Tankers in the Strait of Hormuz (AP)
EA on Pakistan TV: Israel’s Settlers Attack in Palestine’s West Bank
UPDATES: US War on Iran, Day 235 — Houthis Strike Yemen Presidential Palace, Killing 5
UPDATE 0457 GMT:
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said seven oil tankers were damaged, some catching fire, in the Strait of Hormuz overnight after being struck or running into mines.
Attacks on commercial shipping are at their highest point since March and the opening weeks of the US-Israel War on Iran.
UPDATE, OCT 23:
The head of the Israel Defense Forces, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has reportedly said during a private meeting that there is no operational need to strike Iran before Israeli elections on Tuesday.
Sources have said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned for strikes on October 10, but Donald Trump objected to any attacks before the US midterm elections on November 3.
“We do not see any indications of a need to strike Iran before the election. If we determine that a strike on Iran is necessary, we will carry it out,” Zamir supposedly said.
UPDATE 1015 GMT:
Israel’s military has reportedly killed a disabled young man during its occupation and regular incursions into southern Syria.
A 12-vehicle convoy entered a village in Dara’a Province and opened fire, hitting Muaz al-Salama. He was then abducted & his body later returned to Syria’s civil defense.
The Israelis also bulldozed 300 olive trees in Quneitra Province.
UPDATE 0915 GMT:
The price for Brent crude oil has reached its highest level since May, rising more than 3% to $112.55 a barrel.
UPDATE 0618 GMT:
The US and Israel have drawn up plans for renewed military strikes on Iran following the American midterm elections on November 3, say “US officials and others briefed on the matter”.
The sources said the US and Israel have stepped up military drills, including flyovers of Iran’s neighbor Iraq to simulate strike maneuvers, ahead of “a short but intensive operation”. Possible targets are Iranian energy sites, nuclear facilities, and missile and drone arsenals.
They said there is a small chance that Donald Trump could proceed with the strikes later in October.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly planned for strikes on the weekend of October 10, but Trump blocked the attacks until after the US midterms.
UPDATE 0615 GMT:
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they hit and set afire four vessels in the northern Persian Gulf simultaneously.
The Guards claim three more vessels collided with mines west of the Strait of Hormuz.
They told the Trump camp over escort of ships through the Strait, “The US military must know that if this trend continues, the conflict will extend to its bases in the region. This is a serious warning.”
UPDATE, OCT 22:
The US State Department has ordered some diplomats and the families of government employees to leave the American Embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia.
At least three people killed in the latest attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on an airport and oilfield on Wednesday evening. One resident was killed and eight injured by strikes on King Fahad international Airport in Dammam, on the Gulf near Bahrain and Qatar. Two people were slain and two injured by falling debris from an intercepted drone targeting an oil facility in southeast Saudi Arabia.
The State Department’s directive cited strikes on “civilian airports and other critical infrastructure”. Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said, “The safety and security of department personnel and their families remain our highest priority.”
The Embassy was badly damaged by Iranian retaliation at the start of the US War on Iran. It had been operating with only a skeleton staff for months, although some diplomats had returned in recent weeks.
Some outlets said amilies of US Embassy personnel were also being withdrawn from the USE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain, amid reports that the Trump Administration is developing plans to renew its War on Iran.
Pigott said the news of further withdrawals is “inaccurate”.
UPDATE 1036 GMT:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to carry out strikes against Iran earlier this month, but President Donald Trump opposed any attacks before US mid-term elections on November 3, “three people familiar with the matter” told the Financial Times.
The sources said the Israel Defense Force was ready to carry out strikes on the weekend of October 10, targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, regime sites, and civilian infrastructure including energy plants. The strikes would have been more intense than those carried out by the US and Israel at the start of the war, which killed Iran’s Supreme Leader and dozens of officials and commanders.
One source said it is “not an unreasonable scenario” for the attacks to be restarted in coming weeks. Another said Israel has prepared a new bank of targets that includes civilian infrastructure sites which have not been hit so far.
Earlier this week, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly visited Israel and met with Netanyahu to discuss “threats in the region”.
On October 9, Trump said the US would not attack Iran before the midterms.
UPDATE 1029 GMT:
The Saudi-led coalition claims it intercepted five drones launched toward the kingdom, including the holy city of Medina and Saudi Arabia’s eastern region.
Yemen’s Houthis denied responsibility. Military spokesman Yahya Sare’e saying their forces had not carried out any “deep” operations in Saudi territory.
UPDATE 0520 GMT:
The UN is warning that the humanitarian situation in Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, is deteriorating as Houthi forces block roads.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, citing colleagues on the ground, said, “Road closures and insecurity are preventing vital supplies, including fuel, from entering the city and surrounding areas.”
Despite efforts by the UN to provide aid in Taiz, it “cannot meet these needs if essential supplies are prevented from reaching the city”.
The Houthis have surrounded the city as they seek to take it from the Yemeni Government.
