we start this hour with the latest on the israel gaza war. in the last few hours the israeli military has announced what it s calling a daily tactical pause in part of southern gaza, but not the city of rafah. that the city of rafah. is where the focus of the military that is where the focus of the military operation is. it says the halt in operations will be during daylight hours to facilitate the delivery of aid. aid organisations have repeatedly warned of a humanitarian crisis in gaza. israel has released the names of the eight soldiers killed by a hamas rocket in rafah on saturday, the deadliest incident for its troops in months. israel s prime minister benjamin netanyahu addressed and has vowed to continue the war against hamas. here is the latest from our news correspondent in jerusalem jon donnison. well, to be honest, it s not really clear because initially we had a statement from one branch of the idf saying that indeed there was going to be a tactical military pause
for all. the government says an anti-terrorist crackdown has begun. the goal is to clear separatists from buildings they have seized in the east. they have staked out territory in as many as a dozen cities in the border along russia. separatists claim that ukrainian forces are on the move outside of at least two of those cities. ukraine s acting president called the u.n. to see if international peacekeepers would be willing to assist in the effort, but that seems unlikely. the u.n. did weigh in, however, on reports of ethnic russians being persecuted in ukraine, describing the stories as being blown out of proportion in order to create a climate of fear and justify russian intervention. on monday, president obama spoke to president putin by phone. he expressed grave concern over russia s support for the separatists and the white house continues to insist russia is the driving force behind the unrest. the evidence is compelling that russia is supporting these efforts and inv