Israel: Herzog appoints Eisenkot on Sunday at 5.00 pm. Gaza: 70,000 tents flooded

The six activists arrested in the West Bank are due to return tomorrow. Officials from the Italian Embassy in Tel Aviv concluded their consular visits this evening at the airport to the six activists arrested in recent days in the West Bank by the Israeli army whilst they were supporting Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest. According to a statement from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, all the Italian nationals will depart for Italia tomorrow morning on a scheduled flight. They were able to make telephone calls to their families and speak with the Consul and her staff. They are in good health but have reported having been subjected to psychological abuse and, in one case, to physical assault at some point during their detention. The Italian Embassy has already taken the first steps to seek clarification from the Israeli authorities regarding the treatment their compatriots received whilst in detention.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have announced that they have launched multiple missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabian troops and infrastructure, both within the Gulf kingdom and in Yemen.

The group, which is fighting against a Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally recognised Yemeni government, is reported to have carried out six operations targeting Aramco’s oil facilities, Riyadh airport, as well as Saudi troops and military installations on both sides of the border. This was stated on X by the Houthi rebels’ military spokesperson, Yahya Saree.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has stated that Iran is working to navigate the ‘neither war nor peace’ situation with dignity. This was reported by the ISNA news agency. Pezeshkian said that this strategy “should not prevent careful and serious planning to manage fuel and energy consumption and use them more efficiently”.

The pro-Iranian Houthis in Yemen have announced that they have launched several missile and drone attacks against Saudi troops and infrastructure, both in the Gulf kingdom and in Yemen. The group, which is fighting a Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally recognised Yemeni government, carried out six operations targeting Aramco’s oil facilities, Riyadh airport and Saudi troops and military installations on both sides of the border, according to Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree on X.

Syria has no intention whatsoever of sending military forces to Yemen. A Syrian diplomatic source made this statement to the state news agency Sana, dismissing reports of a possible troop deployment as unfounded.

The source also clarified the scope of military cooperation with Saudi Arabia, which currently focuses on training Syrian forces, strengthening their capabilities and exchanging military expertise and experience.

Syria is set to deploy thousands of soldiers to Saudi Arabia and Yemen – where some contingents are already stationed – to support the Yemeni government and its Saudi ally against the pro-Iranian Houthis: this is according to Yemeni officials who spoke to AFP. This marks the first deployment of foreign troops to this front since hostilities resumed in July. Damascus will send 3,000 troops to help the Kingdom “fight the Houthis”, said a source from the Presidential Executive Council, Yemen’s highest governing body.

“Winter supplies must be allowed into the Gaza Strip immediately.” This is according to a statement issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, after thousands of tents were flooded by heavy rain that has fallen in the Palestinian enclave over the last few hours.

“Humanitarian workers sprang into action immediately” to meet the needs of the affected families, “but the available supplies are insufficient”, added the UN office, which is why “further funding for humanitarian action” is also “urgently needed”.

The Ministry of Health of the Yemeni Houthi group has reported 22 deaths and 30 injuries following air strikes carried out today by Saudi forces against homes and rescue workers in the village of Al-Shariya, located in the Bani Hashish district of the San’a governorate. This was reported by the Al Masirah broadcaster, which added that two of its staff members were among the injured.

Around 70,000 tents have been flooded due to the heavy rainfall in the Gaza Strip over the past 12 hours. This was reported by the media office of the Palestinian enclave, whilst the Minister of Health of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Majed Abu Ramadan, has issued “an urgent appeal to the international community, the United Nations and health, humanitarian and relief organisations to intervene immediately to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced people”.

“What is happening in Gaza is not a temporary winter crisis, but a growing threat to public health and to the lives of the population, which requires immediate international intervention commensurate with the scale of the disaster,” the minister emphasised in a statement reported by the Wafa news agency.

The US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, with the support of President Donald Trump, has called on China to use its influence over Iran to bring an end to the war. This is according to a report in today’s Washington Post, citing a US official who stated that Beijing had passed the message on to Tehran. The Trump administration’s diplomacy towards Iran is led by Vice-President JD Vance, who last month sent a ‘conciliatory letter’ to the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, and this week attributed the Republican Party’s heavy defeat in the mid-term elections to the war. These moves have drawn criticism of Vance, but have earned him some brownie points in the Middle East, according to Ali Al Thawadi, a Qatari official who acted as an intermediary between the White House and Tehran.

