♪ ♪ for the first time since hamas attacked israel, the rafah crossing in gaza is opening up to civilians to cross through. what israel, egypt and hamas all had to agree to and who is now making their move through the crossing. israel acknowledges an air strike on a refugee camp in northern gaza. israeli officials say they killed a hamas terror leader there, but the pictures show many, many dead. one israeli official told me he did not know how many civilians, but hospital officials say that there are hundreds of casualties including dead and wounded. this morning, new reaction from countries around the world. also donald trump's children set to testify starting today in new york. what they potentially have to lose. i'm john berman with kate

bolduan, sara is on assignment and this is "cnn news central." ♪ ♪ a big development in gaza. many developments including this. civilians finally allowed to move through the rafah crossing into egypt for the first time in three weeks, the first time since hamas attacked israel in the terror attack. now according to officials on the palestinian side of the rafah crossing. 110 foreign passport holders have now departed gaza. it's not clear yet where all of those passport holders are or -- [ no audio ] >> why was the crossing locked down the way it was and when were foreigners going to be allowed to evacuate. this important move was brokered by qatar and came about after

israel, egypt and hamas all reached agreement, ultimately, we are told it will allow up to 500 foreign nationals, some americans, to leave gaza. we have seen ambulances moving, injured palestinians out since this news broke. that is part of the deal, as well. we are continuing to follow exactly how that is developing. now let's talk about northern gaza. the other major development this morning. israel is defending itself saying in the strike that left this crater it took out a major hamas target and a hamas commander and other hamas militants and it hit on or around a refugees camp in gaza. this crater is where dozens of gazans were reportedly killed and injured. body bags of all sizes have been seen. one witness describes children carrying other children from the rubble.

israel defending its action saying that they believe that many civilians had evacuated the refugee camp. let's start first with the rafah crossing and the major developments there. cnn's becky anderson is live in doha. becky, you are learning more details about how it was brokered and what they're about and what the terms of the deal are. what's the latest? >> this is success and success has been hard to come by, right? this is good news in these negotiations with hamas and in coordination with the united states. as we understand it, as many as 500 foreign nationals and american citizens. we can't know exactly how many at this point today and how long this process will take, but certainly we are looking at as many as 500 foreign passport

holders being able to leave gaza, getting in through that rafah crossing and then the process is through that rafah crossing, you then get into egypt as you rightly pointed out and 110 foreign passport holders to date at this point having crossed from gaza, but as i say, you have to get out of the crossing and the delegations for those who are getting out today on the other side. we know that jordan, for example, has activated its evacuation plans for its citizens in jordan and there are other countries involved, as we understand it. today there could be as many as 400 american citizens or jewel citizens with american passports who are hoping to leave with their family members. one u.s. official tells us that could be as many as 1,000 people, but at this point, as we understand it, it is not the

american citizens or jewel passport holders today who will be leaving, but as i say, this is a process and expectations are that those american citizens will be able to leave within the next 24 hours. again, i have to say caveat here, we are not entirely sure of the actual number, but there are certainly a significant number of people now getting out of gaza, on their way into egypt. as i say, hard earned by these katalet negotiators in coordination with the u.s. to get to where we are at this point. kate? >> as you wellpoint out and you've been tracking so closely, becky, a hard earned and diplomatic success in what we've been watching in the last more than three weeks. thank you very much. we'll watch this very closely. now to the israeli strikes in northern gaza at the jabalya refugee camp. israel says it was an air strike that targeted a hamas commander

there and took him out, but we've also seen the devastating scenes of the crater left behind in that strike and big questions of how many civilians could be injured in it. cnn's salma abdelaziz is joining us now. what's the latest that you are learning about this, salma? >> up until this hour, kate, we still understand that families are desperately digging under the rubble trying to see if they can find survivors and trying to see if they can find the bodies of their loved ones to bury. you have to remember some of the residential buildings that were flattened in an instant were 20 stories high. so just imagine the impact, the pancake, the rubble, the rebar and there is a lack of resources. there is a lack of help on the ground, food, fuel, water. much of that has been cut off because of the complete siege imposed on the gaza strip. hospitals and paramedics and ambulances, they are on the brink. that means oftentimes you are looking at the survivors of this attack digging with their own bare hands looking for their

