joining me live from west jerusalem is lieutenant peter lerner, theitionisi spokesman.hank you for joining us here on al jazeera. now, the israeli army has now acknowledged that golden did die in battle. if you could just discipline to us how exactly did he die? >> what we know is that on friday, a suicide bomber came out of a tunnel, detonated himself, behind him, at least three or four gunmen, that suicide bomber killed two solids on the spot and in the aftermath of that, we had a soldier missing, which was golden. in our searchs in the immediate aftermath, we located some items with the the tunnel, we suspected he had been abducted and since that time, we have carried out, in parallel, both forensic investigation and, also, actions on the ground to try to locate and see if he was indeed within the gaza strip and specifically the rafah area. >> that's where the israeli army went wrong? you presumed he had been captured. in effect, he hadn't. >> he had been abducted. >> because you had said that he had been captured by hamas, as such, we saw the international community

. >> carol, the spokesman for the israeli defense forces, lieutenant colonel peter lerner has come to cnn, he's with us right now. i want to get specific, lieutenant colonel. you say the cease-fire first of all is over, right? >> well, absolutely. this organization that s you know, just taken advantage of the humanitarian cease-fire that israel had agreed to carry out and indeed implemented for that full 90 minutes, but they came out of the ground, suicide bomber blew himself up, killing two soldiers, and within the gun fight there, they went back down in the hole and abducted one of our boys. >> you identified that young israeli soldier, lieutenant, right? >> second lieutenant hadar goldin. >> from a suburb of tel aviv. was the incident that occurred on the israeli side of the tunnel or the gaza side of the tunnel? >> it all took place within the gaza strip in the areas where we were operating in recent days, indeed they were on defensive positions dealing with decommissioning a tunnel. this is something we said we would be doing throughout the cease-fire, because these tunnels as ha

after pictures you can clearly see how entire blocks have been razed to the ground turning colonel peter lerner from the israeli army told us that the i.d.f. is only responding though to persistent militant rocket attacks. it sort of continues to be threatened by indiscriminate rockets that are launched by hamas to israel even as we speak even during the continued days as we've seen in the last three and a half weeks and they have continued to attempt to attack us through tunnels and indeed we had the incident on friday when two two soldiers and then a third were killed in an attack coming out from a tunnel and this is a repeating occurrence hamas which has hundreds and hundreds of militants are utilizing exploiting the civilian arena just yesterday i have an indication of an unknown or a school that for eleven times during the day rockets were launched from a specific location so it's a huge challenge it's something we are facing but indeed we are determined while still an attack that any additional isn't your response of a disproportionate prime minister netanyahu says hamas rulers would pay

at least ten people have been killed and we can now talk to israeli army spokesman tema colonel peter lerner. well peter thanks so much for joining us here on r t international so another un schools been hit i mean despite the reports that we're getting from the israeli defense force that it's been scaling back its operations what do you make of this recent attack. where we're still a community through the specifics of this incident i can't confirm it at the moment indeed we. are not scaling back aren't. rethinking really organizing and changing a bit of the formation on the ground we have let's forces in the gaza strip but we'll still operating against hamas yeah but how does this justify an attack against the un school i mean you knew that people were sheltering there. again i'm not certain with the specifics and i think that currently it would be irresponsible of me to to even comment on it at the moment cause i'm not clear we do not intentionally target human facilities it has been a huge challenge throughout this conflict we are continuing to operate to getting some us we are continuing

said was a hamas tunnel my colleague maria joshie spoke with their spokesman lieutenant colonel peter lerner who says the military is just responding to persistent rocket attacks from hamas militants. it sort of continues to be threatened by indiscriminate rockets that are launched by hamas to israel even as we speak even during the continued days as we've seen in the last three and a half weeks they have continued to attempt to attack us through tunnels and indeed we had the incident on friday when two two soldiers and then a third were killed in an attack coming out from a tunnel and this is a repeating occurrence hamas which has hundreds and hundreds of militants are utilizing exploiting the civilian arena so it's a huge challenge it's something we are facing but indeed we are determined well still to do you know isn't your response a bit disproportionate prime minister netanyahu says hamas rulers would pay an intolerable price if they continue to fire rockets at israel and then options are on the table and we have this huge civilian death toll among palestinians so what options do you th

