this is cnn "news central." defense secretary lloyds atin, and secretary of state tony blinken is on capitol hill right now, and the goal and the mission for them today is to make the case to lawmakers for president biden's $106 billion ask for an aid package that he wants in order to support both ukraine and israel, two nations at war, two allies of the united states. but what has happened is protests. blinken interrupted multiple times by people protesting, angry over israel's action in ga gaza. >> cease-fire now! cease-fire now! >> cease-fire now. >> sasha bertrand is tracking hearing for us and joining us again, and they have essentially been able to make the opening statements and to the questions from the senators, and what is the case they are making for the aid package? >> well, kate, one of the big themes that we are hearing from secretary blinken and acetin is that the wars that ukraine and israel are fighting is inextricably linked and you can't divorce the two in a sup plemtal aid p-- supplemental pa as the house wants to do. and so in exchange, iran is getting advanced military equipment and technology from the russians, and what can the iranians do with that? they can do that to support the proxies which attack the americans and the israelis, and ultimately, this is all connected with the access to iran and russia that is posing such a big threat to the u.s. and the allies. that is the case they are making. secretary blinken said that if the two were to be separated in a major aid package, it shows the adversaries that the u.s. is playing whack-a-mole to the funding to the allies. >> this is all one fight. we have to respond in a way that recognizes that. if we start to peel off pieces of the package, they'll see that, and they will understand that we are playing whack-a-mole, while they are cooperating increasingly, and pose a greater threat to our security and that of allies and partners. >> so this is a major issue at this point, because the gop introduced legislation yesterday that would only provide aid to israel at this moment, and in addition to that, it would strip funding to the irs that would include something that might not get this passed. and also, both blinken and austin have reiterated that they have said to their counterparts how important it is and that the u.s. is trying to get up to 100 trucks per day of aid, and right now up to 60, but it is a drop in the bucket as to what they need. >> thank you, natasha. john? >> we are getting new reporting out of israel. first off, israel has changed the count of 240 of the number of hostages being held inside of gaza, and this is the 25th day in captivity. we are getting some video of the israeli incursion into gaza this morning. you can see the explosions there, and you also have some pictures of the israeli infantry, and it is not the only place north of ramallah of the occupied west bank, and they are targeted the hamas leader's compound there, and i do want to get right to the very latest with jim sciutto who is with northern israel who has seen ingoing or outgoing fighters who are based there in the southern part of the country, jim, and tell us what you are seeing. >> so, john, just to place us. we are less than a half mile of the border, and smoke and flames are dipping up above the horizon from the cross-border exchange of the rocket fire, mortar fire, and in the last few minutes here, we are hearing boom after boom, and whether it is additional shells being fired or the secondary explosions from the first one, you see the smoke rising there, and it is a measure of what is a low-grade conflict going on along the border here. these exchanges are happening multiple times a day. short time ago, the idf told us of another strike in the israeli town of aramshaw where we were over the weekend, and more mortar shells are dropping there. it is a low grade, and not what we are seeing in gaza, but it is a measure of both sides testing each other at the northern border. and one more measure, john, if i can of the seriousness of which israel is taking this, and walking you down main street in northern israel, this town is empty, because it is one along the several northern border that is under mandatory evacuation. those who are here are either soldiers, and that part up there is part of the military zone or folks who need to be here briefly, but the town itself is under mandatory evacuation as there is a broad swath of northern israel right now. worried about, defended about, concerned about an escalation here. >> this is where jim is, right along the israel/lebanon border, and the explosion over jim's shoulder is presumably inside of lebanon. jim, we can see the flames burning behind you and the smoke rising. i know that you are as safe as you can be in the situation, and you have done a nice job explaining what is, and this low scale back and forth between israel and hamas, and what has them so concerned of what could happen along this border? >> well, it is deadly exchange, and hezbollah says they have lost up to 40 fighters, and there is another boom, and you can measure it is constant. there was a hezbollah funeral on the other side of the border for one of their fighters and israel has repelled the shells, and they fall on this size, and they are dangerous, but it is not a full-scale invasion yet. you have many thousands of hezbollah fighters on the other side, and crucially, hezbollah has many thousands of missiles and including high grade missiles that they didn't have in other conflicts with iran, and if they do fire them in number, it is going to overwhelm israel's missile defenses much like the rockets coming out of gaza by hamas, they were fired in such volume and number, they were able to break through the iron dome defenses. if hezbollah were to unleash similar from here, then we are talking about something quite different. >> yes, hezbollah has forces in iranian proxies and not southern lebanon, but syria here, and you can see how it is threatening from several locations. jim you and your team on the lebanese border, stay safe. >> yes, and it is an important perspective there from jim on the border there. and joining us is the retire commander of t-- retired genera allied commander hertling. what do you see? >> this is the tinderbox. and hezbollah is waiting to launch more and more attacks, and as jim just said it, they are a greater force of hamas, and by the number of fighters and weapons