Middle East

The war impact on markets this week ran in reverse: January Brent settled at $98.32 on Friday, down $15.11 or 13.32% on the week — its largest weekly percentage fall since April 2020 — after the Democratic midterm sweep raised hopes of an Iran war de-escalation, Reuters reported, even as Hormuz tanker attacks running at close to record pace put a floor under prices. WTI settled at $90.83, gold ended the week above $4,000 despite a Friday fall, defense stocks sold off with Lockheed Martin down about 11% on the week, wheat fell for a tenth straight week, and the S&P 500 closed at 7,376.86, down 2.7% on the week. Figures checked Friday, November 6, 2026, 4:20 PM Central Time.

Brent crude is on track for a 16% weekly decline — its steepest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — after US midterm losses for President Trump's party raised hopes of an Iran war de-escalation, Reuters reported Friday, even as tanker attacks in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, still running at close to record pace on UKMTO data, keep a floor under prices.

Yemen's Houthis have demanded $51 billion in compensation and official Saudi recognition of their authority over Yemen as the price of ending attacks on the kingdom, the Wall Street Journal reported — demands conveyed after Riyadh itself approached the group to explore a negotiated halt, and far beyond the $1 billion reparations offer the Houthis have already rejected.

South Korea will expand its Cheonghae unit anti-piracy mission from the Gulf of Aden to waters south of Oman, about 650 kilometres from the Strait of Hormuz, adding a P-8A patrol aircraft, an explosive ordnance disposal team and 75 personnel — a strictly noncombat step, officials stressed, that also prepares Seoul for postwar mine-clearing in the strait if hostilities end.

The United States struck Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, US officials told the Wall Street Journal, in what the Journal described as the latest in a series of limited strikes Washington has carried out in recent weeks without public announcement. Iran's state news agency IRNA reported several explosions on the island, and Al Jazeera reported five explosions heard on Qeshm with further blasts in Bandar Lengeh. US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the strike attribution rests on the Journal's account of US officials' statements, published here with that limitation stated.

Israeli strikes killed at least three Palestinians in Gaza on Monday — two in Khan Younis and one in Al-Mussadar — a day after eight were killed, taking the toll since the year-old ceasefire to at least 1,580, according to Gaza's health officials, while Israel still controls about two-thirds of the territory and its more than 2 million residents crowd into the remaining third among the ruins.

A UN staff member dies in Houthi custody: Mohammad el Shami, of the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen, had been held since June 6, 2024, and his family was told of his death only recently, more than a month after it happened, with no explanation of the cause. UN rights chief Volker Turk demanded an urgent, independent investigation and the release of the more than 70 UN employees Yemen's prime minister said remain detained.

Qatari mediators held more than 12 hours of talks in Tehran on Friday to secure reciprocal steps that could restart direct negotiations between Washington and Tehran, Axios reported — a marathon session, coordinated with the United States, that follows Sunday's Qatari draft, which a senior Iranian official dismissed as unacceptable. A diplomatic source said there had been 'positive progress' but talks were ongoing, with discussions expected to continue in Doha on Saturday.

Oman's navy evacuated all 25 crew members from the Panama-flagged crude tanker RITI after the ship was targeted and caught fire near the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, Oman's Maritime Security Centre said — while Iran's Revolutionary Guards said three oil tankers had been halted after incidents on a route Tehran calls unauthorised, and the US commander in the region said the strait's main transit routes had been cleared of Iranian sea mines. It is not clear whether the RITI was one of the vessels in the Iranian account.

Attackers in a small boat attached two explosive devices directly to the hull of an outbound tanker in the Strait of Hormuz late on Thursday, sparking an engine-room fire that temporarily disabled the vessel 25 nautical miles northeast of Khasab, Oman, the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre said in a verified report carried by Reuters. The crew were safe, the fire was extinguished and the tanker resumed its voyage — but Seatrade Maritime said the close-approach tactic marks a change in method in a campaign that, on IMO figures, produced 34 confirmed attacks on vessels in the month to October 27.

The war impact on markets this week was a fourth straight weekly oil rally: December Brent settled up 2.40% at $117.64 on Friday, up 1.5% on the week and about 15% in October, and WTI settled up 1.98% at $104.12 as UKMTO counted 43 Gulf shipping incidents in October — the most since the war began — and Houthi attacks on Saudi refineries kept the risk premium in place. Gold futures fell 3.7% on Friday to $3,883, below $4,000 for the first time in over a year, wheat fell for a ninth straight week, and the S&P 500 closed at 7,580.07, down 0.57% on the week. Figures checked Friday, October 30, 2026, 4:20 PM Central Time.

Yemen's third-largest city, Taiz, is in famine rather than on its brink, its governor said in a front-line briefing, as Human Rights Watch reported on Thursday that Houthi forces had fully encircled the city in October, blocking and attacking its last major supply route — a deprivation of food, water and medicine that may amount to the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare. The World Food Programme says it cannot reach more than 600,000 people in Taiz who depend on humanitarian assistance, and wheat flour stocks are nearly exhausted.

A midafternoon Israeli strike beside a Red Cross field hospital in Rafah killed three Palestinians and wounded 15, five of them seriously, health officials at Nasser Hospital told the Associated Press on Wednesday. Gaza's civil defence put the day's toll at five: its spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the Rafah hospital received three bodies and 15 injured, one of whom later died, and that a separate attack in Khan Yunis killed another person, AFP reported. The Israeli military told AFP it had 'struck terrorists' and would provide further information later; it did not respond to AP's request for comment. More than 1,550 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the October 2025 ceasefire.

Yemen's Houthis attacked Aden international airport on Wednesday after warning everyone inside to evacuate, Yemeni government officials told Reuters. An Associated Press reporter in Aden witnessed explosions that shattered windows at the airport building and nearby homes; the airport was left completely deserted, flights from Cairo and Mumbai were diverted to Seiyun and a flight to Cairo was cancelled. The strike came as fighting escalated across Yemen: Houthi authorities said Saudi-led airstrikes killed 14 people at a market in al-Jawf, and government officials said the Houthis had tightened their siege of Taiz, cutting the city off from a well field that supplied about 3 million litres of water.

The United States has told several Gulf Arab countries to be prepared for a short, intense military campaign against Iran after the November 3 midterm elections, people briefed on the conversations told The Wall Street Journal, as Washington sends an additional Patriot system from Texas to Israel, restocks munitions and prepares bombers and fighters for possible strikes. President Donald Trump has not decided to go ahead, the Journal reported, but is leaning toward a large post-election attack on Iranian infrastructure and nuclear sites; Reuters separately reported that the Pentagon has been planning to restart heavy fighting if ordered.

A senior Iranian official involved in the talks has dismissed the draft deal Qatari mediators presented in Tehran on Sunday, telling Reuters that Doha had put forward only 'unacceptable ideas and not an offer' and that Tehran's policy of showing no flexibility over the nuclear issue remains unchanged. The pushback, added to Reuters' updated October 28 report, is the first Iranian response to a seven-day draft that an official briefed on the negotiations had described hours earlier as a possible path to ending the war early next week.