With the mid-term elections now over, President Donald Trump’s advisers and his foreign allies are rushing to influence his decision: to end the war with Iran or to resume military operations. After voters expressed clear opposition to the war at the ballot box, Vice-President JD Vance questioned whether the conflict had really been worth it. Before posting his message on social media, according to US officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Vance had informed the president of his intention to attribute the electoral defeat to the war itself. Another faction, comprising Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, has instead advocated the resumption of major military operations during recent briefings on available options. Several external advisers with an interventionist stance telephoned Trump after the election to argue that his political legacy depends on his ability to force Iran to abandon its nuclear programme. In this way, the president could claim that the political sacrifice was justified by the results achieved.

Further reading

It is in Iran’s interests to negotiate with ‘Lame Duck’ Donald before the new Congress takes office

05 November 2026

The spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Mohebi, has stated that Tehran is set to unveil new missile facilities shortly, in addition to its achievements in the aerospace and defence sectors. ‘We have produced a large number of underground missiles, even during the war with the United States and Israel, and our missiles are now capable of evading radar. The remarkable achievements of our aerospace forces will be utilised in the event of a possible enemy attack, so that if the Americans were to attempt to start a new war, they would regret it,” he said, as quoted by Tasnim.

The Vice-President of the United States, JD Vance, has been personally involved over the past two weeks in indirect talks with Iran, with the aim of securing a new ceasefire and resuming nuclear negotiations. This is reported by Axios, citing two sources familiar with the matter. This confirms that Vance is personally taking the initiative to steer the US away from a conflict which, in his view, contributed to the Republican Party’s heavy defeat in the mid-term elections. His role also elevates the latest round of indirect talks to the highest levels of the US administration. According to US officials and regional sources, Trump is currently willing to let the diplomatic efforts run their course and wants to see whether it is possible to reach an agreement of any kind.

The spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, General Hossein Mohebbi, announced today that restrictions on the range of Iranian missiles have been lifted. Responding to a question from the press regarding the possible lifting of restrictions on missile range, in light of recent statements by the Supreme Leader on the need for an immediate and effective response to any type or level of threat, without geographical limits, Mohebbi said: ‘This restriction has been lifted. However, we must demonstrate these capabilities in practice and should not limit ourselves to pre-emptive statements. Our task is to prove our capabilities on the battlefield.”

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, reported on talks held over the past 48 hours with his counterparts from 12 countries (Oman, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Cyprus, Turkey, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Iraq and Pakistan) “on the latest regional and international developments and on the consequences of the actions of the United States and the Zionist regime, which have led to an escalation”. In an Instagram post, Araghchi stated that he had explained Iran’s “principled positions”, emphasising “the need to respect the national sovereignty of states, to put an end to aggression and threats, and to avoid destructive foreign intervention”, as well as “the responsibility of countries in the region to prevent the spread of instability”.

The Iranian navy has stated that an oil tanker caught fire after striking a naval mine in the eastern part of the Strait of Hormuz, according to reports in the Iranian media on Saturday.

Iran has executed a man of Baluchi ethnicity for his involvement in an armed attack on a police station in the south-east of the country, during which several officers were killed or injured, according to reports in the Iranian media on Saturday. Mohammad Aref Shahbakhsh, identified by semi-official media as a member of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, was convicted of armed rebellion and of having ‘waged war against God’ in connection with the attack on the police station in Qaleh Bid in Khash, in the province of Sistan-Baluchestan. The report did not specify when the attack took place or how many police officers were killed or injured.

The United States is offering up to $20 million to anyone who provides information on Iran’s nuclear programme. ‘The “Rewards for Justice” programme offers a reward of up to $20 million and possible resettlement in exchange for information on Iran’s nuclear programme, including facilities, equipment and the personnel involved – such as members of the scientific community – or on the movements of such elements,’ reads a post on the US Central Command (Centcom) account, which includes a link to the US State Department’s programme page where ‘reports can be submitted’.

