The world. Im wolf blitzer in jerusalem. Youre in the situation room. And were following the breaking news. Intense fighting going on between israel and hamas on this day, reaching deadly new levels. Ten people including eight children were killed in a strike in gaza for which israel and hamas trade blame. And a deadly day for israeli, as well reporting four more Israeli Soldiers killed near the gaza border and another israeli soldier killed inside gaza. Well get more from our reportersen ots ground in southern israel as well as in gaza in just a moment. But first, earlier today, cnn was the only u. S. Television network to get a look inside one of the tunnels used by hamas to infiltrate israel. This is an exclusive report. No other American Television network can bring it to you. This is priority number one for the Israeli Defense forces. Finding and destroying dozens of hamas tunnels. Underground escape hatchs from gaza used to infiltrate israel and launch attacks. I went to the frontline to see one of those tunnels with Lieutenant Colonel. Israeli force have uncovered more than 30 tunnels in this area. Lets go in. This tunnel is just under two miles long and about 45 feet below ground. It begins in the Southern Gazan city and ends here near an israel kibbutz along the boarder with gaza. Lets go further in. In this tunnel, i guess the tunnel was built for relatively short people because if you stand up, youre going to hit your hard. Im not that tall. But you see, its pretty secure this concrete. They spent a lot of effort building this tunnel. Hamas boasts about its network of tunnels posting this video allegedly showing mass militants entering israel. Before being targeted by an israeli air strike, this video was released by the idf. Hamas never got to use the tunnel i visited. The israelis found it. They destroyed a big chunk of it back there. Theyve kept this part. The Lieutenant Colonel believes it took hamas about two years to build this tunnel with concrete and other supplies he says came from israel. You say this concrete came from israel. How do you know it came from israel . We found the bags. So basically the concrete was the provided by israel to palestinians in gaza to build schools, hospitals, stores, apartments, but they used it would you say to build this tunnel . Yes hamas has other tunnels that lead into egyptian territory used to smuggle weapons and supplies into gaza. But the idf says the underground passages into israel have only one purpose. From what you know, what was the purpose of this tunnel . I think soldiers. They wont attack regular people, children, women, men. They wanted to go and attack, kill israelis but also kidnap israelis. Yes. That was one of the rationales that israelis have suggested was one of the purposes of these tunnels . Yes. So the tunnels are still there. The israelis say thats priority number one doing away with these tunnels. Lets get more. Mark regev is the spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu. Thanks for joining us. An immediate cease fire for humanitarian purposes, where does that stand right now . Weve accepted humanitarian keys ceasefire. All in all, weve accepted three or four. And every time hamas either rejects it or violates the terms. Even today, we started the day giving the idf orders to act against those tunnels for obvious reasons. And to be only defend themselves. We thought this would maybe contribute to a deesca calculation. What happened in the end . We had one of our most difficult days. We had rockets overshooting tel aviv, hitting the haifa bait area in the northern part of our country. We had terrorists trying to kill people through the tunnels. We had mortar ar shells on our border killing Israeli Soldiers. Are those hamas infiltrators who good in today, are they still at large . I understand theyve all been rounded up or killed or gone back to the other side. You were there today, that just shows you the danger that those tunnels pose. Its fair to say, wolf, they are a strategic danger. The people in southern israel live in fear theres a knock at the door and who will be on the other side . A group you have terrorists with automatic weapons and explosives and grenades. The idea they just pop out of the ground on our side of the frontier no murder and kidnap, thats unacceptable. Thats why were working so hard to destroy all these tunnels. There seems to be a real rift or strain between the Obama Administration, the president of the United States and the Prime Minister of israel right now over the terms for a ceasefire. You read the israeli media. The Israeli Press you see some of the stuff written about the secretary of state john kerry which is pretty awful right now. Whats going on . Unlike most of our neighbors, the degree government does not control our press. You have to ask journalists why they write there. Theyre getting this from israeli officials. Theyre not getting it from us. We and the United States have a common goal here. We want to come out of this in a way we dont have the to revisit the conflict in another six months. We want to come out of this with a sustained period of peace and quiet. To get that, we have to start dealing with an issue that hasnt been on the front burner and thats demiller rising. Once this is over and most of hamass rockets have been destroyed and the tunnels have been destroyed, how do we prevent hamas from building its terrorist military machine . Is that can only be done through international cooperation. We have to bring about a demilitarized gaza strip. How far apart is israel right now from the u. S. , Prime Minister netanyahu and Obama Administration when it comes to the terms for a ceasefire . We heard both from president obama and today from secretary kerry. They support the principle of demilitarization. Thats crucial. Once again, we dont want to go through this sort of crisis all again six months from now. We have to make sure the iranians and qatarrys and the others dont send rockets to hamas. We have to make sure that money that is donated to support the people of gaza goes to the people of gaza and isnt siphoned off to support this hamas military machine. Thats going to be difficult. Its not going to be easy. Hamas is not going to voluntarily give up its terrorist military machine. We through Concerted International Action must make it happen. It looks like the fighting at least for the time being is going on. We tried to deescalate today. In the end it blew up in our face with hamas launching attack after attack. Israel is ready to deescalate. Mark lerner marks regev, the spokesman for the Prime Minister of israel, thanks very much for joining us. Peter lerner will join us in our next hour. Thanks very much for joining us. Ill also speak up next with a member of the palestinian parliament, dr. Mustafa barghouti. Well get his take on whats going on. A very different im sure. This is the situation room special report. vo friday night has always been all fun and games, here at the harrison household. But one dark, stormy evening. She needed a good meal and a good family. So we gave her purina cat chow complete. Its great because it has the four cornerstones of nutrition. Everything a cat needs for the first