Israeli Soldier Still Missing After Fire Fight; Millions of Dollars of Annual Financial Aid from Iran Have Largely Dried Up Since Syria Uprising; Israel Concerned about Whereabouts of Hadar Goldin, IDF Soldier Missed in Action; Egypt's Negotiating for Peace in Israeli-Hamas Conflict
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST OF "NEW DAY" SATURDAY: Thank you for starting your morning with us.</s>MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CO-HOST "NEW DAY" SATURDAY: And, our "New Day" Special Coverage continues right now.</s>PAUL: OK. So, moving from sports to some other really serious news this morning, and we just want to say thank you so much for being with us. I am Christi Paul.</s>MARQUEZ: And, I am Miguel Marquez in for the hopefully vacationing Victor Blackwell. We would like to welcome our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. It is 6:00 in the morning. This is "New Day Saturday." And, we will begin with the crisis in the Middle East and at the center of the turmoil this morning. An Israeli soldier is still missing after a fire fight that shattered the cease-fire intended to last through the weekend.</s>PAUL: Israel assumed Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin was captured. They assumed this. Pres. Obama is blaming Hamas saying, if the militant group wants to resolve this conflict, Goldin must be, quote, "Unconditionally released as soon as possible."</s>MARQUEZ: But, Hamas denies it has him and it admits it lost contact with fighters in the area where he was reportedly taken.</s>PAUL: In the meantime, Pres. Obama calls a mounting casualties just are heartbreaking. Congress approves another $225 million for Israel's iron dome defense system, meanwhile.</s>MARQUEZ: And, now, Egypt's president saying today that his country has ever to allow assistance into Gaza and to launch new negotiations could be the best hope for quelling the violence.</s>PAUL: The Israel has historically taken the capture of its soldiers very seriously, gone to extreme lengths to secure their return, as you would expect.</s>MARQUEZ: As any country would, I am sure. Martin Savidge is in Jerusalem for us. He is anchoring coverage in the crisis in the Middle East. Martin what is the latest on this missing soldier?</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miguel. Good morning, Christi. You know, it was just 24 hours ago we had such high hopes I certainly did, with the humanitarian cease-fire that it would hold and we would move forward. That did not happen. It is gone horribly wrong. And, now, as you point out, we have this Israeli soldier missing with a great deal of questions about his disappearance. So, for that, I want to bring in now the spokesperson for -- no. OK. Then we will wait. I was going to toss to the IDF spokesperson, but we are working to get him on the line. The concern is, of course, how did this soldier disappear? And, like so much in this conflict, there are conflicting accounts about his disappearance. The Israelis maintain that after the cease-fire went into play, about 90 minutes, there was an attack on one of its units that was working in southern Gaza demolishing the tunnels that we have all heard so much about. They say at that time that the militants launched a terror attack. They used a suicide bomber that in that process, two soldiers -- Israeli soldiers were killed and another one missing. It was thought that perhaps he had been captured. The Hamas has denying all of this. They are saying that there was no Israeli soldier that they capture. They are not holding an Israeli soldier. The reason that you have all of this focus is because that would be a great violation of the cease-fire and it is, after all, what Israel has maintained, you can not trust Hamas. So, that is why all of this has become full-on efforts by the idea of in southern Gaza to try to locate their missing young man. Meanwhile, Hamas says it was not them. There were over 200 strikes by the IDF on Gaza yesterday and the casualties of civilians is said to be over 1,600. I understand now that we do have Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner. Thank you, sir, for joining us. Let me ask you. Where do things stand as far as trying to locate your missing soldier?</s>LT. COL. PETER LERNER, IDF SPOKESPERSON: Thank you, Martin. We have currently not changed our goals of this mission, and we are still primarily focused on the tunnel issues. Indeed, the abduction of Hadar Goldin is absolutely paramount and indeed we need to be emphasizing and that is what we are doing in order to try and locate his position. We have forces on the ground. We have extensive intelligence activities in order to try and get that lead that will bring us to find him.</s>SAVIDGE: And, how do you know if he is alive, and how would you know if he is actually being held by Hamas?</s>LT. COL. LERNER: Well, this is a modus operandi of Hamas. Basically, what they are doing and what they have done and what they striven, and publicly announced their intention to abduct Israeli. So, I would say, that is primary indication --</s>SAVIDGE: OK. I am sorry. I have lost the Lieutenant Colonel now. So, thank you very much for joining us at this point. I guess I will pass it back to Atlanta with Miguel and Christi.</s>PAUL: All righty. Hey! Martin, thank you so much. Sorry about that audio problem, but we certainly appreciate all of the information coming from you out of Jerusalem right now. So, we are obviously going to keep up on that story, and we will be talking to several people throughout the morning who are involved in this conversation between Jerusalem and Hamas.</s>MARQUEZ: And, it is interesting. The timing of all of this, between Iraq -- between Hamas and Israel and the back and forth as to what actually happened. I was actually very interested to hear what Peter Lerner had to say.</s>PAUL: We will hear from him, again, a little bit later in the show. So, you know, with so many fast moving developments in the fight between Israel and Hamas, it is really easy to lose the big picture here. The fundamentals of who these players are, what are their goals. So, we have a look for you at Hamas.</s>MARQUEZ: It is CNN's Paula Hancocks. She takes a look at how the group is formed and what it is exactly that they want.</s>PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Propaganda video, recruiting tools. Call it what you will, but Hamas wants Israel and the world to see its military might. Created in 1987, its name means Islamic Resistance Movement, formed specifically to fight the Israeli occupation. But, within the lawless territory of Gaza, it became so much more.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER: Hamas began to expand its social and economic reach to include social welfare programs, subsidies and a variety of other educational and cultural programs for Palestinians in Gaza. So, it played and still to this day has a political dimension, an administrative and social dimension and, of course a military one.</s>HANCOCKS (voice-over): April 1994, Hamas carries out its first suicide bombing in Israel. A car bomb attack in a Northern City of Afula kills eight. It is just the beginning. Hundreds more Israeli citizens will be killed by Hamas, mostly in suicide bombings. A deadly pattern that leads the U.S. and others to label Hamas a terrorist group. A moment of legitimacy for Hamas. 2006, winning democratic Palestinian elections in a landslide victory. It is one of the first Islamist groups in the world to win political office.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE SPEAKER: This is a new beginning for Palestinians.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: It is the decision of the people.</s>HANCOCKS: But the west refused to deal with a terrorist organization. Experts estimate Hamas has a fighting force of some 10,000. Short and medium-ranged rockets handmade within Gaza, longer range projectiles smuggled into the territory of the U.S. as from Iran. Millions of dollars of annual financial aid from Iran have largely dried up since the uprising in Syria, Cata, now financially supports the group according to Israel. But, little filters through to the civilians of Gaza. Through at this, Israel tightened its hold on the territory controlling what goes in, restricting who comes out. It is this blockade Hamas wants completely lifted. A wish shared by 4 million Palestinians and human rights groups, a wish Israel says it cannot grant as long as the group on the other side of the border refuses to recognize its right to exist. Paula Hancocks, CNN, New York.</s>MARQUEZ: Now, today one of two Americans infected with the deadly Ebola virus is set to arrive here in the U.S., and that patient will receive treatment at a hospital right here in Atlanta. We will see how that hospital is getting ready for it.</s>PAUL: Plus, the first big group of experts arrive at the crash site of Flight 17. The job ahead is a daunting one. We will give you the latest from that region.