and if they, including some critically injured, get out, more humanitarian aid is getting in. but neither development is altering the big picture inside the war zone where the already horrific situation is getting worse by the hour. plus, donald trump's eldest son and the head of his business empire expected to take the stand in their civil fraud trial in new york. his testimony potentially critical to the judge's decision on whether he or his father will ever be able to occupy a c suite in manhattan again. >> and a dramatic decision by a kansas city jury that could fundamentally change the way people sell their homes in america. realtors found guilty of conspiring to jack up their fees and ordered to pay nearly $2 billion in damages. the ultimately penalty could be triple that amount and more lawsuits impacting more states are already in the pipeline. but we start with that sign of hope today in gaza. for the first time since the start of this war, a handful of americans are among a group of about 500 foreigners expected to cross into egypt today. that's according to a list compiled by the gaza border control authority and that list was obtained by us here at nbc news. the americans represent just a small fraction of around 400 americans who want to get out right now. that's according to the state department, but a u.s. official says that even the ability to broker this deal is encouraging, with foreigners and a group of injured palestinians able to get into egypt. hundreds of others remain desperately crowded at the border as the situation inside gaza continues to crumble. with the health system hitting its breaking point, the gaza ministry of health which is run by hamas, has given what they call a final warning as generators run out of power today at their main hospital, and at the indonesian hospital as well. inside el sheefa one doctor paints this dire picture. >> this hospital will cease to exist as a hospital and will slowly start turning into a mass grave. this has been a massacre that's been unfolding and now we're getting to the final chapter of this massacre where even the wounded will not be spared. >> i want to bring in nbc's meagan fitzgerald from cairo. you were just at the rafah border crossing. what's the scene like there? >> reporter: well, chris, there's a lot going on. driving up to the rafah border crossing, the street is just lined with dozens and dozens of trucks that are waiting to go in. speaking of which we just got confirmation that 55 are in en route through the crossing. we know that tomorrow 100 of those trucks are being prepped to be able to cross into the border. so certainly a lot of progress on that regard, as it relates to what we saw last week, which was just a trickle, according to aid workers is how they described it. while we are seeing an increase of these trucks going in, it certainly isn't fast enough. then of course the news from today, which is where hundreds of foreign nationals getting the green light to be able to cross through the rafah border crossing and into egypt, and in fact, we have some new reporting that i want to share with you. this is according to the director of media for the rafah border crossing who says that six buses left rafah with 335 foreign passengers on board, unclear how many americans were on those buses. we do know there was at least one. we have been in contact with the niece of a 71-year-old woman who went to gaza. she's a prosthetics expert, she went there to try and fit children who need prosthetics with limbs doing this work and then she got caught. she was on board that bus, her family, of course, elated, but important to keep in mind as you mentioned, there are still hundreds of other americans trapped inside gaza. nbc news had an opportunity to speak with one who was unaware of when he would be able to leave. this is most certainly progress, a glimmer of hope, but it certainly is a reminder that there's a lot more work that needs to be done. >> without a doubt, meagan fitzgerald thanks for that update. i want to bring in raf sanchez. just a day after a previous strike killed dozens at the jabalia refugee camp, a second strike hit the camp. a lot of people have been trapped under the rubble. what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah, chris, palestinian officials from the health ministry run by hamas say a significant number of palestinian civilians lost their lives in this second strike earlier today in the jabalia refugee camp in the north of gaza. as you said it came 24 hours after the israeli military target add senior hamas commander involved in the massacre using very large explosives to hit what they said were tunnels underneath the camps causing these just enormous craters that basically swallowed up neighboring buildings. dozens of people killed according to a local hospital, and you can see just the scale of the devastation, the kind of homelessness crisis that people in gaza are going to be facing when this fighting finally ends. among the eight and a half thousand people who have been killed according to the health ministry, there are around 3,000 children. unicef is describing gaza right now as a graveyard for children, and i want you to take a listen to a little bit of sound about how one 4-year-old girl is struggling to deal with everything going on around her. >> and we have the youngest, she's 4 years old, and she's showing severe symptoms of stress and fear, and resorts to self-harm like ripping her hair off and scratching her thighs until they bleed. >> reporter: and chris, this is a message that we're hearing from parents over and over again across gaza over the last three weeks, that one, they have no way to explain to their children what is going on, little kids who don't understand the rights and wrongs of this war. they have no way to explain to them. they have nowhere where they can take them where they can feel safe, and many of them, these parents say they feel like they're failing as parents because their number one responsibility is to keep their kids safe, and it's something that they feel that they can't do right now, which is just total, total chaos around them, chris. >> raf, thank you so much for that. i want to bring in retired united states army lieutenant general ben hodges, the former senior adviser of human rights first, and former commanding general of the united states army europe. it is heartbreaking to hear those reports, to hear from children, to hear from their parents obviously, and it makes israel's situation all the more complicated, right? they say that