getting out of gaza, hundreds of people have now been able to evacuate gaza. americans are now getting out as well. on the list to get out today, possibly 400 names of u.s. nationals. there's a lot of action at the rafah crossing. we'll take you there. >> israeli forces say they have broken through the front lines of hamas fighters and are at the gates of gaza city. don junior back on the stand. the former president's season is headed back to court soon. what he is and isn't saying about how much his family is worth. i'm kate bolduan with john berman. sara sidner is off. this is cnn "news central." all right. happening now, the first americans are getting out of gaza. down here, part of the stream of people we've seen moving through the rafah crossing. we've seen ambulances lined up there, people on foot moving through the crossing itself. ultimately they end up on the peninsula and are processed through makeshift hospital and warehouse here. this is part of the deal to get maybe thousands of foreign nationals and some wounded out of gaza. this deal was brokered by qatar, israel, hamas and egypt. hamas israel refused to let people out, egypt refused to let people in but right now the doors are open. let's get to melissa bell in cairo with the latest on this. melissa? >> reporter: i think the framing is right, everything was blocked at the rafah crossing until it wasn't yesterday and again today a great deal of activity at the southern border of gaza with egypt. as you mentioned a moment ago, the list has been published overnight of some nearly 600 names of those given clearance to get out. we understand we have confirmation from egyptian authorities that 7,000 people are leaving the gaza strip over the coming days and they're doing that in batches. 600 more names have been cleared to get out, including 400 americans. and i think what's been one of the most interesting things of the last 24 hours or so, as we've begun to see the foreign nationals leave gaza is to hear their stories. no journalists can get into gaza, the ones there were there before october 7th. we keep trying with the egyptian authorities but no one is getting through. but the few journalists that are able to function, the stringers. >> producers with whom we work, but these first hand accounts from foreign nationals who are stuck there are very appreciate in -- precious indeed. dr. barbara zim was one of the first two americans to come and this is what she had to say about her ordeal. >> in the beginning we were in gaza city we were told to move south there was intensive bombing in gaza city and there was. but moving south there was still a lot of bombing. so there's really no safe place for the gazan people. we ended up for two and a half weeks in basically a parking lot that was wardened off from the rest of the gazans staying there. we were relatively lucky but running out of food and water also. >> reporter: running out of food and water. nowhere in gaza is safe. these are the stories we're likely to hear in the coming days from those getting out of there. we've been hearing from the u.s. children's agency unicef about what's happening. it said by its count 400 children have been wounded or killed each day in the 25 days of this war so far, a situation they say can cannot continue calling for an urgent humanitarian cease-fire in order to get some aid in. it's been just a trickle so far. as you were hearing from dr.dr. dr. zin, people don't have enough water or food. and unicef speaking to what's happening at the refugee camp this week, hit two days in a row by the israeli strikes, many hundreds are feared dead but it's difficult to get a death toll because of the difficulty of getting through the rubble and trying to get to those who may or may not have survived. >> melissa bell in cairo, thank you so much. keep us posted. an idf commander is declaring israeli troops are at the gates of gaza city. according to photos and videos cnn obtained and verified this is what the israeli ground strategy has looked like so far. israeli troops moving into gaza at three main locations. two from the north of gaza city and one looking at coming from the south under gaza city. an idf spokesperson now says hamas' defensive lines are continuing to collapse. jeremy diamond is in southern israeli joining us with more on this. what are you learning about what the idf is coming up against as they are moving deeper and gaza headed towards gaza city? the. >> reporter: as you just mentioned, kate, the idf is moving towards gaza city from three axes, one from the north, two from the south. and even as they say that and the troops are approaching gaza city there's still very much active fighting behind me in the northeastern most city in the gaza strip. right behind me here you can see the smoke in the distance and the last hour or two, we have been hearing constant battles between idf soldiers and hamas militants. we've been hearing small arm fires, artillery and other explosions in the background. it's clear as the forces move deeper into the gaza strip they're still confronting hamas fighters closer to the entry points in the north. part of that is because of the tunnel system that hamas has. the idf said this morning overnight they were ambushed by hamas militants and that they engaged in a battle with hamas fighters for several hours overnight. so it's clear this fighting is intense and ongoing. and israeli military generals have been trying to prepare the israeli public for a long, drawn out battle and one that will be costly. we have seen that at least 16 israeli soldiers have been killed in the last six days of fighting and that is also something that the israeli politicians and the israeli prime minister are taking into account as they look at the next steps of this battle. >> jeremy, what more are you hearing and what are you picking up about the aftermath and what's being learned after the strikes on the refugee camp and the overall civilian casualty? the scope of it and what you're hearing? >> reporter: yeah, yesterday, kate for the second time in as many days, israeli jets striking targets in the refugee camp. this is an extremely densely populated camp with more than 100,000 people living there and the scenes of the destruction after an israeli jet struck it yesterday as well as the scenes from tuesday, is devastating. you can see apartment buildings levelled to the ground, a mass i have crater remaining in their place. yesterday the director of the nearby indonesian hospital, told our colleague that at least 80 people were injured -- sorry, at least 80 people were killed