The UN Refugee Agency said on Tuesday that more than 250,000 people have been internally displaced since fighting reignited between the Houthis and the Government. Taiz accounts for 76% of departures and hosts 52%of those newly displaced.
UPDATE, OCT 21:
Pakistan’s military head, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi are in Tehran for talks seeking to prevent a renewal of the US War on Iran.
Pakistan and Qatar have been the mediators for discussions to end the war. Munir’s visit is his fifth to Iran since an April ceasefire between Iran and the US.
The Pakistanis, who arrived Tuesday night, are expected to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Iran sent a new proposal for an end to the war last month to the US via the mediators. Donald Trump immediately rejected it, as the US deployed an additional aircraft carrier which is expected to arrive by late November.
UPDATE 1630 GMT:
US Central Command has denied Iran’s claim (see 1053 GMT) that two oil tankers were set afire when they hit naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
A CENTCOM spokesperson maintained, “We have cleared international shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz of mines.” They declared that 95% of vessels are crossing the Strait “successfully”.
UPDATE 1626 GMT:
The UK is deploying RAF Typhoon fighters to protect Saudi Arabia from missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.
The British Ministry of Defence emphasized, “These aircraft will operate in a defensive role and will not conduct offensive strikes against the Houthis.” It did not specify the number of fighters.
UPDATE 1414 GMT:
The toll has risen to 73 killed by the Houthi attack on a training camp for Government forces in southwest Yemen.
Fourteen people are missing.
UPDATE 1053 GMT:
The Saudi-led coalition claims it intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by Yemen’s Houthis towards Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
UPDATE 1053 GMT:
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say two tankers are afire after hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
“If these mischiefs by the arrogant US regime continue, oil companies will have to pay a greater price,” the Guards declared.
They also claimed that a US MQ-9 drone was shot down over the Strait on Monday.
UPDATE 0745 GMT:
Oil prices reached their highest point since May 20 on Tuesday, with Brent crude at $110.72 per barrel.
US West Texas Intermediate crude contract is at $99.55.
UPDATE 0613 GMT:
Saudi Arabia has postponed the Future Investment Initiative until next year because of strikes by Yemen’s Houthis.
The annual event was scheduled for October 26-29. The head of the FII Institute, Dr. Maha Bint Mishari Al Saud, said the postponement “comes from a deep commitment to our partners, members, speakers and delegates”.
UPDATE 0608 GMT:
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has visited the Middle East.
Hegseth did not give details beyond a tweet referring to a meeting with troops of Central Command.
However, Axios reported that he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just before national elections on October 27.
UPDATE 0556 GMT:
The UN’s World Food Programme is ending support for 500,000 people in Gaza, almost a quarter of the Strip’s population, because of cuts.
Two-thirds of the population, crammed into the 30% of Gaza which is not occupied by Israel, face crisis levels of food insecurity. Around 200,000 people are at risk of famine.
A year after declaration of a ceasefire and the creation of a “Board of Peace”, reconstruction has not begun. With few jobs available and 80% unemployment, the vast majority rely on food aid. One in eight children are chronically malnourished or stunted, and they may have suffered permanent damage.
WFP programmes helped feed around 1.6 million people this summer. However, funding has decreased by more than half from last year. The WFP needs more than £300 million over the next six months to restore and maintain critical programmes in Palestine.
Aid has been scaled back to 1.1 million people per month. Cuts have been implemented in deliveries of ration boxes, cash stipends to buy food in markets, and hot meals at community kitchens.
Gaza was self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables before the war of October 2023, but the vast majority of farmland has been occupied by Israel’s military. Greenhouse and irrigation systems supporting agricultural production have been destroyed.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Yemen’s Houthis killed at least 58 people and injured more than 200 in a ballistic missile attack on a training camp for Yemen Government forces on Monday.
The toll was the largest in a single incident since fighting surged in September, as the Houthis took the Red Sea coast, with control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, and advanced on Yemen’s third-largest city Taiz.
The Houthis fired three ballistic missiles on the al-Alam camp in Shabwa Province in southwest Yemen. Most of the casualties were young recruits.
The injured were taken to a hospital in the local capital Ataq amid pleas for blood donations.
A Yemen Government spokesperson said the attacked site was not linked to the current fighting, but was “a training centre where new recruits in the internal security forces of Shabwa Governorate receive training and qualification programmes.”
Rashad al-Alimi, the President of the UN-recognized Government pledged an immediate, strong response. He declared that the strikes “reflect the Houthi militias’ approach of resorting to cowardly terrorist attacks whenever they face pressures or their Iranian-backed sabotage plots falter”.
Alimi called UN Secretary General António Guterres to request classification of the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. Shabwa Governor Awad bin al-Wazir called for extra air defenses with troops fighting across six fronts.
Houthi forces have cut the road between Government-run Shabwa and the Houthi-run Bayda governorate.
The Houthi military spokesperson claimed Saudi officers are among the dead and wounded: “We warn the deceived ones against responding to the Saudi enemy’s calls to lure them with his defiled money to the pyres of death, and to exploit them instead of his soldiers who are indifferent to their lives.”
