Live: US refuses visas for Iran UN delegation members

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson, Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi, said the war with the United States was "not over", adding that Iran has "long been prepared for a prolonged war".

Mohebbi said US forces had been forced to relocate troops and equipment from regional bases to more distant positions, but US intelligence centres remained within Iran’s reach and that the, Press TV reported. 

Mohebbi also said that US technological superiority had failed to overcome Iran’s defensive and offensive capabilities. 

He warned that Iran still had targets linked to US interests that had not yet been struck, saying the IRGC remained prepared to respond to any further escalation. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured tunnels beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque as hundreds of Israeli settlers raided the Jerusalem holy site over the weekend. 

Ahead of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Netanyahu joined tens of thousands of Israelis for Selichot prayers at the Western Wall, adjacent to Al-Aqsa, on Saturday night.

The prime minister later posted a video of himself and his wife, Sara, touring tunnels beneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

“It is moving to touch the rock of our existence. We are here very close to the Holy of Holies,” he said.

“We are here, and we will always remain here.” 

Tens of thousands of people attended Selichot prayers at the Western Wall plaza, including Israeli government ministers and officials. 

On Sunday morning, hundreds of Israelis raided Al-Aqsa, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. 

Ben Gvir was filmed praying alongside other Israelis inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex under heavy police protection.

The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate said around 800 people raided the site on Sunday. 

Read more: Netanyahu tours tunnels beneath Al-Aqsa as Ben Gvir raids Jerusalem holy site 

Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Tehran on Monday, where he was received by his Iranian counterpart Eskandar Momeni, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said. 

The visit would focus on bilateral ties and reviewing the agreements signed earlier by senior officials of the two countries, Tasnim reported.

The visit comes as fears of a renewed US-Iran war are looming amid heightened tensions and the collapse of earlier negotiations.

Tensions remain high in the region, but Pakistan and Iran have kept diplomatic contacts and Islamabad has in the past tried to broker dialogue between Tehran and Washington.

Since Pakistan began to mediate between Iran and the United States, Naqvi has visited Tehran several times. 

At least four Palestinians were killed and 17 wounded in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday. 

The ministry said one of those killed died of earlier wounds, while three bodies were recovered from the rubble of destroyed buildings. 

The latest figures bring the reported Palestinian death toll since 7 October 2023 to 73,914, while over 174,952 others have been reported wounded.

Since the ceasefire took effect in October, the ministry has recorded 1,394 deaths, as 834 bodies have been recovered from the rubble. 

Thousands of victims remain under the debris and on roads because of the Israeli blockade on heavy machinery required by rescue teams, which have been unable to reach them. 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported that Israeli air strikes and other attacks have continued to cause casualties and damage in populated areas, while shortages of critical medical supplies and restrictions on humanitarian access continue to put pressure on Gaza’s health system.

A series of explosions ripped through a military installation near the town of al-Eis in Syria’s northern Aleppo province on Monday, injuring at least four people, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported. 

SANA said one civilian was injured by shrapnel, two others suffered temporary breathing difficulties and another was injured in a traffic accident while fleeing the area.

Civil defence teams evacuated three families and took the injured to hospital, and closed roads leading to the site.

Aleppo Governor Azzam al-Gharib called on residents to remain indoors, with hospitals, ambulances and emergency teams placed on alert.

Israeli forces launched a series of air raids and artillery attacks across southern Lebanon overnight, with shelling reported in several towns despite a ceasefire, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

In Nabatieh governorate, attacks were reported in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Zoutar al-Sharqiyah and Khallet Mayfadoun, while the Bint Jbeil district saw attacks on Beit Lif, Hadatha and the outskirts of Baraachit.

Israeli military vehicles were also seen patrolling Baraachit, Hadatha, Beit Yahoun and Mays al-Jabal, NNA reported.

Artillery fire targeted Wadi al-Salouqi and areas outside Touline in Marjeyoun, while machine-gun fire was reported in Sarbine, Hadatha, the outskirts of Mays al-Jabal and Wadi Zibqine. 

Pakistan's interior minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi left Islamabad for Tehran on Monday for talks with Iranian officials, according to Mehr News Agency.

The report said that Naqvi's visit will focus on expanding bilateral relations and coordination on matters of mutual interest.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday the visit would mainly follow up on previous understandings between the two countries, especially decisions made at the leadership level.