and hundreds of people were injured. and you can see in the people being pulled from the rubble, women and children and this just comes as we have watched as the toll of this war on children has just absolutely mounted in devastating ways. unicef, kate, is now saying that about 400 children have been killed or injured every single day since the start of this war on october 7th. the idf maintain they struck a hamas command and control center in the refugee camp yesterday on tuesday they said they killed a senior commander responsible for the october 7th terrorist attacks and maintain hamas is responsible for the civilian deaths because they embed in residential buildings and build their tunnels under residential buildings. but now there's the specter of war crimes from these strikes. kate? >> jeremy diamond, thank you very much. with us now retired colonel cedric leighton. good to see you. in a way, this is the troops surrounding gaza city. how would you judge the relative success of this operation so far? >> at the moment it looks really good. but here's the problem. they are going to run into -- the idf forces are going to run into active resistance throughout all of the urban areas they're going after. so what they'd probably do is there might be a siege, at the very least an encirclement of gaza city and as they move into the areas they have to clear every building they encounter. and many of the buildings as we've seen from the videos we've shown recently, many of those buildings are destroyed or at least partially damaged. and that, of course, will give snipers a chance to find a place to shoot from, make it easy for them to place things like ieds and it's going to be tough going for the israeli infantry forces. >> in so far as -- another way of looking at it, a satellite map here. they've come from this direction, the northwest, northeast, and south, what's worked and hasn't worked? in. >> as far as we can see, what has worked so far seems to be the movements -- actually all of the them have seemed to have worked quite a bit. it's all relative at this point in time because the population centers are, of course, in the north and that also means the centers which hamas is going to defend are also there. so when they move their line of defense, and everybody is focussing on that right now. when they move that line of defense, that is going to look like it's a victory for the israeli forces. but we shouldn't look at that as being the final thing at the moment, the final statement of what's going on, because those hamas forces are going to withdraw into the urban areas. so as far as success right now, probably the one from the southeast but also the ones from the north are achieving a degree of success and depending on how far they go and what objectives -- localized objectives they have set for themselves they may be able to sustain those operations for some time. >> i want to ask you about what we've seen at the refugee camp. just so people understand, this isn't tents. this is a city built up since the 1940s with people who moved there in the 1940s. this is satellite imagery from before the air strikes and you can see after the air strikes here. you can see this area here. simply gone. twofold here. number one, given that israel knew there were civilians here they say they have taken out, eliminated key hamas terror leaders but there have been civilians killed as well. is this the type of air strike that would have happened had the united states been running things? this. >> probably not. and the reason i say that is, we take a lot of precautionary measures when it comes to striking areas where there are large civilian populations. of course, there have been civilian deaths in places like iraq and afghanistan and that's our most recent relative example to what's going on in gaza, but we probably would have waited to catch the leaders at a moment where they are isolated from -- or at least in relative isolation from the surrounding population. and so what that means is, there's a patient waiting game, in essence, it's not really a game for them, but we wait for them to come out of their hiding places for whatever reason and that's when we go after them. that's our modus operandi throughout the war on terror in both afghanistan and iraq. and that is something that the israelis probably don't have that tactical patience if you will, because they're under pressure to move very fast and achieve goals very quickly. we are sometimes under that pressure as well. but it's very different for us because we look very carefully at the collateral damage impacts and the possibility of that collateral damage. >> one of the reasons the israelis feel they have to move fast is they say there are 240 hostages still being held and this is their 27th day in captivity. colonel, thank you very much. kate? next for us, donald trump jr. back on the stand. and republicans in the senate seemingly to have had enough with senator tommy tuberville's months long block of military promotions. what his colleagues are saying as they call him out from the senate floor and how he's responding as well. and more out of israel, cnn is at the northern border with lebanon where idf troops are training for potential battles with hezezbollah. what would be a nightmarare scenarioio. we'll l be right b back. don junior denied any involvement in inflating his family's net worth. kara is outside the courthouse. eric and don junior have entered the courthouse together. what do you expect to happen today? >> reporter: these two are going to be the men of the day. they just entered the courthouse together a few moments ago. donald trump will be back on the stand testifying when court begins at 10:00 a.m. and he'll continue to answer questions posed by the attorney general's office. he was on the stand for about 90 minutes yesterday and during his testimony he denied any involvement with these financial statements at the heart of this investigation. and he said that the accountants work on them, that's what we paid them for. so he's denying any connection to that. they also asked specifically about the financial statements in had 2017 that matters because that's the year he took over as trustee of the family business when his father became president. he distanced himself then that had he known -- he may have provided information to his internal accountants but he didn't know how they were going to use it. but this line of questioning just began. so we're expecting to hear a lot more questions about the financial statements, about his roles at different properties and how they