step to a healthy, happy life. Purina cat chow complete. Share your rescue story and join us in building better lives. One rescue at a time. Were changing the way we do business, with startup ny. Weve created tax free zones throughout the state. And startup ny companies will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in jobs and infrastructure. Thanks to startup ny, businesses can operate tax free for 10 years. No property tax. No business tax. And no sales tax. Which means more growth for your business, and more jobs. Its not just business as usual. See how new york can help your business grow, at startup. Ny. Gov but they have to use special care in keeping the denture clean. Dentures are very different to real teeth. Theyre about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. Polident is designed to clean dentures daily. Its unique microclean formula kills 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning in a better way than brushing with toothpaste. Thats why i recommend using polident. [ male announcer ] polident. Cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. [ male announcer ] polident. train horn vo wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. Norfolk southern. One line, infinite possibilities. Live pictures coming fra gaza right now. Were following the fighting between israel and hamas. Its reaching deadly new levels today. Ten people including eight children were killed in a strike in gaza for which israel and hamas are blaming each other. Karl penhaul is on the scene for news gaza city. These live pictures were seeing, what is going on . Now, wolf, now, wolf, i want to show you this picture first and a pol skriz for not standing in front of the camera, but this picture right now is about the 500 yards from our Vantage Point in the bureau. This is the closest we have seen action going on for many days now. What you are seeing there are illumination flares going into part of the residential area around us. This could mean several things. Often, theyll use those illumination rounds in advance of Troop Movements and other occasions the israelis will drop these flares before they start to the target an objective here. My guess is that al area down there about 500 yards from the bureau has already been targeted in the past few days. And we may be seeing just preparations to try and target something down there now. Ill let you know if that happens. But to bring you up to date what has been going on in gaza during the course of the afternoon especially, another strike on a residential area in North Central gaza. This time it was a street, a street packed with adults and with children. They were getting ready to celebrate the end of ramadan eid holiday, according to the Palestinian Health ministry, ten people killed. Two of them adults. Eight of them children. And as we were standing there in that street, i was checking out the shrapnel field from the explosion. A car was pockmarked with shrapnel. I was able to put my fist right into the hole made by the shrapnel. Just imagine the kind of effect that would have had on a human body, much less a childs body. And as we were waiting there, as well, one of the bodies of one of the children was brought home for the last time so that his mother could say her final farewell. And for the first time, i thought, you know, enough is enough. Weve got to put a human face on this. So i turned to a little girl 12 years old she was, and said was he a friend . And sorry about that. Theres sounds of explosions going on behind. Ill bring you the only thing morning thats going on there. I turned to this little girl and i said to her, was he your friend . He said yeah, his name was muhammad. I said tell me the good things about muhammad. She says you know, he was top of his class at math. He said he loved soccer. And he was a fan, a huge fan of the barcelona soccer team. Let me interrupt for a second, karl. Weve got a delay between you and me via satellite because im hearing the sounds of it sounds like those shots in the background. I dont know if thats artillery or if thats gunfire. Whats going on behind you . I want you to be careful if its getting too close. Yeah, let us step out of the way again. Ill get our shooter joe scheffer to focus on what is going on here. Explaining a short while earlier. This is an area approximately 500 yards from our Vantage Point from the gaza office. Wa were seeing now coming down are illumination rounds once more. The Israeli Military used those for several things. It could be to light the way for advanced Troop Movements. It could also mean that theyre trying to illuminate a target and then artillery will be able to zoom in on this area. I believe that if were going to see anything here, then it could be artillery strikes. We have heard the pounding of artillery strikes through much of the evening during the darkness hours. Let me just keep quiet. I just want to show you this picture quite dramatic, wolf. Im hoping you can hear some of that, wolf, because not only do we see these illumination flares drifting down, but were hearing the sound of ar ril tillry. I also believe in the mix there, were also hearing the sound of gunfire. It is unclear to me where that gunfire i would say small arms fire, its not artillery. Its some kind of machine gun, perhaps an assault rifle. We had no knowledge prior that either the Israeli Military would have boots on the ground in this area or that any of the militant factions would have boots on the ground. But certainly not toot far off, were hearing the sound of gunfire. Were hearing the pound and echo of artillery there, as well and all the while, seeing these illumination flares come down. Just a few moments ago, even some of the smoke from those illumination rounds was drifting into our bureau. That is how close these rounds are. Its unclear right now what is going on here in terms of what the target may be. In an area where some of those rounds have dropped about 500 yards away is a building that was targeted in the early days of this confrontation between hamas and israel. We havent seen it hit since then. Nor have we seen any rocket fire going up from there. We dont believe that that area is a launching point. But again, something weve got to keep our eyes on off there in the distance, as well. More illumination rounds going down and all the while, hearing the sound of artillery and gunfire. Let me just let you listen in. Im going to keep quiet. Karl, i want you to stand by over there. I want to keep that shot up for our viewers in the United States and around the world. I want to bring in for some analysis dr. Mustafa barghouti, a member of the palestinian parliament. Hes joining us from ramallah. Dr. Barghouti, you can certainly hear the shots, these flares that are overgaza city right now. It just sort of underscores the need for a ceasefire, a realistic ceasefire. Is that doable, do you believe, right now or is that out of the question . Absolutely it is doable. But it all depends on mr. Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of israel who announced today that he insists to proceed with his military operation. Hes even expanding it. And he is dragging the whole area, the whole region into a disaster. Hes dragging his soldiers to be killed. And hes drag the palestinians into a massacre. So far, 1,085 palestinians have been killed, as you know 90 of them are civilians, children, women. Today, eight children were playing on the beach thinking there is some kind of an cease fire. And then they were bombarded by israel and killed instantly. Were talking about 6,470 people injured. Again, mostly they are civilians. More than 20,000 homes have been destroyed. And whole neighborhoods are now threatened to be completely eliminated. I mean imagine a situation where the people of manhattan would be told you have to evacuate your houses within an hour. If they dont, they will be killed. If they do, all their houses will be instantly destroyed by the israeli artillery. This is unacceptable. Whats happening is way beyond a massacre. Its almost like an act of genocide. This has to stop. Let me just interrupt for a moment, dr. Barghouti because you know the israelis did accept some cease fires. Hamas rejected the ceasefires. Kept launching hundreds and now a couple thousand rockets and miffs into israel. The israelis and most of the rest of the world, a lot of the world say the israelis have the right to protect themselves from the launching of these rockets and missiles. Do you believe the israelis have a point when they say no country would allow rockets and miffs to be fired in without responding . Well, there are two problems with this narrative. First problem is that everybody talking about israels right to defend itself. But nobody speaks about the palestinian right to defend themselves although most of the victims are falling on the palestinian side and although israel is up anning us and oppressing us since decades. Thats one point. The second point this claim that israel accepted a ceasefire is not true. Israel preenvenned passing a resolution by the United Nations through the United States that would have imposed a ceasefire by the security council. And then they claimed they accepted an egyptian proposal but this was never tested and now that there is a serious proposal on the table to have a ceasefire, netanyahu is saying no, i want to proceed with this operation. I want to expand if it. Hes talking about demillerizing gaza knowing very well this is an Impossible Mission unless there is a peaceful solution that solves the whole problem and ends the occupation and the system of apartheid that israel has created. So in my opinion, the people have to be very careful about adopting the israeli narrative which is misleading them. What about the tunnels . The israelis make the point, i was in one of those tunnels earlier today. Why would hamas be spending all this time and effort and money building these underground tunnels from gaza to israel . Why did hamas do this . Do you have a good understanding wa their rationale was . The of course. Because gaza was invaded by israel three times. Onces in 2006, and once in 2008 and once again in 2012. And in each invasion, hundreds of people were killed and the first invasion 1,400 people were killed and hamas developed this tactic of an act of defense so that if the israeli army invades gaza they will find ways to defend themselves. You could ask the question why israel is building such a big army. Why israel has the most powerful air force in the region and the largest army fourth largest army in the world. Why israel has 400 nuclear heads . Because they say they want to denied themselves. All hamas is doing is just primitive things. These tunnels are nothing but a primitive way of trying to defend themselves against israeli invasion. At the end of the day there all will not be necessary if there is peace. This all will not be necessary if israel finally tries theyve tried so many wars. One risk they have not tried yet which is the risk of peace and accepting to end the occupation and allowing palestinians to have an independent state and get out of gaza forever rather than be besieging gaza and the people here making the life so horrible they have to fight to get their food. Dr. Mustafa barghouti, weve got to leave it there because we see intense activity in gaza right now. I want to go back to karl penhaul in gaza city right now. Kashlgs update our viewers. We hear the sounds. We hear the booms and the fire. Did we see the skies overgaza city . We see those flares there. Whats going on . Yeah, i just want to bring you uptodate with this, wolf. Were hearing several things going on. The first explosions that were hearing is the sound of the illumination flares as theyre fired into the sky. They have an explosive charge in them that then pumps out this bright flare on a small parachute so that is one of the explosive sounds youre going to be hearing, that is those illumination flares that are also pumping out white smoke into the sky as they come down. And then youll hear the thud of heavier explosions. Those are artillery rounds being fired out. We dont know where they are landing right now. We cant see the that the from our Vantage Point. Its not clear either whether those artillery rounds are being fired from israeli navy gun boats or if theyre being fired from the selfpropelled guns closer to gazas eastern border with israel. But certainly the sound of heavy activity. Quite often those illumination rounds will be fired up possibly to guide troop and armored movements in nighttime hours if theres a need to get more prevision about where the target is. Sometimes those flares may be dropped on to a targeting to mark the target so that then artillery can pound it. It must be said, however, theres a lot of illumination flares dropping on then part of gaza, many more than weve seen at any time in the past three weeks. We are hearing the sound of artillery rounds. In this area in front of us, still not seeing any real results of that artillery action. That is something that could follow in the next few moments. But let me keach quiet. Youve just seen that perhaps on your screens. Youve seen a portion of this area of gaza city go dark. One or two lights on still in the background. Thats some indication that the power has gone out. The power has been cut. As i look towards the ocean, as well, you can see a whole swathe of gaza city where the power has been cut. And overled, the smoke, the illumination rounds going in over different parts of the strip, wolf. It could be a long night. Certainly looks like that. Im going to stay with these pictures, karl. Im going to stay with you. Stand by. Remember, be very, very careful as far as whats going on. I want to bring in jen psaki. Shes the spokeswoman for the state department, would with secretary of state john kerry. Jen, thanks very much for joining us. I know youre back in washington. You were with the secretary. He was trying to achieve a ceasefire. It didnt work out. What was the problem. What went wrong . First, wolf, let meet say that there is a long history of mistrust between the parties on the ground. And when the secretary went to the region just a week ago, there was no discussion of a ceasefire. There werent actual negotiations going on and the International Community had not gathered support for the idea of a ceasefire. So there are some