they v and by the fact that they are unconstrained in lebanon. they don't have walls around them, and they are not encircled by the israeli forces, but combine that with what is going on in the west bank as you reported with ramallah, and talking about the potential of transporting equipment from damascus through syria, and you the houthis of yemen saying they are going to declare war, and what we have said it is the worst case scenario of israel being attacked on multiple sides with increasingly stronger and more capable forces with better ammunition than hamas has while the main forces are being tied down in the gaza strip. >> and while the focus remains, or one of the first focus remains in gaza. kim, the idf, on that front, the idf says they took out and killed hamas commander who commanded two of the key attacks, and they took him out in an aerial strike monday and he commanded the hamas aerial arrays to command the paragliders and the uvas and taking the leaders like this out, what does it do? >> part of it is the retribution that israelis are waiting for is to take out those who are responsible for the attack october 7th. and it is also those who are obstruction to the hostage negotiation, and i have heard that the political wing of qatar is much more willing to negotiate than the hamas military leaders inside of gaza, and the more you take out, perhaps you remove more of the friction, but hamas knows that the 200-plus hostages are the only leverage against an all-out israeli assault, so i think that you will continue to see days if not weeks of israel picking off these leaders with air strikes and the more of the area they saturate, probably also raids on the ground, but you can see that they are holding back on some of the raids to protect their own forces. they don't want to have their forces at this point also taken hostage as they are attacking. >> what about news like this being announced from the idf? >> kate has it all right but one thing. we have spent 20 years continuing to take out the head of this or the leader of that or some chief terrorist in a cell, and each particular occasion, they are replaced. this is a fight gains not only the leaders, the people who direct the operations, who plan the operations, but also, the american people would be surprised financiers and who is getting the religious approval of the different strikes. these terror cells are so robust that they can replace their leaders in a nanosecond. it is important the take out individuals that we have identified as key leaders of the cell or that israel thinks are controlling part of the operation. but truthfully, when you are talking about a terrorist organization that has thousands of fighters who have already been immersed in a plan, and who are now hunkered down inside of the tunnels waiting to continue the fight, and they have other terrorists cells in what we talked about in hezbollah and yemen and other locations supported by iran, it is very difficult to squash this terrorist activity, but also to basically beat the ideology which is hamas. >> right. and in the mix of all of this, you have the hostages and the idf is now saying it is 240, and there was a rescue of getting one out, but what is this the evident of to rescue more of them, and the idf offensive dofd dovetailed with a idf rescue mission. >> they will tell you that they don't have good intelligence of where the hostages are, and each one of the operations to take the operators off of the board is also an intelligence gathering operation to see if they can find or map the tunnel system and find pockets of some of the hostage, because the assumption is that hamas has grouped them in small groups so they won't get rescued all at once, but the problem is to mark's point, yes, there are many people who can tactically be replaced to do these jobs within hamas. the hope is that by the israeli military keeping the pressure up on the well known figures of hamas, it is keeping the figures of qatar to negotiate more peacefully. >> general and kim, thank you very much. john? >> the democrats are saying that the republicans are setting a political trap when it comes to providing aid to israel. donald trump's own children on the stand tomorrow in the civil fraud case against him. breaking ground in uvalde, and the details of the new plans for a school for the victims who survived the shooting there. happening now, the secretary of defense lloyd austin and secretary of state antony blinken is testifying before the senate to hopefully answer questions to help ukraine and israel. and mike johnson is hoping to pass a stand alone bill that does not include aid to ukraine, and hoping to cut the aid from the irs to fund the bill for israel. joining us is congressman steve womack, and it is always great to see you, and how do you feel? why would tie cutting irs funding to funding for israel? >> well, john, the money that we are talking about with the irs enjoyed bipartisan support when we did the fiscal responsibility act, and so it is essentially the same concept here, using money earmarked for the internal revenue service, and tying it to, as a pay for, for the emerging needs in israel. israel is at war right now with hamas. it is in a true emergency situation. look, we have a spending problem in washington, and props to speaker johnson in terms of all of the things that we could use to pay for the offset this money that the internal revenue money was agreed to in this context. i want to say this, too. i get it that at the other end of the capitol are other ideas emanating out of the senate, senate schumer and others and republicans, and if they have a other plan, let's see it, and then let's come together to reconcile the differences. the house has put together a plan, and you will see it and the floor, and my hope is that it is going to pass, and we will see what comes our way from the other end? >> one thing is funding for ukraine and israel, and you have been supportive of the funding for ukraine, and would you be supportive of a bill for ukraine and israel together? >> i have made no bones about it, the opportunity to defeat vladimir putin in eastern europe is attractive to me, and i have supported funding for ukraine. look i am not sacrificing one for another. we have a raging conflict going on now three weeks into it in israel in the gaza strip, and getting money out of the door, and the israelis and the idf to replenish the stocks to