The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they happen.
Suspected drone alert sounds in Western Galilee coastal communities
Suspected drone alerts are activated in the northern coastal city of Nahariya and a number of nearby Western Galilee communities.
UNSC to vote on resolution demanding immediate Gaza ceasefire, freeing of hostages
The UN Security Council is slated to vote later Wednesday on a resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza along with the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
It remains unclear whether the United States, Israel’s closest ally, will veto the measure or abstain, which would allow it to pass. The four other permanent members — Russia, China, Britain and France — are expected to support it or abstain.
Israel is opposed to the resolution for not making a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas explicitly linked. In March, the US abstained on a similar resolution adopted by the Security Council that called for an immediate ceasefire during Ramadan, saying that their inclusion in the same paragraph meant they are equal requirements for a deal.
Settlers torch several cars in village near Ramallah — Palestinian reports
Palestinian media reports that Israeli settlers torched several Palestinian vehicles in the village of Al-Mazra’a Al-Gharbiya north of Ramallah in the West Bank.
Such attacks have taken place regularly in recent weeks as Israeli authorities fail to crack down on the phenomenon.
No injuries are reported in the latest incident.
There are also no reports of arrests, a common trend that has led Western countries to begin sanctioning Israeli extremists responsible for attacks on Palestinians, dispossessing their land and destabilizing the West Bank.
تغطية صحفية: مستوطنون يحرقون مركبات الأهالي في بلدة المزرعة الغربية شمال رام الله pic.twitter.com/9XNnee3fZN
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) November 20, 2024
Oman’s deputy envoy to US: ‘Dangerous confusion’ between Judaism and Zionism fuels antisemitism
WASHINGTON — In remarks at Oman’s National Day celebration in Washington, Muscat’s deputy ambassador to the US warns against conflating between Zionism and Judaism.
“We must also be mindful of the dangerous confusion between Judaism as a religion and Zionism as a political ideology. This confusion actually fuels antisemitism and undermines efforts for peaceful resolutions to the conflict,” says Sabra Ahmed Al-Hooti.
Successive polling shows, however, that a substantial majority of Jews view Israel as a central part of their Jewish identity.
Oman’s then-sultan hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018 and Muscat has been floated as a potential candidate to join the Abraham Accords. But in 2022 its lower house of parliament voted to expand its Israel boycott law. Still, it opened its airspace to Israeli flights last year.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Muscat has joined other countries in the region in doubling down in their stance against normalizing relations with Israel before a Palestinian state is established.
The Israel-Palestinian conflict is the first issue mentioned in Al-Hooti’s brief remarks welcoming guests. She reiterates Oman’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for the establishment of a Palestinian state before highlighting the past year’s achievements for Muscat domestically and in its relations with the US.
Zelensky warns Ukraine ‘will lose’ if US military aid curbed, says Trump ‘more stronger than Putin’
WASHINGTON — Ukraine “will lose” its war against Russia if the United States cuts military funding to Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tells Fox News.
“If they cut, we will — I think we will lose,” Zelensky says in an interview with the US television network.
“We will fight. We have our production, but it’s not enough to prevail. And I think it’s not enough to survive,” he continues.
US President-elect Donald Trump is a vocal skeptic of the billions that the administration of President Joe Biden has given to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in 2022.
Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war quickly, but has not provided details of how he would do so.
This week his allies voiced vehement criticism of Biden’s decision to let Ukraine use US-supplied long-range missiles for attacks inside Russia, accusing him of a dangerous escalation.
Zelensky tells Fox that “unity” between Ukraine and the United States is “most important.”
Trump, he says, could influence Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war, “because he is much more stronger than Putin.”
Putin “can be willing and end this war, but it also depends on the United States of America much more. Putin is weaker than the United States of America,” he says.
AP officially declares Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie the winner of San Francisco mayoral race
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Mayor London Breed has lost her reelection race to Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie.
The Associated Press called the race Tuesday.
In conceding the race to Lurie, Breed, 50, pledged a smooth transition for the incoming mayor.