happening now, breaking news. israel admits responsibility for an attack on an ambulance outside a gaza hospital saying it was being used by hamas. the bloody scenes and reports of casualties come as tough questions are being raised about the civilian death toll in this war. as israeli forces pound gaza from the air and on the ground, prime minister benjamin netanyahu insists there will be no cease-fire until hamas hostages are freed. israel rejecting a new u.s. appeal for a humanitarian pause in the fighting during a visit by the secretary of state, antony blinken. and in new york, eric trump wraps up his first time in the witness stand and says his father is fired up for his own testimony next week in the civil fraud trial against their family business. we're going to tell you where the case stands right now as the trump family is put under oath. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer reporting live from israel, and you're in the situation room. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. let's get right to the breaking news on the israeli military now taking responsibility for an attack on an ambulance in gaza. we want to warn our viewers some of the images of this attack are very graphic. cnn's jeremy diamond is joining us right now. he's got details. he's live in israel, not very far from gaza. jeremy, what more have you learned about this strike? >> reporter: well, wolf, israel is admitting to targeting an ambulance inside gaza near al-shifa hospital. the israeli defense forces saying that this -- claiming that this ambulance was being used by hamas and saying that several hamas operatives were killed in this strike, wolf. but the reports on the ground, obviously those images are just absolutely difficult to see. 15 people were killed in this strike, 50 others were wounded, according to the palestinian ministry of health, which of course is controlled by hamas. israel also says in its claim of responsibility that hamas has been known to use ambulances to transport hamas militants as well as weaponry. but, wolf, there are questions about the legitimacy of this target particularly as a spokesman for the palestinian ministry of health says this ambulance was part of a convoy carrying wounded individuals who were headed to that rafah crossing in order to leave gaza and head into egypt. what's more, wolf, they also said they notified the international red cross of this convoy movement before it left. the red cross, wolf, tonight is confirming it did receive notification about this convoy before this convoy left and that it received a request to accompany that convoy before it left. meanwhile, wolf, the israeli defense forces are continuing to carry out their ground operation inside of gaza as well. israeli military officials say that they have encircled gaza city. and we know that they have been moving towards gaza city on several fronts from the north as well as from the south. but what's clear is that there is still very much ongoing fighting in the northern part of gaza. hamas, for its part, wolf, is continuing to fire rockets against israeli towns and cities, targeting those cities indiscriminately without looking at whether they're civilian or military targets. in fact, wolf, today a rocket landed about 100 meters from where a number of journalists were posted on a hill in sderot overlooking the gaza ships. i want to show you where it landed not far from my position. what we heard was a very, very loud -- it appears to be some kind of an impact falling directly. and wolf, that was actually the aftermath of that rocket impact. but during -- earlier when that rocket came down, my photo journalist was actually able to get video of that rocket coming in very fast and making a very loud impact not far from that position of journalists. it actually landed in a courtyard of a kindergarten. that kindergarten, of course, was unoccupied at the moment, but it just shows, of course, wolf even as the iron dome does intercept a majority of those rockets, some still come through. >> the israeli attack on an ambulance comes just hours after the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken left israel declaring more needs to be done to protect palestinian civilians in gaza. cnn's m.j. lee over at the white house following blinken's latest mission here to the middle east. did blinken get any assurances from israel about aid in gaza or civilian casualties? >> this marks secretary blinken's third visit to israel since the war broke out, and he had a blunt message he wanted to deliver to israel. he said that israel must do more to protect palestinian civilians. this, of course, reflects the growing concern within the biden administration about the rising civilian death toll in gaza and the humanitarian suffering there as well, and it also reflects the private warnings that u.s. officials have been delivering to their israeli counter parts saying that unless israel significantly changes course to mitigate the amount of hu humanitarian suffering in gaza, that its support from the global community is going to erode. and we saw secretary blinken today in israel taking that warning public, saying that israel is at risk of losing its support from its allies. here's