a short while ago, conditional peter lerner told cnn he sees no end in sight. it could go either way but he sees no end in sight to this operation in gaza. >> sima mosa, thank you. >>> we want to bring in our karl penhaul who is live in gaza. carl, you witnessed firsthand in the last hour when you were live on our air that, indeed, the israeli situation is still going strong there with the shelling in the area that you're in. >> yeah, absolutely. what we saw with shelling coming from eastern gaza. shells falling into gaza city, a target about a kilometer from where we are now. a tall building. it's a residential building. it also has a popular open air cafe. that not operating in these last few weeks. we believe it was probably tank rounds coming into that building. again, just to reiterate, tank rounds or artillery shells are not precision weapons. and they are being fired into built-up areas where there are civilians. quite simply there is no place else for them to flee. of course, within all these huge death tolls that we're seeing on both sides but those fi

pictures you can clearly see entire blocks raced to the ground there we spoke to a left turn colonel peter lerner from the israeli army told us that the i.d.f. really responding here to the persistent militant rocket attacks that's less. it sort of continues to be threatened by indiscriminate rockets that are launched by hamas to israel even as we speak even during the continued days as we've seen in the last three and a half weeks and they have continued to attempt to attack us through tunnels and indeed we had the incident on friday when two two soldiers and then a third were killed in an attack coming out from a tunnel and this is a repeating occurrence hamas which has hundreds and hundreds of militants are utilizing exploiting the civilian arena just yesterday i have an indication of an onerous school that for eleven times during the day rockets were launched from a specific location so it's a huge challenge it's something we are facing but indeed we are determined. that you know isn't your response a bit disproportionate prime minister netanyahu says hamas rulers would pay an intolerable pri

peter lerner is a military spokesman. was he okay when he was abducted? >> we're not certain. we know he was in close proximity of the suicide bomber that killed two other soldiers so he may be injured. he may be wounded. he may be even dead. >> reporter: it's a fate goldin's family is not willing to accept. they say the israeli military must not leave gaza without him. >> axelrod: charlie d'agata joins us now from tel aviv. charlie, you you had a chance to ask prime minister netanyahu today what it's going to take to get israel to the negotiating table. did you get an answer to that question? >> reporter: well, jim, not directly. but what he made clear is that there are no intentions for israel to negotiate with hamas any time soon. he blamed hamas for breaking this cease-fire. he vowed that israel would continue to fight in gaza, and he asked international leaders what he called responsible international leaders to back israel. >> axelrod: charlie d'agata covering for us tonight in tel aviv. charlie, thank you. as far as hamas is concerned, any peace deal would have to lift

be willing to live under this type of threats left and colonel peter lerner there from the i.d.f. of this campaign did so under way right now is called protective edge which is the deadliest israeli offensive in years it's one o'clock but the two thousand and eight then more than fourteen hundred palestinians died in the operation then called cast lead including more than two hundred fifty children must be added to this time around many more lives have been lost it's already way past the eight hundred mark unicef says at least three hundred fifty four children died in this latest barras which still shows no signs of ending anytime soon either. was was. was. was was. was was. was. the. meantime something else that came out of the week tied in with this still nice to speak of my exit has revealed that israel spied on u.s. secrets take john kerry while it mediated last year's failed peace talks with palestine some of the diplomatic calls apparently were made not via scramble channels but using regular phone lines that were it was to be believed intercepted by israel the details from

criminal act meanwhile israel maintains its need to defend itself israeli defense forces spokesman peter lerner spoke with r.t. earlier about that threat that israel says they're facing. well here's the reality that we are facing israel continues to be threatened by indiscriminate rockets that are launched by hamas to israel even as we speak even during the continued days as we've seen in the last three and a half weeks i can also say that they have continued to attempt to attack us through tunnels and indeed we had the incident on friday when two two soldiers and then a third were killed in an attack coming out from a tunnel and this is a repeating occurrence so the i.d.f. is faced with a huge challenge we are charged with defending the state of israel that is what we are doing that is what we are trying to do we are doing it in church in a in a extremely complex situation where the terrorist organization this huge body of of hamas which has hundreds and hundreds of militants are utilizing exploiting the civilian arena just yesterday i have an indication of an unknown or a school that for elev

