Latest war news. Iran shoots down US drone over Qeshm Island. 50 children trapped under the rubble in Gaza

According to the Palestinian Civil Defence, contacted by Al-Jazeera, at least 100 Palestinians are still trapped beneath the building, including around 50 children. Everyone is trying to find whatever equipment they can to help rescue the victims. The building collapsed at around 1 am, whilst the people inside were asleep. “We can hear the voices of people under the rubble and our teams are trying to reach them,” the spokesperson told the Arab news outlet, “but the occupying forces (the Israelis, ed.) are refusing to allow heavy machinery into the Gaza Strip.” Rescue operations are being carried out in coordination with the Gaza Municipality, the Egyptian Committee, the Arab Authority and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Al-Jazeera explains. The United Nations Development Programme is supporting the search operations. “There are around 100 bodies under this building, or rather 100 people whose fate is unknown,” a civil defence spokesperson told the media. “We urgently request the equipment needed for the recovery operations,” he said.

An MQ-9 drone belonging to the US Army was reportedly intercepted and destroyed at 2.29 this morning on the island of Qeshm, according to the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB. According to IRIB, this is the 52nd MQ-9 to have been shot down by Iranian air defences.

The death toll from the collapse of a building housing displaced Palestinians west of Gaza City has risen to 11. The victims include five children, whilst dozens of people are still missing. Rescue operations are continuing, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence, as reported by Al-Jazeera. The building, which was housing around 70 displaced Palestinians, had already sustained damage from Israeli bombardments.

The Houthis have claimed to have shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet over the Marib governorate in Yemen. “In the face of this brutal aggression against our country and our people, the Yemeni armed forces succeeded in shooting down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet whilst it was carrying out hostile operations in support of its military build-up in the airspace of the Marib governorate,” said military spokesman Yahya Saree in a statement quoted by Al Jazeera. “The fighter jet was shot down using a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile,” he added. The spokesperson went on to say that, over the course of this week, Saudi warplanes had carried out more than 450 attacks on Taiz, Lahj, al-Jawf, Hajjah, Marib, Saada and al-Bayda. According to Saree, civilian casualties were also reported. The Yemeni armed forces will continue “to protect our country’s airspace and sovereignty from any aggression or violation, using all means at their disposal”, he said.

Several explosions have been heard on the Iranian island of Qeshm. This was reported by the official Iranian news agency IRNA, which cites local sources and adds that the explosions appeared to have come from the sea.

US Vice-President JD Vance stated that Washington “cannot allow its foreign policy in the Middle East to be subordinated to Israel”. He added that “President Donald Trump is probably the only president in the last 40 years to have shown a willingness to ‘disengage’ from Netanyahu when it became clear that the interests of the American people did not coincide with those of the Israeli government”.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the United States is investigating an Iranian cyberattack that is said to have targeted at least two oil tankers bound for the United States via the Strait of Gibraltar. According to the newspaper, the attack took place in August and the tankers were carrying oil and gas. US officials familiar with the matter said the attack had raised concerns in Washington, where there are fears that Iran is seeking to escalate the conflict in the Middle East. The Strait of Gibraltar, which links the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, is a major global energy route, traversed by around 300 ships every day.

Eight people have died and more than 60 are missing following the collapse of a six-storey building in Gaza City, according to the Palestinian enclave’s Civil Defence. “The bodies of eight martyrs, including children, and 15 injured people have been recovered from the rubble of a six-storey residential building that collapsed in the western part of Gaza,” said spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal. “More than 60 people are still missing under the rubble,” the same source added, emphasising that the building “had suffered structural damage as a result of multiple Israeli attacks during the war”. The vast majority of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed by Israeli bombardments launched in response to the attack on 7 October 2023 carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas from within the Strip itself. The war in Gaza has caused over 73,000 deaths and 174,000 injuries among Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health – which operates under Hamas’s authority – whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

The Trump administration is planning to supply Israel with powerful 900 kg bombs as part of an upcoming arms deal. The package, worth $2.8 billion, includes 40,000 bombs, of which 20,000 are Mk84s and 20,000 are BLU-117s. This was revealed by two US officials and a person familiar with the plan, who spoke on Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the package, which is not yet finalised. These weapons have raised such concerns about the potential for high civilian casualties in Gaza that the Biden administration suspended their supply two years ago. Congress has been informally briefed on the agreement currently under discussion.

The Republican-majority House of Representatives has passed a motion requiring Donald Trump to end the war in Iran or seek authorisation from Congress. This is the third time the House has called on the US president to halt the war through symbolic measures. Seven MPs voted with the Democrats on the resolution, which was passed by 220 votes to 204. The approval comes 49 days before the mid-term elections. It is unclear whether the Senate will consider the measure before November. A similar resolution was passed by the House in July but has not yet been considered by the Senate.

Saudi Arabia has stated that a drone launched by the Houthis towards Mecca was intercepted and destroyed. Turki al-Maliki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting pro-Iranian rebels in Yemen, quoted by Al Jazeera, said that the Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces had intercepted the hostile drone before it entered airspace on Tuesday evening. Al-Maliki condemned the incident, describing it as an attempt to intimidate worshippers and harm civilians, and warned that the security of the two holy mosques and the pilgrims is a “red line”. The spokesperson described the incident as the Houthis’ second attempt to target Mecca, following what the coalition described as the launch of a ballistic missile in July 2017. “Claims about the attack on Mecca are a hackneyed lie, already used in the past, and one that no longer fools anyone,” commented Hazm al-Assad, a senior Houthi figure, on X.