Al Jazeera

By Enes Abuomer and Mahmoud Sayed

•     Israel has ordered its military to step up preparations for a possible attack on Iran, as Iran’s IRGC chief said the country’s missile development efforts will continue despite threats and sanctions.
•     Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran’s lead negotiator, has told Al Jazeera that Washington must “make and announce” a decision on the latest Iranian proposal, after Tehran rejected a US proposal to transfer Iran’s stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium to a third country.
•     Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least nine Palestinians, including at least six in a strike on the Nasser Medical Complex, as the United Nations made an emergency appeal for waterproof tents to shelter hundreds of thousands exposed to flooding due to heavy rains.
•     Saudi Arabia has intercepted cruise missiles launched by the Houthis, as Riyadh and Yemen’s rebel group trade barbs.

Hamas condemns Israeli attack on medical complex in Gaza as ‘war crime’

    Hamas has condemned an Israeli attack on Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza that killed six people and injured at least 20 others.

    “The bombing of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis is a war crime that exposes the occupation’s impunity and places the international community before its responsibilities,” the Palestinian group said in a statement.

    “Mediators and the US administration must take action to halt the occupation’s ongoing violations and ensure its adherence to a ceasefire,” Hamas added.

    An Israeli strike targeted the second floor of Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Younis, one of the largest hospitals in the Gaza Strip and the only hospital still standing in the city, serving at least 500,000 people in southern Gaza.

Iran’s IRGC chief says threats or sanctions won’t stop missile programme

    Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander-in-chief, Ahmad Vahidi, says the country’s missile development efforts will continue despite threats and sanctions.

    In a message marking Aerospace Day, carried by the Tasnim news agency, Vahidi paid tribute to Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, regarded as the founder of Iran’s ballistic missile programme.

    “Today, with that same spirit, you are building strength for the country in the heart of mountains and deep underground,” Vahidi said, addressing members of the IRGC Aerospace Force.

    “The enemy must know that the path of martyr Tehrani Moghaddam cannot be stopped by threats or sanctions. This path continues with blood and faith,” he added.

    Vahidi also paid tribute to former IRGC aerospace commanders Amir Ali Hajizadeh and Mahmoud Bagheri, urging personnel to continue strengthening Iran’s military capabilities.

US House committee holds ‘first-ever’ meeting with ambassadors from Abraham Accords countries

    The Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Brian Mast, has held a meeting with committee members and ambassadors from member countries of the Abraham Accords.

    “Chairman Brian Mast convened the first-ever congressional forum between HFAC Members and Abraham Accords Ambassadors,” the committee said in a social media post.

    The meeting discussed “strengthening regional cooperation, addressing challenges, and Congress’s role in advancing the next chapter of the Abraham Accords”, according to the committee.

    Mast, a pro-Israel representative from Florida, has led the committee since January 2025. He will be replaced as chairman after the Democrats won control of the US House and Senate.

Saudi-Houthi attacks intensify as fighting spreads across Yemen

    Fighting between Yemen’s Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces has intensified across several fronts, with missile attacks reaching deep into Saudi Arabia and a worsening humanitarian crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of Yemenis.

    Here are the latest developments:

•     The Saudi-led coalition said on Wednesday it intercepted three cruise missiles heading towards Riyadh, two drones and two ballistic missiles over western Saudi Arabia. Authorities later reported falling debris in the Mecca region.
•     Yemen’s Houthis claimed strikes on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, an oil pumping station in Yanbu and a Saudi military command centre in Aden’s al-Buraiqa district.
•     Government forces reported clashes and gains in al-Jawf and Marib, while fighting continued in Taiz and Lahij.
•     About 330,000 people have been displaced since August, according to the UN, including approximately 140,000 in Taiz governorate. Aid agencies warned that more than 800,000 people in Taiz had been cut off from assistance.
•     The World Health Organization reported 2,098 deaths and 9,657 injuries linked to the fighting between August 6 and November 8.

UN Security Council to meet on ‘situation in the Middle East’

    Bahrain has requested a UN Security Council meeting under the agenda item “The situation in the Middle East”, where security developments in the Gulf are expected to be discussed.

    UN TV lists a council meeting for tomorrow, Thursday, at 3:10pm New York time (20:10 GMT). No speakers have been publicly listed yet.

    Security Council Report, an organisation that tracks the UN body, said briefings are expected from the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi, and an official from the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.

US vice president mulls direct talks with Iran’s security chief: US media

    JD Vance is mulling direct talks with Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, US media has reported.

    A face-to-face meeting is under consideration, with Doha as a possible venue, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing US and Middle Eastern officials, as well as sources familiar with the Washington-Tehran talks.

    The newspaper added that Vance requested the meeting in a letter he sent to Rezaei in October, which the Journal first reported.

    Rezaei confirmed receiving the letter, but declined to disclose its contents.

‘Outrageous conflict of interest’: Senior Democratic representative calls out Kushner

    US Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin has said there is an “outrageous conflict of interest” related to Jared Kushner’s role as a US envoy during the US-Israel war on Iran.

    “He’s never been able to answer us [Congress] whether he was acting 100 percent in the interest of his business clients in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, or he was acting 100 percent in the interest of the American people, or was it 50-50, or somewhere in between,” Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told the Financial Times.