changes and some progress that has been made in that regard. But this is difficult. We always knew it would be. What were working on now is short term cease fires, building on them so we can give time for the parties to negotiate about the larger issues. You know theres a lot of criticism of the secretary of state and for that matter the president of the United States but especially john kerry in israel right now. Let me read an article. He writes over the second, u. S. Secretary of state john kerry ruined everything. Very senior officials in jerusalem described the proposal that kerry put on the table as a strategic terrorist attack. Those are incredibly powerful words everywhere somebody like aere shah veet. They say you went too far, the secretary went too far in accepting what hamas wanted moving away from the original egyptian proposal. You say what . I think its important for everyone to understand what the facts are here. The facts are that the discussion, the informal draft of ideas that the secretary discussed with Prime Minister netanyahu was based on the egyptian proposal. The differences were so small, i dont even think you could fill a note card with them. That was a proposal not only did the israelis support two weeks ago, but the cabinet endorsed. So i think theres a confusion and frankly a Misinformation Campaign going on out there about what the discussion is about, what our focus is on and i think its important for everybody in israel to know and the United States that our primary goal is ending the rocket attacks from hamas into israel. Thats the secretarys goal. Thats why hes working so hard on this and thats why weve start stod outline the details of what happened last week. Is it your understanding, jen, that if there were a ceasefire and right now there isnt one, but lets say there is a ceasefire, israel would still keep its troops in gaza and still be able to destroy those tunnels that go from gaza into israel during doo the ceasefire . The purpose of a humanitarian cease fire which is what were calling for now is one to deescalate the situation, to end rocket attacks back and forth and to allow for humanitarian assistance, food into gaza. Youve been reporting there for a long time. You see whats happening on the ground. There are we understand that the tunnels do pose a legitimate threat to the israel. I cant imagine waking up every day and worrying about the threat of terrorists coming through tunnels and theyre dealing with those. There isnt a technical fix to that. We think they can do that without resuming combat operations. It essentially freezes some aspects where they are and allows for an opportunity to discuss the bigger issues that are of concern to both sides. Is it possible based on what you know and you obviously know a lot, is it possible that the tunnels could be taken out, can be destroyed without combat but through diplomatic means. Sort of the way the u. S. And others destroyed syrias chemical weapons stockpiles not through combat, not through air strikes but through diplomacy, if you will, can International Pressure . Wolf, i think theres an effort that the israel israelis has been under way on the tunnels. Obviously, the sbirlt discussion right now the is about a diplomatic process and certainly any aspect of israels presence in gaza would be a part of that. But i think this is a process thats on going. We do think they can continue that effort without resorting to combat operations. The and were showing our viewers live pictures from gaza right now. You saw the flares just a little while ago. You heard the booms. Its a lot dark anner now and it looks like some of the electricity must have been taken out in the course of some of the pounding going on. You see these pictures. You say as a top u. S. Official what . Well, i think we say that thats why a ceasefire is needed. Thats why we need to have a pause in whats happening on the ground. We have great concern about the violence were seeing, the civilian casualties. We will have concern. We dont want to see parents mourning the loss of their child whether its a child in gaza or an israeli soldier. Its important to remember here that hamas is using people as human shields in gaza. Theyre putting their own people at risk. But we need to see moral from both sides in terms of making efforts toward a ceasefire. Is israel going too far . Well, israel i think weve long believed and still continue to believe that they will have the right to defend themselves. And when you have indiscriminate rocket stakes threatening your people, when you have terrorists coming into tunnels they have every right to do that. But at the same time, weve been calling for a ceasefire as has the u. N. This is what the secretary is focused on because the violence has reaped a point where it needs to pause and stop and we need to find a way to find a diplomatic solution. Can we expect the secretary of state, jen, to make it out here to the middle east anytime soon again . Well, wolf, hes always willing to travel, keeps that option open. And hes been closely engaged throughout the weekend. Dozens of calls with officials working on these issues on the ground. Were leaving for india tomorrow. Even while hes there, hell remain engaged on these issues. And maybe on the way backing to washington from india, youll stop off here and do what you need to do. Jen psaki, are you traveling with the secretary to india . I wouldnt miss it, wolf. All right. It be safe over there. Thank you. Good luck. Well see what happens. Jen psaki from the state department. Were showing you live pictures. Its been very dramatic whats been going on the last several minutes. You au karl penhaul report the flares that were going off. Those presumably were israeli flares. You still hear the pounding and gunfire, the artillery shots going on. If you compare what the picture looked liking a few minutes ago to right now, its a lot darker in certain parts of gaza right now. Lets go back to karl penhaul. Correct me if im wrong, it looks like power has been destroyed for a nice big chunk of gaza city right now. Am i right . Reporter well, you are absolutely right. A certain swathe of gaza city is without power. We saw that power go out. The lights right now are being provided courtesy of the Israeli Military because theyre dropping illumination rounds down here onto gaza city. Unclear what targets they may be marking or what Troop Movement they may be planning. Just to give you an idea a little bit of the black humor that the gazan people are living with during this confrontation. Weve just had the end of ramadan. During ramadan, its traditional to hang a lantern in the home, a lantern with a candle or with a small bulb inside. And the people of gaza have taken to calling these israeli illumination rounds their ramadan lanterns. Of course, it is black humor because behind those illumination rounds as weve heard tonight, the sound of artillery thudding being fired possibly from navy gunboats, certainly from some of the artillery pieces ranged there on the eastern boarder and that, of course, with it brings destruction. It is a fight now more than three weeks old. Let me keep quiet. Let me let you listen in and take a look at the