associated press, thanks so much. turning now to ukraine where today in the eastern city today government troops -- today government troops routed the rebels. in a separate incident today two homes inside russia were reportedly hit by shells fired across the border in ukraine. one russian man was killed and two other russians were wounded. the russian foreign ministry blamed the ukrainian army and warned that the event could lead to what it called irreversible consequences. in iraq today lawmakers once again fail to reach an agreement on a deal that would lead to the creation of a new

government. they will meet again tuesday to try to fill the posts of prime minister, president and parliamentary speaker. the united nations warned of chaos if the political impasse is not broken soon. we'll have more on iraq later in the broadcast. in vienna today secretary of state john kerry met with the foreign minister of germany as they and other diplomats gather for another round of talks about iran's nuclear program. both western and iranian officials say major disputes remain to be resolved. david sanger is covering the story for the new york times and joins us now via skype. so what about the interim agreement we reached last fall? what did that buy us? >> reporter: what it bought us was some time and reduced the threat iran could complete a weapon. the iranians quit using the fuel that is close to bomb grade fuel. so the united states and

europeans claim they've already accomplished a fair bit even if it was temporary. that agreement called for a final agreement to be put together in six months with a possible extension up to another six months. they're running into the deadline for the first six months by next sunday. >> what about inspections that have occurred during this time? >> reporter: the iranians have been very good about letting the inspectors in, but for inspections to work for a much broader permit agreement they would have to be far, far broader. they would have to allow the inspectors to go virtually any place in the country. that's one of the most vital issues because iran has a history of hiding facilities. >> this comes in the wake of ayatollah homeni saying he wants 10 times the amount of nuclear power in iran going forward. >> reporter: what he said was he wants 10 times the amount of nuclear fuel produced for future reactors, but remember they don't have those reactors

built right now and you know how long it takes to build the reactors in the united states under ideal conditions. the iranians have never really done this before except for one russian reactor. they get their fuel from russia. so the question was was he laying out a long term goal that really won't get in the way of this or instead was he beginning to describe a set of needs that runs completely contrary to what iran would have to do if it was to reach an agreement with the west? the west, of course, wants to reduce the amount that iran produces now, not increase it by 10-fold. >> are there any consequences to missing this july 20th deadline? >> reporter: not many. initially israel was quite concerned that iran would be able to get far more sanctions relief than the united states agreed to. that hasn't happened. so the pressure on the u.s. to

conclude the agreement if it's not exactly what they're looking for by next sunday is pretty low. >> david sanger of the new york times, thanks so much. >> reporter: ank you. back in the u.s. texas governor rick perry today called on president obama to deploy the national guard along the u.s./mexico border to stop the surge of minors crossing into the united states illegally. >> they need to be right on the river. they need to be there as a show of force because that's the message that gets sent back very quickly to central america. >> more than 50,000 minors have made the crossing since last fall. the president recently asked congress for $3.7 billion to address the problem. a medical no. , new research being presented at an international gathering of -- note, new research being presented at an international gathering of alzheimer's experts, one a noninvasive eye exam and a common scratch and sniff test could help identify the onset of the disease. alzheimer is usually identified

through costly spinal taps and brain imaging. an estimated 5 million americans now live with the disease. conductor lorin maazel who conducted the vienna state opera and philharmonic has died. he was 84 years old, a child prodigy said to have conducted when he was 9. olympic gold medalist ian thorp revealed today that he was gay in a television interview. the 31-year-old australian swimmer said he had tired of what he called the big lie in his life, a lie he said that had contributed to depression and drinking. thorp won five gold medals. in virginia today an unmanned 131-foot tall rocket carrying a cargo ship successfully launched into space. the ship is expected to dog with the international space station wednesday morning -- dock with the international space station wednesday morning delivering food and science projects to the astronauts on

board. now more about the situation in iraq, yesterday i interviewed anthony cordesman of the center for strategic and international studies. i began by asking him about the offers of military aid from iran, the united states and russia. >> the problem right now is that military aid providing more equipment and more weapons can have a very limited effect. there are all kinds of claims being made about air power, but they're really only flying a handful of excursions a day. most of the people have no ability to target or assess the damage and providing more weapons to anthem has basically

a political structure -- an army that has basically a political structure tied to the prime minister that's deeply corrupt, often a hollow force with officers that aren't doing their job or simply aren't there, the problem is not weapons. the problem isn't supply. there's very little that outside advisors can really do. to the extent that the iraqi army has improved, it basically is it has now fallen back on some of the more effective units. it has a friendly population in shiite areas and it has shiite volunteers, but that dent make it an effective force -- doesn't make it an effective force or one that can defeat the islamic state in the north and west. >> what are the chances of displacing the islamic state group? >> the islamic state group presents a serious problem for itself. it isn't simply an iraq. it's fighting other islamic groups in syria at the same time. so it needs time to build up

