we are joined by nick schifrin who is live for us in gaza at the moment. , good afternoon to you. i understand that you went down to the neighborhood where those bombings happened. what did you see? >> morningan this is the shujayea neighborhood which is about two miles, no more, to my left. i can still see and hear lots of fires there. no neighborhood, we drove around. as we got deeper into the neighborhood, the emptier the streets. you look around and there is very, very few people left. there were a couple of people who came to see whether their homes had survived. most of their homes had not. we saw a u.n. school heavily damaged across the street from a house that had been clearly direct hit by an israeli strike. it's a war zone over there. it really is. it's very dangerous for anyone especially for all of those residents and what we saw this morning was an exdid you say, people grabbing whatever they could, leaving as quickly as they can and coming to the only safe place that they thought was safe in gaza, which is the hospital, the main gaza the shafi

nick schifrin has more. nick?reporter: john, good evening, it's as loud as deevent of night as we have seen in a long time. we're watching flairs right over gaza city. we're hearing drones, and the sounds of major israeli strikes into gaza city. and behind me, the rest of gaza is in total blackout. now this follows one of these most grim days that the people of gaza have had to experience for the last few weeks. and i should warn our viewers tonight's story contains graphic images that are difficult to watch. earlier today, there was some celebrating for the muslim holiday of eve, that marks the end of the holy month of ramadan, but by the end of the day there was anger and shock instead of cheer. for the children this is what eid is supposed to looked like. the christian's equivalent of christmas. for a few hours the fighting slowed. they felt safe enough to play. but this war is always close. these brothers walk through their neighborhood's main street. on ether side rubble that was once houses. from their home

are nick schifrin is in jerusalem. nick tell us more about this dramatic escalation from both sides. >> yeah, basically we are looking at the most tense moamenmoments between israelis d palestinians perhaps in the last five to six years. >> obviously technical difficulties with nick schifrin in jerusalem. i believe he's back right now. nick i'm sorry we had technical difficulties we only caught the very first part of your report. >> reporter: yeah, basically, this is most tense time along the gaza border in about a year and a half. that's when the israeli military launched the large operation there. if you add the tension in jerusalem and northern israel it is perhaps the most tense point as we've had in five or six years. according to israeli military you've got more than 40 rockets fired in just the last couple of hours into cities as far as 50 miles from the border of gaza and at least 12 of those have been intercepted by the iron dome missile defense system. israel is really escalating. the point here is they have m

nick schifrin is joining us live from gaza. he has been there since day one. ck what have we seen on the ground so far? >> yeah, good afternoon, del, we see a constant barrage of israeli fire from the coast right there. you have gun boats from israeli/gaza border, we had flairs all right, as well as indications of troops coming over, and up north we had tank battles of israeli tanks coming into gaza, and firing towards homes and communities, and that community especially is where a lot of rockets have been fired from. but in the last couple of hours, del, it has been relatively quiet, we haven't heard on scene a lot of violence, and that's given everyone here time to take a look at the toll. 25 have been killed since the ground operation began about 20 hours ago, and those include three siblings up north, as i said, all killed by tank shell that hit their home. we have seen rockets fly from gaza into israel. those have not killed or injured anyone in the last few hours. they have either landed in open fields or been blocked by the iron dome. president obama cam

al jazeera's nick schifrin has more. >> reporter: the last few hours we've seen a handful of strikes, including a massive one right on the border. it targeted a tunnel according to the israeli military. last night we heard a boom, boom, boom a constant barrage from the ski, large guns on ships firing into gaza. these attacks are continuing 24 hours a day. in gaza nobody sleeps soundly. last night brought more israeli bombs, and this morning brings children checking out devastation. the bombs israel drops are massive. this one turned a building into a crater. it used to be a show room. all that sacrifice i survives is fan. still kids counsel around even while standing next to devastation. officials in gaza say strikes have destroyed hundreds of families homes. this morning cleaning up what is left of a family's book shelves including this qur'an. one side of the street might be rubble. the other side barely touched. in other areas entire streets become debris fields. hamas unleashes an impressive rocket bombardment reaching farther into israel than ever before, this time in tel aviv. t