scene over gaza city. Quite dramatic, the contrast there, wolf, between dark and light. The light provided by those illumination rounds and when they fadeaway then a lot of the rest of gaza city in the dark, pitch black because power is out. Unclear whether that power may have been taken down by an air strike or some kind of sabotage. Unclear whether this is just the normal situation in gaza when the generators run out of diesel because they cant get enough fuel into run these generators. Let me keep quiet again. Theres a lot going on, wolf. The sound of the closest explosions youre hearing, that is the sound of those illumination flares. They pop up into it the sky and then you hear a small explosive burst. That is what is tossing out the bright light attached to a parachute. And then in the distance, the deep thudding sound that youre hearing is the sound of artillery. We dont know what they are targeting right now. Also in the last few moments down at street level for the first time in three weeks of conflict, we have heard somebody with a loud speaker shouting to the people, go inside. Your homes. Please go inside your homes for your own safety. That is the scene right now over gaza city, wolf. Yeah, it looks like major operation under way. Karl, when the israelis say that hamas is to blame because they put their rockets, their missiles in these heavily Populated Areas and that the israelis then say they have no choice to destroy these rocket launchers and missiles even though they are in these Populated Areas, have you seen evidence of that . Several things, wolf. First of all, the nature of the gaza strip. Its an area of land about the size of metropolitan las vegas. The borders are closed. Little else to get out. Its densely populated. Densely built up. There really is not a lot of open ground. And so the nature of the war here is urban combat. This is an urban guerrilla war. Urban guerrilla war as weve seen in other parts of the world. That is what is going on here in gaza. Inevitably military hardware is close to residential areas. Nowhere in gaza strip is far from a residential area. We have seen Israeli Military gun camp footage showing what the Israeli Military indicates are militant firing positions close to residential buildings. We have observed from our Vantage Points rockets being fired from areas where inevitably there is residential building. But that is the nature of this land cape. That is the nature of urban warfare. And that is why this is an asymmetrical war. We cant expect gazas militants to line up in a big field and fight the Israeli Military. The Israeli Military as you well know, one of the most sophisticated in the world. A very large powerful conventional army and what we have here is a deeply asymmetrical war, lopsided war where one side is on paper much more powerful and the other side in this case the gaza militants trying to balance things out by fighting a very different style. And that inevitably is drawing the Israeli Military into the densely Populated Areas of the gaza strip and theyre trying to get the Israeli Military bogged down, fight them on their own turf and also quite surprisingly still using those tunnels that you yourself visited today and we heard again today of an enfiltration attempt onto israeli turf. And these are precisely the tunnels that the Israeli Military is trying to destroy and it shows the difficulty of trying to destroy them, wolf. Yep. I was there. Were going to show more pictures later in the situation room. Carl, i want you to stand by. Be careful over there. Were going to continue to watch whats happening over gaza city and have much more breaking news right after this. The last four hours have seen. One child fail to get to the air sickness bag in time. Another left his shoes on the plane. His shoes and a third simply doesnt want to be here. Until now. Until right booking now. Planet earths number one accomodation site booking. Com booking. Yeah the cadillac summer collection is here. During the cadillac summers best event, lease this all new 2014 cts for around 459 a month or purchase with 0 apr and make this the summer of style. Were changing the way we do business, with startup ny. Weve created tax free zones throughout the state. And startup ny companies will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in jobs and infrastructure. Thanks to startup ny, businesses can operate tax free for 10 years. No property tax. No business tax. And no sales tax. Which means more growth for your business, and more jobs. Its not just business as usual. See how new york can help your business grow, at startup. Ny. Gov want to go right back to gaza city because its been intense for the past 40 minutes or so. 30 to 40 minutes. Israeli flares over the city. We hear loud booms going off. Sounds like artillery whether coming from land or from the sea. Unclear. But it looks very intense. We earlier saw a lot more light in gaza city. Its a major city. And now whole chunks of gaza city look like theyve lost power. Unclear if they lost power because of israeli air or naval strikes or artillery strikes or because the generators just went down this time of night, approaching 1 00 a. M. Local time. Karl penhaul is monitoring gaza city for us. Tell us what youre hearing and seeing is right now. Right now, were hearing israeli drones overhead. Thats a very distinctive sound. A little bit like a large lawn wer. Weak hear those overhead. Were also seeing illumination flares dropping down through the night sky in gaza. That lighting up much of the area around us. The area of most activity tonight, the closest weve seen in the last three weeks really only about 500 yards from our bureau from the Vantage Point where we are at. What we first hear is the sound of an artillery shell firing out. And then an explosion o motion up in the air. That is a smaller explosion sending out this illumination flare. And then if you listen carefully, theres the distinctive clank of metal falling onto the street below, and thats the canister of this illumination round as it falls out of the sky and hits the ground. Now, i saw one of those in northeastern gaza just the other day during that 12hour cease fire on saturday and if anybody is out on the streets right now, if that canister faus on them or goes through a tin roof, then that could almost certainly do a lot of damage. And possibly for that reason, can weve heard a loud speaker possibly from somebody with a loud hailer on the ground or somebody perhaps from one of the mocks calling on citizens to stay inside, stay out of harms way. Its not clear why the Israeli Military is sending these flares into this part of gaza city right now. In previous days, i can tell you when theyve used those illumination rounds, sometimes it is to light the way so that both troops and their armored units can move into areas and get a good visual on where theyre leaded and sometimes they drop these illumination rounds to be able to target something, but unclear right now, wolf. Karl, i want you to stand by. Were going to get back to you and watch whats going on in gaza city and get an update from the Israeli Defense forces. The spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel peter lerner is going to be joining me shortly. Well get the idf version of whats happening in gaza city. Much more coming up right after this. Hey. 