what he said. >> we need do do more to protect civilians. not doing so plays into the hand of hamas and counter parts. >> reporter: and wolf, in his meetings with israeli leaders and the israeli war cabinet as a part of that push to have israel minimize as much as possible civilian casualties, we saw secretary blinken making a hard push for this humanitarian pause or humanitarian pauses saying that those would be essential for getting more humanitarian aid into gaza and to make sure that civilian deaths can be minimized. but we saw prime minister netanyahu after that meeting with secretary blinken rejecting that call, essentially saying that they are not going to consider any pauses unless hostages in gaza can get out. we of course know that those negotiations and those talks have been ongoing, but we've not seen a big break through so far. now, here in the u.s., wolf, the calls for those humanitarian pauses, those have been growing as well, and it's not just coming from the biden administration. we saw a group of more than a dozen democratic senators writing a new letter saying that those kinds of pauses would be necessary. and that is on top of some of the growing calls we are seeing here for a general cease-fire as well, something that the administration has not called for. wolf? >> mj lee at the white house for us, thank you very much. also tonight the israeli military is on heightened alert at its northern border amid escalating rocket attacks from inside lebanon. the leader of hezbollah warning that that front could explode into a wider war as he speaks out in praise of the hamas attacks on israel. cnn's ben wedemen is joining us inside lebanon right now. he's inside the beirut capital. this is the first time we've heard from the leader since the war began. update our viewers. >> reporter: yeah, he hasn't said a word, wolf, since the 7th of october, and much anticipation and speculation has been going on about why. but finally this afternoon about 3:00 p.m. local time he finally emerged on the air waves across the middle east. they turned out in the thousands to hear their leader, the secretary-general speaking out for the first time since the start of the war between israel and hamas. all options, he warned, are open and we can exercise them at any moment. already hezbollah and israel are engaged in a deadly exchange of fire along the border. hezbollah has buried almost 60 of its fighters killed so far. it was a speech watched closely across the middle east. while other arab leaders beseeched the u.s. to put pressure on israel to relent on its defense in gaza, hezbollah well-armed and battle hardened, is the only one putting military pressure on israel. tying down in the process, nasrallah claimed, a third of the u.s.' army. the u.s. deployed two carrier groups to the eastern mediterranean to deter others from joining the fight. nasrallah's response, i tell americans threats against us and resistance in the region are pointless. but despite the high expectations for the speech, it ended ambiguously without a clear indication of where hezbollah and iran's other allies in the region will go. in the lead-up to the speech, hezbollah supporters put out what some called trailers with an ominous tone of what might be coming. after the speech, the word here in lebanon was that the trailers were better than the film. seen aftermath of that speech is that there's been widespread relief. many people here, in fact, probably the vast majority do not want to see lebanon dragged into a war with israel. people still remember what happened in 2006 when for 33 days, the war raged in the south and there were massive bombings in beirut as well. people before the speech, wolf, many people tried to leave the country. others went to safer homes in the mountains. others were storing up supplies in the event that the speech would really escalate the situation, but that didn't happen, and i think people are feeling a lot more comfortable here in by theirut. that doesn't mean lebanon is out of the woods at the moment. this savery unstable situation, but for now it appears it's going to be essentially more of the same as far as what's going on the border between israel and lebanon. wolf? >> we shall see. ben wedemen in beirut for us, ben, thanks for that report. joining us now here in tel aviv, the senior advisor to the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu. thanks very much for joining us. let me get your thoughts first of all on the israeli strike against this ambulance leaving this major hospital in gaza. >> well, the idf, israeli defense forces, have released a detailed statement. they say hamas was using this ambulance to transfer fighters from one position to another. that's of course a war crime. you're not supposed to use ambulances to move your combatants from one place to another. in doing so -- i mean we don't target ambulances, but in doing so they made that ambulance a legitimate target. we thought the target was important enough to take it out and we took out the target. >> will israel, the government release any evidence this ambulance was being used by hamas as a military vehicle? >> i think hamas said they'll release pictures and videos soon. >> how soon? >> i can't