joining us from jerusalem is ian lee. good morning, ian. >> reporter: good morning, dave. i think it is a safe bet the prime minister likes being in the united states right now instead of in israel. he is away from all of his legal woes. he has three investigations now that he is a suspect in and just last friday police questioned him again. while he is in washington, there are a few issues on the plate. first iran. this is something the prime minister has talked a lot about. he sees iran as a major threat. he dislikes the iranian nuclear deal saying fix it or nix it. although this is a deal with a lot of support from the international community. france's president macron will be in italy to talk about the deal and the iran missile program and involvement in syria and lebanon. that is another concern the prime minister has with involvement on the israeli border. the other topic with the president is the peace deal. he has pushed for the ultimate deal of peace with the israelis and palestinians. he does have a plan, although none of us has seen it, and no officials have see

cnn's ian lee is in jerusalem. ian, clearly the two men are sympatico with the trouble brewing.e is in trouble at home. >> reporter: christine, he is happy to be in washington away from legal drama here in israel. he is being investigated as a suspect in three cases and just last friday investigators questioning him for the eighth time. his trip to washington, he says he has a focus, and it is all about iran. he sees iran as a major threat to israel. he doesn't like the iranian nuclear deal which he says fix it or nix it. french officials will be in iran talking to the iranian government and the ballistic missiles. and in the region. iran's involvement in the civil war in syria as well as lebanon. we are expecting the president to talk about the peace process. the ultimate deal. something he brought up time after time with the special envoy. we are hearing there is a plan, but none of us has seen it. we have talked to officials and they have not seen it as well. they say it is there. another issue they are likely to bring up is the moving of the u.s. embassy to jerusalem some ti

. >> ian lee is joining us from gaza.hat are the israeli defense forces saying about this violence and give us an idea of what you are seeing around you now. >> reporter: just to give you an idea, be behind me right here we have one of the camp cities that we've seen all along the border with gaza and israel. today the numbers are significantly smaller than what we saw yesterday in the hundreds yesterday in the tens of thousands. and you can see they are burning tires behind me. we've seen some tear gas and heard reports of a few people injured. yesterday it was the deadliest day in gaza since the 2014 are war, that according to the ministry of health. organizers ever this initially called for it to be a peaceful demonstration and what we saw were people going towards the fence, they had slingshots, rocks, but israeli forces have said that hamas and other militant groups did fire projectiles at israeli soldiers across the border, gunshot, hole to have cockta molotov cocktails thrown. and this is the res is the red can see

. >>> ian lee joins us now live from jerusalem. ian, facing a corruption scandal at home. mr. netanyahu meeting with u.s. president trump in washington, d.c. in the coming hours. what do you think he is hoping to achieve, apart from hopefully getting a away from his troubles back home? >> rosemary, we've got a lot to unpack here for you. first off, this is a feel-good trip for both men. both men like each other. the bases of both men like each other. for the prime minister, though, the number one issue he wants to talk about is iran. this is a topic he's talked about quite often. it's one of his main issues. iran's influence in neighboring syria during that civil war as well as lebanon, as well as iran's nuclear program. and this nuclear deal, which the prime minister has said nix it or fix it. essentially saying that he doesn't like it, and he wants the united states to help push to change it. for president trump, there is also the peace process. we're hearing that they have a plan, although we haven't talked to anyone who has actually seen it. we would like to see it. but th

ian lee is tracking events from turkey. he is live from istanbul right now. ian, is there any way for civilians -- there are about 400,000 people living in eastern ghouta. is there any way for civilians to leave that area right now? >> well, cyril, there is supposed to be at these cease-fires, these corridor where civilians can flee on a dilly basis. that being said, no civilians really have fled from what we're hearing. and that's mainly because we're seeing blame on both sides. the rebels are accusing the regime and the russians of bombing and shelling these areas. and the regime is saying that the rebels aren't allowing anyone to leave. you're right. you do have about 400,000 civilians trapped in this area. and when you look at the map as the regime controls more territory, the civilians are being pushed into smaller and smaller areas at a hospital one activist told cnn that the shelling is just so heavy, you can't hear the people trying in the hospital. it's just getting denser, those civilians. on the other side too, we've seen this kind of tactic in the

