by special counsel jack smith here in the district. she imposed this gag order, barring trump from targeting witnesses in the case, members of the court staff, and even the special counsel itself. t she imposed that gag order at the request of prosecutors, but she did not limit his ability to talk about washington, d.c., the potential jury pool, or the justice department, which prosecutors had also sought protection for those two groups. but here, she has argued, she has said look, i understand she has a first amendment right, but that must yield to the orderly administration of justice. she said that she has to put on a trial, she needs to protect members of her staff, people involved in this case just trying to do their jobs. that is why she imposed this gag order and declined to freeze it herself. the former president's lawyers have argued that this is a violation of his first amendment. they point to the fact that he's once again running for the white house and that what they describe as political speech serves the highest protection. a three-judge panel will hear arguments in a few weeks. this was a pretty quick move from this decision to freeze two oral arguments. wolf, it appears the court of appeals is mindful of the need to decide this issue quickly to keep this case moving along. >> paula, can the government appeal this ruling? >> reporter: well, this is the appeals process. it will depend on what the appeals court ultimately decides. they are going to hear arguments november 20th. then they will make a decision. if either side does not like how that turns out, they can certainly appeal to the supreme court. >> paula, stand by. we have more questions for you. also tonight, we're following another -- new developments in another of trump's cases. the civil fraud case in new york. our correspondent is just outside the courthouse in manhattan for us. tell us about eric trump's testimony today under oath, and what we can expect from donald trump and ivanka's testimony scheduled next week. >> reporter: eric trump completed his testimony today. he was on the stand for four hours over the past two days. the attorney general's office was focussing in on these financial statements at the center of this lawsuit. eric trump saying he relied on accountants and lawyers and when they gave him comfort that the statements were "perfect" he was happy to sign off on them. just a reminder, the judge has already found that these statements are fraudulent. now, outside the courthouse, eric trump was defiant, standing by his testimony and attacking the attorney general's investigation. take a listen. >> the last couple of days have gone great because we haven't done a damn thing wrong. if you can line up as many trumps as you can, she can sit in court for an extra couple of days and send fund-raising emails every day to her donor base saying i'm going after trump. >> reporter: donald trump will be on the stand on monday. he's expected to sit for a full day of questioning under oath by the attorney general's office. he will be sitting just inches from the judge, who he has attacked on social media. the attorney general has attended every court date that the former president has been in. once his testimony wraps, it will be ivanka trump's turn. she stopped her effort to block her testimony, dropping her appeals. so she will be testifying on wednesday. after that, the new york attorney general's office is expected to rest their case, and then it will be donald trump's turn to see if he's going to put on any defense. wolf? >> kara, thank you. appreciate it. paula reed is still with us. i also want to bring in former prosecutor jennifer rogers, with former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district attorney elliott hoenig. what is your reaction to this freeze? are you surprised? >> well, wolf, i've never seen anything quite like this. just so people can follow the history here quickly, the judge imposed the gag order first. but then she put it on hold to give donald trump's team a chance to appeal it. however, donald trump then pretty much immediately violated it while it was on hold. so the judge said okay, i'm unfreezing it and putting the gag order back in place. what the appeals court has done has said is hold on, we're going to put it on hold. so as we sit here, the gag order is on hold. i take two lessons out of this. first of all, the appeals court is taking donald trump's first amendment argument seriously. they're going the hear him out. second of all, they have signalled to donald trump you're on a very short leash here. we intend to move very, very quickly. so we'll have to wait and see what the appeals court does in the next couple of days. >> important point. jennifer rogers, as you know trump has argued that this gag order violated his first amendment rights, and it looks like the appeals court is taking that argument seriously, right? >> there's some thorny issues here, wolf. we never before have had a presidential candidate under indictment making comments about his rival and his rival's justice department, who is prosecuting him. so we are in unchartered territory here, which is why the appellate court does want to take time and it makes sense to freeze the gag order so that trump can ultimately say he was somehow harmed by this. i think, though, it would be really fool hearty of trump to violate the gag order that isn't in place, but to violate the terms of it now, it would give the special counsel's office a lot of ammunition to say, listen, this is why we need this, look at what he's saying and look at the potential impact on all the parties here. >> let me go back to paula, while i have you. this is some rare good news for trump and his many, many legal problems that we all know about. what does this order mean for the case? >> for the time being, he's not restricted in his ability to discuss prosecutors, witnesses, and court staff. though as our colleague just noted, probably not a good idea to do that right before this goes before the appellate court. but we have seen when gag orders have been lifted in the past, he takes the opportunity to really play at the edges of what he is allowed to do. all defendants have certain restrictions. you are not supposed to intimidate witnesses. it's unheard of to attack prosecutors or the judge. so extraordinary circumstance here. his team, though, at least wanted to be heard by the appellate court and potentially they could appeal this to the supreme court on this issue of political speech and the potential infringement on his first amendment right that. is the argument that they