Israel executes a Ground Invasion into gaza. Its third in six years. We do want to welcome our viewers in the United States, and all around the world. Im rosemary church. Im michael holmes. Were following two major stories this hour. In fact, israel launching that Ground Invasion in gaza. They say to stop rocket attacks by hamas and go after tunnels that go under the border between gaza and into israel. Were going to be live in jerusalem for the latest. But we begin with the tragic crash of Malaysian Airlines flight 17. All 298 people onboard are presumed dead. Witnesses say the plane exploded in the air, raining charred debris over Eastern Ukraine. The u. S. Believes it was shot down by a surfacetoair missile, but has not determined who did it. Investigators will be collecting clues from the gruesome crash site. Ukraines president blames prorussian separatists for what happened. Translator i want to point your attention to the fact that we call it neither accident nor catastrophe. Its a terrorist attack. Now we want to play for you what ukraine says is intercepted audio of prorussian separatists discussing the mh17 crash. Although at the time they didnt know what it was. The Ukrainian Government provided the english subtitles. The identities of those speaking. And the photographs we cannot independently confirm the authenticity of all of that. But have a listen. Extraordinary exchange there. Cnn could not confirm the authenticity of that at this point. Tensions have been high in the east of ukraine, since november, when the president did a uturn over a trade agreement with europe in favor of russia. Now, that sparked protests in kiev. And the situation has continued to deteriorate ever since. Christopher miller is the editor of the kiev post, and he joins me now from the ukrainian capital. Thank you so much for talking with us. Of course, at this point, ukraine is doing all it can to point the finger of blame at prorussian separatists. Of course, when you listen to that exchange, and of course, we havent confirmed it, but it does seem extraordinary, and perhaps convincing to some analysts here. It does very much so. The ukrainian authorities spent all of last night on Ukrainian Television here touting the video as evidence of russian involvement. Obviously you can see in the video, at least you can see the subtitles, they were very much surprised they had apparently shot down this 777 jet. Ukraine is calling it a terrorist attack. You know, theyre trying to bury these separatist groups. And connect them with whatever evidence they can gather to russia. They do believe that these separatist groups that are taking orders from russia, National Security and Defense Council member yesterday by phone told me that he believed that they were taking orders from the top, in his words, and they are trying to place this on russia. Of course, we cant prove that, it has to be said we dont know who did this at this point. No, we dont. Theres a lot of speculation. But whether they took commands from russia, and that is perhaps unlikely in this situation, given the conversation we just heard there, which we cant a authentica authenticate, but at this point if we remove that possibility, the ramifications for russia are still immense, arent they . For Vladimir Putin, even if he had nothing to do with this, which is how it seems to appear, the fact that he has been supporting these rebel factions, these prorussia militants there on the eastern side of the ukraine, near the border with russia, of course, youve got all of those Russian Forces amassed on the border there. What are the ramifications for Vladimir Putin just given that . Christopher miller, can you still hear me . It looks like weve okay, it looks like weve lost him for now. Certainly getting a perspective there on how this is playing out in kiev, in ukraine. They are determined to point the finger of blame at these prorussian separatists. We have to emphasize at this point the investigation is still very early. Were getting all of these pieces, trying to put them together. By no means do we have the big picture at this point. And now to the other major and developing story. Israeli troops now on the ground inside gaza. They say hunting for hamas militants and tunnels as well. This operation launched late on thursday, after ten days of air strikes aimed at stopping militant rockets from the gaza. Becky anderson with the latest for us from jerusalem. Becky, weve heard the first Israeli Military casualty in all of this, bring us up to date on what youre hearing on the ground. Reporter that is correct. One israeli soldier confirmed dead in this operation, michael. Two Israeli Soldiers confirmed injured. And some 14 hamas operatives, according to the idf, killed in this operation. 