you're watching "cnn news central." i'm boris sanchez alongside alex mar quiet. there is no hope for babies evacuated from a war-torn hospital in gaza as pressure is growing on israel to provide evidence hamas ran a command center under the al shifa medical facility. in washington, d.c., a fiery courtroom showdown. former president donald trump is fighting his gag order in the federal 2020 election subversion case, with a special counsel says trump is trying to influence and intimidate witnesses. and new data shows the earth is getting hotter, smashing through a threshold scientists have been warning about for decades. we're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to "cnn news central." we start this hour with dozens of newborn babies who were trapped in a war zone, now safe. earlier today a convoy of ambulances made the treacherous journey through gaza to the rafah crossing where medical staff were ready waiting with incubators to transfer the newborns to egypt, 28 babies in all. their fight far from over. doctors say every one of them is battling seniors you infection. their transfer, the latest fallout from israel's controversial raid on the al shifa hospital last week. >> now israel's military is releasing videos they say justify that raid on the al shifa hospital. one allegedly showing two hostages being brought into the hospital. that was back on october 7th, the day that hamas carried out the massacres in israel. you can see one person apparently being rushed through by force on a -- and another on a stretcher. the idf shared footage inside a tunnel shaft on the hospital compound. cnn's jeremy diamond is tracking this story in sderot, israel. jeremy, israel is claiming hamas was using al shifa as a command center. what evidence have we seen of that so far? >> reporter: the latest evidence israel has presented is the most concrete of evidence of tunnels below al shifa hospital but it stopped short of proving israel's blroad claims of a command center below the hospital. what we are seeing from the israeli military is this video showing a drone going down this tunnel shaft where you can see some kind of a spiral staircase and then in the tunnel shaft there's video, perhaps taken by a robot with a camera or some kind of an animal with a camera, going down multiple meters down this tunnel. you can see the curved ceilings that are typical of hamas tums in the gaza strip and then it arrives at a door which the israeli military has yet to open because they fear it may be booby-trapped. israelis have made broad claims of hamas having a command center below al shifa hospital, but meanwhile the israeli military is answering questions and criticism and condemnation of a strike on the indonesian hospital in gaza. 12 people were killed according to health officials in the gaza strip, and the united nations, the world health organization, actually, is condemning this, saying they are appalled a military would have struck a hospital. the israeli military, for its part, said it was responding to gunfire from the hospital from militants inside the hospital. they say that they did not fire any shells at that hospital, but again, just the latest incident that we are seeing of civilians, in this case, patients, and at least one medical staffers caught in the crossfire. >> and jeremy, as all of this is had happening, hostage negotiations are still ongoing involving multiple parties. there is some optimism, at least from the u.s. side in all of this, part of alex's reporting. where do things stand right now? >> yeah. this is certainly the most optimism we have seen that a deal may be nearing. in the weeks of negotiations that have been ongoing between israel and hamas, mediated by the qatari government with assistance from the united states, and this draft of a potential agreement, which alex and our colleagues are reporting on, shows that israel could agree to a four or five-day cease-fire in exchange for hamas releasing at least 50 hostages initially with perhaps more to come. but it is very clear that some sticking points still indeed remain. among them, the mechanisms for the release of this, the exact duration of the cease-fire, and there are also questions still about the exact number of the hostages that would be released by hamas. i spoke with a senior israeli official today who said look, there is no deal yet and until there is one they are holding off on the optimism we are hearing from the united states and others. >> positivity, but there are gaps and things that need to be figured out. jeremy diamond in israel, thank you very much. straight to cnn's elaineny in cairo. we have babies evacuated in dire condition from the gaza strip into egypt. what is the latest word on their condition? >> reporter: yeah. i mean, this was a really treacherous, dangerous journey from al shifa hospital and, of course, you've just been talking about al shifa and the war basically that was brought to their doorstep. many of the patients there and the doctors describe being trapped inside, including neonatal babies. they eventually had a safe passage to leave and made that journey going to the emirati hospital in rafah. they had to be stabilized. i want you to think about just what it meant to be in al shifa hospital as a premature baby. no oxygen, no real access to milk, and clean water. no real heating, no incubators. we're talking about very catastrophic conditions, and the doctors in al shifa hospital tell us that five of the neonatal babies tragically died. there were 36 initially that egyptians were waiting for. they got 28 today. it was a big move. the egyptians had been waiting for over a week, and they had been describing how ambulances and doctors were waiting at the border. every single day going home disappointed they weren't able to evacuate these tiny little babies. we've seen the images, the crying and just what it was required in terms of medical intervention. 