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And then when we hear that shell whizzing, we then hear a small explosion and then an illumination flare coming out and drifting down on a parachute. These things are so klous that we can clearly see the parachute allowing the illumination flare to slowly drift to the ground and cast the light over the zba gaza city. In many ways its the only way theyre going to get the light tonight in gaza city because the power is down. I cant tell you why that happens. But because of the normal conditions in gaza, they often cant get enough pow tore fuel their generators here. So that could be the other issue. It is now clear to me, though, right now, from where we are when we hear other thuds of artillery going out, whether that is more illumination flares being fired or whether that is live artillery exploding somewhere else. There have been no bombardments in eastern gaza, in Southern Gaza today. And we of course went out in mid afternoon to see the aftermath of an explosion in gaza when an explosive devase fell on a street. No clarity right now on what caused that because both of the warring sides are blaming one another for an explosion that occurred in a residential street that killed ten people, eight of them children, wolf. Karl, i want you stand by. Were going to get a spokesman for the idf Lieutenant Colonel peter learner is going to join me. Much more anger, a lot more anwish as children and other civilians fall victim to if fiethding thats going on right now between hamas and israel. Were going to go inside one of the hamas tunnels. Norfolk southern whats your function . Hooking up the country helping business run trains they haul everything, safely and on time. Tracks they connect the factories built along the lines. And that means jobs, lots of people, making lots and lots of things. Lets get your business rolling now, everybody sing. 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Happening now, a the situation room special report. Breaking news tonight. New explosions over gaza, the fighting with israel and hamas is raging. Ramping up the death toll and the outrage. Plus within exclusive look inside a hamas tunnel. Im going to show you why destroying those tunnels has now become israels top military priority. And the u. S. Offers new satellite evidence against russia. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer in jerusalem. Youre in the situation room. Tonight the skies over gaza have been lighting up, the sounds of explosions are echoing across the area. And the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning residents to brace themselves for what he describes as a lengthy military campaign. Iz rally forces are on the attack again, so are hamas ill fants after a temporary ceasefire. The body count is soaring. Israels death toll at 46 including five soldiers killed in coomb bat today. The Palestinian Death toll above 1,000. First, an exclusive look inside hamas tunnels in gaza along with more on the latest fighting today. New bloodshed in gaza and israel. Children and other civilians among the victims. Families in anguish. Israel and hamas, trading blames for strikes on a hospital and a refugee camp in gaza. How many palestinians needs to lose their lives for them to understand that killing more palestinians is not going to lead we did not target the hospital. New deaths on the iz rally side as well. Soldiers killed in a mortar attack near the gaza border. With the death toll climbing, the United States held an emergency meeting to appeal for a ceasefire. In the name of humanity, the violence must stop. Hamas launching new rocket attacks on israel, and israel resuming air and ground strikes on hamas targets in gaza. This is priority number one for the Israel Defense forces, finding and destroying dozens of hamas tunnels, underground escape hatches in gaza. I went to the front line near the gaza border to see one of those tunnels with an idf colonel. Iz rally forces have uncovered more than 30 tunnels in this area. All right. Lets go in. This tunnel is two miles long and 45 feet below ground. It ends here along the border with gaza. Lets go a little further in. This tunnel, i guess the tunnel was built for relatively short people. Because if you stand up youre going to hit your head. Im not that tall. But you see, its pretty secure, this concrete. They spent a lot of effort building this tunnel. Hamas boasts about its network of tunnels posting this video. This video was released by the idf. Hamas never got to use the tunnel i visited. The israelis found it and destroyed a big chunk of it back there. Hamas has other tunnels used to smuggle items into gaza. From what you know, what was the purpose of this tunnel in. I think soldiers, they want to take regular people, children, woman, men. So there you see the tunnel that i visiteds earlier in the day on the border between israel and gaza. Lets go to karl penhaul right now in gaza city. Is it still intense there, the flares going off over the skies . We saw it half an hour or so. Whats going on, karl, right now . Weve seen a lot of illumination flares drifting down into gaza city. You can hear the sound of artillery. That is artillery that field guns sending out just a barrage of rounds. But these are illumination flares. They get about where we are now, close to our Vantage Point and then you hear an explosion. That is the artillery shell popping out the illumination round. That will drift down on a parachute and in the distance youll hear the clank of metal. Thats the ammunition round with the canister falling down on to the tarmac at street level. Now normally those flares may be used to light the way if theres troop maneuvers or armored unit maneuvers or they could be used to be marking some kind of target. It is not clear in this area of gaza city what the target may be. We havent heard live ammunition rounds exploding in this immediate area. So difficult to see what the strategy is going on here. What we have heard from the loud speaker is somebody, possibly from a mosque, calling on the citizens of gaza city to stay inside. He was say stay inside for you own safety. After he said that we saw for approximately an hour these illumination rounds drifting down and drifting down, the thud of e the explosion as the illumination round pops down. But not clear right now what the target may be. Lets find out right now. Karl, stand by. Aye got the spokesman for the Israel Defense forces, Lieutenant Colonel peter learn. Do you see the pictures, whats going on in gaza city. I assume you know. To understand the footage we have to think about what weve seen throughout the course of the day. What weve seen is long range rockets launched all the way up to from gaza city . From gaza. From where were seeing the pictures. Theyre in the areas of are those your targets that youre going into in gaza city . Were not going into specifics. Were continuing our activity. We have to look at what happened today. Weve had long range rockets. Three quarters of our country threatened by the rockets. We had