and 1.5 million other kids and counting. you may be surprised, but my hero is you. is people just like you, who give every month. to shriners hospitals for children. and because of heroes like you. i can do things now that were impossible before. and i can walk. all of this is made possible because of heroes like you. who go online to loveshriners.org right now. when you do, we'll send you this adorable love to the rescue blanket as a thank you. and a reminder of all the kids whose hero you are. each and every month. please call or go to loveshriners.org right away. and we are back with more breaking news out of the middle east at this hour. a gruesome scene outside gaza's largest medical facility. you can see the klgsties from the footage there. israel has taken responsibility for the attack. >> it says it was targing. >> melissa, what more are you learning about this? >> reporter: well, what we've been hearing, jessica, first of all seeing that video that was just outside the hospital you can see casualties and what appears to be bloody shrapnel that hit one of the ambulances and an attack or strike that's now been claimed as you said by the idf in the shape of a statement of which they explain not only something they said before about the hospital that they believe it's a command and control center for hamas but also say they believe hamas uses ambulances to transport weapons and fighters. in fact, what we've been hearing from a spokesman for the palestinian health ministry who's at the alshiffa hospital is that the series of ambulances targeted and hit in that strike were part of a convoy that were due to head towards the raffa crossing carrying some of those more seriously injured. these were part of a convoy heading south towards the rafah crossing. the red cross had been informed the convoy was leaving towards the rafah crossing. and what we've been just hearing from the red cross who confirmed that they had been given information about this particular convoy that was due to leave the shiffa hospital on its way to the rafah crossing. what we know about the attack is that there are several casualties, many wounded as well, and that this does appear now to have been a convoy of wounded palestinians being taken to the rafah crossing that was hit as that part of that idf strike now claimed by the idf, again, with the idea this was part of their operation to take on hamas. the evidence that we're getting from those sources not just inside the al shifa hospital but again from the red cross does seem to contradict that. >> thank you for that update. obviously a development to keep an eye on. we want to take you live to lebanon and beirut. ben, the leader of lebanon based hezbollah gave his first comments today since the terrorist attack on october 7th. what stood out to you from what he said? >> reporter: i think what stood out is really the ambiguity of his message. it continued to be this sort of message we're hearing from the iranians, conditional. for instance, he said that the possibility of the lebanese front escalating into a broad battle is a realistic option. israel should take this into account. it's not promising any specific action. it's if something happens, hezbollah will act in such a way. and so by and large the tensions that were building up in the lead-up to this speech have sort of dissipated here in lebanon. many people had left the country, had left beirut to safer ground. others had stored up supplies in the event a full-scale war was going to break out. well, it hasn't. he did, however, did say as a result of the daily back and forth fire between hezbollah and israel which really reached a crescendo yesterday with hezbollah claiming 19 strikes on israeli military positions. he said as a result of this, the israelis have had to evacuate 40 communities along the border on their side of the border as well as deploy in his words, a third of the israeli army to its northern borders. boris? >> ben wedemen in beirut, please standby. i do want to go to israel with nic robertson. i talk last hour with prime minister benjamin netanyahu. he told us israel has no interest escalating this into a war on the northern front with hezbollah. do today's developments bring temperatures down a bit with potential conflict between israel and hezbollah? >> reporter: you know, i think israel has always setout this intent it was going to completely deconstruct demolition, demolish gaza. and there was always a thought if they go at it too heavy-handed they'd therefore follow on with an escalated confrontation from the north to support hamas. and we heard from him as ben was explaining there essentially saying they're already doing enough. they're tying down idf troops on the northern border. they've caused a lot of civilians to be move today the south. i think israel would far rather have its fight with hamas without having to think about the northern border. so really while there's consideration given of course to if hezbollah escalates how they would handle that, and at the moment israel is sort of playing it the same way hezbollah is playing it. it's strike by strike, soldier for soldier if you will more or less so neither side has to get into an escalation which israel knows would consume a massive volume of its energy and efforts and