The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.
IDF says sirens were caused by projectile fired from Yemen that didn’t cross into Israel
The military says the rocket alarms that sounded in the Shfela region and in the southern West Bank were due to a single projectile launched fro Yemen.
The projectile didn’t cross into Israeli territory, the IDF says.
However, an interceptor missile was reportedly fired, and its debris has caused a brush fire near Beit Shemesh.
Rocket sirens sound in Shfela region, including Beit Shemesh, after launch ‘from east’
Rocket alarms blare in the southern West Bank as well as in the Shfela region, including in the city of Beit Shemesh.
The IDF says they were activated by a launch “from the east” — usually code for Iraq — without immediately providing more details.
Biden will meet Herzog on Tuesday, White House confirms
US President Joe Biden will separately meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in Washington on Tuesday, the White House says in a statement.
Herzog’s office announced the planned meeting earlier.
Herzog is in the United States for the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly. The confab kicked off tonight with a pro-Israel rally at the Nationals Park baseball stadium in Washington.
US, UK airstrikes target two Yemeni governorates, Houthi-backed outlet reports
Al-Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, says a series of airstrikes have targeted the Amran and Saada governorates, which they say have been carried out by the US and Britain.
A few thousand attend pro-Israel rally in Washington, DC
A few thousand demonstrators convene in Washington, DC’s Nationals Park baseball stadium for a pro-Israel rally.
“The energy in the air is palpable,” Michael Herzog, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, tells the crowd. “All of us, all of you, are a clear expression of the unity, solidarity and resilience of the Jewish people.”
Organized by the Jewish Federations of North America, which represents over 350 Jewish communities, the evening’s “Stand Together” event comes around one year after the umbrella organization’s massive, nearly 300,000 person rally on the National Mall last year – a powerful show of support for Israel in wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
Dozens of pro-Palestinians rally outside NY hotel where Herzog is staying
Dozens of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters are demonstrating outside a New York hotel where President Isaac Herzog is staying.
עשרות צעירים פרו פלסטינים מפגינים בניו יורק נגד הנשיא הרצוג שנמצא כעת בביקור בארה"ב@yanircozin pic.twitter.com/HZw8DzjZxS
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) November 11, 2024
Herzog is in the United States for the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly. The confab kicks off tonight with a mass rally at the Nationals Park baseball stadium in Washington, DC.
Herzog is set to meet US President Jor Biden on Tuesday.
GOP Senator Tom Cotton: ‘Kangaroo court’ ICC has no right to target Israeli officials
Senior Republican US Senator Tom Cotton issues a blistering critique of efforts by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza.
In a statement, Cotton argues that the court “has no jurisdiction in Israel and its legal pursuit of Israeli officials in built on a lie.”
He calls the ICC a “kangaroo court” and says any attempt by its prosecutor Karim Khan to “threaten the United States and its allies should be seen as an act of aggression and face swift retaliation.”
Cotton touts a House-approved bill to sanction Khan and anyone else involved in potential international arrest warrants targeting Americans or US allies, and calls for it to be brought for a vote in the Senate.
Despite widely being expected to take a senior role in the upcoming Donald Trump administration, Axios has reported that Cotton has declined to take such a position and said he’ll stay in the Senate.
My statement on the ICC’s continued threats against Israeli officials. pic.twitter.com/4sleb9P14S
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) November 10, 2024
Trump, Scholz speak and agree to ‘work for return to peace in Europe’
US President-elect Donald Trump has spoken with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz by phone, Berlin says, adding that they “agreed to work together towards a return to peace in Europe.”
“Both exchanged views on the German-American relationship and the current geopolitical challenges,” adds the chancellor’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.
Netanyahu asks court to delay his testimony in his graft trial, saying war has made it impossible to prepare
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal team has filed a request with the Jerusalem District Court to delay his testimony in his corruption trial by two-and-a-half months, claiming that a series of security incidents that happened during the time given to prepare him for the testimony has made the task “impossible,” Hebrew media outlets report.
The request reportedly cites several major developments in the war in recent months, adding that they “caused most of the time slots meant to prepare the prime minister to give his testimony to be canceled due to urgent security or diplomatic needs.”
It contends that “this small delay will enable the defense to properly prepare for his testimony and won’t harm the public interest.”
The request has been widely expected, on grounds that the ongoing war prevents him from adequately preparing for his testimony, as well as that the prime minister cannot stand trial in the court at this time since it does not have a safe room or bomb shelter.
Netanyahu’s private home was targeted in a Hezbollah drone attack last month, reportedly prompting new security protocols that have seen him work primarily from changing, secure locations.
Netanyahu is scheduled to begin testifying on December 2 with the beginning of his legal team’s defense after the prosecution rested earlier this year. This testimony is expected to last several hours a day and take weeks to complete.
In July this year, Netanyahu’s legal team requested that the court postpone his testimony from November until March 2025 due to his need to manage the war, but the court rejected the request and set the date for December.
The prime minister has been charged with fraud and breach of trust in two cases and bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a third. He was indicted almost five years ago, in January 2020, and the trial began in May of that year. He denies all the allegations against him.
Netanyahu previously argued that he would be able to stand trial while also serving as prime minister. The new development may be met by fresh petitions by government watchdog groups to the High Court of Justice to have the prime minister recused from office, after previous petitions demanding this were rejected.