The Iran war cost to the United States has passed $47 billion, more than 25 percent above the Defense Department's July estimate of $37.5 billion, according to Pentagon data obtained by Reuters — and the total still does not clearly count the cost of repairing US bases damaged by Iranian missile and drone attacks. More than $29 billion of the projected bill is replacing expended munitions, and more than $6 billion is replacing equipment and lost aircraft, including many drones.

Qatari mediators presented Iran with a new draft deal on Sunday to end the war with the United States and Israel, built around a seven-day timeline of daily confidence-building steps, and Tehran is expected to respond by the end of the week, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters on Wednesday. The timeline could begin early next week, with several countries acting as guarantors — but the same reporting records fresh strike threats on both sides and the wreckage of June's interim agreement, which unravelled within weeks.

Iran has made no identified attempt to repair or reconstruct the Iran nuclear facilities damaged in US and Israeli strikes in 2025 and 2026, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog told the Security Council on Tuesday — but his agency still cannot verify Iran's previously declared stockpile of 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, cannot confirm that no safeguarded material has been diverted, and has had no normal inspection access since its inspectors were withdrawn in June 2025, Rafael Grossi and the Associated Press reported.

Syria on Tuesday condemned Jordan's Monday-evening airstrikes on its south as an 'unacceptable violation' of its airspace carried out 'without any prior coordination', closed the main Nassib border crossing with Jordan in both directions, and said the strikes killed seven people including three children — while Jordan said its jets killed more than 20 Islamic State fighters in retaliation for Friday's church funeral attack in Karak, expressed regret for civilian casualties, and insisted the operation had been coordinated with Damascus. AFP called it the worst crisis between the neighbours since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

More than 3,000 Palestinians have been forced from their homes by Israel's military operation in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the United Nations said on Monday — a toll that has more than doubled since Saturday — and on Tuesday Israeli troops fired a stun grenade to disperse residents protesting against the operation, Reuters reported. The military says it will carry out demolitions in the neighbourhoods it has emptied, and says its searches of the houses located no weapons. UN human rights chief Volker Türk called the operation collective punishment and said the threats to erase entire neighbourhoods raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing.

Top officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan met Iranian officials in Tehran on Monday, October 26, 2026 in the first high-level contact between Iran and the three Mecca defence-pact states since the war began, and agreed to continue talks on peace and security, Reuters reported. The diplomacy ran in parallel with the fighting: early on Tuesday the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted three Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at Saudi Arabia's Eastern Region and four drones aimed at its Southern Region.

The Suez Crisis, explained: on 26 July 1956 Egypt's President Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal; Britain, France and Israel secretly colluded to invade, won the fighting in nine days — and were forced to withdraw by American financial pressure, Soviet threats and the United Nations. Egyptian military deaths are estimated at 1,650–3,000, plus some 1,000 civilians; the crisis ended Britain's career as an independent great power and invented modern UN peacekeeping.

Israel continued to commit genocide in Gaza after last October's US-brokered ceasefire, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry said in a report published on Monday, October 26, 2026 — finding that Israeli forces kept using heavy munitions in populated areas during the truce, that the 'Yellow Line' ceasefire demarcation has become a de facto border as Israeli control grew from 53% to at least 60% of Gaza, and that at least 196 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across the advancing front during the ceasefire period. Israel dismissed the report as part of a 'misinformation campaign'.

Egypt's parliament on Monday, October 26, 2026 authorised the country's military to provide support to defend Saudi Arabia if Riyadh requests it, parliamentarians said and local media reported via Reuters — completing the authorisation President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi first requested on October 17 and that was postponed twice. No deployment was announced and no formal Saudi request had been reported. Sisi's letter to Riyadh last week said Egyptian support would be limited to defending Saudi territory and borders rather than attacking Yemen, Reuters reported.

Yemen's Houthis said on Monday, October 26, 2026 that they had attacked Saudi Arabia's East-West crude oil pumping stations and Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport — which had resumed flights at two terminals only on Sunday — while the Saudi-led coalition said its air defences intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched toward Riyadh and that its forces had destroyed ballistic missile launchers, tunnels and a missile storage facility in Yemen, Reuters and AFP reported. There was no Saudi confirmation of the claimed attacks on the airport or the pumping stations, and no confirmation of damage or casualties from them.

The Afghanistan War, explained: from 7 October 2001 to 30 August 2021, a US-led coalition toppled the Taliban for sheltering al-Qaeda after the September 11 attacks — then spent twenty years fighting the Taliban's insurgency and trying to build an Afghan state that collapsed in days in August 2021. Direct deaths are estimated at about 176,000 by Brown University's Costs of War project and 212,191 by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program; the US cost is put at $2.26–2.31 trillion.

Israeli strikes hit the Islamic University of Gaza in Gaza City twice within a few hours on Sunday, October 25, 2026: an earlier drone strike injured seven female students, and a second strike killed three university staff — administrative staff, two university sources told AFP; security guards, Al Jazeera reported — while students were present for classes, AFP and Al Jazeera reported. Al Shifa hospital received three bodies and treated eight wounded. Four more Palestinians were killed elsewhere in Gaza on Sunday, for a total of seven. The Israeli military first told AFP it was looking into the reports, then said it had targeted a Hamas military-wing operative, diverted a munition after seeing uninvolved people, and put the incident under review.

President Donald Trump said on Saturday, after voting in Florida, that the United States could attack Iran as soon as Sunday — 'maybe tomorrow' — or instead reach what he called a 'nice, big, beautiful agreement,' ANI and Al Jazeera reported. Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, blamed Washington for the failure of an interim deal but said Tehran should still conclude one, Reuters reported, while Iran's Tasnim news agency denied reports that Tehran had made a new offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz through Pakistani mediators.

Flights resumed at Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, October 25, after operations were halted on October 10 following a Houthi-claimed attack that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, Reuters and AFP reported. Terminal 1 is designated for domestic flights and Terminal 2 for international flights by national carriers, while Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree renewed a warning that the airport remains a military target, and AFP reported the Saudi-led coalition shot down two drones in the Riyadh area early Sunday.

Nine people were killed and 40 injured when gunmen opened fire at St George's Greek Orthodox Church in Hmoud, Karak, during a funeral on Friday, CNN and Xinhua reported. Jordan's Public Security Directorate said on Saturday that two critically injured victims had died, raising the toll from seven, King Abdullah chaired a National Security Council meeting, and no group had claimed responsibility and no arrests had been announced.

The Iraq War, explained: from 20 March 2003 to December 2011, a US-led coalition invaded Iraq on the claim that Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction, toppled his regime in three weeks — and then fought an eight-year insurgency and sectarian civil war. No WMD stockpiles were ever found. Iraqi death estimates run from about 150,000 documented or surveyed violent deaths to more than 600,000 excess deaths, some 4.5 million Iraqis were displaced at the peak, and the war's long-term cost to the United States is put at $2.2 trillion and rising.

Yemen's Houthis said on Saturday they had attacked Saudi oil facilities and airports, the Saudi-led coalition said it downed missiles fired toward the kingdom, and Yemen's Saudi-backed government said three ballistic missiles struck coast guard sites in Aden, Reuters reported. The Associated Press reported strikes killing 11 people in Sanaa, according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry, and at least four in Hodeida — figures the AP said it could not independently verify and Saudi Arabia did not respond to.