speak for them. >> you understand the public relations pressure israel is under doing this on the heels of the two air strikes on the jabalia refugee camp. >> we know there have been documented cases in the past of hamas using ambulances. we know hamas has built military infrastructure, command posts underneath hospitals. we saw what hamas was capable of doing when they invaded israel and massacring our people. they raped, shot people in a ravine who were attending an open air concert. they shot children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children. these people are capable of that sort of brutality, should we be surprised they'd be cape of using ambulances for war? it'll be safer when this operation is over and hamas is destroyed as a military machine and gaza will not be run anymore by this brutal and horrific terrorist organization. >> what do you say to president biden and secretary blinken for that matter urging to cut back on-air strikes because of civilian casualties? >> we believe we can pursue a relentless campaign against hamas' terror machine and at the same time make a distinction and do our best to keep civilians out of the cross fire and keep humanitarian support. >> but you see a lot of civilians are get killed including kids. >> first of all, i don't like anyone get caught up in the cross fire. we wouldn't want to see anyone killed. but unfortunately our strategy is made difficult by the fact hamas uses human shields for their war machine. >> you hear the secretary of state asking israel to at least consider a pause in all the fighting that's going on right now and maybe even some sort of temporary cease-fire. >> so we're open to a pause that includes a release of hostages. people say a humanitarian pause. okay, what is more humanitarian that achieving the release of the people brutally kidnapped and held underground i don't know in a dudgeon somewhere. the red cross has not been allowed to visit them even though they've asked. surely that should be part of any arrangement for a humanitarian pause. >> the senior advisor to prime minister netanyahu. coming up, what one israeli family was forced to go through after hamas terrorists stormed their house. my emotional interview with a woman who gives us a gut wrenching look at their horrifying nightmare. and new twists in the new york civil fraud trial against donald trump and his adult children. stay with usus. you'rere in the sisituation ror. new developments tonight in former president trump's new york civil fraud case. the judge overseeing the trial now expanding the gag order and trump's daughter, ivanka, now withdrawing her appeal to get out of testifying next week. cnn's kara skanell outside the courthouse in manhattan. why did the judge expand this gag order? >> reporter: wolf, the judge expanded this gag order after donald trump's attorneys repeatedly raised questions about the judge's law clerk. they said there was a suggestion here there was bias because of the law clerk's political leanings. so the judge has heard them bring this up for the past few days and finally had enough. he issued a gag order saying the attorneys are promibted from speaking inside or outside the court about anything about his staff. the reason they're doing this is because they've received hundreds of threats to e-mails, voice calls and letters to his chambers. and the trump attorneys have already made this case on record for it. this comes the day after testimony, eric trump finishing his testimony. he was on the stand in total for about 4 hours. so now that he's testified and his brother don jr. has testified, the next one up monday is former president donald trump. he will take the stand. after court today eric trump said his father is ready. >> he's fired up to be here, and he thinks this is one of the most there credible injustices he's ever seen. >> reporter: so donald trump will testify on monday. now, that is expected to go all day, and then on wednesday ivanka trump will take the stand after she dropped a challenge to try to block her testimony. wolf? >> all right, kara, stay with us. don't go too far away. i want to bring in shan wu, right now, former federal prosecutor to get anal sos opwhat's going on with all these new developments. shan, eric trump says his father is, quote, fired up about testifying. what sort of risk is trump, donald trump potentially taking if he does testify under oath without taking the fifth amendment? >> well, wolf, you never want your client to be all fired up to take the witness stand. you want them rather calm and methodical, ready to answer questions. if former president trump wants to get up there and be all fire and brimstone, make a lot of speeches, it's not going to go very well for him, because a jury might care about that, the press does, but a judge is not going to be interested in that. he's going to start to probably warn trump to answer the questions rather than meandering off into the wilderness there. so that kind of attitude is not really the best one to have. you want to be clear, you want to be calm, and sound like you're being helpful. >> trump briefly testified once in the trial, shan, but this time will be very different. what can we expect? >> i think it'll