rockets close by killing four soldiers in the immediate vicinity of gaza and weve had infiltration of a tunnel into iz rally territory and shots fired at our forces. Weve seen the capabilities of hamas, their intentions of what they mean by saesfire. Were determined to continue striking against hamas as a terrorist organization. This is an organization that is running a campaign of terror against the state of israel. Theyre our neighbors in our back door and we dont want them there. We want them to stop this aggression against us. We want to deal with these attacks, contain it and take the battle to them. I assume the flares that we saw over gaza city, those are iz rally flares, youre illuminating the skies. Whats the point of that . We have extensive operations. Part of this is the flares that are coming over. We have other activities taking place in the peripheral areas to deal with the tunnels like you visited today. So indied we have extensive operations and they are part of what we see as the development of this plan of action which is a gradual plan, increasing the pressure on this terrorist organization. That will be pursued and threatened. So the artillery that were hearing, is that naval artillery . Is that ground artillery . Where is that artillery coming from and what is the target . You cant see any targets specifically. Its safe to say those are illumination. They do that, illuminate the sky. Were carrying out our activities in order to strike hamas and to paralyze the organization who cannot feel free to operate against the state of israel and expect to live beneath ground in these holes that theyve dug, if its beneath hospitals or in other places along the gaza strip. As you know, there was a refugee camp that was hit today, a hospital that was hit today. A lot of casualties, including children. Hamas says us israel is spnsable. Theres nothing true about that. We relosed shortly ago our analysis of the launch trajectory of the rockets that came out of hamas controlled area in gaza. They were launched towards israel. Two of them fell in the area of gaza city. One in a refugee camp and one of them on the hospital. And the fourth one which actually landed in the sea. So thats a ridiculous claim. Its outrageous. Theres no limit to the lies that these people will tell. This is the organization that is putting the figures on the deaths in gaza. Karl penhaul, i understand theres been more what, illumination, more artillery. What are you hearing and seeing right now . Absolutely, wolf. It is so good that you have colonel peter learner there just to advise him that one of the israeli illumination rounds, two of them have fall sboon a United Nations school being used as a shelter for displaced people, that approximately 300 yards from our building. We understand, as mr. Learner has explained, to those rounds are being used to light up the sky. There is no moon tonight. So i would less perhaps, and it is just a guess on my part, that those rounds could be being used to light up the sky for drones to then perhaps look for targets. I saw people in that United Nations school about 300 yards from us looking at this illumination round dropped down towards the courtyard. These illumination rounds of course are being fired from artillery shells. I believe theyre coming out from the. 155 millimeter self propelled field guns up on the border. That is a big canister falling to grouped. As i say, we just saw the illumination flares dropping into the school courtyards. So perhaps you could just advise there so that we see no accidents, no unintended accidents with any of these canisters falling into that school or any of these illumination rounds starting any unwanted fires. Karl, stand by. I want to follow up a little bit on that and some other questions. Lieutenant colonel peter learner still with us. The canister comes down, illuminates the skies and falls to the ground. Can it start a fire . They are explosive ammunitions. They are indeed to illuminate the sky and used for different types of activities, whether its ground or aerial surveillance. There are plenty activities taking place on the ground with Hamas Terrorists that are utilizing the civilian environment in order to conceal their actions. Is today the most intensive day of military activity on the part of idf Israel Defense forces since this Ground Campaign began . I think weve had more extensive activities over the course of the last two weeks. Indeed, you have to understand this is a ground activity. The actions taking place on the ground are extensive. Were combatting meeting these terrorists in their back yard and were not letting them spill over into israel. The hamas militants who got into a tunnel not far from the tunnel i was in, they got into israel, had an exchange of gun fire with iz rally troops. What hamd after that . Earlier today there were reports that some of the hamas militants were in israel and remained at large . To the best of my knowledge, and i was checking it just before i came on, at the location indeed engaged the terrorists and im aware of one terrorist that was killed or injured on that side. We pursued the rest. I cant confirm anything else other than that. Indeed, you know, this is the exact type of concerns we have with these tunnels, the way they built them. This is a whole strategy. How close are you to destroying all of the tunnels . We know what we know. We saw this tunnel that was today where we actually had an idea that there was a tunnel there but we didnt know where it was going to come out. This is the dconcern that we have. It takes them about they can go five meters per day to build these tunnels. So in a three kilometer tunnel, thats an extensive project. I was in one of those tunnels earlier today, 2. 8 kilometers, and this Lieutenant Colonel was escorting me. Said it took them about two years he believes that strategy is vision, that is something that they thought that in a situation like this would give them the upper hand. Im happy to say that every time theyve tried to infiltrate israel theyve made the idea of forces, theyve failed. It was a bad project anded a bad investment on behalf of hamas, about 30 Million Investment of pouring cement in the ground. Thanks very much for joining us. Lets get a different perspective. Joining us on the phone is the palestinian delegate to the United States. You understand, ambassador, why hamas was building these tunnels . Weolf, you asked me this question earlier and i told you when people are located and besieged they cant move freely. They are are besieged in the gaza strip. These tunnels have uses not only for military purposes. Some of them are for military purposes. Lets focus on what the spokesperson has said. These spokes people have the audacity to say were continuing our activities, were continuing to strike at hamas. Just now as we speak, wolf, a report of the house, eight civilians killed in one house from one family, eight children earlier, two at the hospital. Who are they targeting . The question should be directed to the iz rally government government. Who are they targeting . They want to convince us and the rest of the world that that theyre really targeting militants . This crazy war, the