are making, and they will at least be heard before this three-judge panel. it's unclear which way this will go. >> elly, this gag order was put in place because trump was accused of threatening people. does that mean he can go back to doing that now, even if it's not advisable? >> boy, i would advise strongly against that. technically, he can now comment on the witnesses. but as jennifer said, if he does that, this court of appeals might very well say, okay, you pushed us here. we're going to reinstitute it. and just to be clear, when the judge gave trump's team the courtesy of putting it on hold a few days ago, within hours, trump was out on social media attacking mark meadows, attacking bill barr. both of whom are likely to be crucial witnesses in this case. it would have violated the gag order had the judge not put it on hold. so both levels of court are giving trump some leeway, but it would be ill advised to continue violating that. >> jennifer, do you expect this gag order will ultimately come back in some form? >> i'm sorry, wolf, i missed the question. >> do you think this gag order will eventually come back, at least in some form? >> i do. i think particularly the part about attacking witnesses is bullet proof. i don't think the appellate court to overturn that. there could be some changes on the margins about commenting on the special counsel's office, but i do think certainly, at least part of -- the witness part is definitely going to stay in place once the appellate court has a chance to hear it thoroughly. >> i'm wondering, paula, how unusual is this move from the appeals court? >> well, it's not uncommon for them to agree to hear a dispute like this. we are -- as we are so often with former president trump, just in an extraordinary situation. the question of the limits of free speech for a criminal defendant who is also a leading candidate for the white house, that's something that's just never been contemplated by the courts before. so it's not surprising that this appellate court is willing to take up this case, hear arguments on both sides, and render a decision, give some clarity, because this is likely an issue that could come up again in this case, and potentially in other cases. of course, at the state level, he's under a gag order in new york, but he's also facing another federal prosecution in florida with the special counsel. it's possible this could come up there. so it would be good to get some clarity, at least from this federal court, and possibly, possibly the supreme court on this. >> we shall see. paula, jennifer, elly, guys, thank you very much. just ahead, more news we're following. an ambulance outside of the gaza hospital hit by an israeli air strike. this as israeli troops surround gaza city right now. and a cnn exclusive interview with embattled republican congressman george santos. what he has to say about his political future. lots of news today. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." we're back with breaking news here in the middle east. the israeli military acknowledging that its war against hamas has led it to strike another controversial target. an ambulance outside a gaza hospital. a warning, some of the scenes from this attack are graphic. let's go to cnn's nick robertson, who is joining us not far from gaza. nic, what more are we learning about this strike? >> reporter: well, the hospital is saying -- officials there are saying that 15 people were killed and 50 injured in this strike. and the international committee for the red cross say they are aware that the hospital was organizing a convoy of ambulances for a medical evacuation from the hospital in the north of gaza there to the south of gaza where the idf has said there is a safe, humanitarian zone. the road cross weren't involved with the convoy but aware that it was being established and it was leaving the hospital. what the idf say is look, we had intel agents that said there were hamas operatives and hamas weapons being smuggled out on those ambulances. they say that's why they targeted that particular convoy. so it was, again, intelligence leading to a specific targeted strike. but once again, as we have seen civilian casualties as a result. the total now in gaza, according to the hamas-led ministry of officials, there's more than 9,000 civilian deaths and 22,000 civilian casualties. so the idf very clear, this was specifically targeting hamas, who were hiding out in one of those ambulances, wolf. >> nic robertson reporting from israel. thank you very much. i want to go to israel's northern front right now, on heightened alert i'm told, amid a new warning from hezbollah about potentially a wider middle east war. cnn's jim sciutto is joining us from northern israel right now, not far from lebanon. jim, the leader of hezbollah spoke publicly today for the first time since the hamas attack on israel. what did we learn today about that group's intentions? >> reporter: he said he's watching hamas closely. he prays the october 7th attacks, and he said it is possible that another front could open up, that hezbollah could enter this war at some point. but he did not order his forces into the breach, as it were, to open up a second front here. that had been the fear. there had been a great deal of anticipation here in the north. i know that u.s. and israeli military officials were watching his words very closely. as you mentioned, northern israel was on a heightened state of alert in advance of his speech, because they feared that's what the hezbollah leader was going to do, announce that he was ordering his forces in. but he didn't do that. he said it was possible, but not doing it today. in fact, he seems to make a case for the status quo, saying that hezbollah's threats and presence on the southern border of lebanon, not far from where we are right here, was enough to already occupy israel's attention, and it is true that some 70,000 forces have been deployed to the north. but he seemed to say that is enough for now. we should also note that he seemed to make a deliberate effort to put space between hezbollah and hamas for those october 7th attacks, praising them, praising those depraved terror attacks on october 7th, but saying, in his words, it was 100% palestinian operation. that is to say, hezbollah was not involved. he even said that hezbollah was not bothered that it had not been given advance notice of those attacks. so it's an effort there to put some space between himself and hamas, to say he reserves the right to attack in numbers from the wnorth. but he has not yet given those orders. the nervousness is high, given