    Raskin’s comments come as the Democrats, who won a majority in both chambers of Congress, are poised to take control of committees charged with conducting hearings and issuing subpoenas for officials to answer questions under oath.

    Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, had issued a statement in October saying he has “never taken a diplomatic action to benefit Affinity, myself, or any investor”, referencing his investment firm Affinity Partners.

    His response at the time was related to US media reports suggesting links between his company’s booming business and his role as an envoy for the Trump administration.

Is Trump’s administration divided over its Iran war strategy

By Stephen Quillen

    US President Donald Trump’s administration appears divided over how to end the war on Iran, with senior officials favouring different approaches as Washington weighs further military action against diplomacy.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US economic pressure campaign was proving so effective that further major military operations were unnecessary, while Vice President JD Vance reportedly favours a negotiated deal with Tehran.

    Trump, meanwhile, has signalled that renewed strikes are unlikely but has maintained the naval blockade of Iranian ports. According to Axios, his administration has settled on intensifying economic pressure while avoiding a return to full-scale war.

    The debate follows the Republicans’ defeat in the midterm elections, which analysts say has raised the political cost of escalation. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 71 percent of Americans favour congressional legislation to halt the war.

    Iran has rejected transferring its enriched uranium abroad and insisted that Washington meet Tehran’s demands before negotiations resume, despite ongoing Qatari mediation efforts.

‘Lack of trust’ stands in the way of agreement with the US: Ghalibaf

    Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator, has told Al Jazeera that the Strait of Hormuz will “never return” to its status prior to the US-Israel war on Iran.

    Ghalibaf said Iran and Oman reached an understanding to oversee the critical waterway as part of Tehran’s seven-point proposal to end the eight-month conflict.

    Read more from the exclusive interview here.

Iran’s Ghalibaf tells Al Jazeera the ball is in US’s court on talks to end war

What’s been happening in the occupied West Bank

    Israeli forces and settlers have carried out a series of raids, arrests and attacks across the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

    Here are the latest developments:

•     Israeli settlers set fire to more than 100 vehicles, dozens of olive trees, and a warehouse in al-Lubban Asharqiya, south of Nablus.
•     A 42-year-old Palestinian woman suffered moderate head injuries after settlers threw stones at her as she was harvesting olives with her family near Deir Istiya, northwest of Salfit.
•     Israeli forces arrested Palestinians during raids in Hebron, Jenin, Nablus and Qalqilya, searching homes and damaging property.
•     Israeli forces demolished a 120-square-metre (1,292sq ft) Palestinian home in al-Khader, south of Bethlehem. The house had stood for 20 years.
•     Israeli bulldozers continued clearing Palestinian land in al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, to build a road linking nearby illegal Israeli settlements.

Six killed, more than 20 injured in Israeli strike on Gaza hospital

By Hind Khoudary

Reporting from Gaza, Palestine

    We have just received a statement from the Civil Defence teams confirming that they have completed their search and inspection operations following the Israeli air strike on Nasser Medical Complex.

    Six Palestinians were killed inside the hospital, and more than 20 others were injured, including medical staff and patients.

    The strike targeted the second floor of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. This is one of the largest hospitals in the Gaza Strip and the only hospital still standing in Khan Younis, serving at least 500,000 people in southern Gaza.

    Most of those killed and injured were patients, including people who were scheduled to undergo surgery the following day.

    They were sleeping inside the hospital after waiting for days for their turn to receive treatment.

    Local residents and eyewitnesses told us that the explosion was sudden. There was no warning or evacuation notice before Israeli forces targeted the hospital.

    This is the seventh time the same hospital has been targeted in the past couple of years.

    One of the deadliest attacks took place on August 25, 2025, when the hospital was bombed twice, killing at least 22 Palestinians, including five journalists.

    The hospital has been targeted repeatedly, without prior warning.

UN committee backs Palestinian sovereignty over natural resources

    A UN General Assembly committee has adopted a draft resolution affirming the Palestinian people’s permanent sovereignty over their natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.

    The resolution, submitted by the Group of 77 and China, passed with 151 votes in favour, seven against, and 11 abstentions.

    The US, Israel, Colombia, Paraguay, Palau, Nauru, and Micronesia voted against the measure. All EU member states and Canada supported it, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

    The draft resolution also affirmed the rights of the Arab population in Syria’s Golan Heights, also occupied by Israel, over their natural resources.

    It called on Israel to stop exploiting Palestinian natural resources and reaffirmed the Palestinians’ right to seek compensation for damage caused by such exploitation.

A recap of recent developments

•     Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei has warned that military bases involved in any renewed US attack on Iran, including those in Europe, would be targets for retaliation.
•     Iran has rejected a US proposal to transfer its stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium to a third country as the US military has said its forces are working around the clock to keep the Strait of Hormuz open while enforcing Washington’s naval blockade against Iran.
•     Saudi Arabia has said it has intercepted cruise missiles launched by Yemen’s Houthis as the rebel group has claimed an attack on a Saudi military command centre in Aden.
•     UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher has called for all crossings into Gaza to be opened, warning that delays in delivering winter supplies are putting displaced Palestinians at risk.