Crazy Campaign must come to an end. Israels appetite for killing palestinians must come to an end. This is the only way we can put an end to the conflict, engage the two parties in meaningful political dialogue to resolve the issue. Youre looking at the live pictures out of gaza city right now. Karl penhaul was telling us whats going on. These israeli flares illuminating the city. Although it looks like a large part of gaza city has lost power. How close would you say and youre very well aware of whats going on the parties are to a humanitarian pause, a ceasefire . I am looking at these pictures. Imagine the children and the civilians who are being te terrorized by these flaers. Theyre inside their home home. They dont know when the next missile is going to hit their homes or their building. They dont know who the israelis are targeting. This is one part of the psychological ware fair that theyre using to scare the people. I understand that palestinian president has been in touch with vary palestinian factions. These are still working on putting together a delegation that would be going to cairo, egypt very soon given guarantees will be provided for their safe passage. I think the israelis must understand that the more they conflict on the palestinian side, the more they will be united. They are not going to be able to convince any single palestinian that this war is not directed at them. Directed at their safety and their own security. And the palestinians today stand united. This war that israel is waging against innocent civilians must stop immediately. And they should heed the calls of the United States, the International Community and they should put aside their domestic agenda and not play with the palestinian innocent life as the domestic agenda to outstage each other in israel. So ambassador, what i hear you saying is that this war thats been going on for three weeks or so has brought hamas and the Palestinian Authority closer together rather than separating them. Is that your conclusion . Its brought the Palestinian People together, of course. These are innocent palestinians who are being killed. And it brought us together because we understand now that this current iz rally government has no plans whatsoever to resolve the conflict with us peacefully. We have seen this happen to us from 1982 in lebanon, to 2008 to 2009, to 2012, to 2014. This current Israeli Government has this agenda. They dont want to engage the palestinians in any political negotiations. Thats why they under mined the effort of secretary kerry in april. Thats why theyre embarking on this Crazy Campaign because they want to destroy once and forall any political prospects for a solution between the palestinians and the israelis. Theyre telling the world clearly, we are not interested in peace. We want to continue to occupy them by force. We dont want to see the palestinians independent. And they know before we do that this is something that the Palestinian People will never accept. Were going to get the palestinian perspective, the israeli perspective, the u. S. Perspective. Were trying to get all perspectives here in the situation room on cnn. Thanks very much for joining us. Still ahad as israel pounds hamas targets. A new warning about what could happen if the militant group is wiped out. Could it lead to a more dangerous situation for israel and the region . Stand by. You fifteen percent or more on huh, fiftCar Insurance. Uld save yeah, Everybody Knows that. Well, did you know that playing cards with kenny rogers gets old pretty fast . You got to know when to holdem. Know when to fold em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run. You never count your money, when youre sitting at the ta. What . 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Were coming to you live from jerusalem while israel battles tunnels from hamas, theres a new warning from a top u. S. Mail tear official against illuminating the group. Cnns brian todd has more. Hes joining us from washington. Tell us viewer what is eeng going on. The warnings being sounded tonight, say there are elements inside gaza which are worse than hamas, more radical and silent. One of them is a group thats wreaked havoc. Some viewers might find some images in this story disturbing. Israel pushes on destroying hamas tunnels, degrading the groups fire power amid calls to go further. Michael or ren says israel must be permitted to crush hamas. If hamas was wiped out, who would fill the void . The threat could grow greater. There are other things there that, you know, behind hamas, if hamas gets out of the way that perhaps could be worse. We would probably end up with something much worse, Something Like isis. Radical islam mists fighters who are taken over much of iraq. So brutal theyve been disowned by al qaeda. Video of the aftermath of the battle purports to show the severed heads of the victims. Cnn cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video. Could this play out in gaza . There are elements of this. If hamas was somehow destroyed and nothing left in its place, you could have a situation where the most ill tant elements from the smaller groups could somehow band together into something more radical. But analysts say its not likely the socall Islamic State would actually take over gaza. Theyre too small in number, not well coordinated. So how far will israel go with hamas. Its important to deal hamas a decisive blow and then demi demilitarize them. Could they be overrun by isis ore other militant groups that might gather steam in gaza . Matthew levitt says hamas would still have a lot of political and social pow near gaza having run schools and hospitals and other civil services. But its an open question tonight. Some of these groups could gain some steam eventually. Brian todd, thanks very much. Joining us now, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, mike rogers. Mr. Chairman, thanks very much for joining us. Do you agree when they say as bad as hamas is out could be worse . Candidly, i dont understand the context of that. Think about what theyre doing. Theyre been militarizing the gaza strip for more than a decade, gaining advanced Missile Systems internally and external and theyre firing these at civilian populations. Its hard to argue that you can get worse than that. Thankfully the iron dome has been effective and i think the counter defense with that with the israelis have been effective. You cant go into this saying were going to allow one to freely operate because there might be another one thats worse. Thats a loser from the start. What they need to do is demilitarize the gaza strip. Part of that means that you have to deal a decisive blow to hamas and its military wing. Pure and simple. Palestinian authority can fill in. Other organizations could fill in. But when you dont go too far in destroying a terrorist organization, boy, that really concerns me that maybe they dont fully understand the sophistication of hamas and who its allies are in iran and other places. Was the Israeli Government says their ultimate goal so to demilitarize the gaza strip. Can that be achieved through diplomatic means or only through military means . Well you never ever want to give up on the