family members. calms were also severely disrupted right after this attack and we are only just starting to receive some of the images of what took place last night. i just got one video of a man just screaming because he realized three of his children, all three of his children were killed in these air strikes. there are countless families, countless moms and dads that will be burying their children over the course of the next couple of days and the doctors and the hospitals, they're describing these horrific injuries, burns, severe cuts that they are trying to treat with very little medical care. you hear an outcry, an outrage from the international community. israel's military has, of course, said they were targeting a senior hamas commander, as you mentioned and we did at cnn pushes rail i military spokespeople on the question of civilian casualties. one idf spokesperson saying, look, this is the tragedy of war. that tragedy playing out in

absolute carnage on the ground, kate. >> salma, thank you so much for that. john? all right. let's get a sense of where the current israeli military operation stands with us now. retired major general james "spider" marx and david sanger. gentlemen, let's remember, israel's latest count is there are 240 hostages inside gaza. this would be their 26th day in captivity. spider, i want to take a look at the scene of northern gaza and this is where israel thinks we've gone in the ground operation and coming on the north on two fronts here and also from underneath gaza city, this, by the way, is the jabalya refugee camp where we saw the explosion and there is a sense that we're trying to cut off gaza city. what are you seeing in the israeli ground effort so far? >> john, what you see is not

surprising, let's be frank. what the idf needs to do is isolate and protect the battlefield so they're going to come from the east. they'll migrate through, they'll move through gaza and they'll potentially go all of the way to the med, the mediterranean and coming down from the north. that gives them an opportunity to protect their flanks. that gives them a chance to identify very clear targets where they need to address. they need to use all means of capabilities. this is a thisynchronized battl and what you will see moving forward is a much more patient and deliberate idf. this is the start of what i think will be as they described the next phase of this operation and they will be there for a while. very deliberate attacks on the ground. they have to follow up after there's a strike. you have to then go move into those areas. you have to clear those areas and then you have to hold those areas and that's an

acknowledgement that they'll be there a while. >> david sanger, as you look at this and you hear what spider is describing there. i don't know if the word is patience. how much patience is there in the world for israel to do this and yes, there's been a lot of diplomatic activity in the last few days. qatar brokering a deal to allow people to leave gaza and that involved egypt, israel, hamas and the united states tangentially, but as the united states looks at what's happening here, david, what's the current view? >> john, that is a hard question because you have two time zones, one is what spider just described what it will take to route out hamas and that means getting into those tunnel systems, and people i talkeded to think this is a very long operation particularly if you're trying to reduce casualties. the second timeline, though is

the diplomatic and humanitarian patience for the kind of suffering you're seeing in gaza. the fact that residents are beginning to have to try to loop united nations storerooms and storehouses is telling you something. the devastation you're seeing on television is telling you something, but really, that attack yesterday where israel if you take them at face value on their statement that they killedekilled a senior hamas leader presumably who was responsible for the october 7th terror attack, but made a conscious decision to do it even though there would be extraordinarily high civilian casualties tells you where their calculous is versus the rest of the world. i'm not sure that the united states facing the same choice or other western countries facing the same choice would have necessarily taken the shot given

the presence of so many civilians, right, in that area and understanding that that's exactly the choice hamas wanted to force them into. >> i want to ask you both about the situation on a different front, but the boarder with lebanon up here and this is where hezbollah operates and the shia militia operates. our jim sciutto has seen rockets going in and out of israel. what do you see is the current situation at the border? >> the key question there is what is iran trying to achieve vis-a-vis hezbollah? how do they want to control that terrorist organization as israel is now laser focussed in on gaza? i don't see hezbollah crossing the border. i do see hezbollah continuing the rocket launches, and i guarantee you israel will not

