The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
Knesset formally approves Katz as defense minister after Gallant’s firing
Defense Minister Israel Katz is sworn in before the Knesset, after his predecessor Yoav Gallant’s shock dismissal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a breakdown in trust during the war in Gaza.
Before taking over from Gallant, Katz — who vowed to defeat Israel’s enemies — was the foreign minister, with MKs also approving Gideon Sa’ar as his appointed successor.
GOP’s Dave McCormick, who made bid for Jewish voters, declared winner of Pennsylvania Senate race
ARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — Republican David McCormick has won Pennsylvania’s pivotal US Senate seat, as the former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund beats three-term Democratic Senator Bob Casey in the election after accusing the incumbent of supporting policies that led to inflation, domestic turmoil and war.
The victory pads Republicans’ majority in the Senate, which they wrested from Democratic control this week, and clocked in as the nation’s second-most expensive race while playing out alongside the presidential contest in the nation’s premier battleground state.
McCormick, 59, recaptures a GOP seat in Pennsylvania after Republicans lost one in 2022, paying off a bet that party brass made when they urged McCormick to run and consolidated support behind him.
Republican strategists largely credit Donald Trump’s strong performance in Pennsylvania, beating Vice President Kamala Harris in the state by about 2%, as Democrats navigated headwinds like voter dissatisfaction over inflation under President Joe Biden.
That was enough to help pull McCormick to victory, they say.
Until Tuesday, Casey, 64, had won six statewide general elections going back to 1996, but he had never been on the same ballot as Trump.
With votes still being counted, McCormick led Casey by about 31,000 votes, or half a percentage point.
McCormick tried to capitalize on turmoil in the Middle East and at the US southern border with Mexico.
He made a bid for Jewish voters by traveling to the Israel-Gaza border, speaking to Jewish audiences across the state and arguing that Casey and the Biden administration have not fought antisemitism or backed Israel strongly enough in the Israel-Hamas war.
In first appointment, Trump taps his campaign manager to be White House chief of staff
US President-elect Donald Trump names his campaign manager, Susie Wiles, as White House chief of staff, his first major appointment since winning this week’s election.
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected,” Trump says in a statement. “Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history.”
US says Israel starting to carry out steps to boost Gaza aid that administration demanded
The Biden administration says Israel has begun following through on a series of steps to improve the Gaza humanitarian crisis that Washington demanded be taken within a month if Israel wanted to ensure the continued supply of offensive weapons from the US.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says in a press briefing that a new US-Israeli channel for discussing incidents of civilian harm is slated to convene for the first time in the next week or two. This was one of the requests that the US made in a letter to Israel on October 13 that warned failure to address them risked placing Israel out of compliance with US law, which bars the transfer of security assistance to countries that block humanitarian aid. The letter specified that the US wanted to see the new communication channel convene for the first time by the end of October, which didn’t end up happening.
In recent days, Israel reopened the Erez Crossing to allow aid into northern Gaza and has informed the US that it will open a new crossing into central Gaza bordering Kissufim in the coming days, Miller says, adding that Israel has also approved several new delivery routes inside Gaza to ensure that aid can be delivered to civilians.
Israel has begun allowing aid convoys to reach areas in northern Gaza that had been blocked off for weeks, the State Department spokesperson announces, noting that the US had been pushing Israel to do so amid alarming reports of mass hunger in the area. Israel says it has been operating in the area of Jabalya in order to thwart Hamas’s resurgence there and ordered civilians to evacuate ahead of time, but humanitarian groups say tens of thousands of noncombatants have been caught in the crossfire.
Miller also notes that Israel has begun expanding the Muwasi coastal humanitarian zone inland, as requested by the US in the letter due to fears that conditions there are inadequate as the winter approaches.
There has been a slight uptick in the number of aid trucks entering Gaza in recent days as well, including 229 that entered on Tuesday, 115 of which were collected, Miller says. This still remains below the 350-truck minimum that the US laid out in its letter to Israel.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says separately that Israel has “made some progress… but more needs to be made.”
Miller clarifies that the US is monitoring to ensure that aid is actually reaching Palestinians after it enters Gaza and that upticks in delivery are sustained in adjudicating Israel’s compliance with the letter.
But after Donald Trump won the presidential election this week, it’s unclear the level of leverage that the Biden administration has in curbing weapon shipments to Israel, given that the move would almost certainly be reversed by the president-elect.
Miller says that in the 74 days remaining before Trump enters office, the US is committed to working to bring an end to the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, while surging humanitarian assistance, securing the release of the hostages and preventing further regional escalation.