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nick schifrin has the story on people searching for safety. >> the children don't come here to study.hey come here to live. more than 15,000 people from rural north gaza but here to gaza city to escape the bombardment. this was their neighborhood last night. israeli bombs light the sky. israel warned all residents to leave. they feel they had no choice. each family's story is repeated a thousand times. each classroom is now a bedroom. thrive-year-old sabria arrived here yesterday. home to families, 29 people live in 229 square feet. her son has seen things that no one, no child should ever see. >> translator: even if the bombs don't hit our houses they'll kill us from fear. at night our children cling so tightly they won't even let me go to the bathroom. >> her one-year-old is violently ill. she has nothing to offer him. they asked their neighbors for blankets and bread. >> if god gave mercy why can't men? why us? why is this happening to us? where do i get food to need my child? >> reporter: the family suffered three wars in six years. in 2008 an israeli bomb destroyed their house. >

nick schifrin is on the phone with us from gaza. nick is there any chance that israel or hamas could take egypt up on its offer to broker some kind of a cease fire agreement? >> reporter: what seems to be happening is both sides are taking up the momentum towards the diplomatic solution. neither side is very close to agreeing to the other side's demand. hamas wants the border open and it wants the israeli siege lifted. none of that is going to be agreed to by israel. israel wants no rockets fired into israel. hamas has no interest in that but the two sides are beginning to talk publicly about a cease fire. the two sides are beginning to talk about what the conditions would be for the cease fire. that's why people are saying okay let's move toward diplomatic solution. we have an egyptian proposal on the table that would require a cease fire for about 12 hours. the israeli cabinet will meet early tomorrow to discuss that. and the officials say secretary of state john kerry is in the middle of that. he has proposed a 12 or 24 or 48 or 7

nick schifrin is in gaza. what can tell us about the -- can you tell us about the latest strikes? >> reporter: we just came back a few minutes ago from the scene of the beach camp, the refugee camp where that was the deadliest scene of the two. it was a scene of chaos, eyewitnesses crying, screaming at what they had seen. we saw two bodies being brought back from the hospital. they were transported to the hospital very quickly, brought back to the families of those killed, 20, 30 minutes later, an unreal sense of loss among those people right in that community. they brought me two, what they called me the scene, or the sight of the impact. it was very shallow, about two or three inches deep. the buildings on either side were still intact. there was shrapnel though, throughout those buildings, piercing the buildings and through the cars at the impact site. separately at the hospital, this is a second strike. local officials o at the hospitl barred tv crews from entering the site of where that strike was, an outpatient clinic. as you say david, israeli officials deny it was them. he

nick schifrin has more. >> reporter: in the last few hours we've seen a handful of strikes in israel into gaza, including a massive run. according to the military a tunnel used by palestinian fighters crossed from gaza into israel. we heard a boom, boom, constant barrage from the sea. these attacks are continuing 24 hours a day. in gaza nobody sleeps soundly. last night brought more israeli bombs, and this morning brings children checking out devastation. the bombs israel drops are massive. this one turned a building into a crater. it used to be a show room. all that used to b to stand was brought to the ground. officials in gaza say the strikes have destroyed hundreds of family homes. this morning means cleaning up what is left of a family's book shelf including this qur'an. hamas, which runs the gaza strip unleashes an unprecedented rocket bombardment. they show rockets reaching farther into israel than ever before. it was intercepted by the iron dome, but when the city is attacked so often israel stepped up its bomb batterment including with artillery. it has enough troops and ass

nick schifrin is in gaza, and if you would, nick, give us a sense of what you're hearing, what you're seeing around you there in gaza. >> tony, if you can just look behind me, we see a few lights off in the distance, and maybe you were able to hear those booms off into the distance. let's be frank there is a lot of action. we've seen a few things. we've seen flairs from israeli forces on the border of gaza. it lights up that corner. we were talking about the northeast corner of gaza. that's over my left shoulder. they throw up flairs, and the israeli troops are moving across the border so they can go as far as they want. those flares light up three or four miles. we see artillery. something that the israeli military would use if the target was, for example, 200 meters, 300 meters, even as far as three miles away. that will lay the ground for israeli troops to come in. we also heard an about a rectangle from the sea. these are big heavy shells coming out of ships, israeli ships right off the coast of the mediterranean which is about a half mile that way. those are targeting those rocke