take its eye off that northern border worry lebanon. that's an incredibly important position for them to hold. so it's not a distraction. it's an allocation of forces. it's an economy of force. that's where they will work to make sure that they demonstrate they've got capacity up there. >> by some estimates hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets with technology that's better than it was years ago in southern lebanon. david sanger, we will hear from the hezbollah leader hassan asrallah on frz and what do you think about getting involved in this conflict? >> the question is what is iran's calculation of how much they will support that. clearly, it seems that the iranians from what they're saying and what they're doing don't want to be in a direct conflict with american forces, with those two carrier groups in the mediterranean, but i'm sure

they're perfectly happy to see a fair bit of harassment of israel going on which is what those rocket launches are all about and the division that spider referred to. so the big question that american officials are watching for is this, if the israelis truly get bogged down in gaza, would hezbollah see that as an opportunity to see that as a record front. we've been worried about the second front all along. it hasn't happened yet and that suggests that what president biden has done to create some deterrence in the region which will only build up in the next few days and weeks may be working. there's been a lot of back channel conversation to the iranians saying let's not do this and there's probably also some effort to get china and other nations that have more open communications with iran to

make the same point, and i think the way that the u.s. is making that point to the chinese is if it turns into a bigger conflict with iran, the first thing that it's going to affect is oil flow out of the persian gulf. >> david sanger, spider marks, thanks so both of you. kate? coming up for us, donald trump, jr., may take the witness stand today in the civil fraud trial against his father. what this case and the judge's ruling could mean for all of the trump children, some including don junior named as defendants in this lawsuit. plus nikki haley jumping into pools in her home state. is it a trend. what the other presidential candidates may be seeing here and how they need to be adjusting strategy quickly. this afternoon, the student now charged with making dangerous anti-semitic threats at cornell university will be making his first court appearance.

court is back in session and soon donald trump's son may take the stand in the civil fraud trial against the organization. donald trump, jr., would be the first of trump's children to testify with more to come. don junior and eric trump are named as defendants in the $250 million lawsuit. they're accused of knowingly participating in the scheme to boost the former president's net worth for their financial benefit, obviously. cnn's kara scannell outside the courthouse. what are you hearing about what could happen today? >> so the attorney general's

office just finished questioning a former trump organization executive and they'll be calling their expert witness in this case who will testify about how much money the attorney general's office could try to seek in terms of fines and discouragement. after that testimony is done, which it's unclear how long that will take. this is an expert witness and there will be cross exam-examin of this person and then donald trump, jr., could be called to testify, it could be this afternoon or possibly slip into tomorrow and it depends how long this expert witness is on the stand, but when don junior testifies he will be the first of donald trump's adult children who will be testifying in this case and like his brother, he's accused of being involved in these financial statements that the judge has found to be fraudulent. the attorney general alleges that don junior had signed and certified that these financial statements were accurate in 2015 when his father became president and he signed his name to annual certifications to banks saying that donald trump's net worth was above $2.5 billion.

don junior has previously testified in a deposition last year. so we have a sense of what he's going to say and as it relates to those financial statements here is what he said under oath before. i had no real involvement in the preparation of the statement of financial condition, and don't really remember ever working on it with anyone. he also said he never reviewed the statement. he never approved the statement even though he did sign the statement, and as it relates to those bank certifications, he testified he signed those after he was assured by accountants and lawyers that it was accurate. he is distancing himself from these financial statements that are at the heart of this case, but he will be called to the stand once this expert testimony wraps and then testifying on direct examination under oath before the judge potentially as earlier as this afternoon, after his testimony wraps. his brother, eric trump will testify and that will be followed by his father, former

president trump on friday and then ivanka trump. after that they are expecting to rest their case and we will wait for how long it takes for don junior to take the stand. >> it will be fascinating when he takes the stand no matter when it is. >> oh, that's for sure. >> this is all happening in new york. >> meanwhile in florida, trump's attorneys are requesting that his classified documents trial be postponed until after the presidential election. right now it's scheduled to begin in may. cnn's kaitlan polantz is in fort pierce, florida. what do we expect today, kaitlan? >> there is a hearing today where the judge on this case, judge eileen canon will have the opportunity to revisit the trial date she previously set in may and that's because donald trump's lawyers have been trying for quite some time, they made quite clear they do not want donald trump as a criminal defendant on trial while he is

