ivanka trump takes the stand. the former president's daughter is testifying as a witness in his civil fraud trial. what she just said about her dad's financial statements with the future of his businesses on the line. the stage is set in miami. five republican candidates debate tonight trying again to loosen former president trump's firm grip on the gop. but the current front runner and former president has other plans tonight. he's running counter programming just a few miles down the road. and israel's offensive intensifies. the defense minister said idf troops are at the heart of gaza city as civilians continue to flee the fighting. we're following those stories and many more all coming in to cnn "news central." this is video from moments ago, ivanka trump returning to a new york courtroom to continue testifying in the trump organization civil fraud trial. the new york attorney general's office has ended their questioning of ivanka and she's being questioned by an attorney for donald trump. she's not a defendant in the case but her father, two elder brothers and company are. what is ivanka trump's testimony revealed so far, paula? >> reporter: this is more civilized and calm than what we saw with her father on friday and her brothers last week. the questioning is more technical. focused on her time at the trump organization. they did focus on deals she worked on while she was still there. a project in florida, the or the r -- the doral resort and spa. they talked about where she negotiated the terms of a loan, and the bank said in order to get the favorable terms for a high net worth individual, trump would need to maintain a personal net worth of $3 billion. but they presented an email that said she suggested lowering that threshold to $2 billion. but at the time, his financial statements said his net worth was over $4 billion. these exchanges are technical but speak to the heart of the case. the concern that maybe trump wasn't being honest and accurate about his net worth. they also asked her about an apartment she had in one of her father's buildings. it had a purchase option to buy it for $8.5 million but on trump's financial statements that same apartment was valued at $20.8 million. so a lot of questions coming out of the testimony. most recently before the state wrapped up, they asked about the old post office in d.c. this is something she and her father worked on for a long time, considered it a success but the state revealed emails with a lot of questions about the statement she submitted. but she tried to put some room between her and any efforts to value or estimate trump's net worth. again, the state has wrapped up. her father's lawyers are cross-examining her. this testimony is expected to wrap up today. >> we're keeping an eye on all of it, paula reid thank you so much. i want to talk about it more with former u.s. attorney michael moore. what stood out to you today during ivanka's testimony. >> i'm glad to be with you this afternoon. i really think that she did try to put some distance between herself and some of the decision-making on how to reach these values. she talked about folks she had talked to. explained that she has not been intimately involved in the preparation of financial statements. she seemed to not recall some information. but she did pretty much what was expected and it was a different tone than we saw from the former president. she said some of this i know, some i talked to people about. but she had some air, i guess, between herself and her father as it related to the value. some of the things i think were hyper technical and may not be of great sequcon consequence. i don't know how the court would look at a reduced rate for a child, than an appraised value of a property. we'll see how the judge looks at that going forward. >> what do you think of the cross-examining of ivanka today. she's being cross-examined as a witness but we know that don junior, eric and former president trump, they weren't cross-examined. >> i think that cross-examination can be a great tool. it allows lawyers with specific questions and want focused answers to already ask the questions they already know the answer to. so my guess is in the cross-examination it's an effort to solicit testimony of a particular nature or has a particular fact that the lawyers want to get before the court. so that doesn't surprise me a great deal, especially given her status now as a nondefendant in the case. >> we know that the defendant's attorney, donald trump's attorney is questioning ivanka now after the prosecution did its part. the prosecution is expected to rest after icvanka's turn on th stand and the defense will take up their case. do you see any obvious holes the defense can poke in the prosecution's case next week? >> i think the entire case for the former president and his lawyers have been making arguments preserved for the record so they can move forward on appeal. i think they felt like, frankly i think the way the court set the case up, given the ruling on the motion prior to trial it was does positive on much of the issues of the case. this is a case they felt like they had no chance of winning or prevailing on in any detail before this judge but rather they want to make a record they can move up to an appellate court. so i expect they'll try to poke holes there, they'll have people come up with valuations, saying the court had that wrong. they'll look at valuations on the florida properties between the state experts and folks there on the ground in florida. you may see folks come up from the assessor's office and things like that. this is not a case, if they think they're going to put something on that they're going to win next week in front of this judge. that's not going to happen. there's not a cisilver bullet. right now this is how do we make a record for appeal, preserve the issues we need to move forward. and how do we show the court made errors in the official motion. whether they're successful we'll see. i never thought this trial was strictly about -- at least for the former president, the value f of his company or the moneys he was alleged to have -- the values he was alleged to have increased. i felt like this was more of a chance in a non-criminal setting, this is a civil case, remember, in a non-criminal setting to make hay with his voters and use this as a campaign appearance, you've seen it time after time, as he fought with the judge on the stand knowing those back and forths would be reported in the media. he used this as a message to his followers how mistreated he is. he has fuller range and less