be quite different this time. it'll be the a.g. lawyers testing him. they're going to want to drill down on the facts, and what i'd expect they're going to go arms length on this saying he was too busy, he relied on accountants, sort of a version of what you heard from his sons. but he's likely to be more blustery about it. and i think he'll lean helveally into the idea of not only as the head of a company but former president of the united states he was much too busy to be checking on accountants figures, and i think that's where it's going to go. >> so kara, let's look ahead when trump starts to testify under oath. give us your sense you're on the scene and speaking to experts over there, what's your sense what you're going to anticipate? >> what we have seen throughout this trial is there have been a lot of objections throughout the testimony particularly when the former president is in attendance, so it is likely we could see his lawyers object to a lot of lines of questions that the attorney general's office begins to press the former president on, and we could possibly see as shan was saying the former president start to expand and speechify. and throughout the course of this trial the judge has tried to rein that in and have witnesses answer yes or no to certain questions and not give speeches. he'll certainly try to tamp it down. this moment of tension will have the former president sitting just inches, feet from the judge he has criticized and attacked on social media with the new york attorney general expected to be in the courtroom as he's been every time he's been there. and it's a high stakes deposition for him. he tried to distance himself saying he relied a lot on his internal accountants. he's spoken very publicly throughout this trial about his disagreements, about the value of mar-a-lago. so a lot of these are things he can be pressed on underoath, and there's so much at stake here for the future of his business in new york. wolf? >> let's see what happens next week. thank you both. appreciate it very, very much. up next, my powerful, very emotional conversation with an israeli woman who endured the unthinkable during the hamas attack. her daughter murdered and her family held hostage for hours all while the terrorists live streamed their suffering online. stay with us. you're in the situation room. nice footwork. man, you're lucky, watching live sports never used to be this easy. now you can stream all your games like it's nothing. yes! [ cheers ] yeah! woho! running up and down that field looks tough. it's a pitch. get way more into what you're into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. i want to go to cnn's paula reid. she's watching one of these investigative cases going on with donald trump. she's got some major news that is just breaking right now. what the are you learning, paula? >> that's right, wolf. a federal appeals court has frozen a gag order that's been imposed on former president trump here in washington, d.c. now, this is a gag order related to the federal prosecution of the former president for alleged election subversion. here pthe appeals court has granted a request from the former president's legal team to freeze the gag order and actually hear arguments on the issue in just a few days. actually they've scheduled this for november 20th. they're clearly mindful of the fact they need to move this issue along wiftly and likely not delay this case too far into the election cycle next year. now, in this case judge tanya chutkan, the judge overseeing the case here in washington, she imposed a gag order on the former president, limiting his ability to target witnesses in the case, court staff members and even prosecutors. this came after a series of statements made by the former president. we know he also has a similar gag order for the case up in new york. but the former president's lawyers argue this is a violation of his first amendment and that he should be able to criticize, for example, prosecutors they note the fact he's a candidate for the presidency and they say, quote, his political speech is entitled to the highest protection. but now this case will be considered by a three judge panel in the court of appeals, and it'll be a really important decision because gag orders are increasingly becoming a hot button issue in the many cases former president trump is facing. >> certainly. thanks for that breaking news very much. and we'll take a quick break. much more right after this. here in israel this week, i had a chance to speak with a woman, a victim of the hamas attacks who's been living a nightmare since october 7th. early that morning air-raid sirens started going off in her kibbutz near the guzza border. she ran into the shelter with her husband, their 9-year-old son, their 11-year-old daughter, and their 17-year-old daughter. then the hamas terrorists entered their house and tried to force their way into the shelter shooting and killed mayan through the door. the hamas terrorists used the neighbor's phone to live stream the attack on facebook. after murdering their daughter, the hamas terrorists also took her phone and livestreamed the rest of her family being held hostage on the floor for hours. in a final act of