no water, no food no extrem supplemental oxygen. they are taking measures to keep vulnerable patients alive, including wrapping premature babies in foil. what israel is saying. >> back on the witness stand, donald trump jr. facing questions in the civil fraud case against the family business, but this time, they're coming from his lawyer. how the defense is kicking off their case. plus, the makers of the popular weight loss drug wegovy say they've discovered a brand new benefit and it could be another life saver. we're following these major developing stories and more all coming in right here on "cnn news central." >> we begin in the middle east. doctors at gaza's largest hospital describing conditions today as catastrophic. all essential units and shifa hospital have collapsed, food, medicine and fuel are all in dwindling supply even as thousands of gazan civilians seek shelter there. doctors say they are taking measures to keep newborns alive. power outages have forced them to take premature infants off incubators. israel's military has said that hamas is hiding itself among civilian infrastructure today they say troops killed 21 alleged terror suspects outside of al quds hospital after an intense fire fight at the hospital's entrance. the palestinian red crescent denied there are armed videos inside the hospital and said no shots were fired from inside. video provided from the idf and geolocated there. we're also learning new details about the urgent ongoing efforts to save the hostages held captive by hamas. one is a 3-year-old american. president biden holding a phone call with the leader of qatar hoping to advance potential rescues. warren lieberman is tracking these developments from tel aviv. a u.s. official telling cnn hamas has a command node under the al shifa hospital, seeing the video coming from israel. doctors deny the claim coming about this command node. what are you learning? >> well, al shifa hospital has been on the idf's radar and long seen it as where hamas has one of its important command and control areas using what should be a sanctuary hospital on top to function down below underground and continue their operations from there. israel is essentially very close to shifa hospital, according to hospital officials, they have surrounded the hospital, according to the idf, the east side of the hospital, remains open for those who want to evacuate, but it's clear speaking to those inside the hospital that many are too terrified to evacuate even if there is a humanitarian corridor by which to do so. israel and the idf say they're trying to operate to minimize casualties, but the fighting and strikes in the area have damaged some of the outside buildings. the hospital itself as of yesterday, essentially had to close down all of its essential units because it's out of supplies and civilians are dying inside the hospital even if it's not as a direct result of the fighting. as an example and you referenced this three babies died over the weekend in the neonatal care unit because the generators that powered the incubators shut down and doctors inside have had to rely on hot water and foil to keep those babies alive. that's just a hint how far difficult the situation is as the humanitarian crisis worsens. we're hearing booms and not hearing red alert. it's difficult to know what that is. we'll see if we hear the red alert as i keep talking to you. >> we'll be listening as well too. what more are you learning about the negotiations for the nearly 240 hostages that hamas is still holding? >> this is an ongoing effort and that effort led very much in qatar because the qataris are in touch with hamas and that's how the negotiations are done on that side of it. the negotiations include the cia trying to make progress on a hostage release, the idea being release a large number or all of the hostages as israel is demanding for a pause in the fighting. prime minister benjamin netanyahu told dana bash there would be no pause until the hostages are leased. president biden spoke with the amir of qatar and revealed there is a 3-year-old toddler being held by hamas saying they should all be released reaffirming his support for the palestinian state after this is over and through the negotiations. there is a march planned for tomorrow by the families of the hostages from here to jerusalem and that's a symbol of the domestic pressure building on net ya thou come to an arrangement for their release. >> a lot of pressure to get those hostages out. oren, live from tel aviv, thank you for that report. with resources waning, hospitals in gaza are being forced to make the impossible choices. madya bashir has the story and a warning some of what you're about to see is graphic. >> reporter: these are the sounds of the final gapses from gaza's collapsing health care system. medical staff working under near relentless israeli bombardment for over a month. but now this chorus of frantic voices tells its own gut-wrenching story. the al quds hospital, second largest in gaza, has now collapsed. it is you one of many hospitals in gaza that are completely out of service according to officials. those remaining now on a cliff edge. >> there was a direct injury in the head, internal bleeding. we can't do surgeries, no oxygen. we work manually. we're using a manual resuscitator. it is a clear injury and needs an urgent surgery, life-saving one. he's less than a year old. >> reporter: remarkably this baby survived but his father, who was in the very same building when an israeli air strike hit did not. at gaza's largest hospital al shifa, officials say three babies in the neonatal unit died after a generator powering incubators was damaged in an israeli strike. cnn reached out to the military for comment. the idf regularly says it has targeted hamas, but doctors here say the hospital is now completely surrounded. >> the situation is difficult according to there. there is no electricity. they cannot communicate between each other. >> the israeli military said sunday it has sent 300 liters of fuel to the hospital, said to only be enough to power the hospital's generators for 30 minutes. but the idf says hamas blocked the hospital from receiving it. hospital officials, however, say staff were too afraid by surrounding israeli tanks to collect the fuel. inside the hospital, doctors are overwhelmed, morgues long beyond capacity. and with communications frequently cut off, contact between medical teams on the ground and with the outside world, is growing increasingly difficult. hospital officials say thousands of displaced civilians are still thought to be in the compound, taking shelter in what