Al Jazeera

By Enes Abuomer and Ali Mustafa

    A US official tells Al Jazeera that three carriers and two landing groups are deploying around Iran. The official says the Roosevelt strike group and Makin Island force with 2,000 Marines left San Diego, adding that the full buildup will finish by November.

    UK Maritime Trade Operations says a 2.5-million-barrel supertanker was hit by an unknown projectile, causing a fire while passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

    A British-Iranian man is arrested in connection with an alleged security incident at a southwest England airbase. Counterterrorism police say the 27-year-old dual national was detained in central London on Thursday.

    Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched intense attacks across front lines in Taiz governorate, seeking to build on their recent offensive that captured the country’s Red Sea coast. Yemeni government forces held their ground and claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the group.

    Al Jazeera’s Tanya Noury is following developments from Washington, DC.

Regional powers and OIC condemn Houthi attack targeting Medina infrastructure

    Qatar has joined regional nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Turkiye in strongly condemning an attack by Yemen’s Houthis targeting civilian infrastructure and a power distribution station serving the Prophet Muhammad’s Mosque in the Saudi holy city of Medina.

    In statements issued on Thursday, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs alongside counterparts in the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, the Arab League and the OIC, categorically rejected attacks on Islamic holy sites, describing the strike on Medina as a “flagrant violation” of Saudi sovereignty.

    Turkiye also issued a strong condemnation through its Foreign Ministry, saying that Ankara reiterates its firm support for Saudi Arabia. “These provocative attacks, which threaten the sovereignty and security of Saudi Arabia and target the sacred heritage of the Islamic world, must cease immediately and unconditionally,” the Turkish statement said.

    Doha affirmed that Saudi Arabia’s security is an integral part of Qatar’s security and the collective security framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The Muslim World League similarly backed measures to protect Islamic holy sites.

Yemen army says Houthi drones intercepted over Aden

    The spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces says air defences intercepted and shot down Houthi explosive drones over the interim capital, Aden, before they could strike civilian areas.

    The military said that its forces remain on high alert and are fully prepared to counter any threats targeting civilians and critical infrastructure.

Yemeni army warns civilians to avoid roads used by Houthis in Taiz

    Yemen’s armed forces have warned civilians in Taiz province to avoid roads used by Houthi forces for military movements and supplies until further notice.

    In a statement, the military spokesperson said the warning was intended to protect civilians and their property from the risks of military operations, and applied to a number of routes in Taiz and surrounding areas.

    The statement also urged residents not to approach Houthi military movements, gatherings or vehicles, and to follow official instructions on road closures and movement.

    The army said the measures were precautionary and temporary.

US lawmakers introduce ‘Stop the Settlements Act’ targeting West Bank expansion

    US Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro has announced she is joining fellow lawmakers to introduce the “Stop the Settlements Act” in Congress, warning that Israeli support for settlements drives “the continuation of displacement & forced statelessness”.

    The legislation seeks to impose sanctions on drivers of settlement expansion and prohibit the import of goods produced in Israeli settlements.

    “I witnessed firsthand how Israeli settlers in the West Bank pursue violent attacks on innocent Palestinians every day,” DeLauro said in a post on X, adding: “The settlements must end.”

    DeLauro joined primary sponsor Joaquin Castro alongside representatives Madeleine Dean, Greg Casar, Sara Jacobs and Veronica Escobar in introducing the bill.

Disqualification of Palestinian-Israeli candidates from poll ‘new threshold of suppression’

    Ziad Abu Rish, an associate professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies at Bard College, says the Israeli Supreme Court’s position advising Palestinian-Israeli politician Sami Abu Shehadeh to withdraw from upcoming elections marks a new threshold of suppression for Palestinian voting rights in Israel.

    “Palestinian citizens of Israel are really treated as third-class citizens in a variety of ways, but primarily because they are not Jewish,” Abu Rish told Al Jazeera after Abu Shehadeh, the leader of the Palestinian Balad Party, withdrew his candidacy.

    The move came after the Supreme Court indicated it would uphold his disqualification by the Central Elections Committee during an appeal process, prompting him to step down rather than face a formal judicial ban.

    “Israel is set up as a Jewish state and I think it’s important to recognise that what we are seeing today, in some ways, represents continuity with historic marginalisation and attempts to repress Palestinian political organising within Israel. But it also marks a new threshold in that level of suppression,” Abu Rish said.

    Last week, the elections committee voted to disqualify individual candidates, including Abu Shehadeh and parliament member Ofer Cassif, a Jewish politician from the Arab-Jewish Hadash party.

Oil edges higher as markets weigh Iran tensions, fuel supply concerns

    Oil prices tick higher as traders weigh renewed tensions over Iran against signs of improving regional supply and efforts to ease a global diesel shortage.

    Brent crude rose 29 cents to $102.60 a barrel as of 00:22 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained 27 cents to $93.14 in early trading.

    Prices had jumped sharply on Thursday after reports that the US was sending a third aircraft carrier and up to 10,000 additional troops to the Middle East as President Donald Trump weighs renewed strikes on Iran after the November midterm elections.

    “Now I have to make a decision. They’ll either sign a very fair deal, or they won’t exist any longer,” Trump told reporters at the White House, according to Reuters.

    Market concerns were also fuelled by China’s decision to halt most fuel exports for October. But those pressures were partly offset by recovering Saudi oil exports and a US push for European countries to release emergency diesel reserves.

US envoy says Iran enriching uranium to 60% with ‘no credible civilian purpose’

    US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz has accused Iran of violating its nuclear obligations and refusing to abandon its nuclear programme.

    “Iran broke the rules. They refused to abandon their nuclear ambitions,” Waltz told the UN Security Council.

    “They are enriching uranium to 60 percent, which has no credible civilian purpose,” he said, adding that IAEA inspectors had been repeatedly denied access in Iran.

    Waltz said the IAEA Board of Governors referred Iran to the UN Security Council for noncompliance “just two weeks ago” and accused Iranian negotiators of continuing to reject demands to give up the country’s nuclear programme.

    Tehran has rejected US demands to end uranium enrichment, saying its nuclear programme is peaceful and that enrichment is a right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iranian officials have also accused the IAEA of politicisation and rejected recent resolutions against the country as politically motivated.

Israeli attacks continue across southern Lebanon

    Israeli forces have fired at least two artillery shells near a refinery station located in Marjayoun in southern Lebanon, according to the country’s National News Agency.

    Intermittent Israeli artillery shelling has been reported in the town of Mayfadoun and on al-Dabsha hill on the outskirts of Nabatieh, alongside heavy live ammunition fire near the town of Kfar Shouba, NNA said.

    On Thursday, Israeli air strikes continued targeting the town of al-Mansouri, one of the areas hardest hit in southern Lebanon since Israel’s invasion in March.

Iran border attack kills security personnel

    At least one Iranian security personnel has been killed in an attack on a checkpoint near the city of Rask on the border with Pakistan, according to Iran’s state-run broadcaster IRIB.

    “Efforts to arrest the perpetrators of this crime are ongoing,” the deputy security and law enforcement governor of Sistan-Baluchestan province said, adding that the officer died as troops repelled an assault by unidentified gunmen, according to IRIB.