The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they happen.
IDF: Airstrike targeted terror operatives who were heading to attack troops in Gaza
The military releases an overnight statement saying an Israeli aircraft struck a cell of operatives in Gaza while “on their way to carry out terror [attack] plans against our forces in the Strip and toward Israeli territory in the immediate future.”
An IDF statement says the targeted operatives were at a school in Gaza City when struck, adding that “many measures were taken to reduce the chance of harm” to non-combatants.
The statement also accuses Palestinian terror groups of violating international law by operating in civilian facilities and using civilian shields, without specifying which factions the targeted operatives belonged to.
Appeals court rejects TikTok’s request to temporarily halt pending US ban
WASHINGTON — A US appeals court rejects an emergency bid by TikTok to temporarily block a law that would require its Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest the short-video app by January 19 or face a ban.
TikTok and ByteDance filed the emergency motion with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, asking for more time to make its case to the US Supreme Court.
The companies warned that without court action the law will “shut down TikTok — one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms — for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users.”
Alexander brother denied bail as US federal prosecutors warns of Israel flight risk
MIAMI — A federal judge orders that a prominent real estate broker be held without bond on sexual assault and trafficking charges, saying he is a flight risk as she rejects his family’s pledge of $115 million in real estate holdings to secure his release.
Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid’s ruling likely means that Tal Alexander’s brothers, twins Oren and Alon Alexander, will also be denied bail when they appear in Miami’s federal court next week as the proposed security package would have covered all three.
Earlier Friday, a Florida judge had granted Oren a $3 million bond and his twin $2 million on state charges stemming from the same investigation but they were ordered held pending their own federal hearing.
Reid agreed with the prosecution’s argument that Tal Alexander, because of the family’s wealth, would be a flight risk if released even if he was placed under house arrest and wore a GPS monitor, saying those provisions have “proven not to be foolproof” in other cases.
Federal prosecutor Lauren Astigarraga had argued that if Alexander, who is Jewish, fled to his parents’ homeland of Israel on a private jet, it would prove difficult to impossible to extradite him back to the United States. The 38-year-old is facing a likely life sentence if convicted on all counts.
Astigarraga also argued that the seriousness of the charges against Alexander shows that he is a danger to the community and that he could try to intimidate the victims who might testify against him at his trial. She compared his allegations to those against music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is being held without bail on sex trafficking charges.
The Alexander brothers gained national attention after the accusations against them were made public months ago. Oren and Tal Alexander had risen to become stars in luxury real estate after co-founding their real estate firm, Official, which specialized in high-end properties in Miami, New York and Los Angeles.
Report: Trump’s Mideast envoy visited Saudi crown prince, normalization among the topics discussed
US President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and met Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Axios reports, citing two sources with knowledge of the meeting.
One of the sources says that Witkoff and the Saudi royal, known by his initials MBS, discussed US-Saudi ties, the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, potential normalization between Riyadh and Jerusalem and other matters.
Massad Boulos, appointed by Trump as a senior adviser on Arab and Middle East issues, met the Qatari prime minister in Doha this week, Axios also reports.