nick schifrin is here. nick. >> john, good morning. this is defined by the dead and the displaced. w.h.o. those two combine in one location, shifa hospital. in this gaza hospital this is actually a quiet moment. checks on a woman with shrapnel in her shoulder. he mobilizes his staff even though in this war her wounds are considered minor. >> the pressure of masking of civilians. >> reporter: for the last six years through three wars, this doctor has administered shifa hospital. only a few dozen beds, intensive care unit. >> it is impossible not only for us but for any hospital to deal with 60 or 100 casualties at the same minute. >> it's very difficult. >> but we have to. >> reporter: but this afternoon he didn't manage. in a busy market, this war answer horror exploded. a local tv crew filmed shells landing in the middle of the shopping area. they were out with their families, what they thought was a ceasefire. israel never promised to hold fire, multiple rounds fired into the crowd. and almost 200 descended on the hospital at once. at one point the hospital put out an urgent requ

nick schifrin, are you hearing or seeing an escalation in the israeli offensive? >> i think hearing is the operative word just for the moment. if you can hear that those are three or four israeli doctrines right above my head or right above this entire community i should say and that is an indication of what is happening above all of gaza city. we are hearing a lot of booms and seeing flares also not only over gaza city where we are but up north above my left shoulder, where israelis concentrate on, a lot of hamas rockets are in the north gaza about two or three miles behind me and so a lot of shelling there that we can hear. also text messages, israeli military is sending texts to people in three different communities which is about 250,000 different people warning and this is a quote, "what is coming will be worse." that's the text that many people are receiving tonight and we heard from prime minister benjamin netanyahu earlier today. this is one of the deadliest days for israel in terms of the death count. 9 israeli soldiers were killed and he spoke in hebrew

john hendren, al jazeera, gaza. >> and as nick schifrin reported, secretary of state john kerry will visit egypt tomorrow. leaders are trying to present an united front. supporters for hamas may be waning. >> a father mourns his child who was killed in an israeli air strike on gaza. he is one of the many palestinians caught in a new cycle of confrontation between hamas and israel. many have been killed. and homes destroyed. but unlike 2008, and 2012, when israeli offenses in gaza triggered an uproar in the arab world there have been fewer shows of solidarity from arab government this time. on monday, arab foreign minister were meet in cairo to come up with a united response to the conflict. but that's unlikely to happen. the situations in the arab world now during this war is different from the situations of the arab world and the region in previous similar wars. the airbus no arabs are very buh themselves and there are much more casualties. in surrounding arab countries then, than what is happening in gaza. that's why the israeli-palestinian cause is no longer as prominent as it use

. >> i'm joined nick schifrin. we have seen violence clashes following the news of the palestinian teenager's murder. are they calling for revenge. what is the mood like? >> they are calling for a ground swell of anger and revenge. they had a huge rally through the streets of gaza city. trying to tap into all of that anger, all of that fury that we saw on the streets of east jerusalem, and there's a notion here of anxiety, anticipation. what exactly israel will do, how will they respond to the death of it, three israeli teenagers abducted and murdered. it was that anticipation before the 17-year-old was killed, and so a lot of anxiety as to what will happen in the next few hours or weeks. >> mahmoud abbas responded to the murder saying jewish settlers were to blame, calling onst rail to meet out the -- mete out the strongest punishment if it wants piece, and culled on mahmoud abbas to condemn the palestinianian boy's murder. the israeli military reacted strongly to the investigation, by arresting many. are they act

nick schifrin in gaza where they have buried a victim of the violence. >> when it comes to this war, and it is war the gazaens say, the most frequent sound is grief. the most frequent image is a child missing his uncle or a woman missing her husband. this was a pious man said his family. he was 66. today the israeli army dropped a bomb on him and his entire community are calling him a martyr. their silence shows their reverence. his family said that he helped the fighters to make money and because he believed i believed in it. >> this is our land. the land for palestinian. and they have come in and destroyed our lives 123. >> reporter: mohammed's cousin. at a local mosque they say a prayer and his relatives came to show thanks. mohammed liked visiting people and helping people. he educated his children. >> reporter: as the crowd of gnarly a thousand walked out of the mosque they're reminded that the most frequent sound is the loudest. [ explosion ] israeli bombs shake the earth. shockwaves travel through your spine. this one landed 300 feet away from us, and the aftermath, part of th

