special correspondent jane ferguson reports for us tonight from gaza city. a ( cheersnd applause ) >> reporter: cheers erupted as president trump's daughter ivanka and treasury secretary steven mnuchin opened the new u.s. embassy in jerusale timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the state of israel. >> on behalf of the president of the united states, we welcome you officially, and for the first time, to the embassy of the united states here in jerusalem, the capital of israel. thank you. >> reporter: u.s. ambassador to israel david friedman led the festive ceremony, as the american delegation looked on. president trump hailed the move as, "a great day for i" and, in a taped message fromhe washingtonpplauded a campaign promise fulfilled. >> for many years we failed to acknowledge the obvious: the plain reality thca israel's tal is jerusalem. >> reporter: control of jerusalem has been at the heart of the israeli-arab conflict ever since the united nations drew the boundaries for a jewish state in 1947. the city is sacred to christians,

special correspondent jane ferguson reports from rusalem. >> reporter: the bright dots and streaks in the sky, as shown in syrian night-vision and television video, ll the story an overnight mideast confrontation. the pictures purportedly show israeli air strikes against iranian military targets. damascus also claims they show syrian air defenses intercepting those israeli missiles. a spokesman for the israeli defense forces said today they struck dozens of iranian targets, not just around damascus, but throughout the southern part of syria. the israeli military said the overnight operation was a response to rockets that, they say, iranian forces fired first, at israeli military pos in the golan heights. the israelis said most of the iranian rockets either missed their mark, or were intercepted. israel's defense mister, avigdor lieberman, lauded his country's operation, and put iran on notice. >> ( translated ): we, of course, struck almost all the iranian infrastructure in syria, and they need to remember thisir arrogance of t if we get rain, they'll get a flood. i hope that we ended

for the pbs newshour, i'm jane ferguson, in gaza. schifrin: with me now is daniel shapiro, who served as u.s. ambassador to israel under president obama, from 2011 to 2017. very much for being on the newshour. we heard from u.s. officials today and yesterday really blaming hamas and only hamas for the violence inside of gaza. but as we heard from jane rguson's story right now, isn't is there genuine frustration at israeli actions insideaza and conditions inside gaza as well? >> well, there's no question conditions inside gaza areif ho, and people there are really suffering in a very genuine way. i have to say, i think the lion's share of the responsibility for this immediate crisis does fall on hamas' shoulders they are a terrorist organization, and they have intentionally embedid themselvesin a civilian population of these instances, in which there ar both violent acts aimed at the fence, things being lobbed and shot over the fence, and unarmed protesters, all in one, large, chaotic area. hamas hus sqandered a lot of resources over

joining us now via skype from gaza is newshour weekend special correspondent jane ferguson. >> the embassy move context eear. gaza has in the news. week after week because of protests there. >> it has. these protests have been going on six weeks now. with gaza basically marching on the fence of the borderd aro gaza saying that they're marching in march for aight of return to return to their ncestry homes they fled wheneverwas born in 48 19 that's again going on six weekse and e seen a lot of blood shed, dozens killed by fire by israeli defenseforces soldiers stationed on the border fence itself. now, of urse, these marches will culminate on tuesday, they will also beng marchi tomorrow. and it's expected to be more of ce same but even bigger at this stage and ld be bloody and violent but in the meantime in a jem, the atmosphere is tense but it's also triumph infant for theñrae is to get the u.s. president to recognize jerusaleas the capitol o israel publicly and officially is a big queue them and you'll see across the city, there are many poseds and banns saying trump is a friend of, a grea

. >> woodruff: our reporter jane ferguson was in the field hospitals showing so many young boys there and the ones who survived, who didn't die, had been shot most of them below the knee, she said, they couldn't -- >> to use nonlethal means and is an indictment, no question. e>> i just put it on planner, the troops that are there and full disclosure my s formerly served in the i.d.f., he's back in the u.re now, but tere actual armed terrorists in the group and they were trying to pick out the terrorists from the nonterrorists. they were in a tough situation with 40,000 people coming at the planning is what i fault. >> one political point here, judy, and that i that donald trump, it's pretty clear what he's d i disagree with david on the timing or the logic of movg the embassy at this time, but donald trump is paying domestic politics here. >> woodruff: catering to the evangelicals? >> catering here in this h country and in the worst possibleffay. >> woodan anniversary this week. we've only get a couple of minus left, but, david, robert mueller started his sia investigation a year ago

ambassador to israe rst, special correspondent jane ferguson reports for us again, from gaza. >> reporte confrontations between palestinians and israeli security forces broke out on the west bank today, with stones protests also took place on the gaza border with israel, though they were smaller than monys, when an eruption of anger in gaza led to desperate scenes. crowds of young protesters trying to rush towards the border fence with israel, hundreds shot down and carried away. for weeks palestinians have been protesting for the right to leave this strip of land, and in the last two days tens of thousands have joined in. the israelis have been most concerned about the size of this growing crowd and trying to persuade gazans not to show up for these mass protests today. they have been dropping leaflet that say, "ws hamas ever done for you, hamas is killing the people here" in empt to try to stop them being told to come to the protests. it didn't work, with people arriving in huge numbethe edges of the palestinian territory. including imad oid. he was shot in both legs by israeli snipers