firepower to distract from what's happening in gaza. i think as far as the israeli government is concerned he ipway as ben is explaining there left a lot of ambuty. he's blinked in a way ipgame of brinksmanship and left the door open. in essence israel is pursuing a very strong action inside gaza to deconstruct and dispose of hamas. and hezbollah has in a way not escalated to a point of distraction, so i think for the prime minister he would have also breathed a slight sigh of relief over that, although israel had its plans to escalate if necessary. >> and nic, on the question of israel's effort to eradicate hamas from gaza, israel has remained adamant that there will not be a humanitarian pause without hamas releasing hostages. are there any updates on that front? how have the idf progressed in their operations today? >> reporter: yeah, the prime minister and the defense minister today have said there will be no cease-fire without the release of all hostages, 241. the only thing that keeps changing on the hostage front is israel's assessment how many hostages hamas and the other groups have inside of gaza. it's the same impasse wave been at for several weeks now. that's always been israel's position. it sounds perhaps a little less dogmatic than before given the pressure from the united states and from other countries that there has to be a greater allowance for more humanitarian assistance. i think president biden at the white house today saying 100 trucks a day which has only gone up the past cup of days it's normally 450 trucks a day. israel's position is very clear. it's essentially trying to lay siege to hamas, not the civilian population but hamas hold food and we're at an impasse on that. secretary blinken suggested that you can do the hostage for a cease-fire deal while, you know, or you can do the hostage for humanitarian aid deal under the auspices of a cease-fire. and what's happening in gaza tonight still heavy shelling. i think we heard heavy detonations coming from gaza city as well as areas north of there in the gaza strip. i don't think there's any let up in the fight tonight. >> nic robertson, thank you for that update. >> oren, the defense department now confirming u.s. spy drones are flying over gaza to help with those hostage searches. explain how significant that is. >> reporter: it's part of the assets the u.s. surged for gathering intelligence shortly after october 7th as the u.s. tried to help israel in any way it could with hostage recovery. we saw some of these flight tracks on flight tracking websites. in fact, you can take a look at this graphic here which shows you many of those flight tracks focusing around southern gaza there. the u.s. and officials spoken with cnn say these are unarmed surveillance drones and part of the u.s. commitment to helping ifseral. israel obviously clearly aware of what's happening in the skies over gaza, so there must be some sort of coordination between israel and the u.s. on the flight themselves and then whatever intelligence the u.s. is able to gather from these flights. in the statement the pentagon press secretary said in support of hostage recovery efforts the u.s. is conducting unarmed uab flights and then goes onto say these flights have been happening since october 7th. so this is a significant asset the u.s. has contribute. it also has not only more assets moving to the middle east but also in the waters off israel as well. in a message to its iran and proxies not to get involved here. in term of drones themselves, unarmed surveillance drones trying to help in the hostage recovery efforts as israel tries to locate 240 hostages in gaza. >> i also want to ask about the u.s. bolstering its military presence in that region. you mentioned the two carrier strike groups, but what more can you tell us about the situation in the mediterranean there? >> reporter: we now have some images of these strike groups working and operating together. that's the uss dwight d. eisenhower and uss ford. it was on its way there and has since arrived there. again, this is a massive show of force, two carriers, destroyers, cruisers, all in the eastern med. it's worth noting the ike will soon make its way through the suezcanal into the waters of the middle east where it will stay there, still very close to the fight. but closer to some of the adversaries the u.s. is watching closely as a message to tell them don't get involved. >> it is quite a message. boris? >> let's drill down on the hezbollah aspect of this all. ben wedemen joins us live from beirut as well. what we heard, he tried to create some distance between ezhezbollah and hamas as to what happened october 7th and also a question on imminent action by hezbollah but still no shortage of threats. >> yeah, i mean i was struck by the fact he was very keen to emphasize that heads bola had nothing to do with the events of october 7th and also by implication that iran had nothing to do with those events. and so clearly the speech was full of rhetoric against israel, but as ben pointed out earlier i mean i think -- it certainly didn't suggest anything imminent that hezbollah is planning. hezbollah the situation in lebanon, the situation there is absolutely terrible. a war would be very destructive, the 2006 war killed more than a thousand lebanese and