nick schifrin is in gaza city. what is it like on the ground right now? >> evening or good morning from gaza city. we heard a steady drum beat of israeli troops ask into gadsa, and the -- gaza, and the escalation getting close to where we are that side, which is the mediterranean sea. a steady barr age of gun boat fire. from israel a lot of flares all night. that is what israeli troops did to illuminate hundreds of miles. and to the north, the focal point of a lot of attacks. a lot of rockets flying in from there. residents reporting the tanks flying in. we have reports, one of ambulances not being able to reach the areas shot, and residents up there towards where they are reporting that they were stop bid israeli forces. a lot of movement on the ground and from the air. >> do you get the impression there was more activity overnight and it will calm down drag daylight, or not? >> yes, i think the operation definitely spiked at night 2, 3, 4am. it's been a little calmer now that the sun is up. israeli forces, like the u.s. forces in, for example, afghanist

we are joined by nick schifrin live on the phone in gaza. ck, we can still see at a time smoke from the neighborhood behind you right there. what was it like when you went down there? >> reporter: yeah, you can see that the large plume of smoke, morgan, that's been there for 12 hours at least. and the neighborhood is called zuuzia. we were there ballpark an hour, hour and a half ago. it's eerie. it is a war zone. you can get the sense or even the stench of death and of panic. most of the streets are completely empty, and the few people who are there are either coming back to their homes to see if they are destroyed, and one man i spoke to was walking up to his house and looked up and saw that his house was destroyed. another family was fleeing just about an hour ago, even though they had been told to flee for days by the israeli military and, certainly, there was an exodus this morning of probably tens of thousands of people from that neighborhood who fled and yet still some people haven't netted. the only people on the streets while i was th

joke us from the israeli border is al jazeera correspondent nick schifrin. great to have you on the programme. describe this rocket ahack in hiva, what is the significance of that, and the rockets aimed at tel aviv. >> this is a dramatic escalation from gaza, which is behind me. it's an hour and a half ago when a barrage of 40 rockets flew from gaza all over the country. the headline there is hifa. hamas announcing it fired the r1-60 rocket, the first time it used it, the first time of it reached 150 miles north of here. in tel aviv, we have a state of emergency, we saw a lot of people running for shelters, and heard airraid sirens going off again and again. and in jerusalem. you have two rockets shot there, and they landed outside the city, and so you clearly have a real escalation of rockets from gaza, and in the minutes afterward, you had a huge escalation from israel. we were right on the border, looking over gazas a the news came in. in 20 seconds, 18 air strikes, these are with f-16s, every time, barrage after barrage. mice ills were pounding gaza, and

let's go to gaza and nick schifrin, al jazeera correspondent. we have been in touch with you on this all day. what is happening? can you confirm reports that israeli tanks have entered gaza? >> we have reports from residents in the north-east, that corner right there, that there have been tanks. right along the border. and what we see a lot of, we have seen a lot of flares. that's what the israeli troops move in. some indication that they are moving in from the north and the east. there are reports there's amphibious landings and troops. definitely there is a sense that they are coming in from the west, east, and north as well. they do say that their operation is limited and in a conversation with secretary of state john kerry, prime minister binyamin netanyahu was saying that the goal is for the tunnels. but you speak to other israeli officials, and they say that the goal is to demill tarrize the entire gaza strip. that's not about tunnels or rockets, it's about an invasion that will take a long time if israel is serious about going through wit

nick schifrin, al jazerra, gaza. >>> three al jazerra journalists have now spent 197 days in an egyptiany are all falsely accused of helping the outlawed muslim brotherhood. last month mohamed and peter greste were sentence today seven years each. another one received an additional three because he had a spent bullet that he picked up any protest t al jazerra rejects their convictions and continues to demand the journalists be freed. >>> in nigeria to show support for the school killed kidnapped in april. a pakistani school girl shot in the head by the taliban will meet with the families of the some girls. the 17-year-old will also meet with a number of girls who escaped from boko haram. sunday has been declared her day in nigeria in honor of her visit. >>> kenya has seen more attacks in recent weeks, 80 killed and 69 arrested in an operation by security forces. but a report from there, many people are choosing to take their security in to their own hands. >> reporter: these are members of kenya's military and police at the scene of the latest attack. along the coast in lamu county. they