when they struck and continue to strike today this refugee camp, it was a hamas stronghold, but there have been a wave of human rights complaints, a wave of international condemnation including other governments in the middle east, uae, for example, bolivia has severed diplomatic ties with the country. what do you make of this decision now, understanding that every major military decision like this also carries political and humanitarian consequences. >> chris, first let me say the way you and the rest of your colleagues have described the situation there is it is gut wrenching, very compelling, and as i looked at the video, obviously the buildings around the site are also unstable, so it's not -- would not be a surprise if some of those buildings collapsed that had not yet fallen. so this is going to continue to be a dangerous situation there. i think that the white house has been working very hard making it clear to the israeli government that what we're all watching right now is going to be almost impossible to justify, no matter who was killed, whatever hamas had, the tunnels that were underneath there, that's going to be extremely difficult to justify and the israelis risk losing some of the support from around the world that they're going to need, and this is why i i think it is so important that the israeli government transition from destroying hamas to working with the u.s. and others to getting to a solution, a political solution that can help bring this to a close. >> but what is a political solution? i mean, the two state solution, which has been talked about for years and years seems impossible certainly under this leadership in israel. prime minister netanyahu says he will not stop until the mission is complete, defined as destroying hamas, which many analysts believe isn't even possible. so where does that realistically leave those who are concerned about civilian casualties and the humanitarian toll this is taking? >> i think you're correct that the current israeli government leadership is not interest ed in a two-state solution. that was clear from before october the 7th. i certainly would not want to minimize in any way the challenges associated with getting to a two-state solution, which is a u.s. policy, and i completely support the u.s. policy goal of a two-state solution. it's going to require, i think, what secretary blinken has been working to achieve, external forces, agencies, governments with the arab countries, u.s., european union, the united nations putting the pressure on israel and also, though, on the supporters of hamas to make this a possibility. if i put myself in the shoes of an israeli commander, and i've been told your mission is to destroy hamas, i know that that's not even a feasible end state because it will not be possible to completely isolate hamas from external support, number one. number two, we have to address the root cause of hamas. why do people continue to come forward to want to be a part of hamas, as brutal as hamas is, they have to be able to eliminate their support and i don't see the current approach even addressing that. there has to be a clearly defined political in state for the idf to accomplish their task. >> so if it's not reasonable to consider the end game, the total and long-term elimination of hamas, you also understand that israel was attacked, that this was something that was started by hamas, which has continued to be a security and continuingly escalating security risk to israel. so what is an end game that can be achieved? >> well, again, you touched on a very important part here. this is not about good guys versus the bad guys here. i mean, secretary blinken earlier today in testimony describing the what happened to some of the israeli citizens, innocent people who were murdered back on october the 7th, and how they were murdered. so i think that the only way to get to this, to some sort of solution that numerous american presidents have attempted to do is to find other countries, other agencies that are willing to participate in this and to make it a possibility. that means hamas has to -- or the leaders of the palestinians i should say are going to have to play a role as well, and we know from the last couple of decades, it's very dangerous for palestinians or israeli leaders who are trying to come up with a solution because there are too many people on both sides that don't want that kind of a solution. so this is a place where the united states and our allies are going to have to play the leading role, and we're going to have to deal with those both internally and externally that benefit actually from this continued chaos. and by the way, i think russia benefits from this chaos. it distracts all of us from supporting ukraine, and so russia with their iranian allies, they're the ones that are at the root cause of what is happening right now. >> we are out of time, but if you can, just a couple of sentences given your background and your expertise explain in context the scope and the gravity of the humanitarian crisis that's unfolding right now, general. >> well, i mean, just think of basic needs for 2 million people in normal times, water, food, sanitation, a place to sleep. that's in normal times. now you add to it thousands of people being killed or injured and without hope right now, it is difficult to describe the scale. >> lieutenant general ben hodges, it is always terrific to have you on the program. thank you so much. we do appreciate it. and we're continuing to get a raw and emotional firsthand look at life inside gaza right now. in our latest nbc news digital documentary, we hear from gazans on the ground including a young, 20-year-old and a mother of two just trying to survive. >> i woke up on a strange and weird and scary sound of bombing. it's like our building is collapsing on us over our heads, like something we were blown up in the same room. >> the blast took out the windows in the room where her kids slept. they don't sleep there anymore. >> i fear for my children, for my family because what's happening, it's like more than a scary movie. there's no word that can describe what's going on here right now. >> i've been here in the south for maybe nine days. i don't really know. because when you're under such circumstances, you lose track of time, and your brain just doesn't think about checking the time. it's full of other things. life currently is extremely slow and difficult and you feel like you're suffering even if you're just sitting down with every passing moment. pray for us. thank you. >> you can hear