also running for president and they found an opportunity in this case to ask to move that trial date back until, at least mid-november of 2024. so just after the presidential election date of next year. right now it is set for may. the reason that they found that opening is because as they prepare for trial they have to go through classified evidence to look at what their case might be, the documents trump is charged with mishandling, national security information and so in order to look at that evidence, they have to go to f physically locate it at a secure location. they had a chance to look at that evidence, but they're saying it's not enough time. they need their deadlines to be pushed back and that means they'll also need the trial date pushed back. the justice department, and the special counsel's office prosecuting this case, they do not want the trial date pushed

back. they want the date of may to hold, and so we are going to see if the judge buys which side of the arguments today if she goes with the justice department saying they have enough time, they'll be fine or if she goes with trump's team. >> we'll be listening to judge eileen canon very carefully as she decides. katelyn pollant, thank you very m much. >> a new piece specifically about the new york case, the lawsuit and what means for the entire trump family and the trump children wrapped up in all of this. good to see you, jonathan. i want to read for everyone what we're looking at with the trump family after all of this legal trouble. you write in part along with the other reporters on this piece. trump's four-year presidency and the tumultuous period of investigations in criminal and civil litigation since he left office has reshaped much of the

trump family's business, wealth with one another according to e-mails and interviews with people close to the family. what more are you learning about the family dynamic at play here and how it's shifted? >> yeah. i think before mr. trump got into politics the path for some of his eldest children was fairly straightforward. ivanka trump clearly had taken a very big interest with the company. she was dealing with the bankers and designing things and she was developing real estate and so were her brothers and they all had a role in the company and you could picture a path forward for him and he wins the presidency and that's one big evolution for the family. ivanka goes to washington with him and don junior is in the maga media and eric is back in new york running the business. particularly with the new york fraud case, the money they have tied up in new york real estate, they may not be able to operate

as a business in new york and some of the children are no longer interested in the business anymore, and they'll have to see what the legacy, what will happen to it. >> there is a question, what do the trump children have to lose here with this lawsuit? >> you know, i think it depends if they care about running the business or not. eric has been running it for the past four or five years, seven years, really now on a day-to-day basis. does he still want to run whatever the company is going to be once he gets through this trial. they may not be able to depending on how the judge rules here. does ivanka care about this company anymore? does she care about real estate anymore? does don junior care about real estate anymore? if none of the members want to run this company then at some point they should start thinking about what he's going to do with it. trump has stopped developing things. he doesn't build things and he's managing the properties that he

has and he's turned to politics. the empire that made him famous is orphaned until they figure out what to do with it. >> even before this new york case came to a head and went to the courtroom it was clear that ivanka post-presidency, you could see moves she was making -- she seemeded to distance herself from the president, from his actions, from politics, really, but what do you see. she's also distancing herself and trying to from this civil fraud lawsuit for sure. why is that? what are you hearing specifically about ivanka trump if she's being successful in this effort? >> i just have not seen any interest from ivanka trump in operating the business or being involved in the business since really she went to washington. she is very committed to her family, her children. she lives in florida now. her attorneys have said in this case that the only time she's been to trump tower in the last six, seven years have been

periodically once or twice a year to visit old staff and that sort of thing, but there is no expectation from the public that she will take over the trump organization. i think that seems like a chapter from her past. in terms of what she does in the future, to me it's a blank canvas. she obviously has some experience in business, and she has some experience in politics and right now she seems happy being in florida with her family. jonathan o'connell, great to have you. great reporting. thank you. >> thanks so much. south carolina likes to say it picks presidents. what a brand-new poll is telling usus about their picking rigigh now.w.