. >> for the very latest, let's bring in cnn's ian lee following the story live in istanbul, turkey. n, certainly the images in that story that ben shared with us, they give our viewers a sense of what's happening, what people are dealing with. the hellish situation as the fighting continues. i want to ask you, though, to tell us about the video. and if we could pull this up, the image of this statue that was toppled. because, ian, you were pointing out this is very significant. >> that's right, george. it is very significant. and that's because this is a statue of kawa, a blacksmith who is a folk hero among the kurdish people. and at the beginning of operation olive branch, the turks were very vocal about how this isn't an operation against the kurds, they say. this is an operation against who they see as terrorists in the afrin region that is the ypg. toppling the statue does send a message to kurds everywhere. all kurds revere this person. and so there is a doubt. this casts doubt in their hearts they will be treated fairly when the turks take over as well with their free syrian ar

ian lee is in gaza. are we expecting more protests after this day of mourning? >> yeah, we are.ually, six weeks of protests, ryan, as this is going to build until may 15th. we will see it ebb and flow. but that kind of violence that we saw on friday we're expecting it to repeat itself on every friday as we get closer to that day. let me just kind of step aside and show you and the viewers what we've been watching all day. here we have one of the camps that have been situated along the border. you can see that it's just not the numbers or the intensity that we saw yesterday, but still hundreds of people out there at times we've seen tear gas being shot from the israeli soldiers which if you actually look beyond the people, about a couple hundred yards, there's the fence. that's the border between gaza and israel. and then there is a dirt berm. that's where the israeli sole ye soldiers are positioned. when palestinians are pushing closer to that fence, that's when we've seen the israelis fire tear gas. also, we heard the crack of bullets as well. and ambulances, you know, not as m

. >>> let's get more on the situation from ian lee. he joins us now live from gaza. n, these were to be peaceful protests and now this. it did spiral out of control. >> reporter: that's right. at the end of the day, it became the single bloodiest deadliest day that gaza has seen since the 2014 war. you're right, it started out hamas calling for peaceful demonstrations. yesterday we were at one of these karcamps, thousands of pee pushing toward the border fence. he with s we saw people with slingshots, but that is the extent of what we saw. but we're hearing from the israeli military, they said project ti projectiles were fired at their troops, live fire and molotov cocktails were thrown, and they fired live rounds at people who they knew were being instigators in all of this. also they say that this border which is just behind me a few hundred meters away, they say that is a warzone and not a place for civilians. but despite all that, we did see a lot of people get hit yesterday. at one of these locations, we saw so many people injured that they didn't have enough amb

ian lee following the story live in istanbul, turkey. let's first of all talk about the turkish troops claiming victory in the town center of afrin. but kurdish troops, they say the battle for that city is not done at this point. what more are you hearing there? >> that's right. let's go back to that statue, because that is very symbolic when you see that statue being toppled. it's a statue of kwawa, a blacksmith, a folk hero of the kurdish people. this is an operation they say are terrorists, the wpg and not against the kurdish people. but the toppling of that statue is sending a message to the kurds, one that they don't like. as far as afrin is concerned, the wpg was pulled out of that as well as the sdf. they pulled out of afrin. right now the turks say that they're in a mop-up operation going after little pockets of resistance as well as land mines that are still in that area. but the wpg does still control territory south of afrin. they have vowed to press on the fight, although it's going to be very difficult. afrin was the main ob

cnn's ian lee is tracking event. he is in turkey. he joins me live from istanbul. ian, is it a forgone conclusion really that the regime is going to take eastern ghouta? >> cyril, when you look at the momentum of the syrian army backed by russian air support, it does look inevitable that they will take this territory. this offensive began three weeks ago. and now reports are saying that they control a little bit more than 50% of eastern ghouta. when you look at the map too with this recent offensive, it's almost like a pincher movement where they've been able to break up eastern ghouta into three different enclaves. and what does that is it effectively cuts off supply routes and movements of fighters going from the different parts to back up. they're slowly encircling and slowly closing in on the fighters. but the fighting has been incredibly intense. so has the bombardment. we're hearing from activist who are basically saying that there are so many air strikes that at the hospital you can't hear people crying because it's being drowned out by the airstrikes. and we