was once thought to be a sanctuary in the midst of this unending nightmare. >> we thought the hospital was a safe place but it wasn't. if we stayed another five minutes we will have been killed. they started to bomb us, and we ran away from al shifa. >> reporter: the irlsz military says it's enabling passenger in northern gaza, israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, telling cnn on sunday that there is no reason why patients can't be evacuated from al shifa. doctors on the ground say a near constant barrage of air strikes has made it impossible for patients and staff to safely evacuate. >> translator: this is another form of torture. we have about six coulomb teres to go, no less. she has a stroke that caused brain damage. she can't speak and is paralyzed. >> reporter: israel says additional routes have been open to allow civilians to evacuate southwards, but the united nations itself has raised doubts over the so-called safe zones outlined by israel, warning that nowhere inside gaza is safe for civilians anymore. and for those too injured, too sick, evacuation is impossible. many doctors on the ground vowing to stay by their patients no matter what. cnn, in jerusalem. >> we are also learning details about new u.s. air strikes in eastern syria. the pentagon saying u.s. forces targeting sites linked to iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps. cnn's natasha bertrand is at the pentagon with more on this. you have new reporting about the response to these latest air strikes. what's going on here? >> that's right. additional attacks by the iranian proxy groups on u.s. forces in syria last night, including after the u.s. launched those air strikes on those facilities that officials say were being used by iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps as well as its affiliates. the question now is are these air strikes actually deterring these iranian proxy forces from staging these attacks on u.s. forces. the answer right now appears to be no. those additional attacks that came after that u.s. air strike last night do not appear to have resulted in any casualties or any damage to these military bases, but other attacks by these proxy groups have. more than 56 u.s. service members have been injured, including many who have suffered traumatic brain injuries from the drone and rocket attacks that these iranian proxy groups have launched over 50 now that we are tracking since october 17th. now secretary of defense lloyd austin, he did speak to this earlier this morning, and he said that the reason the u.s. is continuing to launch these air strikes is to degrade these iranian groups' ability to carry out these attacks and here's what he said. >> these strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the freedom of action and capabilities of these groups, which are directly responsible for attacks on u.s. forces in iraq and syria. these attacks must stop. if they don't stop, then we won't hesitate to do what's necessary, again, to protect our troops. >> reporter: now it's unclear at this point whether there were any fatalities as a result of that u.s. air strike last night in syria, but the u.s. has done three strikes in three weeks and as of right now it does not appear to be deterring these attacks but these groups. >> natasha bertrand at the pentagon, thanks so much. we want to discuss this with retired air force colonel cedric leighton. always great to have you on to digest what natasha was explaining to us. we know that the defense secretary lloyd austin has said that these strikes were a matter of safety and self-defense. how significant does this threat have to be for us to be behaving this way? >> well, the threat has to be very significant and when you look at the kind of situation in syria, we have to remember we've got u.s. forces in places like deir a zur where the iranians are, we have forces here up in this area, this area right here, because it's also close to where the iranians are, becomes a very important area for us to make sure that we protect our forces. the number one job in a deployed situation like this is to make sure that we protect our forces. it's basically called force protection for that reason and that is why it's significant that this is the kind of thing we're dealing with right now. >> in terms of escalation, obviously, the u.s. military moves very quickly to put those ships out at sea and try to deter any sort of escalation here, and yet, it does seem to be escalating. what else can be done to keep this from boiling over in a way? >> that's really a big question because we've put out military assets like you mentioned the carrier battle groups in the eastern mediterranean or near the persian gulf area, airplanes that have been deployed to the persian gulf, economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, all of these kinds of things really do make a difference but the problem you have is iran is here. iran is a large country, has a large military, and it has a lot of influence in places like iraq, places like syria and of course here in the gaza strip and, of course, in southern lebanon with hezbollah. this is their neighborhood ander time we try to move into this neighborhood iran will react whether we like it or not. >> at what point do you think the u.s. or do you think the u.s. would ever go directly at iran? we're looking at the nations around would they go directly after iran? >> that is a question that really depends on how much the iranians do. are they going to attack us via their proxies? we probably won't go after the iranians directly. but if they attack us directly using iranian revolutionary guard corps members or military, then the chances are much higher that we would probably do something here in the persian gulf area, around the naval installations around this area, and also the air installations part of the iranian order of battle in this part of the country. so we're trying to keep away from iran as much as we can but if the iranians attack our forces in qatar or evacuate, which is right here, that would then change the ball game and could potentially result in the direct attack against the iranians. that would be the reason for na. >> before we let you go at this point, what is your assessment of iran's end game here? what do they want? >> yeah. iran wants to control this area. they're fighting a battle basically a kind of a cold war, sometimes it's a hot war, depending on exactly what they're doing with saudi arabia. now having said that, they've just reestablished diplomatic relations with the help of china, so it's a little bit of a different situation