so this is the brand-new polling out of south carolina. this key early voting state. you can see donald trump with a commanding lead, more than 30 points ahead of his nearest competitor, former south carolina governor nikki haley. she's at 22%. one notable thing about this poll is haily is clearly in second place with twice the support of florida governor ron desantis and this is the second poll in just a few days that shows haley moving into second place either alone or here in iowa in a tie with ron desantis. governor haley talked about her new standing in the polls. let's listen. >> i think that we will see that

if you saw the polls today in iowa, i am now in second place in iowa. second place -- [ applause ] >> we are now in second place in new hampshire. we are in second place in iowa, and i have a new fellow to catch up to and i'm ready to do it. >> part of the race is different right now. part of it very much the same. donald trump way ahead, jeff. >> without a question, john, and the one fellow that nikki haley was talking about there of course is donald trump. he has held a commanding lead. that has been one consistent trend this entire republican campaign election year is that his lead has largely stayed the same and it's grown, in fact, from the beginning of the year and take a look at these numbers in south carolina. he has a 31-point lead over inc nikki haley. it is a race for second place.

who is the candidate that will head to a head to head race with donald trump. nikki haley has been on the move. the republican debates have not had much impact in the race for her. that's not true. her strong performance in the first and second debate have clearly put her on a path to being second place in this race. yes, she's tied in iowa with governor ron desantis and clearly in south carolina which is number third on the presidential primary calendar. this is a strong showing for her. john, she's getting her support largely from independents as well as college-educated republican voters. that is a weak point for the former president. even though he is not going to be on the debate stage next week in miami she certainly will be. we are seeing a collision coarse between nikki haley and ron desantis and a very competitive

race in the undercard, if you will, in this campaign, john. nikki haley, people who support her will say that the coalition she's putting together is the type of coalition that can do well in a general election. also she's got to get there first. one another person on this board, jeff, tim scott, senator tim scott from south carolina down at 6%. how does that bode for him? >> not well. this is his home state. he was elected last year by an overwhelming margin. nikki haley appointed him in the senate in the first place, but he has clearly struggled and a big question is will he make and will he qualify for the next to debate next week in miami? he believes he has, but there are some questions here about if he's reached the polling threshold, the rnc set. so if he makes the debate stage that certainly gives him a chance to be in the conversation, but he is struggling, of course, to keep pace with her. he's campaigning in iowa today. so he is focussing on there, as

well, but it's been a difficult road for him in this campaign. she clearly is leading the way here, john, but the overall takeaway for all of this campaign, donald trump is still in command of his race. it's his race to lose. john? >> jeff zeleny, thank you very much, always great to see you. kate? >> up next for us, cnn speaks to a group of jewish high school students amid what is believed to be the historic anti-semitism reaching historic levels in the united states according to the fbi director.

so very shortly, a cornell university student will appear in court after he was arrested and charged with threatening to kill and injure jewish students. >> according to court documents, the suspect posted at least one threat from the area where the university is located and also admitted to posting the threats in an interview with the fbi. cnn's athena jones is on this and she sat down with a group of jewish high school students about this terrifying and dangerous rise in antisemitism. a china, now that first and foremost after the arrest at cornell, what is the latest that you're hearing? >> we know that the suspect patrick is scheduled to appear in court and they'll discuss whether he'll be able to be released on bail or not, but this all comes as jewish people all across america are concerned about the rise in antisemitism. i sat down with five jewish teenagers and concerns about

antisemitism are the very first thing that came up in that discussion. another thing that really struck me immediately upon sitting down with them about what a strong connection each and every one of them has to israel. each of them have family and friends there. they've gone multiple times and visited israel in their life and they are concerned and how it will affect their lives in israel and how it will affect their lives here in america and how it will affect the world. >> it's a situation that hits close to home. >> we're such a tight-knit community. this is like our family. >> it's just shock that's, like, consistent and you can't escape it. >> i started reaching out to people to check up and there was more people to reach out to and people i was really worried about. >> what have the last few weeks been like being here in america and observing what's going on what's going on in israel and

gaza. >> it's this balancing act of worrying about when's the other shoe going to drop here in america and caring for and making sure to be a good support system for my friends and family in israel. >> waiting for another shoe to drop? what do you mean? >> i think in america we're in this grace period with israel. israel was attacked and the general feeling toward israel is still fairly positive and that pity is not going to be there anymore and that's when bad things are going to start happening in america to jews. >> i disagree with the fact that the majority of american sentiment is one of pro-israel or pity or sympathy. i think now that israel's been bombing gaza and there have been attempts to get the hostages back and all that the military operations are going on. >> they say the political response to the war has been upsetting especially with what they're seeing on social media.