Israeli forces forced about 1,200 Palestinians from their homes in Hebron on Saturday as the large-scale operation ordered after Friday's checkpoint shooting began in the Al-Jaladah and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods, Hebron's municipal head told Reuters. The Associated Press reported all gates into and out of the city closed to vehicles, and Reuters reported entrances blocked to most West Bank cities and towns.

A US strike on Iran could come as soon as this weekend — 'Absolutely,' Ambassador Tom Barrack told a podcast on Friday — even as foreign ministers from eight countries meeting in Istanbul the same day agreed that a new attack would expand the war and that diplomacy was the only way to end it, Reuters reported. President Trump, asked about his envoy's remark in Florida, said: 'If that's the case, I don't know anything about it.' Oil settled at its highest since April.

President Donald Trump told a rally in Florida on Friday that Washington may carry out 'another little Epic Fury' against Iran, hours after telling reporters the US could end the war quickly but might instead let it 'wither' — reversing his earlier-October position that there would be no attack before the November 3 midterms. The same day, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters Tehran has drawn up detailed plans to target undersea communications cables in the Gulf, and to prevent their repair, if the US and Israel attack again. Brent crude settled at $116.72 a barrel on Friday, its highest close since April.

Israeli forces began demolishing buildings in Hebron's Farsh al-Hawa area and forcing residents to evacuate on Friday afternoon, hours after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others in a 20-minute firefight at a checkpoint near Yehuda Junction. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first ordered a full closure of the West Bank, then said hours later he would consider a cordon around Hebron and Halhul, while vowing a house-to-house operation modelled on the 2025 refugee-camp campaigns that displaced thousands. Local residents told Reuters the buildings targeted had no connection to the attackers.

The war impact on markets this week was an oil rally to five-month highs: December Brent settled up 3.1% at $116.72 on Friday, up 6.2% on the week, and WTI rose 3.8% to $103.27 as Houthi attacks on Saudi airports and an oil field, Saudi Aramco's headquarters evacuation and warnings of renewed US-Iran strikes lifted the risk premium — even though total Gulf oil flows ran above pre-war levels. Gold fell 4% on the week to a three-month low, wheat fell sharply on Ukraine peace-talk momentum, and the S&P 500 slipped 0.52% on Friday. Figures checked Friday, October 23, 2026, 4:20 PM Central Time.

Saudi Aramco has told staff to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran and work remotely — the first evacuation of the headquarters since the start of the Iran war — six people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as fighting between the world's largest crude exporter and Yemen's Houthis intensifies. The building, which hosts the operations centre overseeing Aramco's rigs, refineries and export terminals, was extensively damaged when the Houthis struck it earlier this month. Oil rose for a third week on Friday, with Brent at $114.47 a barrel.

President Donald Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday night that the United States is not negotiating with Iran and that 'something one way or another will happen, fairly soon,' adding that most people seem to think it will come after the November 3 midterm elections — a statement reported by The Times of Israel that directly contradicts Iran's foreign minister, who said the same day that indirect talks over Tehran's seven-day ceasefire proposal were continuing through Pakistani and Qatari mediators. The Associated Press reported on Thursday that both sides have acknowledged indirect discussions have continued. Brent crude rose above $112 a barrel on Thursday.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said on Thursday that four vessels involved in oil transfers in the northern Persian Gulf were hit simultaneously and caught fire, and that three more vessels struck mines west of the Strait of Hormuz — a claim reported by Reuters for which no independent confirmation from maritime authorities, the US military or shipowners was available in the reporting opened for this article. The IRGC warned the US military that continued provocations could bring a wider response against its regional bases. Oil rose more than $2 a barrel in Thursday trade, which Reuters tied to the attacks in Saudi Arabia and broader escalation concerns.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, told Reuters in Jakarta on Thursday that Indonesia should reconsider its role in Donald Trump's Board of Peace for Gaza, because the plan is being shaped by Israel and the United States and includes no Palestinian representative. Indonesia's Foreign Ministry said Board of Peace discussions remained on hold.

Turkey's foreign minister Hakan Fidan will host his counterparts from Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Britain, France and Germany in Istanbul on Friday for the first meeting in this seven-country format, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters. The Israeli-Palestinian issue, the Strait of Hormuz, Yemen and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war are all on the agenda.

An attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam on Wednesday evening killed two people and injured eight others, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a follow-up statement on Thursday, raising its initial toll of one dead. The dead are a Saudi citizen and an Indian resident. The authority did not say what struck the airport or who carried out the attack; it said airport operations have resumed and air traffic has returned to normal.

The US State Department on Wednesday issued an ordered departure for non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia, citing increasingly intense Houthi hostilities against the kingdom's airports and critical infrastructure. The same day, Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry said debris from an intercepted drone killed two workers — a Filipino and a Nepali national — and injured two others at the Aramco-operated Shaybah oil field in the southeast. The ministry did not say who launched the drone, and the Houthis had earlier denied conducting any operations towards Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Turkey will submit to parliament a mandate allowing military personnel to be deployed to Saudi Arabia under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, a lawmaker from the ruling AK Party told Reuters on Wednesday. The mandate will follow approval of the ratification bill Turkey submitted on Tuesday for the August pact, under which an armed attack on one member is considered an attack on all. The lawmaker said technical personnel and experts would be sent initially to help with air defences and electronic warfare, and that no personnel deployed under the pact would take part in offensive operations. On the same day, Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan and Indonesia signed a separate defence-cooperation accord in Doha.

Oil prices gained more than $1 on Wednesday as escalating Middle East tensions fuelled fears of supply disruption and falling US inventories lent support. Brent crude rose $1.59, or 1.5 percent, to $110.38 a barrel as of 0350 GMT, and US West Texas Intermediate gained $1.36, or 1.4 percent, to $99.18. Traders weighed Iran's statement that there will be no talks with Washington until its demands are met, Kpler's count of at least 18 vessel attacks in two weeks, and LSEG's warning that tanker targeting is reaching into the Gulf of Oman.

Yemen's Houthis said on Wednesday that they had not launched any drones towards the Saudi holy city of Medina and had not conducted any military operations towards Saudi Arabia, denying earlier comments from the Saudi-led coalition, which said it had intercepted drones over Medina and the Eastern region. The denial came as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran had received no response from Saudi Arabia or the Houthis to its offer to help broker talks to end the fighting between them — an offer made as the Houthis intensified strikes on Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

Iran's president, parliament speaker and security chief each told Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, in Tehran on Tuesday that there will be no talks with Washington until Tehran's demands are met, Iranian media reported — a hardening of Iran's stance delivered to its chief mediator. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said the US must first fulfil the seven conditions Iran set for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and security chief Mohsen Rezaei said all enriched uranium will remain in Iran. Senior Iranian officials told Reuters separately that Tehran has deliberately prolonged the talks to weaken President Trump ahead of the US midterm elections.