right now between saudi arabia and iran. we always have to remember, iran is a shiite muslim country. saudi arabia majority sunni country, and that is basically one of the main reasons historically why they've been fighting each other. it's about power and influence and oil. both countries have oil. the saudis are much more connected to the world market than the iranians are because of the sanctions we talked about and iran is basically trying to resume its powerful role, the role is had back before the iranian revolution where it was a major middle eastern power. >> colonel leighton, thanks for being here. coming up, donald trump jr. calls his father a real estate artist during testimony at their civil fraud trial. we're live outside the courthouse with the latest for you. a new speaker with the same problem. a house leader racing against the clock to avoid a government shutdown this coming weekend. sound familiar? later, a hollywood murder mystery involving the son of a high-powered talent agent. you're w watching "c"cnn news cecentral." we'll be r right back.k. tod back on the stand. he's the first witness for his father's defense team in that $250 million civil fraud trial they're facing in new york. so far don junior has testified about roles in the family business he and his brother took over after their father became president in 2017. then this interesting moment in court the judge overruling the new york attorney general's office after an objection to the showing of a trump properties promotional video. cnn's kara scannell is outside the courthouse and why did the a.g.'s office object to the defense's presentation and what did the judge say? >> reporter: yeah. so the attorney general's office was objecting to the trump lawyers wanting to introduce essentially pages from their website promoting all of the properties that they owned. they objected to that and the judge said that you had six weeks to butput on this case, trump's lawyers have criticized the judge for cutting their time short, and he said i will allow them. that's where the day has been focusing on properties that the trump's have and donald trump jr. testifying how they had taken the properties that were run down and transformed them, calling his father a visionary, artist, he was on the leading edge and all is part of their defense of how they were creating value for these properties. mar-a-lago came up. that is one that has been a hair trigger for the former president because taxes are valued at $18 million. they were showing photos in court and don junior took umbrage pointing to an atrium that was very ornate, and he said that this atrium alone would cost more than $18 million to construct. so really trying to get the focus on how these properties were transformed into value, that there was value saying that his father foresaw using amenities in residential buildings, make hotel-condo combinations and other developers followed. trying to inject they put value in, more than what the valuations are that the a.g. office said was inflated. for the most part it has been taking a look at photos of the properties and having donald trump jr. describe how they bought it and golf course with swamp land and turned it into something as he said repeatedly spectacular. >> we have heard that phrase before. thanks so much live outside the courthouse in new york. let's talk more about this now with former federal prosecutor elliott williams. first off, donald trump jr.'s testimony so far has the defense taken the path that you expected they would and what's the effect of his testimony? >> it's really saying, trump properties are valuable and i think, look, in getting back to that piece of evidence that cara was talking about, this idea called relevance, literally relevance where a fact makes something more or less likely to be true and the thing that they're trying to establish is true is that trump organization was worth a lot of money and showing these probrochures and on. >> the judge sided with the defense by overruling the a.g.'s objection. what do you make of how the judge is approaching this? they've kind of given some idea of it? >> the judge said it last week, he's spooked here and doesn't want go too far and get overturned. what the judge wants to do, let the defense raise their case and don't step on them because that's when judges make mistakes and trying to be cautious here. >> it's really lengthy, the answers being allowed. >> they are. and i think there's a big difference between cross-examination and a direct examination. this is the direct examination by trump's own attorneys and they are going to give him a long leash. unless he says something totally absurd the prosecutors will let him keep talking. >> it's hard to see what prosecutors would gain from cross coming because they had him on the stand a week ago unless he would say something they need to clean up, they don't gain a ton. >> this weekend the former president gave a dark speech a veterans day speech, but -- he covered a lot, almost two hours, in part he wanted video cameras in the croom for the federal election subversion case. clearly he thinks it works in his favor to have them. his lawyers had alerted the court in that case they wanted to agree with media organizations that they also wanted to have these cameras there, special counsel jack smith saying trump wants this trial to be a media event arguing against it. how do you see this shaking out? >> a lot of people in the world, including this network, believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant and cameras in the courtroom is the thing. this has been a long fight. to me the problem is, if you're going to do that, this is the one case in american history, all the people tried on drug offenses or embezzlement or anything in american history never got cameras but one former president goes on trial and all of a sudden we have to change our policies and practices. it's worth a broader national conversation about this, but i don't think that once again donald trump asking for something means that the entire american experiment needs to change to accommodate what he and his attorneys are asking for. >> he does get some special -- he does get accommodations, let's be honest, because he is a former president. so he does get accommodations in practice. we've seen that, that, you know, this drug dealer or that accused drug dealer doesn't get. >> former senators. >> devil's advocate here. bob mendez might go on trial and no major question as to whether you're going to put cameras in that croom as well and i think this is another example of donald trump sort of cau