more of their stories by checking out search for safety, the desperate struggle to survive in gaza on nbcnews.com. up next, it is double trouble for donald trump. we're back in 60 seconds as his children prepare to take the stand in the fight for the family business. two people who just left court moments ago will join us with the very latest. latest. this is american infrastructure, a prime target for cyberattacks. but the same ai-powered security that protects all of google also defends these services for everyone who lives here. ♪ right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. take a moment to pause and ask, why did you get vaccinated against pneumococcal pneumonia? i help others. but i need to help protect myself. honestly? i couldn't afford to get sick. i want to be there for this one. i can't if i'm sick. pneumococcal pneumonia is a potentially serious bacterial lung disease. you may be at risk if you're 19 to 64 with certain chronic conditions. or if you're 65 or older. don't pause a moment longer. ask your doctor or pharmacist about getting vaccinated against pneumococcal pneumonia today. this is a huge day for donald trump, two court hearings unfolding simultaneously. now, the big one involves his eldest son don jr. expected to testify today in an attempt to fend off allegations that he, his brother and his father fraudulently inflated their company's assets by up to $2 billion. depending on what the judge decides, the civil trial could not only take a bite out of the former president's family fortune, but bar him and his adult sons from ever running a business in new york again. according to the washington post, it's also the trial that's most deeply personal to donald trump. quote, he told advisers he wants to attend because his children's inheritance and his family's brand are on the line. several people close to him describe him as livid about the trial. one adviser saying, quote, everything about it makes him angry, including that it's hurting his children. but instead of attending that trial as he has seven times in the past month, the former president has been in florida because that's where sources familiar with the matter tell abc news he spent yesterday examining classified documents that are at the heart of the other trial moving forward today. as we speak, judge aileen cannon is set to kick off a hearing to determine whether trump and his team need more time with those documents, something that would push his case and the classified documents trial itself deeper into next year. i want to bring in msnbc legal analyst lisa rubin and sue craig, investigative reporter for "the new york times," both just came out of the courtroom in new york moments ago. so i guess it's lunch break. nbc's ken dilanian is following the hearing in florida. danny cevallos is here with me in new york. he's a criminal defense attorney and an msnbc legal analyst. so lisa, take us inside that courtroom. where do things stand, and what did we hear so far today? >> reporter: today, chris, has largely been about the testimony of the attorney general's expert, a guy named michael mccarty who was an investment banker and now does some expert testifying, but primarily is being offered to talk about what a reasonable bank would have offered donald trump in terms of lending conditions. what interest rates would they have charged, and the attorney general cares about that because in terms of the discouragement, the profits they want to claw back from the trumps, their argument effectively is it's not that you didn't pay back your banks and lenders, donald trump, it's that they would have made so much more money in the tens and hundreds and millions more money if you had disclosed to them accurately the value of your assets and liabilities. mr. mccarty is now on cross examination. jesus suarez who's one of chris kise's partners is examining him, and the thrust of his cross examination is that mccarty's estimation of what the banks would have made is pure fantasy, that he didn't consult with deutsche bank and the other lenders about how the truth would have changed the lending conditions for trump if at all. >> so at the heart of this and at least what we're waiting for, sue, is to hear from the trumps themselves. what are the chances we hear from don jr. today? >> i'm always bad at predictions, but i think we could get to him towards the end of the day, but right now we're going through this expert witness. on the one hand, he's very important. he's also kind of boring for a lot of the people listening and waiting for don jr., and it's been dragged out. i think we could probably potentially see don jr. on the stand maybe around 4:00. but he has just walked into the courthouse, and i think we're going to see him at the defense table because, of course, he is a defendant in this case. so he'll be sitting there listening to the witness this afternoon. lisa, the judge and help people understand this. the judge already decided that fraud was committed here, so they may be wondering why are they bringing all the trumps in. they already have made essentially a decision so what is going on? >> reporter: so chris, the judge's decision so far that there was persistent and repeated fraud in the use of these statements of financial condition is one of the several count thes the attorney general brought. they didn't ask for judgment before trial on the remaining six. the remaining six are civil claims, but they require proof of unlawful criminal conduct and that itself requires intent. the reason that the trump sons and trump himself likely will find themselves on the stand is because the attorney general is looking to establish that the falsities in this financial statements weren't just accidental, weren't just persistent and repeated, that they were intentional, deliberate, and knowing, and i would tell your audience that the witness that we really should be excited about is less don jr. and more eric trump who has taken a much more active role in the operation of the trump companies but also in the valuations of the assets at issue, particularly seven springs, some of the golf courses, and even the triplex apartment, the valuation of which is one of the most egregious errors in those statement of financial condition. we all know that trump said that that apartment was 30,000 plus square feet. it's a third of that size, and there were other ways in which they exaggerated that value as well. >> i think the value pay put on the apartment, no apartment in new york city, which i can tell you with certainty, the prices