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, has confirmed Doha’s commitment to mediating between Iran and the United States to avert a further escalation in the region, emphasising that the crisis ‘cannot be left unresolved’. Speaking at the University of Oxford, as reported by Al Jazeera, Al Thani explained that “over the past two weeks we have been working with colleagues in the US administration, who are genuinely sincere in their efforts to find a way to contain the situation and bring about de-escalation”.

US President Donald Trump has had the courage to tackle the threat posed by Iran, unlike his predecessors, who preferred to pass the problem on to subsequent administrations. This was stated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a speech at Mar-a-Lago. “It would have been very easy to do what several presidents before him did, namely ignore the Iranian issue and leave it to their successor,” said Rubio. “But this president did not do that. He tackled it because what Iran wants is not just to destroy our country, but to destroy our way of life and threaten our children. We cannot live in a world where the most radical and terrorist regime on the planet possesses a weapon of mass destruction,” continued the US Secretary of State.

The Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Article 90 (a specialised parliamentary body within the Islamic Consultative Assembly, ed. ) has stated that an urgent motion – calling for Iran’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Additional Protocol – has been submitted to the Bureau and is now awaiting authorisation from the Speaker of the Assembly to be debated in plenary session. “Given the country’s current situation, the aggression by the enemy and the repeated breaches of commitments, remaining in this treaty does nothing but harm the nation,” said Hosseinali Hajideligani, as reported by state media.

‘I don’t want to talk about it. We carried out a small-scale attack in Iran. They’d built a small anti-aircraft system and we took it out in 15 minutes, maybe five.” This was confirmed by Donald Trump, in response to those asking whether the United States had been behind the attack on the island of Qeshm.

The Iranian army stated today that it is ‘stronger’ than it was at the start of the war in the Middle East, declaring itself ready to respond to any attack ‘immediately’ and ‘without geographical limits’ in the wake of recent US threats. “The armed forces of the Islamic Republic are now on a higher state of alert and are more powerful than they were at the start of the war,” said army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency. “On the orders of the Supreme Leader, any response by the armed forces will be immediate, effective and without geographical limits,” he added. Despite recent US attacks on the island of Qeshm, in the Strait of Hormuz, diplomatic negotiations to prevent a resumption of hostilities have recently intensified, with Qatar acting as mediator, following a series of Israeli and US threats.

The semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that two missiles had once again struck the island of Qeshm, adding that there is no official information on any damage. Earlier, the state news agency IRNA had reported accounts from local residents, according to whom two projectiles had struck the Suza area on the island of Qeshm, in southern Iran, after the sound of an aircraft had been heard over the island.

Further reading

Qeshm, Iran’s ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ island

21 July 2026

JERUSALEM – The Israeli Arab parties. Never before, in Israel’s short history, have they garnered such widespread support. The far-right leaders of Benjamin Netanyahu’s outgoing government view them as a smokescreen, as an existential threat to the Jewish state. Opposition parties view them with less hostility, but almost all with deep scepticism. Until the night of 27 October, just hours before polling day, opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot had consistently rejected any alliance with them. His coalition, however, failed to secure enough votes to form a government (at least 61 of the 120 seats in Parliament). Whilst setting stringent conditions, the former Chief of the General Staff has not ruled out cooperation with Arab MPs willing to accept them. It remains to be seen whether this will be possible – and whether other, more right-wing opposition leaders, such as Avigdor Lieberman, will agree.

There are six Italians amongst the 14 international volunteers arrested in the West Bank whilst helping Palestinians with the olive harvest. Amongst the group of Italians – four activists and two journalists – is Giorgia Lombardi, a town councillor from La Spezia. “They have done nothing; Israel must release them immediately,” declared Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. The embassy in Tel Aviv has been alerted. Deportation proceedings are scheduled for 7 November. The circumstances of the arrest, as recounted by the leader of AVS Angelo Bonelli, who received a message from Lombardi: “The Palestinians were beaten by settlers and the volunteers were attacked. Instead of stopping those responsible for the violence, the Israeli army arrested the activists and confiscated their passports.”