inflicted billions of dollars of damage on lebanon. i think both lebanon and hezbollah don't right now want a wider war. could that change as the pictures out of gaza keep coming every day for weeks and weeks, maybe? but i think right now they're taking a bit of a breath. >> just not the pictures coming out of gaza, civilian deaths and et cetera but also potentially the weakness of hamas. do you think then hezbollah and other iranian proxies extend their operations? >> it took the united states with iraq and security services and u.s. air power nine months to get isis sort of extipated in mosul, a city of about 200 people. the military side of this operation if you're intent on destroying hamas is really months. now, there's another clock ticking which is the international political clock, which is moving at a faster rate, so we'll see how these two, but the operation to destroy hamas from a military perspective would take quite a long time. >> and that clock already ticking in congress. we've seen some 13 senators now come forward pushing for a cease-fire and also some senior house leadership on the democratic side as well. ben, i want to ask you about a point peter just brought up, and that is economic and political situation in lebanon. how does that impact what hezbollah is capable of doing here given that there are divisions even within lebanon? >> yeah, let's not forget that lebanon is flawed democracy, and hezbollah is an active, important participant in that democracy and has 13 members in parliament. it's been in government with ministers, and they do depend on public support. there are sort of the hard core people who believe in hezbollah's military goals, which are, of course, to push israel out of a part of lebanon that's disputed. but by and large ordinary people here bread and butter issues do matter. the lebanese economy has essentially collapsed, the standard of living has collapsed. people have lost their entire life savings as a result of a collapse of the local currency, the lira. and therefore as much as hezbollah might become more involved of the war in israel they're really held back not to see the quality of their lives drastically drop as a result of the war. now, i was here throughout the 2006 war, and i saw how much destruction happened not only in the south of lebanon but also the southern suburbs of beirut where many of the shia lived, who are sort of the political base for hezbollah. and that sort of destruction people did not want to see happening again. so i think that really is tempering the approach to the situation. i think he's doing just enough to show that hezbollah and to a certain extent lebanon is trying to relieve some of the pressure on hamas and gaza, doing just enough to sort of be in the news, to force the israelis to deploy more and more forces to the border with lebanon and pull them away, perhaps, from the gaza operation but not enough to drag lebanon into a war with israel. other politicians here in lebanon are coming out and saying we do not want hezbollah to on its own, with its own decision drag this country into a war. so i think there's a lot of reasons why he's sort of putting his foot on the brake, not going full blast at the moment. boris? >> given what ben has laid out, peter, the sort of delicate so to speak position that hezbollah is in, i think it's fair to say neither hezbollah nor hamas would have the capabilities they do without iran. and you have lawmakers in the united states on the other side not calling for a cease-fire but calling for direct action against iran. what would happen if the u.s. were to follow in the words of lindsey graham, for example, who's calling on a blockade of iranian oil? >> well, i mean i think iran obviously has proxies in the region which it controls tuesday some degree or another. what we're seeing is sort of the temperature being dialled up a little bit by iranian proxies, by the rest of the houthis in yemen, firing missiles at israel, or 27 attacks we've seen directed at u.s. military bases in syria and iraq, which haven't gotten a lot of attention but happening. no one's been killed yet, but the point is that i think it's also in iran's interest not to dial the temperature up too far because at the end of the day i'm sure iran does not want an outright military confrontation with the united states. but what we're seeing is all these different proxies from lebanon in the north and 1,500 miles to the south, the houthis in yemen all of whom aresert of participating in some degree in an attempt to make it complicated for israel and the united states. >> when you say does that mean a broader regional conflict at this point is unlikely? >> look, if you asked me that in august 1914, i'd say yes there's no interest to have a war that's going to kill tens of million of people. war is a certain enterprise and wars begin when you will, they don't end when you please. there's a great deal of uncertainty. i think right now the situation doesn't look like a wider regional war for the moment. >> arch duke ferdinand making an appearance. thank you both very much. we still have much more to discuss on the israel-hamas war coming up. secretary of state antony blinken continuing his diplomatic meetings in the region. we'll get you updated on those. and we're