ian lee has more from cairo. >> reporter: let's take a ride around the streets of cairo.ou haven't noticed, egypt is having a presidential election. a kaleidoscope of campaign po poster wallpapers the city. but you might have noticed something missing, the opposition. "it's not my fault" egypt's president abdel al sisi said in an interview. i swear to god i wish there had been more candidates for people to choose who they want. but they were not ready yet there is no shame in this. there were high profile contenders but egypt cran authorities arrested a former army commander on a number of charges. a 2012 presidential candidate withdrew amid reports of intimidation. human rights layer ahmed affirmative action feik. the nephew of anwar sadat also said he felt pressured to withdraw. >> the election run under the emergency law, the protest law and the terrorism law whereby i was a bit scared that all my campaign representative in different governments, they might be in a situation whereby difficult time, or being stopped, detained, abused. >> reporter: after searching, we fi

. >> ian lee has been in the middle of the protests. he is back now live. what more can you tell us about the situation now? >> reporter: yesterday, we were in the northern part of the gaza strip. this time, we are in the southern part, east. you can see behind me, you have camps. camps like this are set up along the border, they are multiple camps, staging points for the protesters. they meet there and that's when they start their protest going toward the border and a fence, you probably can't see it. there's a fence and a dirt mound. that is where the israeli military is positioned. yesterday, though, the violence was tense, the tensions were high. we are told by a spokesman it was the deadliest single day in gaza since the 2014 war. the value of land in blood and tears, earlier gazans moved toward the border. first, warnings, then tear gas. the palestinians advance, some hurling rocks with slingshots, then come israeli bullets and the casualties. >> throughout the course of the day, we have seen so many people injured that the ambulances have a tough tim

ian lee and nic robertson are following the developments for us. in gaza, what sparked these protests? >> ryan, organizers planned these protests to commence on land today which was yesterday. and to continue through six weeks, which palestinians will celebrate the catastrophe. this is when in 1948 many palestinians fled their homes during that war and became refugees. this day is also israel's independence day. so these palestinians are gathering and yesterday we saw larger protests then we saw today, tens of thousands of people going out there and we saw a real -- a real heavy clashes and violence we saw at one point going closer to front lines and so many casualties there, putting two to three people in each ambulance and at times they didn't have any ambulances so people just had to wait. it's been more subdued. we haven't seen the numbers. you can probably see behind me there's still ambulances there as well as the camp. hundreds of people came out today. we did see the tear gas. we saw the tires that they lit on fire. as well as the israelis s

. >> cnn's ian lee is in gaza right now joining us. so what is the situation there this morning? seeing anything like what we saw yesterday? >> reporter: it's a bit consumer this morning than -- calmer this morning than yesterday. yesterday was the deadliest, bloodiest day in gaza since the 2014 war. at one point we were close to the front lines, and there were so many casualties coming in, there weren't enough ambulances. they were putting two to three people per ambulance. some people had to wait for a ride to the hospital. the organizers started saying they wanted to be peaceful. from everything we saw on the front, the most we saw from palestinians with slingshots and rocks. but the israeli military says that hamas and other militant groups did file projectiles across the border including live fire. they say there were molotov cocktails also thrown at them. let me kind of show you what really this is all centered around. behind me, you see one of the camps where people are staying. behind them is a fence. that is the border, and behind that fence is a dirt berm. that's where

for lee i don't know na cash, they'll be up all night on lookout. in pescadero, ian cole. >> breaking news from last night. a half a million dollars is the bail set today for a man accused of having material to make pipe bombs in the east bay. jeremy guy they say led them on a short chase monday morning. they found bomb making materials in the car and even more at an oakland hotel where he was staying with his father. that hotel right off 880 was evacuated last night. both men are from the modesto area. another mugshot for alden smith, former football star for 49ers and raiders turned himself in to san francisco police today. he was charged with a number of misdemeanors including domestic violence. this is video of smith after he posted $30,000 in bail. police say on saturday he assaulted his fiancee eight home on bush street. he has previously been arrested on multiple dui charges as well as illegal weapons charges. >>> an eerie discovery in marin county. a hiker found remains near fort baker near the gold condition gate bridge. investigators didn't find evidence of