With a sunday exclusive. Good sunday morning. The latest now out of israel appear gaza where the latest hour brings more fighting or temporary ceasefire. Despite diplomatic efforts that include the u. S. , there is yet to be a lasting agreement. Todays development hamas started firing more rockets at israel after rejecting extension of israeli imposed ceasefire. Israel is now reviewing a hamas call for a 24hour humanitarian truce. Israeli troops resumed military offensive in gaza this morning. Our Richard Engel joins me now with the very latest from gaza. Richard, good morning. Reporter good morning, david. Yet again there is another attempt to put a humanitarian ceasefire in place. But weve seen these come and go. A lasting deal here still remains elusive. Israelis and palestinians are both paying a heavy price for this. As we saw for ourselves during a lull in the fighting, parts of gaza are being devastated. Hes lost everything, his home, his possessions. But in this rare moment of relative safety, hes looking for something much dearer, the body of his son. This is whats left of gazas most crowded neighborhood. Two weeks ago 200,000 people lived here. Only hints are left of what life was like. Torn laundry on a line, a single plant unmoved, a crib perched on a ruined apartment building. It took days of deliberate shelling and airstrikes to reduce this neighborhood to rubble. This is no precision war against homelands and its weapons, its far more basic than that. Its punishment. Israels way of telling gaza if you fire rockets, this is what you get. Even after all the destruction, even after more than 1,000 killed, including several hundred children, many here still support hamas. This man says half the people are tired of hamas after all this, the other half supports hamas thinking israeli should feel a little of the pain that we feel here. To understand what hamas is fighting for, it helps to look at a map. Gaza is a tiny strip of land under a tight blockade. In the west fishing is limited to six miles offshore. In the east gaza is fenced in by razor wire. In the north, israel tightly controls two land crossings restricting Building Materials and, strangely, even crayons. In the south egypt has closed the only crossing at rafa. Hamass main demands, ease the israeli blockade and open the egyptian crossing. Israelis are feeling the pain of this war, too. So far it has lost more than 40 soldiers but its also fighting for wider goals. A leading israeli expert on military affairs. This is an asymmetric war. For hamas, perhaps, its enough not to lose, to remain standing after three weeks of battle. For israel, this is not enough. It is the stronger military power and it needs to send a strong message to the region, to the neighborhood. Reporter hamas uses two main weapons against israel, an elaborate network of tunnels to attack and kidnap Israeli Soldiers and civilians and its rockets. Now including longer range rockets that can reach deep oninto israel. Israels main objectives, destroy the tunnels, demilitary tarrize the gaza strip. It can strike at israel with thousands of missiles. They are deep into the escalation and looking for a way out. It gets messier and uglier and more violent as we proceed. Which is why now International Efforts to reach a lasting ceasefire have become so urgent. Israel has long said it has no choice in this war, that it simply cannot accept more than 2,400 rockets being fired at its city. Palestinians weve spoken to actually understand that but says israel doesnt have to flatten entire neighborhoods and kill hundreds of children to do it. David. Richard engel on the ground in gaza with his perspective analysis. Thank you. Im joined now by the israeli Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu. Prime minister, welcome back to meet the press. Thank you. Good to be with you, david. There is talk of another ceasefire, a pause in the fighting. What are you prepared to accept and could it lead to a more lasting ceasefire . You know, weve accepted five ceasefi ceasefires, acted upon them. Hamas has rejected every single one of them, violated them, including two humanitarian ceasefires which we accepted and implemented in the last 24 hours. Now hamas is suggesting the ceasefire, believe it or not, david, they have even violated their own ceasefire. So they continue to fire at us. Of course well take the necessary action to protect ourselves, protect our people, including the tunnels they are digging under our border and trying to reach our people. Well do whats necessary to defend ourselves. What does it say to get the kind of ceasefire the United States government and others are seeking right now of a longer duration . I think what we need to do is go to the Egyptian Initiative. The Egyptian Initiative is the only game in town. The Egyptian Initiative will also enable us to get what i think are prerequisites for sustainable period of quiet. That requires in essence demilitarization of gaza. That is we have to demille tarrize it. We cannot allow them to restock this arsenal or well be stuck in another five, six months with the same problem. We want demilitarization of gaza. That will enable social and Economic Relief people of gaza want. Ill tell you why the two of tight. Suppose you want to bring in cement or concrete to rebuild houses in gaza, houses where hamas has fired on us and we have to take action against them will okay. If you want to bring in that concrete, how do you know that concrete and cement will not be used again as hamas has been using in the last few years to rebuild the tunnel, kingdom underground they are using to penetrate israel. So you have to have a mechanism to ensure demilitarization. Have you to have supervision on social and Economic Relief. Same with money. You want money to go to the people. Theres a link between demilitarization and social and Economic Relief and i think thats what has to be discussed. Let me ask you about