following donald trump's new york civil fraud trial. what eric trump said about the financial statements he signed and when the former president himself may take the stand. plus, from the so-called king of crypto to convicted fraudster. how long sam bankman-fried could be behind bars and why his legal headaches are far from over. dep for his actions on january 6th. he was found guilty this past summer on multiple counts including assaulting police officers. many of his attacks took place in the west terrace tum, one of the most violent venues on that day. during sentencing the judge call called his actions. >> trump wrapped up his testimony there and then went in front of cameras to brand the proceeding as, a quote, political witch-hunt and say, quote, new york is going to hell and also previewed his father's appearance next week. kara, it was a colorful post game there, but a lot of today's testimony really had to do with the status of mar-a-lago. what are prosecutors trying to establish here as they go through these witnesses? >> yeah, a lot of color outside the courtroom, but inside the attorney general's office, trying to focus eric trump about his knowledge of mar-a-lago and how it was treated in the financial statements, so they showed an e-mail he was on that discussed the treatment how they were valuing mar-a-lago. what we've seen throughout this trial now at the end of its fifth week is that for the financial statements mar-a-lago was valued as a private residence, which allowed it to have a higher valuation. but we've also seen evidence that mar-a-lago for tax purposes was valued as a private club, which enabled it to have a lower value. so this discrepancy was brought to eric trump's attention today on the stand, and he testified that both are accurate. so he's agreeing it is also a private club while they were valuing it as a private residence in the statement of financial condition, which the judge has already said is fraudulent. so that was a key piece of his testimony today. he also said that he believed the financial statements were perfect and that he would have signed anything that wasn't accurate. so he wrapped up his testimony after about four hours over the past two days. next week the first person on the stand on monday will be donald trump after eric trump said his father is ready to testify. >> he thinks this is one of the most incredible injustices he's ever seen. >> reporter: so once donald trump finishes testimony, the next person to take the stand will be ivanka trump. she's now scheduled for wednesday after dropping her appeal of a judge's ordersying that she had to testify. >> so we'll see the third trump child testify. what are we expecting from the former president next week? >> reporter: well, donald trump is going to be on the stand on monday, and that is expected to be on all-day affair. he'll be answering questions from the attorney general's office, and he'll be sitting just feet from the judge who he has criticized throughout this trial and across the room from the new york attorney general who has attended the trial every day he's also been there, so it's expected to be a bit of a tense day, heated day. and one of the issues that has been lingering over this, the judge has put a gag order on the former president saying he can't make any comments about the court staff. well, he just extended gag order to apply to trump's attorneys saying they can't make any statements inside or outside of court about any communications the judge has with his clerk. trump's lawyers have brought this up repeatedly over the past few days noting the law clerk has passed communications, letters, notes to the judge during the trial saying they believe there's an appearance of bias here. the judge is saying he's not tolerating this anymore and if they violate this order making any comments about the communications, that there will be serious sanctions. jess? >> kara for us outside the courtroom, reporting for us. sam bankman-fried is now a convict facing up to 110 years in prison. a jury convicted bankman-fried of stealing billions of dollars from his customers of his crypto exchange ftx. it marks a spectacular fall from grace. he was once a darling on wall street to main day traders and also made many political donations, we should point out. attorney general merrick garland said in a statement, quote, this case should send a clear message to anyone who tries to hide their crimes behind a shiny new thing they claim no one else is smart enough to understand. the justice department will hold you accountable. bankman-fried will be sentenced in march. up next we'll change our focus back to the middle east because the leader of hezbollah says all scenarios are possible on the border with israel. he blames the united states for the conflict in gaza. we're going to talk about that with defense secretary leon panetta when we come back. i benjamin netanyahu says there will be no temporary cease-fire unless all hostages held by hamas are freed. that is despite secretary of state antony blinken calling for a pause today as he met with israeli leaders in tel aviv. meantime, in his first public remarks since the conflict began, hezbollah's leader praised hamas' attacks on israel while adding that hezbollah's primary goal is a cease-fire. he