nick schifrin joins us live from gaza this morning. are people there heading the call to leave, and quite frankly, where are they going? >> yes, good morning, they are heeding the call to leave, because, well they are scared to death to stay where they are. the israeli army has told everyone in northern gaza that a huge bombardment would begin about now or in the past hour. they have not necessarily seep it yet. a lot of people are coming here towards gaza city. we have seen them arriving in u.n. schools, trying to figure out what to do next. given the fact that they are not sure what they'll come back to. israel is clear that it will not tolerate rocket launches in northern gaza, and that is where rockets last night were fired at tel aviv. what the israeli military did last night was send in a small group of special forces to take a little area where the rocket launchers where. they had firing with the fighters and this morning israel promising or vowing to escalate it further. >>> speaking of the escalation, previous battles between

. >> al jazeera's nick schifrin is following one family who was simply trying to bury their father who then became targets themselves. >> reporter: when it comes to this war and this is war, gazaens say, perhaps the most frequent sound is grief. [ crying ] >> reporter: the most frequent image is of children missing their uncle or a woman mourning her husband. mohammed was a pious man, his family says. he spent his time praying for his nephews and nieces. he was 66, and he helped fighters fire rockets. their silence shows their reverence. they commemorate what they call a sacrifice. mohammed's family said they help the fighters to make money, and also because he believed in it. >> it has destroyed our lives. >> reporter: mohammed's cousin, at a local mosque he says a traditional prayer. and mohammed's relatives came to show thanks. >> mohammed liked visiting people, helping people, and he educated his children. >> reporter: as a crowd of a thousand walked out of the mosque they're reminded that in this war the most frequent sound is the loudest. [explosion ] israeli bombs shake the eart

nick schifrin action live in gaza. thank you.estinians used a cease-fire to sift through the rubble of bombed-out buildings. for neighborhoods, it's the first chance they have had to recover the dead. stefanie dekker was there. >> reporter: a 12-hour cease-fire that is negotiated means little, means nothing to go those who have lost everything. we are in an area in the north, a and they are actually just pulling a body out of the rub e rubble. >> that is the sound of absolute grief as they are pulling people out of the houses here we are being told that just before this cease-fire took place, israeli warplanes hit this area extremely hard. there is areas of complete devastation, as you can see. they are still looking for more bodies, and people here will tell you with we met one lady 70 years old and said this has happened throughout my lifetime. israel has come in, has killed us, and has devastated our lives. when will it stop? >> stefanie dekker reporting there in southern gaza, 20 members he members from the same family were l

. >> nick schifrin joins us live now from gaza. nick, what have you been seeing from the grounds invasion so far? >> reporter: yeah, tony it seems like the ground invasion is pretty limited, about you what we are seeing chimes with what you just heard there. is a lot of tank activity. we talked a lot about that corner over my left shoulder that's northeast gaza. that's where a lot of the rockets have been flying from and the israelis have been focused on that particular point with air strikes as well as troops last night. it seems like in the last fews hours there has been a lot of tank firing from israel in to gaza and these tanks can fire quite a distance, well over a mile. so early this morning what we saw was one tank shell hitting a house, killing three siblings, we are getting more reports of fighting up there, of those tanks targeting what the israeli military says are rocket launchers or the homes of people who launch the rockets. it seems to be some families are reporting some of the blow back if you will. some of the fragm

nick schifrin joins us live from gaza. are people in gaza aware of binyamin netanyahu's comments that the air strikes will continue as long as hamas rockets keep flying? >> i don't think the gazzans need to listen to tv to listen to binyamin netanyahu to know. there was a strike and a plume of smoke to the left, israel targetting a tunnel that plainian fighters use -- palestinian fighters use to smuggle in goods. we were in the city with another strike. these will continue. we heard artillery firing boom, boom, boom, and israeli ships firing canons, and the strikes will continue 24 hours a day. >> reporter: in gaza nobody sleeps soundly. last night brought more israeli bombs. this morning brings children checking out demonstrations. the bombs are massive. this turns a building into a crater. it used to be a showroom. despite the war, kids clown around. even when next to demonstration. israel says it struck more than 1,100 targets. officials in gaza say the strikes destroyed hundreds of family homes. clean up means collecti