Britain announced on Tuesday that Royal Air Force Typhoon jets will fly defensive counter-air missions over Saudi Arabia to protect its cities and critical infrastructure from Houthi drone and missile attacks, alongside an Atlas A400M transport aircraft and military advisers. The Ministry of Defence said the jets will operate only defensively and will not strike targets in Yemen, in a significant expansion of the support London began with a refuelling aircraft in September.

Most Gulf stock markets fell in early trade on Tuesday after Yemen's Houthis claimed attacks on Saudi energy, airport and military targets on Monday — claims Saudi authorities did not confirm and Reuters could not independently verify. Saudi Arabia's benchmark index dropped 1.1%, Qatar's index hit its lowest level in over six years, and Brent crude climbed to $110.07 a barrel, near a five-month high, as traders priced in a geopolitical risk premium. More than 45% of departures from Saudi airports have been cancelled since October 8, Cirium says.

The Yellow Line is the demarcation Israel withdrew to under the first phase of the October 2025 ceasefire — a line of yellow concrete blocks that was meant to be temporary. A year on, the blocks have repeatedly been moved west: Israel initially held 53% of Gaza, and access restrictions now cover about 65%, leaving 2.1 million people in roughly 128 square kilometres. This explainer sets out what the line is, how it moved, and why approaching it can be deadly.

Israeli attacks on Gaza over the weekend killed at least six Palestinians, including children, despite a year-old ceasefire agreement, the United Nations said on Monday — and five more, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed on Monday, local health officials told Reuters. In the occupied West Bank, five Palestinians were killed and more than 240 injured by Israeli forces or settlers in two weeks, with 200 olive harvest-related attacks documented since the start of September. Israel said it would resume commercial goods shipments into Gaza after a days-long halt.

Houthi forces fired three ballistic missiles at the al-Alam training camp in Yemen's Shabwa province on Monday, killing 53 people and injuring 200, the local authority said — one of the deadliest single attacks since fighting resurged this summer. The victims were new recruits training for the internal security forces, and the Houthis confirmed they had targeted the camp.

Israeli police arrested 10 suspects in a pre-dawn operation on Monday over the weekend settler attacks that hospitalised Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine at a Palestinian olive harvest and targeted European diplomats near Taybeh. The arrests, under an operation police called 'Olive Leaf', followed US pressure to crack down on settler violence — prosecutions of settlers are rare, and the prime minister had spent the weekend casting doubt on attacks recorded on video.

The Gulf Cooperation Council's foreign ministers, meeting in Manama on Sunday, condemned repeated Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, invoked the bloc's joint defence agreement — an attack on any member affects all six — and backed the kingdom's right to defend itself. Hours earlier, Saudi Civil Defense said a projectile launched by the Houthis had struck a residential area in the border city of Najran, wounding six citizens and damaging three houses and three vehicles.

The Saudi-led coalition said on Sunday that two pilots were killed when an AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter crashed in the Najran region near the Yemen border, blaming a 'technical malfunction' — the coalition's first fatalities since hostilities with the Houthis restarted in July, AFP reported. The Houthis claimed they shot the aircraft down. In Riyadh, the Kingdom Centre skyscraper ordered its office tenants to work remotely until further notice after repeated Houthi attacks.

Egypt's presidency said on Sunday it will provide Saudi Arabia with 'all necessary and possible forms of support' to defend its security against escalating Houthi attacks, after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asked parliament to authorise the military to help defend the kingdom if Riyadh requests it. A vote expected on Sunday was carried into Monday, two lawmakers said, and no formal Saudi request had been announced.

The siege of Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, has displaced 121,530 people in the city alone and left 12 hospitals with about four days of fuel, UN agency spokespeople told reporters — as Houthi forces, having cut the main road south to Aden, fight in districts where the city's main referral hospitals stand. Across Yemen's renewed war, 233,077 people have been displaced, and front-line hospitals have admitted more than 700 casualties in a single week, the Red Cross said.

Iran has a new defence minister: parliament on Sunday approved Mehrdad Akhlaqi Ketabchi, a former head of the Aerospace Industries Organisation who is under US and EU sanctions, ending months of interim leadership since his predecessor was killed in US-Israeli strikes in February. In his programme to lawmakers, Akhlaqi pledged to rebuild Iran's military-industrial infrastructure and warned Washington against renewed strikes.

Israeli drone attacks killed at least six Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Saturday — near Jabalia, in Gaza City's Tuffah neighbourhood and eastern districts, in Deir el-Balah and in Rafah's al-Mawasi area — according to Palestinian medical and emergency workers reported by Al Jazeera. Among the dead was a 14-year-old boy killed on his school journey in Deir el-Balah. Gaza's Health Ministry said six people were killed and 43 injured in the preceding 48 hours, raising the toll since the October 2025 ceasefire to 1,511 killed.

Masked Israeli settlers attacked a delegation of European diplomats, Catholic representatives and Palestinians in the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, Belgium's foreign minister said. A French mayor was assaulted, a Belgian consulate vehicle was damaged, and Israeli police opened an investigation — the second day in a row that settlers have attacked foreigners accompanying Palestinians at the olive harvest.

A tanker was struck by an unknown projectile off Saudi Arabia's Jubail on Friday and a second tanker was attacked by a rocket-propelled grenade from a small boat in the same area, the UKMTO said on Saturday, with all crew members safe. Separately, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy said two oil tankers carrying about 2 million barrels of crude each had caught fire after hitting naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz — a claim Reuters said had no independent confirmation.

More than 340 children have been reported killed in Gaza in the year since the ceasefire was announced, UNICEF said on Friday, including five boys and two girls killed in the last two weeks alone. Some 800,000 children remain displaced in tents and bombed-out buildings, an estimated 60,000 have lost one or both parents, and the agency warned that winter rains could flood residential areas with contaminated water from a half-full sewage basin it cannot get permission to drain.

Two missiles landed inside Aden International Airport on Friday as a Yemenia Airways flight prepared to take off for Cairo, the Aden Security Department said — the second attack on the airport in less than a week — while the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted a ballistic missile headed for Yanbu, Saudi Arabia's Red Sea oil-export hub, and destroyed two cruise missiles and three drones. No casualties were reported at Aden. Brent crude briefly touched $110 a barrel on Friday for the first time since May.

Dozens of masked Israeli settlers, some carrying gas canisters, attacked Palestinian villagers harvesting olives at Abu Falah in the occupied West Bank on Friday, burning trees, hurling rocks from slings and injuring at least two people, including Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, Reuters witnesses reported. The attack continued after Israeli soldiers arrived and fired tear gas toward the Palestinians, a Reuters photographer saw at least one armed settler fire a gun, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was the second harvest attack of the morning, after settlers burned three cars at Turmus Ayya.

Ali Hassan Yusor al-Bazzari, 44, was killed on October 7 while harvesting olives near Burqa — by fire that the Israeli military admits came from both soldiers and settlers. A week later, settlers burned the mosque in Mikhmas hours after the village announced a lawsuit in the United States, and the military's investigation found no suspects. In September alone, the UN counted more than 2,000 attacks on West Bank Palestinians. B'Tselem's new 'Elimination Project' report argues these are not separate abuses but one strategy.