last night we saw some of the largest barrage of hezbollah rockets into northern israel. we have not, though, i should note, seen that tonight. >> that's good. jim sciutto, thank you very much, in on israel. stay safe over there. we'll stay in close touch with you. just ahead, the growing calls for a gaza cease-fire from democrats in the u.s. congress. i'll speak with the top democrat in the house foreign affairs committee. that and a lot more coming up. tonight, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken is in jordan after urging war talks with officials here in israel about the war with hamas and the danger to civilians. cnn's m.j. lee is covering this for us. we's joining us from the white house right now. what message did blinken actactual actually deliver today in public and private? >> reporter: it says a lot that this was secretary blinken's third visit to israel since this war broke out. he had a tough and blunt message to deliver to israel. he said israel needed to simply do more to do away with and protect palestinian civilian lives. this, of course, has been a big message coming from u.s. officials. we know that this is a message that reflects the growing concern within the biden white house about what they see as the rising civilian casualties and the humanitarian suffering in gaza. we know that privately, there have been warnings delivered by u.s. officials to their israeli counterparts that unless israel takes a different approach to mitigate some of the civilian suffering that the support that israel has from the global community is going to erode, and that there isn't much time left. we saw secretary blinken taking those private warnings public when he was in israel today. we also know that when he was meeting with the israeli leaders and israel's war cabinet, one thing that he made a hard push for were these humanitarian pauses. i think we have found secretary blinken talking about the importance of those pauses. here he is. >> with regard to the pauses, we see this as a way of further facilitating the ability to get assistance in. we see it as a way also, and very importantly, of creating a better environment in which hostages can be released. this is a very important piece. >> reporter: of course, wolf, we saw prime minister netanyahu after his meeting with secretary blinken rejecting those calls for these pauses in fighting, essentially saying that israel is not going to do that unless hostages being held in gaza can be released. it's important to note, wolf, too, that here in the u.s., those calls for humanitarian pauses, they're not just coming from the administration. we are hearing a number of democrats now joining in that call, as well. including in a new letter where we saw more than a dozen democratic senators saying this was important for getting humanitarian aid in and getting civilians out of gaza. all of this, of course, is taking place as there are also growing calls for a general cease-fire. this is something that the biden administration has not endorsed yet, but they are certainly aware that the pressure is growing for calls for a general cease-fire. wolf? >> certainly is. m.j. lee at the white house for us. thank you very much. meanwhile, over at the pentagon, the pentagon says the u.s. military is flying surveillance drones over gaza to help search for the more than 240 hostages being held captive by hamas. cnn's oren lieberman is joining us from the pentagon with new information. what exactly are these drones doing? >> reporter: the purpose of these drones is to gather intelligence with the different sensors they have to see if they can pick up any sort of information that would help israel and the u.s. identify with more than 240 hostages are being held. the pentagon had acknowledged it would help israel planning for a hostage rescue effort. key to that is know bring the hostages are. so take a look at these flight tracks that show you where the drones have been flying, focusing efforts on southern gaza there. it's unclear what or how much they have learned or have been able to pass to the israelis. you can see there, the focus, the effort, and the help the u.s. has been providing to israel in this case in the hostage rescue effort. a key focus of both countries. in terms of what the drones are doing, these are unarmed surveillance drones. they are not armed with missiles, seeking intelligence on the hostages to share with israel and importantly, the u.s. is not using these for targeting or for intel gathering to pass onto the israelis for targeting. so the u.s. very clear as the pentagon acknowledged earlier today that these drones have been operating over gaza since october 7th. in terms of what else the u.s. military is doing in the region, we have two carrier strike groups in the middle east, operating and exercising together. you can see the two carriers there at the bottom of that picture. this has been going on for three days. these exercises there, the u.s. with a massive show of forces to deter iran and proxies to try to take advantage of the situation. the pentagon announced about a week and a half ago, the "uss dwight d. eisenhower" would be heading to the middle east, putting significant forces on both israel's western border and southern border. >> significant developments indeed. oren lieberman, thank you very much for that report. joining us now, the top democrat in the house foreign affairs committee, congressman gregory meeks. thank you for joining us. let me get your reaction first of all to this israeli strike on an ambulance outside of a hospital in gaza. video shows a very graphic scene. the idf claims hamas terrorists were killed in the strike. what do you make of this? >> well, you know, unfortunately hamas is the cause of a lot of this. hamas has utilized palestinians as shields throughout -- they have used it for a number of years, they have always used them as shields and continue to do so and try to hide and embed themselves into an ambulance, et cetera, is a difficult situation. i mean, i think israel is going after targeted striking to try to kill and dismantle all of hamas' tunnels and those that were responsible for the terrorist attack on israel on october 7th. that's what they're going after. that being said, you know, you of course want to minimize. all lives, israeli lives, palestinian lives are important. so therefore, you want to minimize any loss of life of civilians. but we can't lose sight, wolf, of the fact that hamas can't be trusted, and hamas is utilizing, you know, palestinians. so hamas is the enemy of palestinians by utilizing them as the shi