No Sign Of Truce In Gaza
WALKER: This is CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Amara Walker, sitting in for Becky Anderson. Here are the top stories this hour. International investigators have tried and failed for a third day to reach the crash site of MH17 in eastern Ukraine. Heavy fighting is still making it too dangerous. And in what could be a major escalation of the Ukrainian conflict, US officials say government forces have fired short- range ballistic missiles at rebel-held territory. An influential Afghan politician and cousin of President Hamid Karzai has been killed by a suicide bomber. Hashmat Karzai was at a home in southern Kandahar when the attack took place. He was a key campaigner for presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani. One of China's most powerful former officials is at the center of a new investigation. Zhou Yongkang was the country's domestic security chief until he retired in 2012. The probe is just the latest to emerge as the ruling Communist Party intensifies its campaign to weed out corruption. A Hamas spokesman in Beirut tells CNN they will consider a call from Palestinian leaders in the West Bank for a 24-hour truce. So far, Israel has not commented. The weeks-long conflict has killed more than 1100 Palestinians; 53 Israeli soldiers and 3 civilians inside Israel have been killed. And returning to one of our top stories and a CNN exclusive, US intelligence officials confirm that Ukraine's military fired short-range ballistic missiles at pro-Russia separatists in the last 48 hours. Now, if confirmed, it could be a serious escalation in this crisis. Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joining us live from Moscow. So, Nic, have we had any response from the Russian government on this development?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Specifically not on these short-range ballistic missiles, but absolutely on the ongoing conflict in the east of Ukraine. The Russian government is accusing the government in Kiev of escalating the conflict there. They point to an incident today where they say Ukrainian soldiers fired on a school, killing 17 people, 3 of them children. They say that all 17 were civilians. They also accuse them of shooting at a hospital, rounds landing in the grounds of a hospital. They say that the government of Ukraine is escalating the conflict there. They say that somebody there will be held responsible, clearly quite a loaded statement. We've also heard from the Foreign Ministry today saying that Secretary -- Foreign Minister, rather, Lavrov spoke with Secretary of State John Kerry today, urging him to use his influence with the Ukrainian government to urge them to get the Ukrainians into talks with the rebels in the east of Ukraine. So, so far nothing specific on those particular missile systems, but absolutely the accusations continue to fly, the United -- implicitly that the United States and the Europeans are, if you will, encouraging, aiding, and abetting the Ukrainians in escalating the conflict in the east of Ukraine. Amara?</s>WALKER: And Nic, in the meantime, European leaders are meeting, they're discussing the possibility of widening the sanctions against Russia. And it seems that Moscow's had somewhat of an interesting response, at least from the foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, who essentially said that they're not going to retaliate against Europe if these sanctions come through.</s>ROBERTSON: It is interesting. There's certainly been a lot of rumors about what could happen, what Russia's response could be. We understand that the 28 European Union ambassadors are meeting, that they are deciding on language and text that could increase sanctions, taking them from just the personal level to specific people to sectoral sanctions. That would be potentially on the finance sector, potentially on the energy sector, potentially on the arms sector as well. And in that context, it was interesting that President Vladimir Putin yesterday met with the government and talked about finding alternate methods of making sure that the arms industry here can get the components and the raw materials that it needs if, he said, that -- current deals fall through. So, the implication is that the Russians are taking it very seriously what could happen. But I think also we can balance what we're hearing from Sergey Lavrov on the issue of what may or may not happen with sanctions. The Japanese said that they were putting sanctions on Russia because of its -- seizing of Crimea. And there, the Russian response today has been, well, this is going to damage bilateral relationship with Japan and severely set it back. So, the indication is that there will be -- there certainly will be some kind of a response, if it happens. We just don't know what it will be at the moment, Amara.</s>WALKER: OK, thank you Nic, for that, with the view, there, from Moscow. And some news just coming in to us. An EU official has confirmed to CNN that sanctions have been expanded against Russian individuals and companies. Now, it targets eight new individuals, the so-called Putin cronies who have benefited from destabilization of Ukraine, and three entities will now be targeted. Now, those identities will be released on Wednesday. There will be measures aimed at Russia's access to EU capital markets. There will be, also, an embargo on arms imports from -- and exports to Russia, but only on new contracts. For more now, let's cross over to CNN's emerging markets editor, John Defterios, standing by live. So, John, help us understand these sanctions and how damaging they might be to Moscow.