control over the areas it's taken if it can do so because it does say strong rivals and certainly a lot of tribal resistance. >> what about the impending refugee crisis into neighboring countries? >> well, there already is a refugee crisis radio. you've seen at least 1 -- refugee crisis. you've seen at least 1 million people move out. it's gone into lebanon, turkey, jordan and other areas. >> we also see troops amassing along the borders of neighboring countries. is there concern iraq cannot stay together as a single country anymore? >> i think everyone is concerned iraq may not stay together as a single country, but the more serious problem is that having a single country where you have sectarian and ethnic groups that hate each other, that drive people who are in the might be out of their homes or kill -- minority

out of their homes or kill them is not a form of unity. it doesn't really provide any basis for stability and development. there also is the fact this is not one war. it's directly connected to the syrian civil war and at least in terms for the islamist extremist movement, you have volunteers coming in as extremists from places as far away as britain and china and the united states. that's really why the jordanian and saudi forces and to a lesser extent the lebanese forces and the north of lebanon and turkish forces have built up on the border. it isn't to try to unify the country. it's to stop the flow of extremists and terrorists and any expansion of either the islamic state or the fighting into other countries. >> are these countries concerned that the islamic state group could spill over into jordan or saudi arabia? >> it's not just the islamic state. it's the islamists in many

other movements, at least two others in iraq, something like eight different movements of different sizes in syria and this is a key reason why countries like the united arab emirates and saudi arabia just changed their terrorist laws because they see this as very serious. when you look at what is happening in counterterrorism in europe and in the united states, yoc(ovhave a whole new focus on what happens to the volunteers that have been going into iraq and syria when they come back. this is an issue virtually everywhere in the middle east. >> thanks so much. >> my pleasure. today attorney general eric holder also expressed alarm about the possibility of westerners trained by terrorists in syria and iraq returning home undetected. >> is this a clear and present danger? >> i think it is. in some ways it's more frightening than anything i think i've seen as attorney general.

now to our signature segment, the growing danger to the public from the theft of metal from things like manhole covers, telephone lines, power lines and substations. the attorneys general from mississippi, arkansas, tennessee and louisiana met recently to try to devise a coordinated strategy to cope with the problem which is actually national in scope. ohio's answer is to regulate the scrapyards where the thieves cash in. newshour's special correspondent rick carr went there recently and filed this report. >> reporter: angela day's landline kept going dead in 2012. >> not working. >> reporter: she didn't have a cell phone to use because cell coverage is spotty in the appalachian region of ohio where she lives and at the house where she was living with her daughter and her parents there's no cell signal at all.

so whenever she had to be away from home she worried, especially about her father. >> he had a heart condition and he had had several open heart surgeries. he had triple bypass surgery. >> reporter: a few days after christmas he said he wasn't feeling well. >> he called over to talk to the nurse and he was having problems with the phone. >> reporter: finally he said he needed an ambulance after his condition deteriorated. the family called 911, but the line was so bad that they finally gave up and day's brother rushed their father to the doctors, but it was too late. he died that evening. >> it was really frustrating because the whole week afterwards we couldn't even call out to plan the funeral or call to tell people that he had passed. i had to use the phone at my workplace to use the phone to call the funeral. >> reporter: thieves were stealing telephone wires all over the county. it's one of the poorest in ohio and the copper in the lines was valuable.

there could be hundreds of dollars worth in the cable strung between two utility poles. at the time thieves were stealing all kinds of metal throughout ohio, parts from farm equipment and electrical substations, manhole covers, grave markers. for five years running the state has led the nation in metal thefts. from one corner of ohio to another thieves have put the public in danger. according to police here in akron, there was an accident on that interstate highway behind me because of an attempt to steal copper wire from the high tension lines beyond it. the would be thieves climbed up and cut the line so it dangled under the interstate under thousands of volts of tension. when an suv got too close, there was a bright flash to blew out the windshield and knocked the driver unconscious. the driver survived, but thieves themselves aren't so lucky. >> i'm struck by the idea of

someone climbing up a utility pole and carrying something like this down. this is going to be carrying a lot of juice. it's a dangerous crime to commit. >> let me be very clear on this. we have people dying regularly for this. >> commander bob meeder has dealt with metal theft over two decades as a columbus cop. metal prices has come down, but copper is still twice as valuable as a decade ago. in 2007 columbus became the first city in the state to crack down on metal theft. police couldn't keep an eye on every piece of metal thieves might steal, but the city could make it harder for them to sell it. >> we know it's not going to go to the center of the city and put a sign out and say i have scrap metal for sale. there's one location in the state of ohio and throughout the united states to get money for it and that is a scrapyard. >> columbus enacted laws where