>> i think it's an inherent jewish value to sit in your pain and discomfort and fast through prayer and community and acknowledge what's going on and that's our way with dealing with grief and processing and to have such raw pain to be turned into something political is very, very difficult to deal with. >> it's an impossible situation when you've been attacked by this terror group that's also governing and hiding behind its own people. i can't watch innocent palestinians die and it's like you poke a bear and hamas poked a bear and then and hid behind a bunch of little cubs. >> it's hard for me to hear free gaza and hamas is hurting gazan citizens as much as it's hurting israeli citizens. being pro-palestine and pro-gaza should not mean being pro-hamas. >> how do you think this ends? >> the amount of precedent that

there is with israel, with gaza, with palestinians and hamas, i don't foresee this ending in a way that will feel very final. >> israel has lost. the innocent civilians in gaza have lost. nobody can win a war like this and so what does the end look like this? it is a loss. >> where do you find the hope in a situation like this? i have no hope that the conflict will be resolved in the next century at all. i think this will be an almost inmutable fact of the middle east. >> this is where i turn to religion, prayer, god, and the core of judaism and that's how we'll get through this. >> francis gellar was planning to spend a gap year in israel before going to college. that plan is now uncertain. >> i truly believe that perseverance is in our dna. we've been around for all this time. they tried to get rid of us. they won't, and how can you not

believe that it's who we are? hopefulness and fighting and -- it's undeniable. >> so a powerful and important conversation with these teenagers and another thing that struck me from this conversation is this overwhelming desire to help. every one of them feels guilty that they can't do more from their perch here in america. one young man said his best friend, they lived parallel lives until his best friend's family moved to israel and now his best friend in a few months will be joining the israeli military and here he is in america feeling like he can't do much. a lot of feelings of helplessness and guilt. >> just to reinforce. these are high school students. i'm just amazed at their eloquence and their ability to put voice to the complexity of the pain and what they're living through, but also knowing that this started with a terror attack coming from ham as, but y god, john. >> and the fear that they live

increasingly under threat. >> a tthena, thanks. >> we are getting word of a pilot who threatened to shoot another pilot over a cockpit decision.

all right. this just in to cnn. a delta air lines pilot who was allowed to carry a gun in the cockpit, we are just learning has been fired. he will not be allowed to carry that weapon onboard. he's been fired, by the way. that pile waot was indicted ove threatening to shoot another pilot over a disagreement in the cockpit. pete muntean joins me now.

explain this, pete. >> we're getting new details about this, john. this incident happened last year although it's coming to light now. a grand jury in utah has indicted a delta pilot named jonathan dunn. he was charged with trying to assault a flight crew onboard this delta flight in august of 2022. according to court documents he and the captain, he was functioning as the first officer, they had a disagreement over potentially diverting the flight because of a medical emergency happening in the back with a passenger, and that is when, according to these court documents, that dunn threatened to shoot the captain multiple times. as for the nature of this threat, we're not totally sure, but these court documents say this dunn tried to assault or intimidate this flight crew member, this captain with this weapon. you may be asking yourself, why was a commercial airline pilot able to carry a gun in the cockpit in the first place?

it's a program called ffdo, federal flight deck officer, where a pilot is deputized by the tsa. something that came about after the september 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to try to prevent people from getting into the calkockpit where a pilot ca ththeme, john, of things that o have happened on commercial flights involving pilots that have been so startling lately including this alaska airlines pilot who was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder for trying to crash that plane. he said he was depressed and he'd been experimenting with magic mushrooms and also that he hadn't slept in 40 hours and it fits into the theme, john, and something the federal government will be looking into. >> not a theme that you'd like. pete muntean reporting. kate? coming up for us, a second blast at the refugee camp in northern gaza, one day after an idf strike hit the same area.

the new reportings coming in. we'll bring it to you.