peter lerner is speaking to reporters moments ago saying this. he said at 9:30 a.m.ime, that would be an hour and a half after the cease-fire was supposed to go into effect, idf soldiers, while working to decommission tunnels were attacked by terrorists who emerged from a tunnel. lerner goes on and says one terrorist was a suicide bomber who detonated himself after emerging from the tunnel. one idf soldier is missing, and we suspect he has been kidnapped by the terrorists. we have identified and notified the soldier's family, this according to lieutenant colonel peter lerner. we believe he's been taken back down the tunnel by the terrorists. extensive operations are taking place on ground and in the air. as we speak the abduction took place in southern gaza near rafa, that's that border crossing in southern gaza and then he adds this flat statement. this is the spokesman for the idf. the cease-fire is over. so no more maybe over, could be over, possibly be over. according to the israel military the cease-fire is now over. a very strong statement and clearly the israe

i understand we do have lieutenant colonel peter lerner. thank you, sir, for joining us. where do things stand as far as trying to locate your missing soldier? >> thank you, martin. we have currently not changed our goals of this mission, and we are still primarily focused on the tunnel issues. indeed, the abduction of hadar goldin is absolutely paramount and we need to emphasize and we are to locate his position. we have forces on the ground. we have extensive intelligence activities in order to try and get that lead that will bring us to find him. >> and how do you know if he's alive, and how would you know if he is actually held by hamas? >> well, this is a modus ob prand dop prand oprandi of hamas. that's prime marry indication -- >> okay. i'm sorry. i've lost the lieutenant colonel now. so thank you very much for joining us at this point i guess i'll pass it back to atlanta with miguel and christi. >> all righty. martin, thank you so much. sorry about that audio problem, but we certainly appreciate all of the information coming from you out of jerusalem right now. >>

lieutenant colonel peter lerner, appreciate your time. chris, kate, back to you. >> thank you very much, anderson. obviously what everybody wants is for the temporary to become permanent. we just heard the israeli disposition from the idf on situation. we will hear from the chief palestinian negotiators coming up on show so listen for that and get some balance. >> get that other perspective. other news we're waving right now so let's get over to michaela for that. >>> here's a look at your headlines this hour. voters in michigan, missouri, washington, kansas will head to the polls for primary election. kansas race has gotten national attention because president obama's distant cousin milton wolf is trying to upset longtime republican senator pat roberts. meanwhile, tea party candidate chris mcdaniel who lost to senator thad cochran in mississippi's gop primary is now formally challenging the outcome. mcdaniel claims there were enough illegally cast votes to change the result of that race. >>> eastern ukraine is son brink of assault as gov

listen to my conversation with the spokesman for the idf lieutenant colonel peter lerner. >> chs theident that occurred on the israeli side of the tunnel or the gaza side of the tunnel? >> it all took place within the gaza strip in the areas where we were operating in recent days. indeed they were on defensive positions dealing with decommissioning a tunnel. this is something we said welding doing throughout the cease-fire because these tunnels as have been proven in this incident are a serious threat. this is what they said they would do time and time again. this is a mode us opener random did i of these people and this is what we're up against. >> they said the agreement that was spelled out by the u.s. and u.n., the secretary of state, said israel had to remain within its line but it could continue the decommissioning of those tunnels. is that within israel lines, that incident occurred where these two israeli soldiers were killed and one captured? >> absolutely. we were operating in order to decommission these tunnels that have one goal, terrorism, death, destruction -- their des