. >> for more let's go to gaza and al jazeera correspondent nick schifrin. nick, good to see you. hamas leader haled mashal says no more ceasefire until the blockade is lifted. and israel wants the situation to continue until the hamas tunnels are destroyed. >> does not believe that a permanent ceasefire is possible at least with the kind of violence that's happening now simply because a permanent ceasefire takes days to negotiate, will be complicated and no one wants to see the level of killed and injured to be increased. what is interesting is it is timed to a notion by israeli officials that that's how long they need in order to finish job, quote unquote, in order to destroy all these tunnels that fighters in gaza use to sneak into israel. so that is what u.s. officials are working on sometime before the weekend, some kind of pause, a humanitarian ceasefire for 1-2-3 four dot five days. antonio it is the larger issues to only actually create some real sense of peace here that's longer for example than the last peace that existed which was only about a year and a half ago since

nick schifrin is in gaza at the protest. nick, if you would, tell us what is happening where you are. >> reporter: yes, tony, there are two or three thousand people behind me, and 30 cameras or so. this is a show of defiance on behalf of hamas. as we try and show you the crowd you can take a look at the people. there are about 2,000 or 3,000 from all across gaza. there have been dozen of airstrikes and attacks into gaza. and hamas is trying to say, we're not scared of you. they're protesting of what happened in east jerusalem in solidarity for those who are protesting outside of the home of the 17-year-old who was killed apparently by israeli settlers. >> there were rockets fired in the last couple of hours? >> reporter: yes, what we've got is 15 rockets according to the israeli army fired from here in gaza into israel. most of them fall in open fields. two were intercepted by the iron dome, israel's air defense unit that intercepts these rockets. as you look at some of the younger members much this crowd there is an understa

nick schifrin joins us life.d morning to you. >> good morning. >> nib, can you tell -- nick, can you till us - we are hearing about news of the arrest happening around mohammed abukhdair's murder. can you tell us the latest. >> this is the really important big break in the case for days. israeli police have been trying to find the murders who burned alive mohammed abukhdair, a few days ago. we saw huge protests and tensions because of the death. israeli police confirming that jewish extremists have been arrested in connection with his death. during the funerals. the cows scrin was arrested, adding to the tension, because there was a lot of video out spread around social media of tariq beaten by israeli police. it is now out on bail. let's look at this report. >> reporter: the beating is brutal and difficult to watch. but it appears to be undercover israeli officers striking him. his hands are tied behind his back, he is unconscious, but still they kick him one last time. the family says the teenagers is this boy.

we are joined from jerusalem by nick schifrin. what has been the rabz to this -- reaction to this autopsy report? >> i think it's an understatement if we say that it's not going to go down very well. the anger here, and the fury here, the hostility, the grief in east jerusalem is higher than it's been for a long time. as this news spreads, according to palestinian officials, that he was burnt alive. it will inflame the situation more. what we see on the ground now in east jerusalem is a little bit of calm, almost the calm before the storm, but nonetheless there's calm outside the house of mohammed abukhdair. his family is in there receiving guests. outside there's debris from three days of conflict. no clashes. a fear that as the anger increases here, and as that tension still exists, especially with the report about how he died. those clashes could start at any moment. >> you mentioned grief and anger. and you have been there for a while. have you ever seen anger reach this type of fever pitch. and what about those residents who

nick schifrin giants us live. nick, you spent the last four days on the israeli side. i wonder from your perspective the difference you see once you cross the border into gaza. >> you see terror, fear and panic. where we saw the last 72 hours watching the rockets fly into towns. watching people run into shelters. watching people absolutely be panicked as those code red signer sirens go off. while the rockets are terrifying and loud, they actually don't do much damage and have absolutely no technology behind them. they're relatively crude. on this side we were outside of a mosque during a funeral, a bomb dropped 300 to 400 feet from us. these bombs are earth shattering. they're sometimes 300 pounds often dropped by american-made f-16s. they shake the neighborhood. they blow things up. the smoke out of the houses goes 60-70 feet high. that's the maintain difference between the violence. >> michael: israeli military said that hamas is hiding amongst the civilians. what have you seen in terms of evidence that would support israel's claim? >> reporter: as john was saying th