67,000 israeli reservists called up. Of course, that is in addition to the military operating on the ground, from the air and from the sea. This is an incursion. The israelis say not an invasion. They say it is targeted at knocking out the hamas operatives, particularly those who have been working through tunnels between gaza and israel. Weve just got this latest video in from the Israel Defense force. Ill run it for you now and tell you what you are seeing. According to the idf, this video shows a strike on a tunnel used, they say, for terror purposes. A strike as a result of that strike, a rocket is discharged through the idf, the militias purposes of these tunnels. Now, this is really important, because it was an attack through or at least a thwarted attack on thursday it now seems clear, that the israelis stopped an attack from hamas operatives into israel through a tunnel. Weve got video of that from thursday for you which i want to run now. Which seems to have precipitated the decision to go ahead with this ground incursion. What we understand is that the decision to launch it was reportedly taken at a security Cabinet Meeting on tuesday. And that was after hamas rejected the egyptian ceasefire initiative. But the actual button, as it were, was pressed on thursday after this. And this was the thwarted attack, zlgs say, by 13 hamas operatives into israel from gaza. Michael, there are about, were told, maybe ten, possibly more tunnels. And these are significant, some 25 meters below the ground, or feet below the ground, i believe. And high. Were not talking about tunnels that people crawl through here. These are significant tunnels built over a period of time. And as you and i know, there are many tunnels between the border of gaza and egypt through which trucks are brought, cattle are brought, vehicles moved, when those tunnels were operating. So these are significant tunnels, and the zlgs say they want to take them out in order to take out those who are fighting them, and provoking them from gaza. I think one of the numbers thats really stuck out to me, michael, this morning to me as well, the u. N. Releasing some numbers today. And they say the cha says 57,900 kids in gaza have experienced death, injury or loss of home over the past ten days. And now require psychosocial support. Nearly 60,000 children. These numbers are just shocking, arent they. However you look at them. Not getting a lot out of gaza this morning. But as we get more video footage, well bring it to you. Certainly horrific situation still there. Becky anderson there in jerusalem. Becky, thanks. More on our breaking news on Malaysia Airlines jet shot down over ukraine. Thats coming up next. Almost 300 people on board from at least nine countries. Their friends and family heart broken, of course. And all wanting to know why this happened. Avo waves dont care what age you are. Take them on the way you always have. Live healthy and take one a day mens 50 . 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Malaysia airlines has released a partial list of the nationalities of the 298 people onboard flight 17. 154 are dutch, 45 are malaysian, including all crew members, 27 are australian, 12 indonesian. It includes 9 brittons, four germans and four belgians. 3 are from the philippines and one is from canada. Three infants are among the dead. Authorities are still trying to confirm the nationalities of the remaining passengers. So far no americans on that list. A friend of one of flight attendants onboard spoke to our Anderson Cooper a little earlier. Did you actually take her to the airport . She just told me that she would have a transparent, and then she said it would be all right for you to come pick me up. I said, why not, ill be at the airport. I said, ill wait for you to come back. And never come back. Does it seem real to you at this point . Sorry . Does it seem real . I just hope it is false. I try to message her, but no answer. So hard to hear her reaction there. Noah snider is a freelance journalist who spent most of the day thursday at the crash site talking to witnesses and giving their firsthand accounts of exactly what happened. He spoke with cnns don lemon a little earlier. We have to warn you, some of what he has to say is very graphic. People are trying to identify bodies, mark the spots where bodies have fallen. Theres three firemen and four sort of searchandrescue team vehicles lined up along the road. But the way its being done, is not systematic by any means. Theyre basically just laying little white cotton ribbons to sticks, and put eting them in t ground where theres a body. And theres sort of rebels wandering the fields. Theyre as stunned as anyone else at, i think, the overwhelm i ing the overwhelming mood is this is darker perhaps than daylight. You can see everything. You appear to be more matter of fact, at least the way your description of whats going on than earlier when we heard from you. You appeared to be devastated. You set the crash site, bodies everywhere, organs splayed out, too gruesome to post photographs. This is an absolute disaster. And you ukraine. In the initial moments when you were witnessing what happened, take us back to that. Sure. We heard the news while we were in donetsk, which is about an hour and a half drive from here. There were a few news flashes on the wires that a plane had been brought down. A civilian plane potentially. So we drove out here and found a sort of strange scene of smoke rising over the hillside. Rebels kind of waving us through checkpoints, which they normally dont do. And we found, i think, what i said last night i mean, its a total disaster and a total tragedy. Looking at it now in daylight, you wander through these fields and you pretty much have to watch every step, because if you dont, you could step on a persons organ. It was like it was raining body parts. And like i said, i think the folks on the ground here have very little idea how to respond to this. Its not something that really fits into