Israeli President Herzog has started the second day of consultations with the parties elected in the new Knesset on who to put in charge of forming Israel's next government. The United Judaism faction has decided not to nominate any candidate for the formation of a government, declaring that it is "not bound to any bloc". At present, Gadi Eisenkot has received 46 recommendations, Netanyahu stuck at 19. Five people have died in Israeli attacks in Gaza, including a 12-year-old boy.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will decide on Sunday who to entrust with the task of forming the next government, after completing consultations with all parties elected to the 26th Knesset. Herzog himself announced it, specifying that the political forces representing 67 parliamentarians have indicated Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party and the opposition bloc, while those representing 46 parliamentarians have expressed their support for the outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The United States is "armed to the teeth" and ready, if necessary, to complete the war with Iran, US President Donald Trump said, answering journalists' questions in the Oval Office. “Right now we are building more weapons for our military than we have ever built before and we are ready and fully equipped,” he said. “If we were to carry out the rest of the operation in Iran, we are absolutely ready and armed to the teeth,” he insisted.
"Now we will make a decision (on Iran, ed.). We have to decide whether to complete the work, so that it never happens again. I would prefer not to destroy the rest of the country, if possible, but perhaps I will be forced to do so. You will know very soon." Donald Trump declared this while speaking to journalists in the Oval Office.
The alarm came from the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen who spoke at the WinWin Brussels Summit dedicated to startups. Europe spent 127 billion more on energy costs due to the Hormuz blockade.
According to CNN, the US army is preparing new attack plans in Iran which include the potential use of the Gbu-43/b Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), better known as the "mother of all bombs". The use, aimed at energy infrastructures and military sites, depends on the possible order of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for the resumption of military operations before or after the mid-term elections, set for November 3rd.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani hoped that the result of the mid-term elections would lead to a diplomatic solution between the United States and Iran. "I hope that this result pushes the United States to follow the path of diplomacy with Iran," he said in an interview with 'Fore and Back'. "I believe that the diplomatic solution is inevitable", he insisted, "I want to be optimistic and hope that common sense prevails". This, he clarified, "does not mean being compliant with Iran and not telling them that they must not have the atomic bomb. But we need to reach a political agreement to free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, which is fundamental for the world economy". We are in the presence of a hybrid war. Let's face the topic: I am convinced that the Russians will never carry out a military attack, but pro-Russian organizations could try to cause damage. We are taking all necessary countermeasures. We have been on alert for some time.
Some commentators define him as "the man who embodies everything that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not". At 66 years old, most of which he spent wearing a military uniform, former general Gadi Eisenkot presented himself as the main opposition candidate in the October 27 Israeli elections. Of Moroccan origins, he entered politics in 2022 and today leads the Yashar party which in Hebrew means "straight", "honest".
"The result of the consultations appears clear", declared Herzog, quoted by Haaretz, underlining however that his institutional responsibility is to verify who is actually capable of forming a government majority. A possibility which, he observed, remains uncertain due to the vetoes between the different sides and within the political blocs themselves.
The president announced that he intends to meet directly with some party leaders before making the decision. “I will leave no stone unturned in attempting to foster the formation of a stable and viable government for the Israeli people,” he said.
After the attacks on airports, refineries and oil tankers, Saudi Arabia would have contacted the Houthis to understand what they would like to stop the hostilities. And the answer would have been: 51 billion dollars. The Wall Street Journal reported it in an article disdainfully denied by Riyadh. The Houthis, we read on the WSJ, explained that the sum would be necessary to cover the cost of years of Saudi attacks and a long siege. Not only that. Yemen's Shiite rebels would like the kingdom to officially recognize them as Yemen's rulers, effectively accepting a neighbor closely linked to Iran on its southern border. Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Rayed Krimly's response is harsh. “I categorically deny the claims published by the Wall Street Journal,” he wrote in X, “it is pure invention.” These militias, he recalled, "turned against the Yemeni government, caused famines, dragged the country into conflicts and agendas that serve neither Yemen nor its people", he continued. “We also remind the authors that Yemen has a recognized government,” he concluded.
