Morning update

Live Blog Update| Israeli Elections 29 October 2026 07:59 GMT Good morning Middle East Eye readers, Here are the latest developments: The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations received a report of a vessel ablaze on Thursday in the Strait of Hormuz, 9 nautical miles north of Oman's Khasab. "The Master of a third-party vessel has reported sighting another vessel on fire. Status of crew is unknown," UKMTO said in a statement. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired the Pentagon’s chief planner, Brett Sylvia. Sylvia's predecessor, Joseph McGee, was similarly forced to retire by the defence secretary. "The Chairman, the Joint Staff, and the Joint Force extend our deepest gratitude to Lieutenant Gen. Brett Sylvia and his family for their 32 years of distinguished service to our nation," a Joint Staff spokesperson told Al Jazeera. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it intercepted and destroyed an MQ-1 drone in the airspace east of the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported. US president Donald Trump has claimed that the "didn’t start this war" on Iran, adding that the conflict "should have been taken care of long before I came here". In late February, Israel and the US launched their war on Iran, despite the Oman-brokered talks at the time centered around Tehran’s nuclear programme. The Saudi-Led coalition said it destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis towards Saudi Arabia's eastern region early on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Saudi civil defence issued two alerts warning of potential danger in Najran and in the Eastern Province, before saying minutes later that the danger had passed in both areas.