said the possibility of a larger regional conflict with israel is a, quote, realistic option. joining us now to discuss is leon panetta. he's a former secretary of defense and cia director in the obama administration. sir, thank you so much for being with us. the leader of hezbollah making a lot of threats, not offering many specifics, though. how precarious to do you think the situation is right now along israel's northern border? >> i don't think there's any question that the situation remains precarious. you know, we're in the middle of the war. israel is proceeding to go after hamas. if they're right and they have, in fact, taken out hamas leaders and are continuing to do that, if hamas feels that their back is against the wall, there's no question in my mind that they're going to ask for help. and they'll turn to iran, obviously turn to hezbollah, all of iran's proxies in the region from iraq down to yemen. and so i think the potential for a possible expansion of this war is real. >> secretary, cnn has learned that the u.s. military is sending surveillance drones to flyover gaza to try to help the idf locate hostages. what can you tell us about when capabilities of those drones especially in a situation where those hostages are likely being held in tunnels underground? >> well, i think it's very important. if you're going to do the kind of targeting that i think is necessary to be able to go after hamas, you're going to have to have to not only use drones. you're going to have to use human intelligence as well. that's pretty much what we did in going after al-qaeda after 9/11. and we could not have been able to establish those targets without the help of drones but also without the help of human intelligence, people on the ground. so i'm hoping they can get that kind of combination working with them because that is the most effective way to make sure that you are accurate in going after hamas. >> president biden and his administration has been urging israel and prime minister benjamin netanyahu to consider pausing its operation in gaza for a series of different humanitarian objectives. netanyahu is determined to press ahead and not have any kind of cessation of hostilities. what's the correct course of action, do you think, from both a political and military perspective if you were advising the prime minister? >> well, first of all, i'm glad that secretary blinken went to the area and asked for that kind of humanitarian pause. i think it's very important for the united states at the highest level to stay in touch with the leadership not just in israel but in the countries that adjoin israel. look, this -- this is a situation where the issue is going to be is the price right for netanyahu. he obviously is in the middle of a war. his tanks are there, his troops are there. they're going after hamas. he's not particularly interested in slowing that process down. we all understand that. on the other side hamas is holding these hostages. and very frankly they don't care a lot about the human side of these hostages. the question is going to be what kind of price do they get if they're going to release the hostages? so right now i don't know that the price is right on either side. what could possibly help is to be able to develop an approach where you want hamas to release the hostages, but in return they're going to get the release of palestinian prisoners. that could, i think, be possibly the kind of price that might result in that kind of deal being fulfilled. >> as those negotiations, those conversations are ongoing specifically to get hostages out, i'm wondering what you make of that apparent disagreement between the united states and israel over the correct course of action to take on a pause? >> well, you know, i think the president's been right to urge a pause. there is a pause that is necessary in order to be able to provide the humanitarian relief that is critical for palestinians and crit criminal for others who have obviously been injured in this war. it's the right thing to do. and i think, you know, from my own experience, i think the key is to continue to pressure the israelis to be able to provide not only a pause but to make -- make it possible to get humanitarian aid into gaza so that we can provide the food and the care that is essential to deal with those that have been injured. i think that israel needs to know that while there is a lot of support obviously for their ability to defend their country and go after hamas, that in order for them to be able to maintain their credibility they also have to keep an eye on how to provide humanitarian relief to those that have been hurt. >> secretary leon panetta, thanks so much for sharing your time and perspective with us. >> good to be with you. >> of course. so right now president biden is in lewiston, maine, paying his respects to the victims of last week's mass shootings from lewiston, maine, their families. we're going to take you there live in n just moments. happening right now, we want to show you live images of president biden and the first lady in maine paying their respects to the 18 victims of the deadly mass shooting in lewiston. the next hour the president is set to deliver remarks and then meet with families who lost loved ones and with victims of that horrific