“Any new military escalation between the United States and Iran could have serious consequences for the region. I remain in close contact with Gulf partners to support diplomatic de-escalation efforts.” The High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Kaja Kallas said this at a press conference in Lisbon.
Five people have died in Israeli attacks in Gaza, including a woman and a 12-year-old boy. This was reported by the emergency services of the Strip. Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defense agency, said the teenager was killed by Israeli fire east of the Al Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. A few kilometers away, near the city of Al-Zawayda, two people died. In southern Gaza, a woman was the victim of Israeli gunfire near the town of Khan Yuonis, Bassal said. One person was killed and several others injured in an Israeli drone attack west of Gaza city. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army said it had struck "terrorists" in the Al-Zawayda area and west of Gaza city, and that it had started investigations into the Palestinian woman killed in Khan Younis.
Satellite images analyzed by Al-Jazeera's Sources Unit spotted the US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt on November 4, 2026, accompanied by four warships, south of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, indicating the naval group's advance towards the Middle East. On September 27, the Arab newspaper writes, the USS Roosevelt set sail from the naval base in San Diego, California, bound for the Middle East as part of a new mission, before stopping at the US naval base in Yokosuka, Japan, for military exercises and then continuing towards the South China Sea. On November 3, movements of a Seahawk military helicopter and two Osprey military aircraft were observed coming from Brunei and heading towards Singapore. These aircraft are used by the US Navy to transport personnel and supplies to aircraft carriers, which indicates a movement of the group southward, towards the shipping lanes leading to the Strait of Malacca.
"The issue of military aid worries me a lot. Very much." This was stated by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, quoted by the Times of Israel, stating that he had not been informed of any agreement to stop US military aid to Israel by the end of the year, as announced by American President Donald Trump. “It was a bolt from the blue,” Herzog added during a meeting with representatives of the Yashar party at his residence in Jerusalem, recalling that the current memorandum of understanding between the United States and Israel on military aid will expire in 2028.
"Putin said he would do whatever was necessary to end the war. He condemned the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites and considered the war against Iran to be cruel." This was reported by General Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, at the end of a meeting in the Kremlin with the Russian leader. The Iranian news agency ISNA writes this.
The Yashar! party delegation (21 seats) has indicated its leader Gadi Eisenkot to President Isaac Herzog for the formation of a new government. Eisenkot, with 67 recommendations, therefore at least on paper has the numbers to receive the government position. "We are at a critical juncture even after the result of the US elections and Israel's status in the world and for this reason we must act quickly for a new leadership and create an emergency national government led by Eisenkot", said Yoram Cohen, number 2 of the party and former head of the Shin Bet. “Unity is not a slogan: Netanyahu has led us to an unprecedented fracture in society and has carried out a delegitimization campaign,” said MP Orit Farkash, former minister in a national unity government between Gantz and Netanyahu in 2020, responding to Herzog's request whether it is not possible, given the emergencies facing the country, to form a national unity government.
Amirhossein Mousavi, a 40-year-old political prisoner, was sentenced to death in Iran on charges of "corruption on earth", one of the most serious charges under the penal code of the Islamic Republic, for some posts published on X and other social networks. This was reported by his lawyer and several human rights organizations. Mousavi's death sentence comes at a time when there is growing concern over the increasingly frequent use of capital punishment against defendants considered political prisoners by human rights organizations, following nationwide protests in January and the war in the Middle East. Mousavi posted content on X and Instagram through accounts called "James Bi Din" (which is Persian for "James without faith") or "James B. Dean", which were later suspended. He was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the capital crime of "corruption on Earth," in connection with his "online activity on the Twitter account 'James B. Dean,'" his lawyer Reza Shafakhah wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Iran is reviewing a series of new proposals submitted by mediators on its nuclear program. The New York Times wrote it today. According to five officials briefed on the negotiations.