any schema. From what ive seen, whats surprising is how few people there are. This place is like nearly empty. Theres Emergency Services teams clustered on the road, and Little Pockets of rebels, like three guys wandering through the fields. Kind of looking glassy eyed at whats left here. I dont see any sign of people looting bodies. Not that these are bodies you would want to loot. I mean, pretty much anything had on them has been destroyed. And if you at some point the photographs will come out of whats happened here. If you walk up to these bodies, you are not about to stick your hands on them. People are turned inside out. The notion that someone is going around to me is pretty absurd. The stuff about moving plane parts, i havent seen any of that. In part, because most of the plane burned up. In the crash site, you know, theres metal from the plane, the alloy has melted and solidified into this kind of thin layer of silver on the ground. Noah snider, a freelance journalist talking to don lemon. A young man there on the scene, very disturbing. Of course, the worry for investigators when they look there is that people going through this, its going to be very difficult. Its going to be hard to actually get in there and do a proper investigation. Absolutely. Its interesting to note, i actually followed him on twitter, young man freelance journalist, in donetsk, and hes been tweeting from there for a while. He was one of the first people to give an account of the scene there. What a horrible thing to see. Were going to have more on malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down in ukraine. As accusations fly over who is responsible for this tragedy, there are calls for a Massive International investigation. [ male announcer ] this is the cat that drank the milk. [ meows ]. 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Click or call. I dont know what to do. It was like from coming to the airport in a taxi. I feel like ive been given a second chance. That woman who wa actually supposed to be on the malaysia Airlines Flight, but missed it. Yeah. Feeling very lucky. But still disturbed. Unbelievable. The u. S. , of course, saying the plane was brought down by a surfacetoair missile in Eastern Ukraine on thursday. Rebelheld part of the country. The boeing 777 was flying from amsterdam to kuala lumpur. All 298 people onboard presumed dead. Wreckage and bodies strewn across fields, some 30 miles, or 50 kilometers from the russian border. A journalist who visited the site called it a gruesome scene. As we wait for definitive answers, and there are few at the moment, ukrainian Officials Say prorussian separatists they say are responsible for the crash. Now, the ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said, quote, it is a terrorist action. But the russian counterpart is laying the blame on kiev. Translator i want to emphasize this tragedy would not have happened if there was peace on the land. If military activities had not resumed in the southeast of ukraine. Of course, the state over which territory happened, is responsible for this terrible tragedy. This is the second tragedy involving Malaysia Airlines this year. You recall flight mh370 disappeared in march with 239 people onboard. Andrew stevens joins us from kuala lumpur with more. Andrew, youve just arrived at the airport there. Paint us the scene there. What are people saying . Whats been the reaction so far . Reporter we literally just got off the plane, rosemary, so were still getting through immigration. There have been reports, though, that relatives of some of those onboard the flight 17 were here, and were very frustrated because they couldnt get a passenger list. Malaysian Airlines Want to check and doublecheck the manifest of the people on that plane. Make sure its correct so theres not false information going out. Obviously your heart goes out to the families of the victims. Particularly here in kuala lumpur. As you say, another tragedy for Malaysian Airlines. 173 days ago, flight 370 disappeared without a trace. We still have no conclusive information as to where that is. The Prime Minister of malaysia did give a press conference a couple hours earlier, and he described it by saying its a tragic day today, in whats already been a tragic year. That is najib wrazak speaking a a press conference. He wants to get more access to the crash site. And he said that the malaysian government is insisting the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice. Another tragic day here. We understand there are family members in the airport. We are currently investigating that at the moment. Just shocking news for malaysia. Andrew stevens reporting there from kuala lumpur, having just arrived there at the airport. Just amazing when you think it was only a few months ago people were at that airport as well with 370. Here they go again. The coincidence is extraordinary. Horrible. Ahead on the continuing coverage of the tragedy in Eastern Ukraine well hear from a terror expert on what he thinks happened to mh17. [ male announcer ] if you cant stand the heat, get off the test track. Get the mercedesbenz youve been burning for at the summer event, going on now at your authorized mercedesbenz dealer. But hurry, offers end july 31st. Share your summer moments in your mercedesbenz with us. Yeah, girl you know, ive been thinking about us and, uh, i just can