The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.
Trump dines with visiting Sara Netanyahu at his Florida golf resort
US President-elect Donald Trump dined this evening with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
A photo of the pair is posted on X by Trump’s deputy director of communications.
Netanyahu is in Miami for several weeks to visit her son Yair. Her trip will keep her out of the country during the beginning of the prime minister’s scheduled testimony in his criminal trial.
Trump has built a rapport with Netanyahu’s wife, careful to offer her praise when in front of the prime minister.
When the Netanyahus last met Trump in July, the then-presidential candidate quipped that Sara was his “secret weapon.”
“As long as I have Sara, that’s all that matters,” Trump quipped then.
Report: Senior minister in Netanyahu’s party told hostage families PM should be removed
A senior minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told hostage families in recent days that the premier should be ousted along with the heads of security bodies over the failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7 massacre last year, according to Channel 12 news.
The network doesn’t say who the minister is.
It says the minister agreed with a series of accusations against the government voiced by the relatives of abductees taken during the Hamas onslaught.
One such claim voiced by a relative, the report says, was that far-right views have entered Likud in the form of Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, who “thinks like [far-right minister Itamar] Ben Gvir.”
Another argument by the same relative was reportedly that the government should agree to a ceasefire and hostage deal and then continue fighting, since “the prime minister knows well how to lie,” with the minister agreeing.
When the relative asked about Netanyahu’s attacks on the leadership of the Shin Bet security service, the minister reportedly said: “I would have sent the head of the Shin Bet home a long time ago — him, [IDF Chief of Staff] Herzi [Halevi], [Mossad chief] David Barnea, and everybody.”
Asked what about Netanyahu, the minister is said to have answered: “Netanyahu as well.”
IDF: Recent rocket sirens in Galilee were false alarm
The IDF says that incoming rocket alerts that sounded a short while in Kibbutz Hanita near the Lebanon border were a false alarm.
Biden says he is pardoning his son, Hunter, after repeatedly stating he wouldn’t
US President Joe Biden says he has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden.
“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” he claims in a statement released by the White House.
“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Biden said in an interview in June that he wouldn’t pardon his son, and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre reiterated this as recently as November 8.
Rocket alarms sound in Galilee town
Incoming rocket sirens sound in Kibbutz Hanita in the Galilee, near the Lebanon border.
The source of the apparent attack isn’t immediately clear. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon was reached last week.
Video footage shows Friday’s West Bank shooting terror attack
Video footage has been published of the West Bank shooting attack on Friday in which eight people were wounded, three of them seriously, when a Hamas terrorist opened fire at a civilian bus near the settlement of Ariel.
The footage shows the attacking unfolding at the Gitai Avisar junction, with the gunman opening fire at the bus at a bus stop and IDF soldiers returning fire.
The assailant was shot dead by security forces.
המחבל יורה צרורות, החיילים מחסלים אותו: תיעוד הפיגוע בשומרון בשישי@ItayBlumental pic.twitter.com/x8z5bv7KSj
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) December 1, 2024