. >> nick schifrin spent the last few days in israel. tonight he is in gaza city and it's been hit by dozens of strikes since tuesday. >> good evening. the streets in gaza city are completely empty, and were empty in the middle of the day, which is rare for around here. there is so much here of more israeli strikes, and now, in gaza, there's so much mourning. >> when it comes to this war, and this is war, gazzans say, the most frequent sound is grief. and the frequent image is children missing their uncle or a woman mourning her husband. mohammed was a piousman, spending time praying, helping his nephews and nieces. he was 56. an israeli pilot dropped a bomb on him. the community is calling him a martyr. the silence shows their rev rans. they commemorate his sacrifice. he helped the fighters to make money. >> reporter: he was 65, why would be want to be a martyr. >> our holy jerusalem destroyed. our lives. >> reporter: this is his cousin. at the local mosque he says a prayer, and mohammed's youngest relatives came to show thanks. >> tran

nick schifrin joins us from gaza. extremely heavy shelling. what have you seen over the last 24 hours? >> it's the most relentless, violent 24 hours that we have seen in the last few weeks. the bombing started 24 hours ago and extended through the night. this morning gaza woke up to a couple of new things it had not woken up to before, a strike on the power center of hamas, the home of the former prime minister of hamas, the number two in the lift your, and the most senior official who lives here. he was not in the home. a lot of officials have gone underground. this is more pressuring hamas, sending signals. there has been a lot of government buildings attacked. the power plant, it was working 20-30% capacity - so people here have 2-3 hours of electricity before the strike. a massive fireball filled the air. smoke could be seen from miles away. because of that strike, what you see behind me - there's nothing. not because there's nothing there, that's because there's a blackout across all of gaza c y city. one more piece of video, this happene

nick schifrin is on the ground. he shows us what life is like in a war zone. >> an emotional toll. what the u.s. is doing for vulnerable palestinians. >>> you're looking at live pictures of gaza city. it's early morning, day three of a ground offensive. israeli officials say the invasion could expand and last two weeks. so far u.s. rail says -- israel says it hit more than 200 targets and found for than 20 tunnel entry points. two israel yits died. 370 -- israelis died. 370 palestinians. and 73 of the victims have been children. nick schifrin reports tonight from gaza. and he's been reporting since the israeli invasion began. he talks about the human element of people of gaza in the war zone. >> the violence is close, flying in above you head. there may be a ground war, but most strikes are fired from the air. the tart a television station fired from hamas. >> hit by israeli missiles three times in five minutes. other targets are people's homes. this family was given a 2 minute warning. his home was pulverized by an air strike. everyone survived, thanks to the warning. his children

warned people, that there needs to be more time to complete in his words the job. >> al jazeera's nick schifrin, thanks nick. >>> from the fight on the ground to the diplomatic war of words now. secretary of state john kerry returned to the u.s. without a ceasefire in hand and now facing new sharp attacks against his own efforts on the diplomatic fight between the military strikes. here is "america tonight's" sheila macvicar. >> reporter: the u.s. has no closer ally in the middle east, a lon long friendship backed by dollars and symbolized by israel's iron dome, the intercept system that is destroying many of hamas's rockets before they can do damage. diplomats on both sides describing the relationship as special. and others disfunctional and that's been polite. tensions over iranian leaders and their nuclear program, negotiations that have led to an easing of international sanctions and have been expanded. netanyahu and others believe iran is dangerous representing a continuing threat to the very existence of israel and that negotiations amount to appeasement. next, u.s. officials including th

