US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced late Monday evening (October 19, 2026), via social media, that he is in the Middle East to visit US forces participating in a “historic mission,” the nature of which he did not specify. The American minister said that he visited members of the American armed forces in the Central Command area of responsibility, which covers the Middle East, northeastern Africa, and parts of Asia.
The announcement came hours after Axios reported that Hegseth was in Israel on an unannounced visit to the Hebrew state during which he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The US Department of Defense declined to comment on the visit and related reports. The Israeli Embassy in Washington has not yet responded to a request for comment.
News of Hegseth's trip comes a day after US President Donald Trump announced his support for Netanyahu in the Knesset elections scheduled to be held next week in Israel.
Opinion polls indicate that the national religious coalition led by Netanyahu is expected to lose its ruling majority, but the opposition may also face difficulty in forming a government.
US Vice President J.D. Vance declined to support Netanyahu in an interview earlier on Monday, saying that he does not interfere in the Israeli elections. Vance, who traveled to Budapest and endorsed Viktor Orban in the Hungarian elections earlier this year, added in an interview with the 2Y digital platform: “I support American candidates, and that's what I'm focused on, the midterm elections.” Vance continued: “I am not against supporting him, but I am not in favor of him either. I will not interfere in the Israeli elections.”
The Future Investment Initiative Forum, known as “Davos in the Desert,” which was scheduled to be held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, at the end of this month, has been postponed, according to what its CEO announced, while the Kingdom is being attacked by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
Maha Al Saud, CEO of the Future Investment Initiative, said in a statement published on the
The Saudi Future Investment Initiative Foundation organizes the forum annually, and this year's edition was scheduled to be held in Riyadh from October 26 to 29. For nearly a decade, this platform has been the face of the Kingdom's efforts to attract global investors, business leaders, and heads of state.
About half of the flights were canceled at Saudi airports
Saudi Arabia suspended operations at Riyadh International Airport after the Houthis attacked it earlier this month. The authorities did not announce a clear timetable for the resumption of air navigation.
The Houthis issued warnings to airlines against flying in Saudi airspace. Data issued by Cirium, a company specializing in aviation analytics, showed that more than 45 percent of flights departing from Saudi airports have been canceled since October 8.
Informing employees to work remotely
Saudi government bodies have informed the employees of their administrative offices in Riyadh to work remotely and to refrain from coming to their offices, starting from Monday until at least the end of the week, according to what three sources, namely an employee and two female consultants contracted with two government agencies, told Agence France-Presse.
Houthis: Carrying out new attacks on Saudi Arabia
Today, Monday, the Houthi group in Yemen announced the implementation of six military operations targeting sites and facilities inside Saudi Arabia, using ballistic and winged missiles and drones, during the past 48 hours.
Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesman, said in a statement that the operations "came in response to the Saudi aggression."
He added, "More than 200 air strikes and missile attacks targeted civilian sites in Sanaa and other Yemeni governorates during the same period, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries, most of them women and children." He explained that the total number of Saudi air strikes and missile attacks since the start of the escalation exceeded 2,700 raids.
The Saudi-led coalition has not yet issued any comment regarding the attacks announced by the Houthis.
The local authority in Shabwa Governorate in central Yemen announced in a statement that "more than 53 recruits were killed and more than 200 others were injured among the new recruits in the Internal Security in Shabwa Governorate, while they were receiving security training and qualification."
The governorate authorities said that the Houthi rebels fired three ballistic missiles at the Al-Alam military camp in the southern governorate.
Governorate Undersecretary Fahd Al-Khulaifi told Agence France-Presse that there were dozens of wounded in critical condition. Al-Khulaifi added, "The seriously injured were transferred to hospitals in Hadramaut and Aden, after Shabwa's hospitals were filled with the wounded, who flocked to them in large numbers following the attack."
A government military source in Shabwa expressed the fears of the Yemeni forces that "these missile attacks launched by the Houthis on Shabwa will pave the way for a ground attack, similar to what happened in Mokha."
The statement said: “This bloody, treacherous attack targeted new recruits in the training and preparation stage, and is considered an extremely dangerous military escalation and a blatant aggression against the security and stability of Shabwa Governorate.”
One military official said that the targets were part of a newly formed force called “Rapid Intervention,” whose mission was to defend the region. The official added that the missile attack occurred while the recruits were lining up in formation for a training session.
The military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, announced that his group's forces were responsible for the operation. He said that it targeted "the Saudi enemy's concentrations in Camp Al-Alam, which is run by Saudi officers in the eastern regions" of Yemen.
Washington's embassies in the Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel issued a security warning stating, "Americans currently in the Middle East should exercise extreme caution in light of the complex security situation. Please prepare for the possibility of flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions." In the warning, she referred to the situation in Saudi Arabia, which was subjected to almost daily attacks carried out by the Houthis with missiles and drones, the most violent of which was the attack on Riyadh Airport on October 10, which resulted in 13 dead and more than 300 wounded.
The warning indicated that "Iran and groups loyal to it may target other American interests abroad, or sites linked to the United States and Americans around the world, including American companies and other institutions." Hostilities were renewed as a result of the war in the Middle East, which broke out with an American-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, with the collapse of a truce that had been in effect in Yemen since 2022. The Houthis, supported by Tehran, achieved progress on the ground at the expense of government forces supported by a military coalition led by Riyadh. They took control of the western coast of Yemen and the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait region, whose importance to Saudi Arabia in exporting oil increased, amid Iran’s practical closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