terror, hamas kidnapped her husband and took him to gaza. now to my conversation with her. we want to warn our viewers what you're about to hear and see is disturbing. >> we woke up because they were screaming that alert for missiles are on. and our daughters yelled to come to the shelter. we looked at each other and said something's wrong. then they got a message that there's fear of terrorists attack on the kibbutz. >> they might be crossing the border. >> yeah, they might be crossing the border into the kibbutz and crossing the fence into the kibbutz and the houses, so they told us to keep quiet. now, you need to understand kids when they're fearful, they cannot be quiet. we were all in this tiny room, which is the kids room, the sleeping area so we won't wake them up. they started to say they're walking in the path, you know, in the kibbutz -- >> the terrorists? >> yes. >> so he took a chair and put it near the door because we don't have an actual lock on the door. and we were, like, waiting and being quiet. just, you know, fearful and crying. the kids were crying and trying to calm them down. and between our house and the neighbor's house, and we heard glass shatter. and after a while we heard somebody's walking in the house. you heard them walking on the broken glass. and it wasn't like one person. you could hear -- and we were quieting the kids, and, you know, like -- >> you were huddled together. >> yeah. we were underneath the bed and near the door. and we were really, really scared. >> were you hearing arabic? >> no, they were not talking until they got to the door, the shelter door and then we heard in hebrew. they banged on the door really loud and said open the door, open the door. open the door in hebrew. unfortunately, he was killed afterwards, he was a 17-year-old boy from the kibbutz, and they used him to open doors like a bait. >> so it was him speaking? >> yes. and then he lock the door and struggle to lock it real hard. and they started shout we do not shoot, we do not shot, open, open. >> i will not shoot. open the door. i will not shoot. >> you can hear three or four of them struggling and they fought him to open the door. and they're still shouting and shouting, and then mayan saw there's a crack starting to open, and she jumped on the door to help him close it. at that moment there was a gunshot. >> i will shoot. i will shoot now. >> i was hanging onto one of the kids. and then he was shouting who got shot, who got shot, and then he said it's mayan, it's mayan, help, help, it's mayan. >> it's your daughter. >> it's my daughter. it's my 18 and ipfour days daughter. and i didn't see him because it was not light yet, but the light came on and i saw my husband. i think he was over her or she dropped near him. i didn't see her yet, and then he was yelling she's dead, help her, help her, she's dying, she's dying because he was in a pile of blood, of her blood. he was there, you know, with his hands on his head, and he was saying, help her, gadi, help mayan. and i went to her and i saw her on her back straight still, you know, shaking. the baldy was still shaking, but she wasn't there because when i checked her, he said check where she's bleeding from. and i checked, and it was -- i went up to the head and i felt the injury, and i said to him she's gone. she's not here. she's gone. and they took us out. immediately they took us everybody. >> the terrorists? >> yes. and they told the kids not to look, shouting them not to look because i didn't want them to see their dead sister in a pile of blood. he went out with his hands and knees all bloody. then afterwards i realized that i was live on facebook with -- mother's phone and everybody saw them entering and shooting the door, the door of the shelter and killing mayan actually. they set us on the floor and took my phone and said is this your phone. i said, yes, what do you need my phone for, and he said i want to do live on facebook, what's your code. i gave him the code, and he just started say repeat after me. and he said -- i don't remember the fact -- the exact message, but he told me something to say that about the government or -- i don't remember the exact thing, but that they are here and they are fighting. and then they took the phone and actually started filming us live. now, i thought he was done, and i'm still trying to understand what happened or shocked, and he was broken. he couldn't speak. he was crying, and the kids asked him are you bleeding, and he said, no, and he just nod his head. and i had to tell the kids that they just killed mayan and it's her blood. and then the kids started crying and shouting. and they said to the terrorists that are holding us hostage don't kill us, please don't kill us. and they were filming it all the time, i realize it now. but i didn't know then, and i was still in shock about mayan. and then the red colorer, the alerts started shouting there are missiles coming, and i told them i tried to jump to the shelter, and they said no, no you're staying here. said don't worry, our commander knows we're here, so he won't shoot the missiles in here, you're safe. >> we're going to hear more of the idan family story in just a moment. stay with us for that. there are a lot more