11 of those babies, according to the world health organization, are in critical condition. they're all fighting infection. they had to be stabilized first because they apparently were very stressed. on the egyptian side they will be taken to hospitals. they are already in safe hospitals at the moment and, of course, being assisted as much as possible. we know that they are very underweight indicative of the fact they didn't have enough milk and those incubators were vital. we caught up with the egyptian health minister last week and he was telling us he was receiving images of three babies being put into one incubator, which, of course, is not viable, when such a vulnerable patient needs to be taken care of with every little resource available. but it wasn't a possibility in al shifa. the egyptians say that only four mothers were accompanying the 28 babies and six nurses. they don't know where the rest of the family members are, whether they're alive, but international organizations have said they're going to try to track some of the family members. now, the most important thing, the priority is to get the babies stable and, of course, focus on their health in the coming days. >> from cairo, thank you so much for that reporting. let's dig deeper on the issues facing the middle east with daniel o'shea, a retired u.s. navy s.e.a.l. commander and former coordinator for the hostage working group in iraq and abby mayor, editor in chief for "the jerusalem post." i wanted to start with you, we got some new reporting, family members of israeli hostages are set to meet with prime minister netanyahu this afternoon. they are putting pressure on the prime minister to strike a deal that would release these hostages, according to cnn's reporting, hamas is willing to release some 50 hostages if israel agrees to a pause, a several day pause, i believe it's four or five days. how do you see all of this playing out? >> there's a great deal of support in israel for any deal that would release any hostages. you have families that have been wrauts with anxiety for the past six weeks not knowing if their loved ones are alive or dead, what their situation might be, what their health is. you know there are several who had preexisting health conditions and we don't know if they've been treated or still alive. i think it is a dramatic development that prime minister is indeed meeting with these hostage families. they've been begging for this meeting for quite some time. we don't know exactly what the conditions of such an arrangement might be. again, as you said, there have been some indications that we've been talking about humanitarian pause of several days. there are concerns in israel that that period would enable hamas to regroup and rearm and continue its armed assault. that, of course, is a tremendous concern for many israeli decision makers. we have to see what happens in the days ahead. >> daniel, in terms of the well being of the hostages, we believe they are spread out among different factions of hamas around the gaza strip. we have not seen proof of life. what are your biggest concerns right now about the well being of these around 40 hostages? >> well, the fact remains that many hostages taken were elderly people and, obviously, if they've been held in these tunnelling systems, whatever medications they were on daily, they presumably did not have and if they needed to be on a life support system, that did not happen. you profiled that with the infants that were the premature babies as well. so the -- it's very troubling and that's why there were so many hostages taken at such a broad range from as young as 3 months old, upwards of 85 years old. that is going to be the real concern in terms of how those hostages are doing. they've been held arguably in some horrible conditions f they've been held in the tunnels over the last 40 odd days. >> david, on the negotiations and how a doeal like this is bartered, some of these hostages are not just being held by hamas but hamas affiliated groups, perhaps other entities that might be holding on to hostages, how does that complicate the process of striking a deal and negotiating with these groups that aren't exactly hamas? >>. [ no audio ] >> david? >> i'm sorry. dan? >> oh, i'm sorry. i thought that was going to david. well that's exactly the challenge. there are multiple groups potentially holding them beyond hamas. islamic jihad reportedly held some of the hostages. you can argue the hostages are probably broken up in multiple locations controlled by various factions an that's the challenge. in such a large number and the fact that they're in the tunnelling systems and a lot of we know the internet service is broken down, cell phone towers are broken down, the communication challenge to try to get, you know, information on where these hostages are, that's why i don't think the world is seeing a dynamic situation in terms of international hostage crisis to the scale and scope that we're seeing in gaza which just complicates everything and if a deal is made and can be pulled off, it will indeed be a miracle. >> avi, we just played those videos that the idf released showing the hostages that were taken to al shifa hospital. we have now seen more of that tunnel that the israeli military found in the hospital complex. do you believe that the idf needs to show more conclusive proof of what they have alleged is a large-scale command and control center? >> look, it's no big secret that hamas has used al shifa hospital as a command and control post for years. this has been reported in previous rounds of fighting including by "the washington post" and others who reported seeing hamas terrorists roaming the hallways of al shifa and there is, obviously, a very broad knowledge of an underground complex that exists there as well. i think the expectation that israel was going to unveil this dramatic complex were somewhat far fetched. you have to understand al shifa is a massive, massive hospital complex and israel did not want go with all its forces which would have caused significant damage and loss of life. it did so deliberately, very slowly, and as things have been uncovered they have been revealed to the world. i would not be at all surprised if we saw additional findings coming out in the days ahead as israel continues its very careful and deliberate approach in the hospital complex ensuring that as many individuals and innocent people are spared as it goes to uncover the hamas terror infrastructure that exists at that site. >> we're showing video again of that robot we believe going down into the tunnel, and it goes up to a door that has a window. they haven't gone through that yet we understand because it could be basketbally trapped. the -- booby-trapped. there's a lot more to come out about what has been happening at al shifa hospital. appreciate it very much. >> thank you. coming up, attorneys for donald trump faced appeals court judges today, arguing for the removal of the gag order they say sets a terrible precedence on political speech. we have the details ahead. later, a thanksgiving tradition, president joe biden pardoning the turkeys. brace yourself for all of those famous presidential puns. you're watching "cnn news central." we'll be right