israeli defense forces spokesman peter lerner charged hamas broke the truce when militants attacked israelices dismantling tunnels inside gaza territory under their control. >> at half past 9:00 this morning, two terrorists came out of a tunnel. one of them detonated himself in a suicide bombing attack, killing two soldiers. another one came out, shooting with an automatic weapon and in the aftermath of that we noticed that we had an officer that had been abducted into the tunnel. indeed we began to pursue this attack, we went to the tunnel. >> woodruff: israel responded quickly with tanks firing toward the southern gazan town of rafah. resides scrambled for cover, and palestinian officials claimed at least 50 people were killed in the shelling. israeli officials declared the cease-fire over, and by day's end 62 palestinians and two israeli soldiers were believed dead. this afternoon, president obama had strong words for hamas's reported actions: >> i have unequivocally condemned hamas and the pals ynts factions responsible for killing two israeli soldiers and abducting a third almost minut

the spokesman for the idf, lieutenant colonel peter lerner with us. do you know for sure that hamas, not some other group, but hamas has this israeli soldier? >> this is modus operandi of this operation. they've been striving to do so from day one of this mission. they announced already several times abduction. they've tried several times even bodies, body parts. this is what they've been trying to do. that's why they're enough circumstantial evidence to point to hamas as the people who are responsible for it. you add to the fact they're actually investing in these tunnels which are theirs, they belong to hamas. they've invested in them. they've put all of their capabilities into them. i would say absolutely hamas. >> because some analysts have suggested that islamic jihad also has invested in these tunnels and this may have some indications islamic jihad may have been responsible, not necessarily hamas. >> the only thing i know at the time is we were in the midst of a humanitarian cease-fire for the people of gaza. these terrorists came out of the gr

now, let's turn to lieutenant colonel peter lerner. he is spokesman for the israel defense forces. lieutenant colonel, thanks for being here. i want to get to the crisis in gaza in a second. there are reports there's been an arrest made in the kidnapping of those three israeli teenagers, the kidnapping and killing of them that in many ways started this whole war. is that true? >> i was, i read it and heard about it just beforehand. it wasn't something the military carried out but indeed, i know that and can confirm an individual has been arrested in connection with this. i don't know to what level of involvement he has in the incident but indeed, i've heard that this is true. it came out of the legal system and this is one -- somebody that's been involved in it clearly. >> do you have a name of the individual or no? >> no. >> not yet. okay. let's talk about the body count in gaza because that is something that has shocked and horrified many people including supporters of israel. first of all, the idea, the israel defense forces says of the 1800 that the gazans say were killed about

. >> peter lerner from the idf, thank you very much, indeed, for joining us today. let's bring in dinah who is a legal rights attorney. thank you very much for joining us. it feels like the idf are slightly more hopeful than other occasions. are you more hopeful as well? >> absolutely not, and the reason that i'm not hopeful is because they have not addressed the root causes of this. this isn't just a question of violence for the sake of violence but it's a question of israel, who's been allowed to attack the gaza strip now for many, many years, and hold a brutal siege over the gaza strip. this is an issue that still remains unaddressed. my fear is, of course, that the israelis are going to continue this again, and it's important to keep in mind that the attack actually began with israel bombing gaza, not the other way around. and given that there is a complete lack of international leadership at the current moment, i'm afraid that we're just going to see a period of calm but we're never going to see an actual situation where this is going to be something that stick

i spoke to peter lerner. the ceasefire seems to be holding.rom a military perspective, did you accomplish what you set out the do? >> absolutely. the main deal was to deal with the tunnels. demolished them that was a huge, huge investment on behalf of hamas underground. >> you don't know what you don't know. but to your knowledge are, there still tunnel there's? >> we had good intelligence before we went in about the tunnels. and having the boots on the ground, we were able to reach all of -- everything that we knew and more. over 32, around 32 tunnels. 10, yeah, we are confident in what we did destroy. there could be a few more. >> was there anything you were surprised about in this front indication with hamas? you learn some every time you engage with an enemy force you. learn things about hezbollah in 2006 when i was here with the idf. did you learn anything or were you surprised by anything about hamas this time? >> we learned they are more professional than they were beforehand. >> they have gotten more professional? >> absolutely. >> fro