jeopardy than he may have in a criminal case. those are obviously stacked up against him throughout the next year. so this for him has given him a forum, it's given him the soap box, so to speak, while at the same time his lawyers are trying to do what they can to make sure that the appeals court has the information they need to at least delay and consider at some length and delay an opinion i'm sure well past the primary and possibly the general election season. >> michael moore, thanks for offering up your perspective and analysis. boris? some top republicans are reeling after yesterday's elections. one senator calling them a complete failure for the gop. potentially compounding their headache, the federal government is set to run out of money in nine days setting up another scramble to avoid a shutdown. meantime, in miami, five republican presidential candidates are preparing to get ask d about all of that, the third republican primary debate is a few hours away. and for the third time, the clear reader in the race by head and shoulders, donald trump, will not be on the stage. let's discuss with steve and manu raju who's on capitol hill for us. steve what are you hearing about the candidates' strategies and expectations for tonight? >> reporter: boris there's no questions that these candidates have been sharpen their attacks going into this debate tonight we have seen them signal they are ready to challenge each other on the stage far more than in previous debates. that is the case between governor ron desantis and former south carolina governor nikki haley. these two have been essentially on a collision course for weeks now. nikki haley has seen her stature rise in the polls, governor ron desantis has been struggling in the race. i expect those two to go at it. and tim scott saying he wants to get in it more. he's someone known for having a nice demeanor, he's saying he's going to take the gloves off and go after desantis and haley and claw back into the race. we've heard that before but we haven't seen that before. >> we'll see if he breaks through. no doubt they'll be asked about abortion. talk to us about the other issues that could define the night. >> reporter: certainly the war between israel and hamas right now is an issue driving a lot of conversations in the republican race right now. and they'll try to make a case to why last night's results happened. why they were so bad, why they should be blamed on the former president and why they were the best candidate to potentially lead the party going forward and give them the best chance to win not only in 2024 but carry some of the down ballot races that republicans struggled with last night. can someone, other than donald trump, be the nominee and help people win their senate races, their house races, their local city council races. i think they are going to try to make the case they are the future of the party, someone that can take the mantle from the gop, take it from donald trump and give the republicans a chance in 2024, not just for the white house but a chance to win back the senate as well. >> manu on steve's point about a lackluster performance last night. you were hearing from key lawmakers on capitol hill who are frustrated. >> reporter: yeah. and uncertain about how to the seed. there is still a debate division within the republican party about how exactly to deal with some of these key social issues, namely abortion in the aftermath of last night's losses and underperformance of last year's midterm elections and how to deal with them in the months and days ahead, whether to change the messaging or change the topic altogether. the under performance among suburban voters who will be key again in 2024. >> these are races that republicans lost, we need people to show up. >> talking about people's lives we win. talking about some social issues they can become highly divisive and we do not as well as we could have. >> we have to have a message that appeals to the suburban voters, no questions about that. >> reporter: and some members actually asked -- calling for federal action on abortion to force republicans to talk about a federal legislation. that's what jd vance from the state of ohio, the senator from that state, after seeing voters there constitutionalize abortion rights saying that congress should act and approve a 15-week abortion ban, republicans should rally behind that idea in order to have something to run on, campaign on. but talking to a number of republican senators they are not unified on that question. many discrepancies on how republicans would respond on the issues such as abortion or whether they vote for something like that. it shows you the debate ongoing within the gop about how to proceed amid another lackluster performance at the polls. >> that 15 week time frame didn't appear to motivate voters towards republicans in virginia last night. the government is shutting down in nine days unless congress acts but speaker mike johnson hasn't elaborated on his plans. where do things stand right now? has there been any progress? >> reporter: there hasn't been. there's uncertainly about how the new speaker will proceed here. we expect him to lay out his plans over the next day or so about how to avoid a government shutdown but he needs to get it through the house, agreement from senate democrats and republicans and get it to the white house. it's uncertain whether they have can get fl. i spoke to the house democratic leader, hakeem jeffries about this, he said republicans tried to advance a short term bill that has spending cuts they will not accept it. they will not accept a ransom note. it needs to be a clean stop gap measure. but a number of republicans want to impose spending cuts but that is a nonstarter with democrats. so what mike johnson decides to do here, move forward with a republican only plan, potentially that could lead to another government shutdown fight some time next week but if he goes the way the democrats want that could open up to criticism from the right flank, the same that pushed out speaker mccarthy when he did the same thing about 45 days ago. so a lot of questions whether they can avoid another shutdown or whether there's a shutdown fear as we head into the deadline midnight next friday. >> and the clock keeps ticking away. thank you both so much. coming up, israel says that gaza city has been encircled, its forces around hamas infrastructure there what that means for civilians still in the enclave. why the justice department is opening a civil rights investigation into a m mississii police d department.t. details s on that