back. there w court hearing today regarding the first former american president to be indicted. the gag order in the federal criminal case accusing donald trump of trying to undermine the 2020 election, the order restricts trump's ability to publicly target court staff, witnesses, special counsel jack smith and his staff. >> trump's attorneys say that it limits his first amendment rights, but one of the judges in the three-judge panel gave an early sign he may not agree with trump's attorneys. let's listenen. >> everyone who speaks, this is only -- this is only affecting speech temporarily during a criminal trial process by someone who has been indicted as a felon. no one here is threatening the first amendment broadly. >> cnn's zachary cohen is covering this story and we have caroline with us, a federal and white collar criminal defense attorney. jack, to you based on that question, seals like the gag order is likely to stand. >> the judges were not buying the argument from trump's attorneys saying trump shouldn't have any restrictions on what he's allowed to stay related to this case and, you know, that's underscored by the fact that judges were honing in on hypothetical scenarios they don't have an appetite for throwing out the gag order entirely but want know when there were first amendment issues and when there weren't. one was a situation where former vice president mike pence hypothetically was about to testify the next day, and it donald trump tweets something, you can still do your job mike pence if you make the right decision tomorrow. the back and forth between the judges and trump's lawyers. >> let's assume former vice president mike pence is going to testify and it's the night before his testimony. couldn't the defendant tweet out, mike pence can still fix this. mike pence can still do the right thing. if he says the right stuff tomorrow. first of all, is that communicating with the witness? >> it's just broadcasting a statement of speech on social media, likely not. >> obviously, the witness list in this case has not been released but mike pence has been a central figure of this case. it's interesting the judges were raising the hypothetical to nail down on how they're grappling political speech and criminal speech and things that don't fall under the first amendment. >> caroline, what do you make of that, john source saying this is broadcasting core political speech, it's not communicating with a witness, and then, overall, how likely do you think it is this gag order be will be upheld? >> yeah. alex, i think definitely the gag order will be upheld. you know regardless of how the oral argument went today, i think just by that three-judge panel, what we know about them and their juris prudence it will be upheld. it was a lively debate to be sure. judges were really pushing hard on sours' argument really that, you know, the first amendment protection against political speech is basically invaluable. he wouldn't really budge from, as you've heard there, all these hypotheticals the judges were throwing at him saying, well when would it be appropriate for a court to exercise its jurisdiction in maintaining, you know, a crourtroom that runs smoothly untainted jury pool with the court's staff of paramount importance and the trump team didn't have very many answers besides just sticking to the one sort of point that, you know, he can basically say whatever he wants, whenever he wants. >> and let's dig deeper on what caroline is talking about. you have some sound of sour drilling down saying this is a first amendment issue. >> this is the first thing trump's attorney said during today's hearing and made his point clear trump should be able to say whatever he wants. listen to how defiantly and how strongly his lawyer made the case in court. >> the order is unprecedented and sets a terrible precedent for future restrictions on core political speech. this is a radical departure from the only cases that have considered this particular form of restriction, a restriction on a criminal defendant running for campaign for public office and does so in the context of a hotly contested campaign for the highest office in the united states. >> so the judge has agreed that political speech does require significant protection under the first amendment, but he was supposed to have about 20 minutes to make his case in court today and spent about two hours going back and forth with trump's lawyers. it does show you the gap that exists between the judges and trump's legal team. >> caroline what do you make of the argument by sauer it sets a terrible precedent? >> i would note and the judge pushed back on this, that the gag order just to be clear, the gag order was extremely narrowly tailored which is what you look for when balancing these two big rights, first amendment rights, and the right of a court system to administer justice as it sees fit. the gag order would allow former president trump to really rail against the prosecution, say it's politically motivated, call it a witch hunt as he's fond of doing and bash the democrats, president biden. he can do all that. the very narrow issue here is whether or not he can directly attack court staff, prosecution, the prosecutors, prosecutors, things of that nature, which would incite violence. one of the key issues was how ea aten waited can that be. the idea of well, president trump has all these, you know, people reading his truth social posts what might they do when they get a tweet that sort of crosses the line into that territory of potentially doing violence, doing harm. so that was a key issue today as well. >> and caroline, notably, no matter what happens with this appeals court, it may not be the final say for this gag order. >> absolutely not. they could, you know, the defense could at first request a hearing, not just the three-judge panel but the whole court of appeals at that level and i think this is being teed up for a supreme court decision. >> zach, what about the judge's concerns they showed about jurors in this case getting doxed, for example? >> this was not explicitly addressed in the gag order, but it's something the judges did raise pro actively asking if there was any technological way to protect potential jurors, about the things that trump says, that maybe inspire some of his followers to potential threat of some kind. you know, the prosecutors that were asked that question said no there is no way to protect jurors. this could factor into, you know, the ultimate decision from this panel and interesting to see if that factors into a supreme court decision going forwar