tears coming up. we'll be right back. i've been sharing the emotional story of a woman i met earlier this week in israel. they lived in southern israel near the gaza border. on october 7th, hamas terrorists entered their house, shot through the door, to the shelter, killing their 17-year-old daughter, mayan. they then held the rest of the family hostage in their home for hours, live streaming the whole thing on facebook. and when the terrorists left, they kidnapped her husband. here is more of what gali told me about their ordeal. i want to warn our viewers, what you are about to see and hear is disturbing. >> they put us on the ground and said, stay here, don't move. if you move, you're dead. and they took all the knives that we had, said don't do anything stupid. and meanwhile, my kid, my 11-year-old, she started communicating with the commander, asking him why are you doing this? why did you kill my sister? he said, don't worry, your sister is with allah. she's safe now, she's with allah. all this time, smy husband cannt talk, he's not functioning, because he saw his kid dead. he was just holding his head and crying. i was looking at him, and when you have this impression of nothing behind it, it was like that. he is one of the strongest men i know. every time that something happens, he's the one that holds the situation. it was -- it was painful to see him like that. and then they said, okay, you and you, and they were pointing at them. they said, you and you get up, you're coming with us. and they cuffed his hand with white stripes and barefooted also, i think. and they said, okay, you're coming with us, and they took them. they were in front of the back door. they asked whose car is it? and he said, this is my car. to us they said okay, stay on the ground or you will be killed. we'll shoot you or you will be dead. so we stayed. we told our husbands, we said we love you. don't do anything stupid. don't be a hero. just what they say, please. the kids started yelling, don't take him, don't take him. they said no, no, it's okay, he will be back, he will be back. they promised the kids he will be back. we couldn't do anything, and it was until, i think, 5:30 in the afternoon that we heard people talking around us, you know, and we just looked outside, peeked outside and said somebody is walking around the house. they said idf, idf. they were actually our saviors. they took us out of the house, actually. but the kids didn't want to go. they said please, i don't want anybody else to be dead in this house. i don't want anybody else to get murdered. the kids didn't want to go. it took me 20 minutes outside just to breathe, because i couldn't breathe. all the way, i held them near me. and we went out like this. sorry. >> your 11-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son? >> yes. >> and your husband had been kidnapped and your daughter was dead. and her body was left in the house? >> it was left in the house. they didn't let us to go there. we asked to go see mayan. the terrorists didn't let me see my daughter before i went. i couldn't -- i couldn't say goodbye. i couldn't. she stayed there for three days. >> in the house? >> her body -- yes. in a pile of blood on the floor. >> a very, very emotional interview from just part of our time here in israel this week. we're going to share more of her story in the next hour of "the situation room." you'll want to watch this. very, very powerful. we also have a lot more coming up on other breaking news we are following here in tel aviv, including that israeli strike earlier today on an ambulance in gaza, and those first comments from hezbollah's leader, on whether the israel-hamas war could broaden into a larger regional conflict. there's a lot of breaking news. we're covering it all. we'll be r right back.k. happening now, breaking news. a federal appeals court just froze the gag order against donald trump in the election interference case in washington. we're going to break down the decision and what it could mean for the former president as the criminal proceedings against him move forward. also tonight, israel defends its air strike on an ambulance in gaza, claiming the vehicle was being used by a hamas terrorist cell. new reaction coming into the disturbing scenes outside a hospital and the reported casualties. and cnn confronts embattled republican congressman george santos about an alleged campaign fraud scheme. the latest charge against him on top of a litany of lies. stand by for that exclusive interview. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in tel aviv, israel, and you're in "the situation room." this is cnn breaking news. >> we begin this hour with the breaking news back in washington. donald trump's gag order in the federal election interference case just put on hold. cnn's chief legal affairs correspondent paula reed is working this important story for us. tell us more about this ruling. >> reporter: wolf here, the federal appeals court has temporarily frozen a gag order imposed on former president trump here in washington. they have fast tracked and oral argument about whether this is constitutional. we'll hear those arguments november 20th. this gag order was imposed by a federal judge overseeing the