Two of Israel's leading human rights groups have documented 22 cases of inmates shot by prison guards with rubber bullets — 21 of them Palestinian, nearly all since last autumn, some at point-blank range inside their cells. One man's testicle was 'completely crushed' and removed. The Associated Press reviewed the groups' files, including medical reports, and interviewed former inmates who said they had been shot. The same rights movement has documented at least 94 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody since October 2023 — more than three times the toll of the entire previous decade.

More than 4,300 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since March 2, according to the Lebanese health ministry — a figure Reuters carried again on October 13. A US-brokered ceasefire was agreed in June. It did not stop the strikes: Israel kept bombing the south near-daily, occupied a self-declared 'security zone', and this month killed non-combatants in Bint Jbeil district and wounded a four-year-old in Haddatha. Two 'ceasefires', two running counts, one ledger.

BBC Verify combed through more than 60,000 news reports and found 300 unique incidents in which the Israel Defense Forces said it was investigating alleged killings or injuries in Gaza, Lebanon and the occupied West Bank. Outcomes have been published for 28. For 254 there is no public outcome at all, and for 18 more it is not even clear whether the investigation has ended — some have been 'under review' for nearly three years. This explainer sets out how the system works, what the published outcomes show, and which cases are still waiting.

Amnesty International, the UN Commission of Inquiry and the International Association of Genocide Scholars have each concluded, on the documented record, that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israel, the United States and a body of dissenting scholars reject the characterisation as baseless. The ICJ — the only body whose answer binds states — has issued provisional measures but has not ruled on the merits. This explainer sets out who concluded what, on what legal test, and where the disagreement actually sits: the specific intent the 1948 Genocide Convention requires. War Info Hub stands with the victims of this war, and reports the findings as what they are: findings.

A Gaza airstrike on an apartment block in Gaza City's al-Rimal neighbourhood early on Wednesday killed Reem Asaad Awad, 33, and set the flat ablaze, according to hospital officials cited by Al Jazeera. Her young daughter Maryam Ahmed Ghanem was pulled from a burning bed by rescuers and is being treated at al-Shifa Hospital for second- and third-degree burns, her grandfather told Middle East Eye. Israel claims it targeted a Hamas member, without providing evidence, and says it is investigating.

In August 2026 Israel's prime minister and defence minister ordered the military to treat paper kites flown from Gaza as a lethal weapon and to strike launchers and launch sites — after the military's own inspection found nothing dangerous on the kites that triggered it. Within hours, strikes killed at least three people including a four-year-old, Al Jazeera reported. Le Monde found parents and camp committees confiscating children's kites, and noted there is no evidence linking two children's deaths that week to kites. In October, Palestinian reporting said a second four-year-old had died of wounds from a strike on al-Zawaida.

More than 21,000 of the 74,000-plus Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 2023 were children, on health ministry figures reported this week by The New Humanitarian and Human Rights Watch — and at least 327 children are among those killed since the October 2025 ceasefire alone, over 100 aid organisations report. UN officials describe Gaza's child amputees as the largest such cohort in modern history, UNICEF estimated at least 17,000 children unaccompanied or separated from their families, and the IPC confirmed famine in Gaza City in August 2025. Every figure is attributed to the body that produced it. This is the documented record.

One year into the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire, Palestinians are still being killed almost daily: Reuters documented five dead in strikes on Saturday, three in a Mawasi tent on Sunday night and two more on Monday, and Gaza's health ministry now puts the toll since the ceasefire at 1,501 killed and 5,323 wounded. More than 100 aid and rights organisations say the ceasefire exists only on paper. Israel claims each strike targets militants; the documented record is the dead.

The commercial trucks that stock Gaza's markets stopped entering from Israel on Thursday. COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees the crossings, blames a 10,000-shekel per-truck payment it calls a Hamas-imposed fee; Hamas calls the same payment a voluntary contribution to a national fund for widows and orphans. Aid trucks still entered, Gaza's transport union said — but total daily entries could fall by half, to around 300, for a population a global hunger monitor warns could mostly face acute hunger by year's end.

The war impact on markets this week was a Friday oil surge: front-month WTI settled up 3.5% at $101.41 — its first close above $100 in a month — and Brent gained 3.7% to $109.86 as Ukraine renewed attacks on Russian refineries while Hormuz flows ran a third below baseline. Defense stocks rallied 3.7–4.1% on Friday even as the S&P 500 fell 1.95% on the week. Figures checked Friday, October 16, 2026, 4:20 PM Central Time.

The Houthis are hitting Riyadh's airport and Saudi Aramco's headquarters because Iran spent more than a decade teaching them to build their own missiles and drones rather than merely supplying finished weapons, weapons and regional experts told Reuters. Locally trained specialists, commercial parts sourced beyond Iran, and regional air defences stretched by a year of war explain how a movement in northwestern Yemen now strikes deep inside the kingdom.

Yemen's Houthis fired missiles at the al-Maashiq presidential palace complex in Aden on Thursday, killing five people and wounding 16, Yemen's health minister said, in the first attack on the seat of the internationally recognised government in the current conflict. The prime minister and cabinet were safe. The same day, the Saudi-led coalition said Houthi attacks this month on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport alone had killed 17 people and wounded 333, and the Houthi military spokesperson renewed a warning that Saudi airspace and airports were unsafe, excluding the holy cities.

The Saudi-led coalition said on Thursday that it had intercepted and destroyed a cruise missile over Saudi Arabia's Medina region, home to one of Islam's holiest cities, but it did not assign blame, the Associated Press and AFP reported. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree denied that the group had carried out any operation targeting Saudi territory on Thursday. Saudi Arabia also said it destroyed a drone over its Eastern Province, a major oil-producing region, earlier on Thursday.

The Yom Kippur War explained: from 6 to 25 October 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur, during Ramadan, to recover the Sinai and the Golan Heights lost in 1967. Surprise succeeded, Israel counter-attacked, the superpowers went on nuclear alert, oil prices quadrupled — and the road to the first Arab-Israeli peace treaty opened.

The future of UNIFIL in Lebanon is undecided with its mandate set to expire at the end of 2026: UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix urged the Security Council on Wednesday to start negotiations soon, Lebanon is campaigning for an extension, diplomats say the United States is not supportive, and the EU agreed on Monday to a separate three-year mission to train Lebanese forces.

Saudi Aramco's headquarters complex in Dhahran suffered extensive damage in Tuesday night's strike, with a fire spreading across several floors and the top three floors severely damaged, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday — a sharply different picture from the Energy Ministry's account of a limited fire. Two regional officials gave the Associated Press the same top-three-floors account. The Houthis vowed on Wednesday to press on with attacks on Saudi airports and oil facilities, and the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted another ballistic missile fired toward Riyadh, while AP reported a much larger Wednesday salvo and one person injured by debris in the capital.

Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority said on Wednesday that two Singapore-registered container vessels were struck by unknown projectiles while transiting the Strait of Hormuz: the GFS Pride, hit on October 13, caught fire and later sank, with all 21 crew safely evacuated, while the GFS Giselle was hit on October 14, sustained hull damage and reached a safe anchorage with all 22 crew safe. Maritime security sources told Reuters the sinking was also reported in a Pakistani navigational warning, and a third vessel damaged in September, the bulk carrier Cape Dao, was reported to be sinking.

Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry said on Wednesday that an administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran was hit, causing a limited fire, with no injuries reported at the building. Reuters and Bloomberg reported the same ministry account, and CNN reported it was not clear whether the building took a direct hit or was struck by falling debris. Debris from intercepted missiles injured four people in Riyadh, Saudi authorities said.

The Six-Day War explained: from 5 to 10 June 1967, Israel fought Egypt, Jordan and Syria and captured the Sinai, Gaza Strip, West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights. Between about 11,500 and 18,500 soldiers died, the Suez Canal closed for eight years, and UN Resolution 242 set the land-for-peace formula that still frames diplomacy.

Iran is deploying new tactics against ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz — including unarmed spotters in small boats and a faster attack tempo — in a strategy two senior Iranian officials told Reuters is meant to keep oil prices high ahead of the US midterm elections. At least five incidents involving commercial ships were recorded around Hormuz in 48 hours, and the US Navy-led JMIC still rates the threat to merchant shipping as severe.

One year after the Gaza ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, its status is stalled: the agreement halted major operations and freed all remaining hostages, but Hamas has not disarmed, the promised Palestinian administration and international force have not arrived, Israel controls a growing share of the territory, and more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in strikes since the truce began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry figures reported by AP, Human Rights Watch and a joint statement by more than 100 organisations.

The Saudi-led coalition said on Tuesday evening that it had attacked the al-Sabahah fuel station in Sanaa and other sites in Sanaa, Hodeidah and Dhamar, hours after ordering civilians to evacuate the station. Al Jazeera's team in Sanaa reported explosions at the station and strikes on oil storage at Ras Isa port. Yemen's oil company said the Sanaa facility held no fuel stocks. No casualty figures were reported, and the Houthis renewed warnings against Saudi Aramco facilities.

The Saudi-led coalition on Tuesday urged civilians to evacuate the Yemen Oil Company's al-Sabahah central station in Sanaa ahead of a planned military operation, hours after it said three drones had been destroyed north of Riyadh. The Houthis answered that any strike on Sanaa would bring a harsh response in Riyadh and warned workers and civilians to stay away from Saudi Aramco oil facilities, which they called legitimate targets.

The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a ballistic missile fired toward Riyadh and two more toward Khamis Mushait late on Monday, as the Houthis claimed hits on the capital's airport and King Khalid Air Base. The Houthis also reported overnight airstrikes on Kamaran Island, the Hodeida coast and al-Jawf, and warned the United States of a painful response if it joins the Saudi campaign.

Saudi Arabia's public early-warning system issued no alerts before the four Riyadh attacks of the past week, which Reuters put at at least 18 killed and more than 300 wounded, and the government has not explained the silence. Civil defence issued its first threat alerts since September 29 on Monday, as the coalition reported destroying another ballistic missile fired toward the capital.

Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport will stay closed until 2100 GMT on October 17 under a Notice to Air Missions issued Monday, Reuters reported, as Delta Air Lines pushed its planned Atlanta–Riyadh launch to March 2027 and the FAA advised US carriers to exercise caution over Saudi Arabia after the weekend Houthi attacks.

India's foreign ministry said two Indian seafarers were missing after a drone struck the tanker MT Petro Dolphin in the Strait of Hormuz area on Sunday, while a second tanker, MT Valthera, was hit by an unknown projectile and caught fire with all 11 Indian crew reported safe. India condemned the attacks; no attacker has been identified, and one maritime-safety account differed on whether the Petro Dolphin's crew were all safe.

Saudi state media said Saudi forces responded on Monday to a drone and cruise missile attack from Yemen, while Houthi-run authorities said airstrikes on Sanaa and the northern province of al-Jawf killed 10 people and wounded 19 — figures and blame that rest on Houthi sources, with no Saudi comment on the Yemen strikes in the reporting. Reuters separately reported a new barrage of incoming fire on Saudi Arabia and intensified Saudi airstrikes.

The skies over Riyadh were largely empty on Monday after the weekend Houthi attacks on King Khalid International Airport, Reuters reported, with about 78% of the airport's flights estimated cancelled for the day, 99.7% cancelled on Sunday, and Lufthansa and Air France-KLM extending suspensions. More than a third of flights across Saudi Arabia were not expected to operate.

Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia — the R4 group — condemned the Houthi attacks on Riyadh's airport as a dangerous escalation and backed Saudi countermeasures, while the Saudi-led coalition said on Monday it had intercepted a drone in the Eastern Province and a ballistic missile fired toward Khamis Mushait.

An Israeli strike killed at least two Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday and a strike on a tent in the Mawasi area killed three people late on Sunday, medics told Reuters, as Israel said it was targeting militants and Hamas denied rearming under the year-old US-brokered ceasefire.

Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority said in an early-Monday update that Sunday's strike on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport killed a Pakistani resident and injured 11 people — and the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers spoke for the first time since the Houthi attacks intensified, with Tehran offering to help facilitate dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

A projectile hit Terminal 4 at Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, starting a fire and injuring an unspecified number of people, a day after a strike there killed 13 — and Saudi authorities later confirmed Dammam's King Fahd International Airport had also been struck. The Houthis claimed responsibility for both days' attacks, including strikes on two Saudi Aramco facilities.

Yemen's Houthis on Sunday renewed their warning to airlines, airport workers and travellers against using Saudi airports — and Saudi airspace — a day after a missile strike on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport killed 12 people and wounded 309. The kingdom's civil aviation body extended the airport's closure as condemnations poured in and Trump weighed US strikes.

At least 627 flights were cancelled on Sunday and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh is expected to stay closed until 9 p.m. local time after Saturday's deadly attack, while the UN envoy for Yemen called it 'a grave escalation' and President Trump said he will speak with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as Washington weighs joining strikes on the Houthis.

Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority says at least 12 people were killed and 309 wounded in Saturday's attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh — including one American citizen, confirmed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. A Saudi-led coalition vowed to respond, and President Donald Trump said Washington 'may' join strikes on the Houthis.

A missile struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday, hitting Terminals 3 and 4 and wounding dozens of people, Saudi officials said. President Donald Trump said the United States 'may' join Saudi strikes on Yemen's Houthis — the most direct US signal of potential intervention since the airport attacks began this week.

Saudi Arabia has ruled out any ceasefire with the Houthis until the Yemeni government retakes territory lost in recent weeks, AFP reports. Riyadh's return to full-scale war follows a chain of miscalculations — a shattered alliance with the UAE, a Houthi offensive nobody was ready for, and an American ally that declined to intervene.

A fully laden crude supertanker was struck by an unknown projectile off the UAE coast on Friday, UKMTO said, as Iran claimed it hit a gas carrier in the Strait of Hormuz and warned it would punish vessels using routes it has not authorized anywhere in the region.

