aiming their rockets at israel's ben gurian airport. and also coming up, the white house reveals it tried to rescue james foley before he was executed by islamic state. [ audio difficulties ] >> today is a miraculous day. i'm thrilled to be alive. targeted. on wednesday, it failed, but killed his wife and two children. he is not believed to be in the house when it was bombed but in nurse's attack in rafah, there were seven civilians in the house at the time. the israeli security forces made several attempts on the lives of these men because they were so senior in the command center of hamas. and now the government will be able to ask what has been achieved in the war, and it's significant for israel. aljazeera, rafah. >> there is a procedure to go through clothing, and in this procedure, they have to be taken to court. and they have to have justice, even if they were involved in an assassination. >> how significant of a blow is this to the group's leadership? >> well, certainly not insignificant, but we have been hearing from people wit

they'll try and target israel's airport in tel aviv, ben gurian.weeks ago, international carriers pretty much stopped flights in and out of ben gurian for almost two days because a palestinian rocket landed nearby and that was a huge blow to the israelis. but despite that, israel was adamant no negotiations until there's an end to the rocket fire. >> all right. john vause for us in gaza. thank you so much. >>> breaking news that we're following this morning involving nascar driver tony stewart. as we were just saying, he's being investigated after a deadly crash. we'll have more an that. >>> plus, an unarmed teenager shot by police in missouri. we're going to have more throughout the morning. what the community wants to know about why this happened. hello! three grams daily of beta-glucan... a soluable fiber from whole grain oat foods like cheerios can help lower cholesterol. thank you! a woman who loves to share her passions. grandma! mary has atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts her at a great

- israeli air strikes kill three hamas military commanders in rafah as rocket fire targets the ben gurian airport. stories of a massacre - human rights groups investigate mass killings from the islamic state. >> a tense time for indonesia - a court due to decide whether last month's election was rigged. >>> and in australia - a show of musical support for al jazeera's journalists gaoled in egypt. >>> now, within the past two hours or so hamas's military wing confirmed that it fired a rocket towards tel aviv's ben gurian airport. this people at least have been killed in air strikes on gaza overnight. hamas says three of its commanders are among the dead. we'll go live to jacky rowland in west jerusalem, first to jane arraf in gaza. what can you see? >> i'm in rafah, and until 1am, this was a house in which the three hamas military commanders were staying. i'll step out so you can see the level of distrugz. it was hit by israeli air strikes around 1am local time on thursday morning, where there's three military commanders were staying. they are senior military commanders in hamas itself. th

aiming their rockets at israel's ben gurian airport.nd also coming up, the white house reveals it tried to rescue james foley

targeting ben gurian airport, to stay away. do you think they have the capacity to do that or is this as it was in the past an empty threat? >> well, we've seen rockets land very close to the airport in the past, sheila and the airport has been evacuated before, and this led the faa to ban flights for about a day. they certainly have the range on those rockets. they don't really have the capacity to aim at the airport though. none of the rockets have the technology that would allow them to actually know exactly where they're going to do but it was part of new alanguage delivered with free threats, not only at the airport but also anyone here in jerm, gathering at stadiums, as well as along the gaza border, the threat was that they should remain in their shelters and away from the gaza border. >> this is been a very intense 24 hours where we've seen hundreds of rockets from gaza and israeli bombardment of gaza. how is this going to get both sides back to the bargaining table and how quickly could that happen? >> well, it's not g

- israeli air strikes kill three hamas military commanders in rafah as rocket fire targets the ben gurianirport. stories of a massacre - human rights groups investigate mass killings from the islamic state. >> a tense time for

ben gurian airport. when rockets landed there nearly three weeks ago, that was a huge blow to the israelis. >> if the palestinian delegation does end up leaving cairo, there is this expectation that hamas and the other islamic militant groups may ramp up their rocket firing into israel. but, really, in the end, an escalation would mean the palestinian people would be the ones who will suffer. >> yeah, and that's been the case pretty much for more than a month now. the numbers really are staggering. and we have to say these are still early numbers. not entirely sure exactly how many people have been killed. we're not entirely sure how many homes have been destroyed. but according to the palestinian officials and u.n. officials here, the death toll in gaza, it's approaching 2,000. somewhere between 1800, maybe over 1900. the u.n. says most of those deaths are civilian deaths. the israelis disagree. the number they are putting out, they've killed about 900 militant fighters. and no way to confirm that eithe

you have the faa suspended flights into ben gurian which was a stunner and shocker.nt birthright program which the jewish community takes great pride in. i understand dropped tel aviv from its itinerary. there's all of that. effect live, the home front that most israelis have been sheltered and insulated from this conflict. so that's reason one for the high degree of support. second, i suspect that there is -- it may not be a rational reaction, but i suspect there is a real sense that having watched the two previous operations ' s and '12 and the lebanon war in '06 that there's a sense that they don't want another deadlock. they want a determinative, conclusive ending. now in an asymmetrical war, they're not going to get that. but i think there is that sense. international pressure, it seems to me, plays only a minor role in effecting a vast majority of the public and the political elite at a time like this. the real problem for a breakdown of support in israel is if current government decides that it has to truly move into gaza in a massive way in an effort to destr