the price to israel, this ongoing conflict, the Staggering Number of dead civilians on the palestinian side in gaza and the fact that just this week you had condemnation from around the world by the targeting of a u. N. School that killed children and those civilians who were fleeing a safe place to go in the fighting. Was this a mistake on the part of israel even though the u. N. Says this was clearly marked and Israeli Forces knew the gps coordinates of the school . First of all, hamas is responsible for the death of civilians. Were not targeting a single civilian. Were responding to hamas action and were telling the civilians to leave. Hamas is telling them to stay. Why is it telling them to stay . It wants to pile up their own dead bodies. They not only want to kill our people, they want to sacrifice their own people. Where can they go . You say they should leave. Where can they reasonably go . Ill get to it. Theres plenty of places they can go to but hamas is making sure they dont go anywhere. Let me tell you about the school. Secretarygeneral of the United Nations before this incident took place admitted that two u. N. Schools in gaza were used to stockpile rockets, and he condemned hamas he condemned hamas for allowing, turning these schools into military targets, legitimate military targets. We still do not target schools. The schools, arms used to attack us. Our initial investigation doesnt show its our fire, it shows it may have been hamas rocket fire. Thats still being investigated. The important thing to understand is that the reason we have civilians killed is not because israel is targeting civilians but because hamas is using civilians as human shields, missiles to protect our people. They use their people to protect their missiles. You have heard in an unguarded moment by secretary kerry last sunday where he mocked the idea of israel conducting pinpoint strikes. The president has made no secret of the fact that hes told you hes having concerned about civilian deaths. Are you worried about vanishing u. S. Support for this operation if it goes on further . First of all, ive been, i think, like every israeli looking at these at the casualties. Nobody is happy here. Everybody regrets a single civilian death. Something we deeply regret. Its not our responsibility. Ive been to combat, to war. I know what efforts israeli army takes to minimize civilian targets. The United States has been unequivocal supporting the rights and condemning hamas for using civilians as human shields. I think that unequivocal support is necessary if we are going to have a successful conclusion to this operation. If hamas comes up winning, not only in the propaganda war but actually shows it actually received a lot of good, i think that peace will be very, very hard pressed to move that peace forward. However, if hamas is condemned, weakened, discredited, demille tarized, that opens up the path for peace. Final question. Do you believe theres actually a military solution to israels hamas problem . I think we have to make a distinction between palestinian israeli conflict with those willing to coexist with israel, thats the palestinian authority. There we can have a real solution and any kind of political solution with hamas. Hamas is a Terror Organization that is committed to our destruction, supported bin laden, condemn for taking action against bin laden, wants radical state. You have to weaken, discredit them, demilitaryize them. Can you force them out militarily . Is there a military solution to this problem . We can do a lot of things. Im not going to did you our operation with you. But we have not drawn any limits on our activity. We do targets hamas. We do not target civilians. We will take the actions that are necessary to defend our peoplish as any country would. The United States would. If you had 2500 rockets falling on your city, if you had terror tunnels dug underneath your border to reach your kindergarten, if you had attacks by land, sea, air of course you take action. You take military action aplenty. I have no doubt you would. So does israel. Prime minister netanyahu, as always, thank you for your time. Thank you. Now to spokesman for the United Nations relief and works agency. Its his organization that runs the school in northern gaza that was devastated thursday by this attack that left 16 people dead including children. The school was crowded with hundreds of palestinians seeking refuge from the fierce fighting. As you heard the Prime Minister say, and you know, of course, this fighting has resumed despite talk of ceasefires. Are there other u. N. Facilities that have been hit . Well, just within the last few minutes quite literally im hearing from colleagues in gaza of some kind of explosion, which initial reports indicate is actually inside the main u. N. Compound in the district of gaza city. We have got people on the ground investigating. We cannot say what it is but clearly it is another tragic example of what could happen to civilians in this pitiless conflict. Look at what you just talked to the Prime Minister about. Women, children. We saw pictures of the most appalling carnage. That is why justice with this instance that happened in the last few minutes at the u. N. Conflict in gaza we call on the warring party to respect sanctity of civilian life, inviableability, humanitarian workers. We have lost three workers. Any other organization would have withdrawn. What about what the Prime Minister said . You accept what he said . He very directly accuses hamas of using civilians, of putting civilians in harms way as human shields. Do you believe thats accurate . Do you accept that . Let me be very clear about this. An ra is responsible for its own installations. Where we have found neutrality violations by militants as we did with rockets being discovered in schools closed for the summer we proactively issued a statement strongly condemning it as a flagrant violation of