The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they happen.
US hostage families urge Biden-Trump cooperation to reach deal before inauguration
The families of American-Israeli hostages held in Gaza urged top Biden officials during meetings in Washington on Tuesday to work with their counterparts in the incoming administration in order to secure a hostage deal before President-elect Donald Trump enters office in two months.
“Our requests… of both administrations right now is they work together, not to prepare the Trump administration for taking office in late January, but rather to get this done now in this unique moment,” hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen’s father Jonathan tells The Times of Israel after he and the relatives of six other American-Israeli hostages met at the White House with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk and other top Biden officials.
If the sides wait until Trump enters office on January 20 to strike a deal, “there’s a very real possibility that none of the hostages will remain alive, and it will be nearly impossible to retrieve the remains of those who have been murdered,” Dekel-Chen warns.
While he faults the Israeli government for “abandoning” the hostages for more than 400 days, Dekel-Chen asserts that the Biden administration has done “everything in its power” to negotiate a deal, amid pushback from both Israel and Hamas.
The families of the American-Israeli hostages will remain in the US for several more days and are working to secure meetings with some of Trump’s recently announced appointees along with Republican lawmakers who will likely be in control of both houses of Congress next year.
US military says it struck Syria weapons depot that belongs to Iran-backed militia
The US military says it has conducted strikes against an Iranian-backed militia group’s weapons storage facility in Syria.
“These strikes were in response to a rocket attack on US personnel at Patrol Base Shaddadi. There was no damage to US facilities and no injuries to US or partner forces during the attack,” the US military says in a statement.
For Pentagon chief, Trump taps Fox News host who said US must ‘stand by strong ally’ Israel
US President-elect Donald Trump says that he is nominating Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary.
Hegseth deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Minnesota in 2012 before joining Fox News.
“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,” Trump says in a statement. “Nobody fights harder for the Troops, and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our ‘Peace through Strength’ policy.”
Hegseth has been an advocate of Israel in his coverage, which over the past year has included the series “Battle in the Holy Land: Israel at War” about the ongoing Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s terror onslaught on October 7, 2023, and an interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This is not some mystical land that can be dismissed,” Hegseth said in a 2016 interview with the Jewish Press when asked about seeing biblical and historical sites in Israel. “It’s the story of God’s chosen people. That story didn’t end in 1776 or in 1948 or with the founding of the UN. All of these things still resonate and matter today.”
He also said at the time that he had never met a Jew until going to college.
“My parents come from a small town in Minnesota where I grew up as a Baptist. I never met a Jewish person until I went to college. When I did, the first thing I said to him was, ‘I read about you in the Bible!’ It was from there and beyond that I gained a true understanding of Jews. Growing up an evangelical, I obviously had an enormous amount of respect and understanding of the historical resonance of Abraham and religions and how they’re intertwined.”
“I have come to really appreciate the Jewish heritage and the Jewish state. I understand how geopolitically we are linked and how critical it is that we stand by such a strong ally.”
IDF intercepts drone ‘from the east’ that set off sirens in southern Golan
The IDF says it downed “a suspicious aerial object launched from the east” that triggered warning sirens in the southern Golan Heights, using a term to refer to attacks from Iraq.
There are no reports of injuries or damage and the military stresses the drone never entered Israeli territory.
Strike hits southern suburb of Beirut following Israeli evacuation order
A strike hit a southern Beirut suburb after an Israeli order to locals to evacuate, AFPTV shows early Wednesday, airing images of fires and smoke in the area.
The evacuation order posted on X by Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee warned people living in houses close to buildings “linked to Hezbollah” to move out, warning of imminent heavy strikes.
Trump nominates former national intelligence director to be CIA chief
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — US President-elect Donald Trump announces that he is nominating former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
A former Republican congressman from Texas, Ratcliffe served as director of national intelligence for the final year and a half of Trump’s first term, leading the US government’s spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation’s highest Intelligence positions,” Trump says in a statement. “He will be a fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans, while ensuring the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”
Trump announces real estate investor Steven Witkoff will be his special envoy to Mideast
US President-elect Donald Trump announces the appointment of real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be his special envoy to the Middle East.
Witkoff has been Trump’s regular golf partner and was seen as a conduit to the Jewish business community during his winning presidential campaign.
“Steve is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy, who has made every project and community he has been involved with stronger and more prosperous. Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud,” Trump says in a statement.
Witkoff will fill a role that did not exist in the current administration, as US President Joe Biden believing that the conditions weren’t in place for another high-stakes Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative and instead sought to prioritize other foreign policy issues.
Witkoff is not known to have any experience diplomacy or the Middle East, but those have not been criteria for previous Trump appointments. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who similarly lacked such experience, managed to broker the Abraham Accords during the Republican politician’s first term as president.