jujust moment away.. the israeli military saying it's destroyed 130 hamas tunnel shafts in gaza since the start of the war one month ago. it also says 239 hostages are still being held by the terror group. right now, israel continues to mount an aggressive ground offensive in gaza despite calls for a humanitarian pause. at the g7 meeting in tokyo today, secretary of state antony blinken reiterated a u.s. objection to an immediate cease-fire but also reinforced the biden administration's position that israel should not reoccupy gaza. let's take you now live to tel aviv with jeremy diamond. thousands of palestinians are arriving in southern gaza after fleeing the north through an evacuation corridor. bring us up to speed on that process. >> reporter: that's right, boris. thousands of palestinians have been able to flee using these evacuation corridors established by the israeli military over the last several days. they've been given four to five hour windows of time to be able to escape northern gaza where the heaviest bombing and fighting by the military is taking place and heading south but we know it comes only weeks after israel has been bombing that part of gaza and we know that israel is continuing to bomb parts of southern gaza as well. there are growing calls for a humanitarian pause or a cease-fire as the humanitarian situation in gaza grows worse. hospitals are running out of fuel to conduct their operations. and also, there are medical supplies that are running out at some of these hospitals. but the israeli military is carrying forward with the military operation and its stated desire to destroy hamas. israeli forces have encircled gaza city and today the israel defense minister saying his forces are operating inside, in the heart of gaza city, it is difficult for us to confirm where in gaza city that is given our limited vantage point but it's clear israeli forces are engaging in the dense and very dangerous business of urban combat in some of gaza's most densely populated areas. the israeli military said they have struck over 14,000 targets over the last month and have said they have destroyed 130 tunnel shafts but it's clear to me in my conversations with israeli officials they know many more tunnels remain. there are dozens of miles of tunnels beneath gaza that fighters use to engage and ambush the israeli forces that are advancing. i spoke with a senior israeli official who told me the current tempo of fighting is expected to last weeks, if not months. >> thanks for the update. joining us is beth sander, the former deputy director of national intelligence. still so many unknowns, what ifs. now you have netanyahu saying after the war israel would have responsibility for securing gaza for an indefinitely period. of course, that is assuming it's able to accomplish what it says it's going to accomplish and that's to overthrow hamas. secretary of state blinken is saying there's no need toindefi. what does that look like? >> that's the problem, no one knows what it will look like and it's hard to formulate a plan. cia director burns was in egypt today and trying to work out a plan for egypt to be part of a peace keeping, peace whatever force inside gaza. and el sisi, not surprising to me completely rejected that. there's no way in my view, we have to try but the egyptians are not going to play that role. so the question is, who can and who will? the palestinian authority won't be ready. and so, this is the conundrum. it's so complicated, it's been so complicated and the answers are not obvious. >> the security presence that netanyahu is putting out there, does that mean israel rebuilds the buildings and infrastructure damaged during the ground offensive, does israel set up conditions for elections in gaza since hamas is currently the ruling authority. so many questions around that. >> exactly. the arab leaders say we can't talk at all about reconstruction yet. that is so far in the future we need to talk about a humanitarian pause right now. we need to talk about what to do about the palestinian civilians. i will say i don't think we want to hold elections in gaza right now if we didn't want hamas to win. >> right. >> because, honestly, that's where we are. trauma. traumatized people. >> that's an important point. yeah, traumatized people and the big looming question is, can you really eradicate hamas from gaza. much of hamas' political leadership is in qatar, not gaza. there's hamas operatives in the u.s. is that even a feasible goal here? we've seen what happened when the u.s. tried to eradicate al qaeda and isis, you can't just wipe them off the map. >> you can't, there's no way to do that. my concern is all these efforts by israel is actually making hamas more popular. that's what i was eluding to with having elections now. there was an interview with hezbollah's deputy today and in that interview, he said, you know, this has been a big victory for hamas because they are garnering all of this support from palestinians and from the wider arab world. and i don't -- some of that is bluster but, you know, i think right now a lot of that is true. and, you know, it's heartbreaking when you look at both sides of this picture. but on the other hand, you know, right now in parts of the arab world the american flag and israeli flag are being burned together. this is the other dilemma here for us. is that our rhetoric of saying these things, we're pushing out a different rhetoric now we're talking much more about protecting civilians but where's the beef? you know, where is the actual improvement on the ground? no one in the arab world is seeing that. >> right. and you have to go back to october 7th. remember how this all started with the hamas attack on israel. but also, fast forward several weeks and all the civilians that have died, right, in gaza, is that why it seems as though hamas could be getting more support because of the civilian deaths that we've seen in gaza? >> because of all the civilian deaths and also because iran and hamas and other parts of the arab world, and now russia and china, are -- were very prepared in pushing out -- i mean, you don't have to have disinformation really but there's been so much disinformation that it has amplified and made this even worse. they were ready on that public relations front, israel was not. so that has amplified the feelings that were already there. >> is this basically what hamas wanted from israel for this reaction to -- for israel's reaction to the attack on october 7th to garner this kind of support? >> yes. that's what a terrorist group does. it doesn't matter the cos