. >> reporter: well, peter lerner said they were targeting two or three militiamen on a motorbike driving by the school. they hit it with a rocket. the eyewitnesses from the school said that when the motor bike drove by the school, there was a sudden explosion killing the people on the back but shrapnel from the explosion, which happened right outside the school when it was crowded in the yard there, shrapnel flew through the crowd, ten people killed, many more wounded, and although israel is saying, well, we're investigating, that's what they always say, i believe it's the seventh or eighth time that a u.n. facility has been hit by israel while they're targeting hamas militiamen who they say are working in the area. the nevertheless the question is if they're targeting two or three guys on a motor bike moving fast why couldn't they get until it moved by the u.n. facility. that's one of the questions israel was investigating and they need to find out if it was a successful attempt. but the rapid, very intense condemnation from the united nations and from the united states certainly has th

i spoke with colonel peter lerner in the last hour. >> indeed we've urged some of the palestinians tome of the neighborhoods where we were actually operating. >> but in southern gaza, the situation is much different. an air strike in rafah killed at least ten people outside of a united nations' school where thousands were seeking shelter. >> israel absolutely has the right to defend itself and we are israel's staunches ally but you cannot condone the killing of thousands of children. >> ban ki-moon calling for the strike a moral outrage and criminal act. what's been the response in israel? >> reporter: well, israel said they would investigate the incident. and that's what they say -- what they've said, by the way, every time there's been some kind of a tragedy in the u.n. school. what happened today, according to eyewitnesss at the school, was that a couple of men were driving by on a motor bike and they were hit by an israeli rocket. they were killed. but the damages from that explosion, shrapnel killed ten people and refugees were injured who were seeking shelter. that's what called

let me turn now to lieutenant colonel peter lerner. sir, thank you for being with us.talk now of palestinians and egyptians maybe trying to hammer out some kind of a proposal. does that have any impact on your military operations? >> well, here's what we know. basically, since hamas decided to end the cease-fire at 8:00 on friday morning, we've had over 100 rockets fired from the gaza strip into israel. 20 of them actually landed within the gaza strip. so what we're currently doing is combatting that situation with our defensive capabilities like iron dome, and counterstriking the people that are launching the rockets, the people that are carrying out these attacks, indeed, hamas as the situation is today must feel pursued, paralyzed as an organization, and the individuals who are carrying out these attacks, they indeed need to feel threatened. >> feel pursued and threatened. one of the latest was an attack that was near, or at least an attack by you all on a mosque that apparently killed three people. that was one of the latest. can you give us the update? what was th

lerner's emails. eric: where will all this lead? peter, let's start with lois lerner's back berry. if someone wiped out that blackberry, if they junked the blackberry after the investigation began could it lead to obstruction of congress? >> the problem is the department of justice is responsible for prosecuting such actions. it becomes increasingly clear that the department of justice may well be implicated in a coverup of its own in terms of getting to the truth about these missing emails and this whole irs scandal. we learn new things every day about the role of justice department attorneys not being forthcoming or knowing more and being fact witnesses rather than attorneys. the house of representatives called for the appointment of a special prosecutor. the house believes and i believe that the house is correct that we are not going to get a true accurate and independent investigation and criminal prosecution that's being conducted by this justice department. last thursday with regard to these missing emails i received information from a former department of homeland security o

peter johnson, jr. is going to break it all down and tell us about the major's rights behind bars coming up. >>> the bombshell of the week. lois lerner'sped out. you wouldn't know by watching any other media outlet because it was not covered. the bias exposed next. >>> plus, it's a story so many of you are talking about this morning. a four-year-old booted from preschool because of his mother's facebook page. what was on the page? what happened? find out. ♪ ♪ hey, i notice your car yeah. it's in the shop. it's going to cost me an arm and a leg. you shoulda taken it to midas. they tell you what stuff needs fixing, and what stuff can wait. high-five! arg! brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling) feet...tiptoeing. better things than the pain, stiffness, and joint damage of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist decide on a biologic, ask if xeljanz is right for you. xeljanz (tofacitinib) is a small pill, not an injection or infusion, for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz can relieve ra symptoms, and help stop further joint damage. xeljanz can lower you