nick schifrin is in gaza and joins us live. nick what is the latest? >> hi, good evening, ali.hat we're seeing is a lot of action behind me. you can see over to this side some lights, but to my left here it's absolutely black, and it's because the israeli military has struck some kind of electrical infrastructure here in the last few hours and hundreds of thousands of gazans are experiencing a blackout. behind there, flairs being fired into the northeast corn of gaza where a lot of the rockets have come from. we have also seen that a half mile that way, journalists evacuated from the hotel they were staying in, the military saying there will be an am fibbous assault into that area. and israeli officials are saying there are multiple areas where these troops are coming in, and there's a real sense of tonight. >> nick, we heard reporting that the israeli military has sent messages to people in gaza saying get out of the way in areas we're working in, and evacuate your homes? do they have an evacuation path? do they have places to go? >> that's a very good question, ali, the answe

al jazeera's nick schifrin is in jerusalem tonight with the lathest details, nick. >> adam, the situationis extremely tense along the border. we've got dozens of rockets rockets fired from israel to gaza. their reach, they are reaching 50 miles from gaza, that is a bit of a red line. basically israel doesn't want anything coming out of gaza that could reach telea tel aviv. , hamas which runs gaza, tunnels are being used to get fighters from gaza into israel. both sides are prepared to escalate further. >> no question, the deadliest exchange of fire since the tensions began. is there any sign of deescalation nick? >> there's no sign of deescalation but it is important to tell everyone this is not full out war, this is not like every town in israel is being rocket ed and every bit of gaza strip is being struck. all of that is ratcheting you up the tension. today their rhetoric changed just a little bit. they say we're prepared forto escalate or we're expecting to escalate. >> al jazeera correspondent nick schifrin thanks so much for joining us. staying in the middle east another day of turm

nick schifrin joins us live in gaza. ck what can you tell us about the reports of possible ceasefire? >> david, good evening. the reports of the ceasefire are aimed towards some sort of diplomatic solution, and there is progress being made towards that, but there isn't actually a ceasefire or pause or truce yet agreed to. secretary of state john kerry has been in the middle of this just in the last minute or so. his spokes women put out a statement welcoming the egyptian proposal of a ceasefire, during this, quote, difficult period. the egyptian ceasefire isn't actually a proposal. it is a pause, a suggestion to say, okay. both sides can commitment to not commitment violence for 12 hours starting in six or seven hours from now, and then we can talk. that's all it is saying, and that's what secretary of state john kerry has been trying to get both sides to do. >> nick has today been any quieter for the people in gaza? >> david if you look at the numbers, it's quieter, and if you feel around and look around it is much quiet

nick schifrin reports. nick i understand you were at the alaxa hospital. tell me what you saw? >> a tower that looms over the hospital and then the hospital itself, one of the main walls that led to the post-surgical word and so the hospital was hit at least twice, according to medical officials there, that one tower hit was first and then that hit right in that room was -- well it was a direct hit. into a room with two or three patients, at least one person died in that room according to doctors. and it was really a scene of windows smashing, rocks everywhere, the entire top floor of where that surgical ward was had to be evacuated. the rooms next othem were also very decimated. the nurse 20, 30 feet away got shrapnel in her leg. outside the hospital as we arrived just about 30 minutes maybe after that strike hit, it was really chaos. they had dozens of patients in that hospital, and of course, the hospital basically ceased to function after this strike. and so they had to try and get everyone out. some people very, very injured from previous wounds that had been treated. and

as the strikes hit the areas, affected. >> nick schifrin reporting from hifa. where one of the furthest attacks was launched today. schifrin. >>> for more we are joined from teleavive by ambassador pinkers. good to have you on the programme again. you hold us a week ago that israel was nod going to insaid gaza, it appears that the forces are mobilizing for a ground assault. what changed? >> i stand by what i told you a week ago. i don't see an israeli invasion into gaza, and i don't see a sustained effort to topple hamas. the first option entails too many casualties, and the second is impossible do accomplish, ie, toppling the hamas regime. you cannot do, topple hamas without invading gaza, which is why i stand by what i told you. both are not feasible. >> 40,000 reservists that have been called up, is it part of a pr campaign, where israel was ratcheted up the pressure of the hamas authority. >> it's a good question. let me divide the april. the first is not like pr, it's like deterrence. the people need to know, while i'm saying, that it's not an option. israe