scrap dealers have to check every customer's id against an online database of convicted thieves who might be trying to sell what they've stolen. dealers have to record every detail of every purchase they make so that law enforcement can investigate theft. columbus officials say anecdotal evidence suggests the rules have cut down on metal theft. ohio legislators used the city ordinance as the basis of a new state law. ohio scrap dealer josh joseph said when columbus cracked down, thieves went to outside the city limits. now that the whole state is cracking down, they'll just go across the state line. >> for someone to steal it, driving across the state and selling it, is a really easy thing to happen. the uniformity of the law, uniformity of the way it is enforced from an industry perspective we see as paramount

to the success of the law. >> joseph has a lot of other concerns about the law. for one thing, he worries about what the cost of complying with it will do to family-owned small businesses in the industry. >> it's anywhere from probably 20 or $30,000 up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. we have spent six figures to maintain, upgrade and train our people in order to be compliant. >> and training might not be enough to keep some employees honest. how can you be sure that if somebody steals say a bunch of copper wire, brings it in, flips one of your employees 100 bucks, how do you insure your employee is not susceptible to that? >> i would say that our employees are susceptible to that. we think we've had some instances of that happening in the past. >> have you ever had to fire anybody? >> we have. >> there could also be consequences to the environment according to scrap dealers. they're in the recycling

business. the metal they take in gets melted down and reach used. the law in ohio makes it a crime for scrap dealers to buy certain items unless sellers can prove something is theirs to sell, electrical lines, for instance, and telephone cables, but the list also includes items homeowners might bring in and that could end up in a left hand fill if a scrap dealer refuses it to stay on the safe side of the law according to robin weiner who runs the trade group. >> the members ask for proof of ownership and they don't have that. they want to do the right thing and recycle. >> josh joseph's family has been in the scrap business for four generations and doesn't like his business being compared to a pawn shop and he's not sure his industry should have to bear the burden of cracking down on metal thieves. thieves will keep stealing metal according to angela day

as long as it's valuable. a couple months after her father died police arrested two men who were charged with stealing phone lines including the one that law enforcement officials say affected the call to 911 the day her father died. she'd known one of the men as a kid and she understands what motivated the crimes. >> growing up here you realize how desperate people are and how much in need this area is. i mean there's not a lot of resources. they're still going to be stealing thing. that's just a part of life. i don't care where you live in the united states. you're going to have theft if you're going to have people desperate, stealing to survive. >> both men are serving prison term for stealing the telephone lines. >> learn more about the market for scrap metal. visit newshour.pbc.on.

-- visit newshour.pbs.org. >> this is newshour pbs sunday. in an opinion piece published this weekend in the observer desmond tutu signaled his support for dignity when dying. recently the former archbishop of canterbury embraced the same cause. >> reporter: for 11 years he was head of the church of england as archbishop of canterbury lord carey has changed his mind to approve legalizing death for the dying. he said the old philosophical certainties collapsed in the face of reality of needless suffering. in strictly observing the sanctity of life the church could now actually be promoting anguish and pain, the very opposite of a christian message

of hope. lord carey was deeply moved after a sick man was denied the legal right to die. his widow today welcomed lord carey's switch. >> this is hugely significant. i think the fact that someone with such a prominent position in the church spoke in favor is brilliant. if he'd known someone so high up in the church was beginning to change their mind and the opinion within the church was changing, i think that would have pleased him a lot. >> reporter: for the church of england, lord carey's change of position has found some support. >> there's going to be a huge game changer. up till now there's been a party line from the christians about this subject and it's clearly something that's exorcizing the whole of society at this moment. up to 70% of people want a change in the law. >> reporter: but the current archbishop restated the church's position opposing assisted dying.

some late news before we leave, the israeli army says today hamas has fired more than 900 rockets from gaza into israel since the start of the conflict six days ago. hamas says at least 160 palestinians have been killed during israeli bombing attacks. thousands of palestinians fled their homes for safety in u.n. shelters after israel warns of additional attacks. join us on air and online on newshour tomorrow. i'm hari sreenivasan. good night.

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by the colemans, judy and josh westin, joyce hale, the wallack family, the sheryl and phillip millsteen family, bernard and irene schwartz, the citi foundation, rosslyn p. walter. corporate funding is provided by mutual. america, designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company, additional support provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you! erertz