The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they happen.
Blinken to meet Turkey’s Erdogan for talks expected to focus on Gaza war
ISTANBUL — Washington’s top diplomat will discuss the Gaza war with Turkey’s mercurial leader on Saturday before flying to Crete to address Greek worries about the looming sale of US fighter jets to Ankara.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Istanbul late Friday for the first leg of a trip that includes visits to Israel and West Bank, along with five Arab states.
Blinken’s fourth crisis tour since the start of the Israel-Hamas war three months ago comes with fears mounting that the conflict will engulf swathes of the Middle East.
Istanbul served as a base for Hamas political leaders until the terror group carried out a devastating attack in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages. In response, Israel launched a war aimed at toppling the Gaza-ruling terror group and returning the hostages. Hamas health authorities say 22,600 Gazans have been killed in the Israeli offensive, a figure that doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants and which cannot be verified independently.
Turkey asked the Hamas chiefs to leave after some were captured on video celebrating the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has since turned into one of the Muslim world’s harshest critics of the scale of death and destruction happening in Gaza — and of Washington’s support for Israel.
He has also rebuffed US pressure to cut off the suspected flow of funding through Turkey to Hamas and defended the terror group as legitimately elected “liberators” fighting for their land.
Trump accuses Biden of ‘fear-mongering’ for saying he’s a threat to democracy
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump offers a withering response to criticism from US President Joe Biden that he’s a threat to democracy, calling his Democratic rival’s remarks “pathetic” and “fear-mongering.”
“Biden’s record is an unbroken streak of weakness, incompetence, corruption and failure… That’s why Crooked Joe is staging a pathetic, fear-mongering campaign event in Pennsylvania today,” Trump tells supporters in Sioux Center, Iowa.
US offering $10 million for info that thwarts Hamas financial network
The United States is offering up to $10 million for information on five Hamas financiers or anything leading to the disruption of the Palestinian terror group’s financial mechanisms, the State Department says.
The reward offering follows four rounds of US sanctions on Hamas after the group’s terror onslaught incursion into Israel on October 7.
The five are Abdelbasit Hamza Elhassan Khair, Amer Kamal Sharif Alshawa, Ahmed Sadu Jahleb, Walid Mohammed Mustafa Jadallah and Muhammad Ahmad ‘Abd Al-Dayim Nasrallah, who have all been previously designated global terrorists by the United States, the department says in a statement.
The first financier, known as Hamza, is based in Sudan, has managed numerous companies in Hamas’ investment portfolio and was involved in the transfer of almost $20 million to Hamas, the department said. He is tied to former Sudanese president Omar Bashir and Islamist groups undermining stability in Sudan, according to the State Department.
Three of the Hamas operatives cited – Amer Kamal Sharif Alshawa, Ahmed Sadu Jahleb, and Walid Mohammed Mustafa Jadallah – are part of the group’s investment network in Turkey, the department says.
Nasrallah has close ties to Iranian entities and has been involved in the transfer of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas, including its military wing, the agency says, adding that he was based in Qatar in October.
The rewards would be provided for information on any source of revenue for Hamas, major donors, financial institutions that facilitate transactions for Hamas, front companies that procure dual-use technology for the group and criminal schemes that benefit Hamas, the State Department says.