were valued in the statements as he continues to testify for we're expecting a couple of hours today. his lawyers are not expecting to ask him any questions when the attorney general is done with him, the attorney general will then call eric trump. he had involvement with golf courses, a couple of them at the center of the case. we expect him to be on the stand longer than don junior his testimony could carry over into tomorrow, kate. and then looking into next week when former president trump will be taking the stand on monday and his daughter, ivanka trump is scheduled to testify on wednesday. kate? >> cara, thank you so much. with us defense attorney shannon wu and senior legal analyst and former u.s. assistant attorney for southern district of new york, elie honing. don junior on the stand yesterday he said wasn't my job to deal with the financial records. that was for the accountants. he is a witness for the state. the plaintiffs put him on the stand. what is it now today they want to get from him? >> they're not going to get him to just collapse and admit he ordered the code red. he's not going to say you're right, i knew it was a fraud, you wore me down. now you're trying to do two things if you're the ag's office, if you have documents that contradict him, confront him with that, internal emails, memos, accounting statements you confront him, didn't you say this, sign that? the other thing you do is lock him into his testimony, this was for the accountants and not me, then attack it later through other witnesses. hopefully in the ag's case you would have witnesses to say he knew what was going on, i explained it to him. that's what we're looking for. >> i think we heard that his attorneys -- don junior's attorneys, trump's attorneys -- all the attorneys working for the trumps are not questioning don junior. why wouldn't you? >> because you don't want to create an opportunity for further damage. he's basically distancing himself entirely from any knowledge, i'd say note to self, don't put him in charge of your business if he runs things that way. a graduate of wharton who says he doesn't understand basic accounting things. so you don't want to put him up there and do any further damage. you want to isolate him the way he is. and ideally he's presented as being irrelevant really to the case and probably everyone is going to take that position. so ultimately you put the judge in an interesting spot which is the judge already determined there is liability here. the question is how much. yet everyone is going to be saying we don't know what was really going on. so who did know? >> so don junior and eric today and tomorrow. donald trump, former president, current presidential candidate, on the stand on monday. how will that be similar or different to what we're seeing today? >> donald trump, the former president, has an interesting decision to make. is he going to actually testify or take the fifth? he has the option to take the fifth. don junior and eric had that option -- >> but you have taught us that's important and that has impact in a civil trial. >> absolutely. if you take the fifth in a civil trial it can be used against you. the judge can say so and so has taken the fifth i'm allowed to assume the worst of their testimony. donald trump, the former president, was deposed in this case. the only question he would answer was his name before, so when donald trump gets into court on monday he will have to take the stand. will he change course and say i'm going to answer questions will he do that or stick by the fifth amendment. >> do you think he'll be as disciplined a witness as don junior has been so far? >> no way. don junior is giving responses but not going on rants, expecting a different environment on monday. >> thank you both so much. i want to get back fo israel ri -- back to israel right now with our colleague jim chute tt sciutto. >> reporter: this is a live fire exercise to be clear but a serious exercise. these are israeli idf special forces taking part in a live fire exercise with tanks and combined operations. they are part of 70,000 israeli soldiers deployed to the northern border, and the golan heights, which borders syria you can see it over my shoulder. and in this direction due north is where lebanon is and the concern is and the reason you have the training and the show of force is this war might expand and iranian proxies inside lebanon and syria might be ordered to by iran and others that control them locally and from afar to enter the war in a proactive way. here comes some of the special forces soldiers by me here. let me make way for them. here they come. these are the idf's most elite troops comparable to u.s. special forces. try not to get in the way as they're doing this because they're taking this seriously. again this is an exercise for folks at home watching this had, but it's an exercise meant to make sure their skills are sharp if this war expands to the north but also given the proximity here. the proximity to the borders, i think you can say this is a show of force as well. to show they 'ready, kate. and a lot of attention to tomorrow because the head of hezbollah, the leader of hezbollah is going to give a speech tomorrow afternoon. a lot of concern in this country that he's going to order hezbollah forces into this war. >> we just want to make sure people understand as jim has said, this is an exercise. this is a live-fire exercise. seeing the israeli special forces in training in golan, in the golan heights, and one of the stunning things about golan, if you go there you can see syria, lebanon, the threats that israel perceives from anywhere you stand. >> the bigger, broader threat that could be coming. >> jim talk more about the hezbollah leader, who will speak tomorrow. is israel -- the idf, the people you're with, are they going on any kind of high alert? how are they approaching that moment? >> well, you see, one of israel's -- israel's tanks they're participated in this live fire exercise. they're taking this very seriously. that's why we're seeing an exercise like this one -- a reminder this is an exercise, but a live fire exercise involving israeli special forces and tanks in the golan bordering syria. we don't know what hezbollah is going to do in this war. i'm going to let them do their work here. we don't know, israel doesn't know, u.s. intelligence doesn't know if hezbollah is going to order their forces into the war in numbers. but the reason you're seeing this is they're taking that threat very seriously. >> jim, we could assume this is also, you know, as a show of force a