The UN Security Council met on Friday amid a warning that Yemen has fallen back into full-scale war, with more than 200,000 people displaced and fighting intensifying around Taiz. On the same day, Europe's aviation regulator widened its Saudi airspace alert and a major flight-safety group told airlines to avoid Saudi Arabia entirely after Houthi missile strikes on Riyadh's airport killed three people.

Hezbollah has received $200 million from Iran to help Lebanese displaced by this year's war with Israel, two people with direct knowledge of the transfer told Reuters — the first significant aid from the group to supporters who bore the brunt of the conflict. The United States disputes the claim, saying the money 'is not there.'

Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority said on Friday that three Saudi nationals were killed and several people were injured in two attacks on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Thursday. The national carrier Saudia identified one of the dead as its pilot, Captain Hamoud Ali Al-Kalthami, as Lufthansa and Indian airlines suspended Riyadh services and the Houthi leader warned of a long conflict.

The war impact on markets this week ran through crude oil: Brent surged about 5% Thursday after a tanker was struck deep inside the Persian Gulf, then eased Friday as President Trump ruled out an Iran strike before the US midterms. Brent closed the week near $102.90, up roughly 3.5% on the week. Figures checked Friday, October 9, 2026, 4:30 PM Central Time.

President Trump said Thursday the U.S. will not attack Iran before the November 3 midterms, after Axios reported the Pentagon ordered CENTCOM to finish preparations for a possible resumption of major combat operations. Separately, Reuters reported Iran warned regional states it would treat any new unauthorized oil-export routes as hostile — and a chemical tanker was hit by projectiles off Qatar.

Yemen's Houthis said Thursday they had attacked two Saudi airports and an air base for a third straight day, while their leader warned Riyadh to prepare for a lengthy conflict. Lufthansa and Air India suspended Riyadh flights, Saudi Arabia said debris from intercepted missiles damaged a kindergarten and a clinic, and the coalition said it hit 82 Houthi targets.

The Bab al-Mandeb — the narrow 'Gate of Tears' between Yemen and the Horn of Africa — links the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal. With Houthi forces seizing control of its shores and Gulf states counterattacking, here is why this strait matters to the world economy.

Pakistan's military has confirmed its forces are stationed in Saudi Arabia, days after the two countries and Turkey activated the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement — as Houthi missile attacks on Saudi airports killed three people this week.

Gulf stock markets fell in early trade on Thursday, October 8, 2026, as attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz reached their highest levels of the war, Reuters reported. The latest strike came Wednesday, when a tanker was hit by multiple projectiles 51 nautical miles north of Qatar, causing casualties, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said.

Yemen's Houthi movement said on Thursday it had attacked King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile, Reuters reported — a fresh claim hours after Saudi Arabia said a midweek strike on the same airport killed one person. Separately, Pakistan's military confirmed on Wednesday that Pakistani forces are stationed in Saudi Arabia under the new Saudi-Turkish-Pakistani mutual defense pact.

Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia's King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and Abha International Airport killed three people and wounded 36 on October 6–7, 2026, Saudi aviation authorities said — the first reported Houthi attack on Riyadh's main airport in this phase of the Yemen war.

Syria is considering providing military assistance to Saudi Arabia — from defensive aid to a possible troop deployment against the Houthis in Yemen — Reuters reported on October 7, 2026, citing a US official and a Syrian military official, after President al-Sharaa's visit to Riyadh.

The UN migration agency says more than 200,000 people have fled their homes since fighting in Yemen reignited in early September, while the World Food Programme warns food insecurity is steeply increasing — with wheat flour prices up 10% in two weeks in parts of Ta'iz.

Two missiles targeted Aden's international airport early Wednesday, officials said, as fighting intensifies between the Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces along the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. The strikes follow Houthi attacks on two Saudi airports and a government counteroffensive to retake the Red Sea coast.

The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important energy chokepoint — roughly a fifth of global petroleum liquids moved through it before the 2026 conflict, per EIA data. This explainer covers where it is, why it matters, what happens when it is disrupted, and how the current Iran conflict has reshaped flows.

Two Houthi missiles targeted Aden's international airport early Wednesday, Reuters reported — the first strike on the Yemeni government's seat of power in the current escalation, hours after Saudi Arabia's coalition said it intercepted a Houthi missile heading for Khamis Mushait.

Saudi Arabia's aviation authority said airports in Jazan and Najran were hit on Monday evening, injuring three people, as Saudi-backed Yemeni forces press a major offensive against the Houthis near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

A year after the October 2025 Gaza ceasefire, Israel occupies around two-thirds of the enclave, Hamas has not disarmed, the international stabilization force has yet to deploy, and reconstruction has not begun — a Reuters one-year assessment of where the 20-point plan stands.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan agreed on October 5, 2026 to activate their Mecca Joint Defence Agreement for the first time, beginning rapid deployment of military forces to the kingdom after an emergency Riyadh meeting on escalating Houthi attacks.

Yemen's government announced Operation 'Dawn of Yemen' on October 5, 2026, and claimed on Monday to have retaken key positions around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, backed by 100 Saudi coalition fighter jets. The Houthis deny the advances; neither claim has been independently verified.

Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait triggered a UN-authorized coalition and a lightning campaign that ended in decisive victory — and left Saddam Hussein in power. The Gulf War was the first major crisis of the post-Cold War era, and its unfinished business led straight to 2003.

Yemeni government forces backed by heavy Saudi air power reached the outskirts of the Red Sea port city of Mokha late on Monday, October 5, 2026, four government sources told Reuters — the second day of 'Operation Dawn of Yemen.' The Defense Ministry said the city had fallen; Reuters could not independently verify the extent of the gains, and the Houthis called the claims baseless.

Israel struck Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday, October 4, 2026, after saying it intercepted two projectiles launched by Hezbollah, and ordered most of the southern city of Tyre to evacuate. Strikes continued across south Lebanon into Monday, further straining a ceasefire AFP says was never fully respected.

Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces claimed on Monday, October 5, 2026, to have seized large parts of the Dhubab district overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb strait in the 'Dawn of Yemen' offensive, with a Saudi-led air campaign flying 100 jets. Houthi-aligned media denied any advances; neither claim has been independently verified.

Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council head Rashad al-Alimi announced Sunday the start of a major military campaign to recapture all territory held by the Houthis, with the Saudi-led coalition pledging full operational support — escalating the Yemen conflict to its most intense phase since the 2022 truce.

Yemen's Houthis said Saturday they hit an Aramco oil facility near the Saudi capital with ballistic missiles and drones; an AFP journalist saw flames, smoke and firefighters at the refinery, while the Saudi-led coalition called the claim 'misleading' and Saudi authorities did not confirm the cause of the fire.

Saudi Arabia is preparing a military offensive against the Houthis in Yemen — led by Yemeni ground forces with Saudi air support and expected in the coming weeks — aimed at reversing Houthi gains and retaking the Bab el-Mandeb strait, six people with knowledge of the preparations told Reuters on October 2.

Yemen's internationally recognized government's armed forces said they are striking 'vital targets' of the Houthi movement in the capital Sanaa and the Saada stronghold, after the Houthis claimed a missile-and-drone attack on Aramco facilities in Riyadh — a day that also saw at least 13 airstrikes on Sanaa City, per CTP-ISW.