international law. We contacted all the parties. Now we have actually been in contact at the highest level through the secretarygenerals office to get assistance from the United States mines action service. We are not an organization, i hope you will agree, that as its been accused handing weapons to hamas. We have behaved responsibly to protect our staff and preserve our neutrality. The Israeli Government has released videotape within the past hour posted on youtube. Nbc news has not independently verified, israelis saying, i realize you cannot see this video but our audience k ill describe it to you. That purports to show rockets being fired from a u. N. School. Is this accurate . Could this be happening without the u. N. s knowledge that would only bolster the Prime Ministers point that hamas is using civilians, using United Nations even in a kind of propaganda war . To be fair to me, to bring me on a live program and expect me to comment live on air on pictures i havent actually seen, i think anyone looking at this program would agree thats really unfair. If i can see it, ill happily comment on it. Can i make the point that we have said that all sides have to respect the inviability of u. N. Compound. If that were the case we would strongly condemn it. Were not an army. We have moral force, we have the force of international law, and we have the principles of humanitarianism to protect us but thats it. You know, thats why we had a u. N. Protected school with a blue flag on top of it, the israeli army had been notified of its location. Let me also tell you we spent hours on the phone begging, pleading with israeli army to allow civilians out on that terrible day. In the end we did not get a green light. The result, the consequence, tragic consequences revolts the world and quite rightly so. To be clear, im fully aware you cannot see the video. I was not trying to put you in an unfair position. The video the audience can see was not to verify but ask your response what Israeli Government said if rockets were fired from the facility and if youre aware of them. I think your position is clear and i thank you for your time this morning. That you very much indeed. Adding, of course, to americas troubles overseas, it is just not the war in gaza but now the, quote, free wheeling militia violence in libya has u. S. Embassy emptying this morning after evidence of the breakdown of the country. Two years after the attack in gaza that left four dead. Plus in ukraine, more Russian Troops moving to the border of u. S. Intelligence reports, putin will hand over more sophisticated weaponry to the rebels. Does this show the russian leader is not taking u. S. Threats seriously in the face of what he perceives is weakness by the west. With me now democratic senator Chuck Schumer from new york. Senator, before we move to other areas, let me button up the discussion about the war in gaza at this point and whether you position u. S. Government should be calling on israel to do something differently here to get a different result. Here is what i think. First, the loss of life is terrible. You see the pictures, the grieving mothers on both sides of the border and your heart just breaks. But were not going to have peace if theres a ceasefire were not going to have peace if israel is pressured to go for a ceasefire that allows hamas to maintain its tunnels and rockets. There have been three ceasefires, israel accepted all three. Hamas just last night rejected another ceasefire. The minute the ceasefires are over they send rockets back into israel. Lets not forget one thing. Hamas is an organization sworn to israels destruction. It believes it has the moral right to do military action against israel at any time. So we cant use these ceasefires as a way for hamas to reload. Once israel is allowed to take care of the rockets and the tunnels, i believe there can be a real lasting ceasefire and eventually peace in gaza. Because when hamas doesnt have the ability to militarily attack israel, as it has done repeatedly over the years, then it will lose its weight, Palestinian People will bring in a more moderate group and humanitarian aid and economic aid will be used to help them, not to build tunnels, not to pay for rockets. So its really almost impossible to have peace as long as hamas is in control of gaza. A ceasefire should happen but it should happen without pressuring israel to avoid getting rid of the rockets and tunnels. Thats hamass trump card. Let me ask you about libya. The embassy evacuated american personnel because of the militia fighting. It raises to me a broader question about americas staying power in a region and in a country thats falling apart. America was part of an action taken along with the arab league and other European Countries to take out Muammar Gaddafi but now you have a state that seems to be coming apart. What role should america be playing . This is very difficult. I spoke to the state department yesterday. The fighting near the embassy was not aimed at the embassy. It was two factions fighting. One had a big, big sort of military base near the embassy and the other was firing at it. And the actual rockets and missiles and bullets hit the embassy. So there was no choice but to evacuate. Obviously these situations are very difficult in the world. While we should be as humanitarian as possible, i am dubious to really influence outcome in this part of the world. We have not been able to do that in almost any place at all, maybe tunisia. What about russia. The big question in commentary as russia forthifies positions in eastern ukraine, europe has been slow to ratchet up economic sanctions even as fresh evidence suggesting culpability and providing the weapon that took down Malaysia Airlines flight. This is tantamount to appeasement by the west of Vladimir Putin. I tend to agree with that. Putin has shown he has no conscious. He takes advantage of this horrible downing of the airliner and r