what i deem necessary, and at the end of the day, john, what we get back from the senate, john, it is different from what we send forward. >> and some are calling this a trap tie tying the funding for israel to irs. and why not just vote it up and down. >> that is not where the gop is -- >> is that where you are? >> look, i am going to support what the republican conference puts forward in order to get something sent to the senate, and then reconcile our differences. so if it is a reasonable solution, and i believe this one is a reasonable solution, then why not support it, and then get it to the senate, and then come back and settle our differences and get something that the president can sign and get this money out the door. look, if i were running the show by myself, would it look differently? perhaps so, but at the end of the day, it has to be made by the majority of the people, and 218 votes in the house, and we will have an opportunity to do that. look, we will lose some democrat support, and no question about it over the irs funding issue, but there are people sympathetic to the plight of our friends in the jewish community and israel who will join us in this conquest, and we'll get it to the senate, and see where it goes from there. >> and congressman, we have had the chance the speak with you quite a bit over the last few weeks given everything that has been happening with the house and getting the leadership there, and you have been frustrated with the capital f over the last several weeks. safe to say. so over the summer, you said considering whether to seek re-election, and after labor day, you said that you were running again, and i am wondering after everything that has happened over the last few week, and how frustrated you are, whether you are seeking re-election? >> not reconsidering my decision. i make that decision every other labor day, and to be fair to my district and to be fair to other people who might want to seek re-election in to succeed me, then i think it is important to give plenty of time. the but decision has been made i will file, and this institution is important to me. and this country is important to me. i love my country, and it needs the people here who understand the context and the context of where we are today and domestically, and where we are in the face of the world, and what is going on in the context of the global environment. i believe i have those skillsets to be able to continue to deliver for the 3rd district of arkansas and i plan to do it. but you are right, it is frustrating at times, but not sufficiently so to make me want to take my weares and go home. >> thank you, congressman steve womack, we appreciate you coming on and answering the questions. >> you know, john, i am hoping to play a much lower profile in the ensuing days. [ laughter ] >> thank you, representative steve womack. >> he is interesting. and now, a caravan coming out of mexico headed for the border, and the journey they have planned. sara sidner is at a kibbutz that was targeted during the attack, and now after the attack, the people taking on the grim task of trying to identify so many bodies. during this identification process, we heard the screams, and we heard the cries of the family that came and said their last good-bye. 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. all right. we are on the cusp of what could be the biggest moment yet or the series of the biggest moments yet of the civil fraud trial of donald trump where he has already been found liable for fraud. his children are due to testify beginning tomorrow. >> so first, take a look at the screen, and donald trump jr. is going to take the stand tomorrow, and eric trump to follow thursday, and his daughter ivanka is scheduled next week and that is after the judge denied her fight to be called to the stand, and this is maybe not quite over yet. >> and brynn gingras is outside of the courthouse and she is actually here on set today, and she is going to describe the importance of what is happening here. >> yes, this is the end of the new york attorney's case, and so then, the defense. and these are big moments not just for who they are, but the case in general. so when they talk, and question the children, the state is trying to connect the dots from all of the testimony that we have seen in the last four weeks. of course, donald trump jr., eric trump, they are defendants in this case, and their names have been mentioned quite a bit by witnesses whether it is emails or out of the mouths of the witnesses who have taken the stand, and the hope of the new york general's attorney's office is to connect the dots and what role did they play, and as the judge has said inflating the assets to get better loans and insurance policies, and so, did they answer the questions? it is unclear at the moment, and we do know that the former president is expected to take the stand at the beginning of next week, and he is not going to be in the courtroom at end of the week right now. >> for his kids. >> and that is surprising, but he has campaign events, and they will be taking the stand to finish out the week, and then take the stand next week. >> what is the deal with ivanka. removed as a co-defendant, and then fought to testify, and you have to testify, but. >> the state is saying that she is not a defendant in the case anymore, but she might have information that might help their case, but she collects money, and rent is paid for by trump org and maybe a part to play that they want to get information from her, and the judge agreed with her, and so she would be the last person to testify if she loses appeal, but we have not seen it yet, but if that happens. >> good to see you. thank you. and joining us mor e with caroline with more on the prosecution. why would they want to call the kids? >> hello, kate. well, it would some pervasive fraud here, and the remaining six count dos include knowledge -- counts do include knowledge on the part of the defendants, including donald trump, and so they will hit them hard of what they knew and when they knew it, and the patterns and the practices of running the company, and the issue here is the knowledge of overvaluing, and undervaluing assets for the purposes of obtaining loans and insurance and things like that. so i think that we will see a lot of documents coming in to be authenticate and getting to the paper evidence in this case. >> so when you are talking about