</s>JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, there was some question whether the European Union, Amara, had the stomach to push ahead with tougher sanctions, but the downing of the Malaysian flight number 17, and now the reports that we've been seeing about arms going into eastern Ukraine, perhaps from Russia, certainly seems to have emboldened the 28 countries of the European Union. We had the United States in an unusual conference call last night with the four largest countries of the European Union. That of course being, Germany, France, Italy, and the UK. The big question mark is whether those four countries will be able to persuade all 28 to proceed. And in fact, the word is in the last 20 minutes, that is the case. These are far-reaching sanctions, if they can stick to them for the next three months. First and foremost, you noted the financial sector, there, with Nic Robertson. They're suggesting that the state-owned banks in Russia will be unable to tap the capital markets, both in Europe and the United States going forward. They hold better than $50 billion of debt that they like to tap into for European ambassadors and US ambassadors as well. There will be an arms embargo going forward. And finally, and this is a very tricky one, can they put on sanctions to limit the investment into the energy sector into Russia. As we know, Rosneft, the big state-owned energy giant, has partnerships with Exxon Mobile, Eni of Italy, Total of France and BP of the UK which, by the way, as a 20 percent shareholder in Rosneft. They want to limit the supplies of technology to limit the ability for the Russian sector to expand. Now, the reason it is very tricky is that the European Union overall gets 30 percent of its gas supplies from Russia, and if you move closer into eastern and central Europe, that number goes up to some 80 percent for Ukraine and some of the other countries of central and eastern Europe. But the news tonight is that the European Union, the ambassadors of the EU met in Brussels, have decided to proceed with sanctions that will be reviewed in the next three months, Amara.</s>WALKER: OK, John Defterios, thank you so much for breaking that down for us. We've also seen a dramatic increase in the fighting between Israel and Hamas. One explosion struck Gaza City just as our Karl Penhaul was reporting on the air.</s>KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- you would have seen the --</s>WALKER: OK, that was our Karl Penhaul just a few hours ago when a blast hit a building nearby. He joins me now, live from Gaza City with the latest on the fighting. And it seemed like the violence was de-escalating on Monday, but things quickly changes, as we saw there in your live report, didn't it, Karl?</s>PENHAUL: Yes, absolutely. And that escalation began Monday night after dark. And it was a moonless night, and the Israeli military began firing illumination rounds into the sky over Gaza City. For the first time, we saw those coming down into the sky from very close to the office where we have been based. And then, after about a couple of hours, what the function of those illumination rounds was that overhead drones could get, then, a site with their cameras onto any potential targets down on the ground. And then, after a couple of hours, the artillery started to rain in, F-16 fighter bombers were also carrying out airstrikes, and that carried on pretty intensely throughout the night. There kind of was a lull going into early morning around dawn. But it was amazing. By the time that dawn came and the day began a little, the air was thick was smoke. And just standing here in the office, that smell was of high explosive residue, because the bombing had been so intense during the night. There was a little bit of a lull, and then, in that clip, as you showed, just as we were talking to our colleagues on the morning show as well, some more rounds go in from Israeli airstrikes from less than 200 meters away from where we are, basically. That was an apartment block that got hit. And shortly after it was hit, people began screaming and then flowing out of that building to go to a safer place. Now, I would tell you that my overriding impression is that the skies of Gaza seem to be filling up with black smoke. A little further south of where we are, the Gaza power plant is on fire. That because an Israeli tank shell, according to the Gaza power plant chief, hit the diesel fuel tanks of the generator, and so that generator is out of action, no power being provided by there. A little further north, a gas station has been hit, we're told by our news sources up there. And across on the east of the Gaza strip, huge pounding going on there, 2,000-pound bunker-busting bombs being dropped on a neighborhood there. I would suspect, although I have no confirmation, that bombs are probably being dropped on tunnel complexes there, since that has been one of the Israeli military's main stated aims, to try and stop Hamas commandos burrowing into Israel and taking the fight to their home turf, Amara.</s>WALKER: Now, Israel says that it warns the residents with a phone call or a text message before a strike, and I know that on Monday, Israel is warning residents to leave northern Gaza. My question is, where are the Palestinians fleeing to? Is anywhere safe at this point?</s>PENHAUL: Well, that is the real tragedy, Amara, because yesterday, those SMS text messages and pamphlet drops were concentrated in northern Gaza, telling people there to flee to safety in Gaza City. There was no such warning in Gaza City, and yet Gaza City was the area that was bearing the brunt for at least part of the evening of those air and artillery strikes. So, essentially, what the Israeli military message did was funnel displaced people towards Gaza City into the danger zone, not out of the danger zone. And remember, this confrontation is three weeks old, now, and so a lot of people have come to Gaza City, which until now had seen less of the action. In some of these homes, you're seeing multiple families in very small apartments. You might have 60 and 70 family members in just one building. And so, that expression of shooting fish in a barrel, this is more akin to shooting sardines in a barrel. There is absolutely nowhere that the people of Gaza can flee to. There is no safe place. One emergency doctor said to me, not one square meter of Gaza is safe. And of course, the borders are closed, so they can't go abroad, Amara.</s>WALKER: And as we reported earlier, Hamas rejecting that cease-fire proposal. Karl Penhaul, always appreciate your reporting. Thank you so much. And live from CNN Center, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. John just mentioned the crisis in Libya, and right ahead, we'll take a look back at how the chaos got to this point and what the international community should do to ease the tensions. Stay with us.