Saudi Arabia has fully resumed international flight operations at its primary aviation hub, King Khalid International Airport, opening Terminals 1 and 2 for domestic and international travel starting Sunday. The decision comes more than two weeks after deadly strikes launched by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels knocked the main facility out of service. The airport had previously resumed limited domestic flights last week before fully reopening the two terminals.
The reopening was announced as aerial attacks targeting the Saudi capital continued. Early Sunday morning, Saudi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki reported that kingdom air defense systems intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile and an attack drone directed toward Riyadh. Coalition forces also intercepted 10 additional ballistic missiles aimed at the country's southern territory. In early October, Houthi strikes hit a building complex housing two other airport terminals, resulting in 17 fatalities and injuring more than 330 people.
Simultaneously, Israeli forces expanded a major military operation across the occupied West Bank on Sunday in response to a Friday attack in Hebron that left two Israeli soldiers dead and three wounded. As part of the crackdown, the Israeli military carried out arrests, conducted building demolitions in Hebron, closed several territorial crossings, and issued new restrictions prohibiting Palestinian laborers from working in Israeli settlements. According to local municipal officials in Hebron, the demolitions and security measures have displaced roughly 2,200 residents.
The West Bank operation comes immediately ahead of Israel's tense general election scheduled for Tuesday, the first national vote since the 2023 Hamas-led attacks and the regional escalation that followed. The ballot is largely viewed as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership and defense record over three years of war. With polling showing a close contest among Israel's 7.3 million registered voters, the U.S.-based nonprofit AID Coalition noted that tens of thousands of Israelis residing abroad are expected to fly back to vote.
Israeli electoral law strictly mandates in-person voting within the country, allowing rare exceptions only for state diplomats and official emissaries. With past elections decided by very slim margins, the influx of returning voters could carry significant weight. Many liberal Israelis opposed to Netanyahu have left the country in recent years, leading analysts to anticipate that overseas citizens returning to cast ballots may largely oppose the current prime minister.
In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed a delegation of diplomats on Sunday, declaring that new threats of military action would not deter Iran from its established diplomatic path. Araghchi warned the United States against initiating fresh strikes on Iranian targets while reiterating Tehran's willingness to engage in cooperative efforts with neighboring Persian Gulf Arab nations. He stated that the political landscape in the Middle East has fundamentally shifted following recent regional warfare and will not return to its previous state.
Separately in North Africa, Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who heads one of Libya’s rival governments, rejected recent remarks made by U.S. President Donald Trump categorizing Libya as a "terror-infested" nation. Speaking at a political rally in Georgia on Saturday, Trump accused political opponents of allowing migration from countries he described as terror-infested, explicitly naming Libya, Yemen, Haiti, and Somalia. Dbeibah stated on social media that he rejected any affront to his country or its citizens, emphasizing the sacrifices made by the Libyan people in countering terrorism since the nation fragmented into civil conflict following the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
“Everything has changed in our region," he said. "After the recent war, nothing will be like the past.”
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