shooting. >> cnn's omar jimenez is in lewiston, maine, for us this afternoon. omar, what more can you tell us about the president and first lady's visit? >> yeah, so literally seconds ago, you can see over my shoulder the amount of people from the lewiston community and surrounding area that were here to greet the president as he passed through. he did not get out and shake any hands or anything like that, but you can see the tail end of the motorcade. we are at the bowling alley, what was the first site of the pair of mass shootings that happened a little bit over a week ago now. and where these people are standarding across the street what we've seen are memorials to the people, the 18 killed here. also signs of strengths and support, a symbol of the state of maine with a heart over lewiston, a sign that says simply be nice pointing of course to the sensitivity of the time and what this community has been through. the president was just at right before he got here at schemengees bar and grille which was the second site of the pair of mass shootings that happened, again, that night a little bit over a week ago. what we're expecting him to do here is he's going to give some remarks obviously talking about what happened in the community support from there. he's also been meeting with nurses, others on the front lines of the response that particular night. we're also expecting him after the remarks to meet with members of the families of some of the people that were killed here as well. this visit really it seems to provide support to those that are trying to figure out how to process this. it's not like it's ancient schi history. they are still grieving trying to figure out when they're going to bury their loved ones. people are in the hospital are still recovering. one person i talked to earlier talked about how glad president biden was here because it showed to her people at the highest levels of the u.s. government are paying attention. now, as we've seen time and time again after the number of mass shootings in this country, it's often difficult for real policy to change over at capitol hill and beyond, but that will likely be some of what we hear president biden talk about. he's talked in previous times about the need for changes and for congress to pass legislation to make meaningful impact on gun violence, but of course all of that is still secondary to the pain people here are still going through and something that is very wrong. >> there's no doubt about it. omar jimenez the trauma that will be with so many people for so long. thank you for bringing us that update in lewiston, maine. we'll be right back. you're probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. but what if we told you it's possible that comcast business mobile can save you up to 75% a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers? have we piqued your interest? you can get two unlimited lines for just $30 each a month. there are no term contracts or line activation fees. and you can bring your own device. oh, and all on the most reliable 5g mobile network nationwide. wireless that works for you. it's not just possible. you are looking at live pictures of arlington, texas, where the texas rangers are celebrating their world series win. a huge party there. the dallas-fort worth area is celebrating the first ever world series title for the rangers with a victory parade. >> this is a championship more than six decades in the making. arlington's mayor even released a stock excuse letter for anyone cutting class or work to be part of today's celebration. so congratulations to them. and finally for us this afternoon nasa unveiled the first public display of a sample from the asteroid. the space rock was collected back in 2020 and arrived here on earth in september. >> cnn's christian fisher is here to tell us all about it. a big day for nasam. >> it is a big day because it's the first time since the end of the apollo program 1972 nasa has brought something from space and put it on display. of course it was moon rocks today. it was a small sample from the asteroid which returned to earth last month as part of nasa's program. and now everybody can go see a small sample at the natural history museum. it is a small sample i will say that. that is not the sample. the sample is in the case. it's quite small but a special sample because it contains carbon, water, and organic molecules, which are the building blocks of life. i'm going to let the nasa administrator explain why that's so important. >> and it's all a part of our quest to understand -- to try to understand who we are, what we are, where we are in the vastness of this cosmos. >> so some pretty existential questions this sample is going to try to answer. you would think this asteroid sample traveled billions of miles to get to earth it would have a pretty special entrance to the museum. no, no. the person who brought it to the museum flew it, put in his carry on luggage, went through a tsa checkpoint and walked it into the museum, wasn't even handcuffed to his arm. >> and tsa approved. >> apparently didn't even go off. >> christian fisher, fascinating. thank you. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right after a quick break. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. welcome to "the