Two members of Iran's UN General Assembly delegation were expelled from the United States after ignoring a State Department order to leave, as President Donald Trump said Saturday he will soon make a decision on Iran — 'either the easy way or the hard way' — and his defense secretary called the Strait of Hormuz blockade 'ironclad.'

Saudi authorities said falling debris from an intercepted Houthi ballistic missile injured a resident in the Asir region, while a separate projectile struck a school in Najran, as the Saudi-led coalition reported intercepting three ballistic missiles and four drones over Khamis Mushayt on Friday.

An Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in Gaza City's Remal neighborhood early Saturday killed at least five Palestinians and seriously injured at least six others, according to Gaza health officials and medical staff at al-Shifa Hospital. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) was the longest conventional war of the 20th century: Iraq's invasion of post-revolutionary Iran became a trench-warfare stalemate with chemical weapons, the Tanker War, and total casualties estimated at one to two million. It ended with the borders unchanged.

Six officials told Reuters that Riyadh is preparing an offensive against the Iran-backed Houthis — a coastal push toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait or a multi-front campaign mobilizing over 100,000 Yemeni troops — while the U.S. has declined a Saudi request for direct airstrikes, according to Axios.

A Kuwaiti supertanker was struck by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday — the fifth UKMTO-reported tanker strike since September 28 — while a separate projectile hit Saudi Arabia's Yanbu oil export terminal on the Red Sea, briefly suspending loading at the kingdom's key Hormuz-bypass outlet.

The Pentagon is dispatching the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the Makin Island amphibious group to the Middle East, adding up to 10,000 sailors and Marines to a force already above 50,000, AP and the Wall Street Journal reported. The buildup could bring the region to three carrier strike groups for the first time since April, days after Trump rejected Iran's latest truce proposal.

Warplanes carried out 20 strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen's Taiz province on Friday, the Yemeni government's military said, in what Reuters described as the most serious escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis since the 2022 truce. The escalation follows the Saudi-led coalition's accusation that the Houthis struck a power station in Medina supplying the Prophet's Mosque — a claim the Houthis deny.

The first War & Markets weekly briefing: Brent crude swung around $100 a barrel as G7 stockpile releases collided with US carrier deployments, gold held above $4,180 an ounce, and US defense stocks slipped even as escalation headlines multiplied. Figures checked October 2, 2026, 7:00 PM CT.

The US military announced on September 30 that all American troops had left Iraq, completing an orderly departure from Erbil Air Base and formally ending Operation Inherent Resolve's mission in the country. The move closes a 23-year chapter of American military presence that began with the 2003 invasion — but leaves Kurdish allies anxious and Iran-backed militias celebrating.

Hans Grundberg met the Houthis' chief negotiator in Muscat to explore halting an escalation that has killed at least 838 people and displaced 145,000. The offensive, aided by Iranian experts per AP, captured Mokha and Red Sea islands — ending the 2022 ceasefire.

Israeli strikes hit a passenger van in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa neighborhood and a residential apartment on September 30, killing at least five people. Gaza's health officials say more than 1,400 Palestinians have now been killed since the October 2025 ceasefire — a ceasefire that survives in name only.

Britain's maritime security agency issued three delayed warnings on Wednesday covering tanker strikes from the day before — with one crude-oil tanker hit on its port side — adding to a growing backlog of late-reported attacks in the strait.

The Treasury and State departments announced designations against 13 individuals and entities in Russia, China, Hong Kong, and Pakistan accused of feeding Iran's defense ministry — including a Russian aircraft maker and a Russian shipping firm.

The last U.S. troops are scheduled to leave their remaining bases in Iraq by September 30, ending a 23-year military presence agreed off in 2024 — carried out by the Trump administration even as the U.S.-Iran war rages. Iraq, Iran's allies, and a nervous Kurdistan are watching what comes next.

More than 100 Israeli settlers set two homes ablaze in the West Bank village of Jalud, blocking a Palestinian family's military-escorted return and injuring three Israeli officers in clashes, Reuters reported.

President Trump says he offered Iran 'nothing' to end the seven-month war, rejecting reports of a sanctions-relief deal — even as US and Iranian officials held separate talks with mediators on Monday, Reuters reports.

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City's Nasr neighbourhood killed Izz al-Din Al-Beik, head of Hamas' armed wing in the northern Gaza Strip — confirmed by Israeli officials, medics, and Hamas sources, according to Reuters.

Yemen's war has killed an estimated 377,000 people, left 19.5 million needing aid — and in September 2026 it exploded back onto the world stage as the Houthis seized the Red Sea coast and threatened the Bab el-Mandeb strait. Here is how the forgotten front works.

Nearly two years after Bashar al-Assad's fall, Syria's interim government controls most of the country — including Damascus and Aleppo — after a January 2026 deal integrated Kurdish forces. But the transition is disputed, violence continues, and the Islamic State remains active. Here is who holds what, and why it matters.

Ceasefires are only words on paper until someone watches them hold. From UN peacekeepers to the OSCE's unarmed observers in Ukraine, this is how ceasefire monitoring actually works — and why it so often fails.

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt left San Diego on September 27 bound for the Middle East, replacing the Japan-based USS George Washington. The deployment sustains the Navy's continuous carrier presence into the seventh month of the U.S.-Iran war — and may run longer than normal.

The Soviet-Afghan War (1979–1989) trapped a superpower in a grinding counterinsurgency, killed around 15,000 Soviet troops, displaced a third of Afghanistan's people, and ended with the withdrawal completed on February 15, 1989.

A new Saudi-led Red Sea naval coalition joined the fight in 2026 after Houthi attacks on oil tankers — the third multinational force trying to secure the Bab el-Mandeb strait. Here is how the Red Sea naval coalition works, and why warships alone have not reopened the waterway.

The Lebanon ceasefire has collapsed and been renegotiated twice: a 2024 truce that never held, and a June 2026 framework tying Israeli withdrawal to Hezbollah's disarmament. With UN peacekeepers leaving by year's end, here is what holds the border together.

Eight U.S. Marines — seven enlisted troops and one officer — were injured when an Iranian anti-ship cruise missile struck the vessel they were aboard in the Strait of Hormuz on September 14. NBC News, citing three U.S. officials, reported the incident on September 28 — the first public disclosure, two weeks after the attack.

Iran's nuclear program is now the world's most closely watched blind spot: the IAEA says it has been 'completely blind' for over a year, 440 kg of 60%-enriched uranium is unaccounted for, and the Security Council has the file for the first time in 20 years.

Gaza reconstruction will need $71.5 billion, the UN says — but almost a year after the ceasefire, Israel occupies 60% of the strip, Hamas has not disarmed, and not a single reconstruction project has begun. Here is what the plans say, and what is blocking them.

Since November 2023, Houthi attacks on commercial shipping have turned the Bab el-Mandeb strait — a chokepoint carrying a tenth of seaborne oil — into one of the world's most dangerous waterways.

Gaza's Health Ministry says 74,016 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire holds in name, but its next steps — disarmament, a new government, reconstruction — have barely begun.