Pakistan, which has played a mediating role between Iran and the United States, could also raise regional issues during the visit, Baghaei said, but there was no indication Naqvi was carrying a specific message or proposal from Washington.

Naqvi has travelled to Tehran several times since Pakistan began its mediation efforts between the two countries. 

Senior military commanders of the Yemeni Houthis have warned Saudi Arabia that continued attacks and the blockade on Yemen could prompt strikes against energy infrastructure deep inside the kingdom, which could "destroy its economy", Press TV reported. 

In a joint message, senior political and military leaders said their forces would continue their operations against Saudi Arabia.

The statement claimed that Yemeni ballistic missiles and combat drones could reach locations where Saudi officials might seek shelter.

“The slightest folly you commit will come at a heavy price,” they said, adding that Yemen’s armed forces had introduced what they described as a “new equation of deterrence”. 

Israeli forces raided the town of Biddu, to the northwest of occupied East Jerusalem, following the alleged killing of an Israeli settler by a Palestinian from the town near the Halamish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. 

Soldiers “turned several homes into detention centres and are interrogating dozens of young men”, Al Jazeera quoted Biddu Mayor Nazmi Mansour as saying. 

The Jerusalem Governorate said at least 53 Palestinians were detained in the raids, and homes were vandalised and damaged.

Israeli forces had “abused and assaulted a number of citizens” during searches, Mansour said, with schools shuttered and residents staying in their homes amid the continuing operation. 

 IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi said that the US has "failed" in its war on Iran, calling it "a historic and shameful defeat".

"America has failed in this war, and its defeat is a historic and shameful defeat, but it does not have the courage to admit and accept this defeat," he said. 

"The defeat of the United States and the Zionist regime is a defeat that all military and political experts, even in America itself, admit, and they can see, touch, and feel this defeat with the slightest attention."

Mohebbi also added that Tehran has developed weapons during and before the war that have not yet been used, describing them as strategic assets to be deployed when necessary.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson warned of "significant changes" in Tehran's operations in the event of a new US attack.

"Those changes include a shift in the geography of war, and a shift in weapons and military equipment," Hossein Mohebbi said. "We will bring new weapons with new capabilities into the battlefield, and the world will be astonished."

"Our targets are also no longer necessarily the same [as the] previous targets. We have new targets that have not yet been struck," he added. 

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest developments: 

• Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that its new advanced aerospace defence system "intercepted and destroyed" another American MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz.  

• Explosions at a weapons depot in the early hours of Monday in al-Eis, southern Aleppo, wounded at least four. The cause of the blasts, which occurred in the town of al-Eis, remains under investigation. It is the fifth reported explosion at a weapons or ammunition depot in Syria this month.

• Gaza’s Government Media Office has announced the launching an "urgent emergency plan", where 255 buildings damaged by Israeli attacks across the besieged enclave will be demolished. The announcement follows the collapse of a building damaged by Israeli bombardment last week in Gaza City. At least 21 displaced Palestinians, including five children, were killed as a result.

• Air strikes targeting telecommunications towers in Yemen's Al-Jawf governorate killed four civilians and injured three others on Sunday, the Ansar Allah-run Yemen News Agency (Saba) reported. According to a local source speaking to Saba, the casualties were workers.

• The Houthis have declared what they call an "equation of blockade for blockade and escalation for escalation", vowing that Riyadh will face consequences for restrictions imposed on Yemen. Mahdi al-Mashat, who heads the group's Supreme Political Council, said in a televised address that Yemen was pressing ahead to end the Saudi campaign and the blockade, reopen its airports and seaports, recover national resources, and secure compensation.

Iran's  Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that its new advanced aerospace defence system "intercepted and destroyed" another American MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz.  

"Due to the destruction of a large portion of the MQ9s, the US has been forced to use this drone again, and by God's grace, both of them are being extensively hunted by the IRGC's new defense system," the IRGC said in a statement carried by state media. 

Francesca Albanese spoke to UNAPOLOGETIC on the Ed Sheeran-Macklemore debacle, UK sanctions on West Bank settlements, the changing discourse on Israel, and building allyship and solidarity to beat Apartheid in Israel.

Watch the full interview below:

Yemen’s government-affiliated Giants Brigades claimed attacks on five Houthi military vehicles on the Kahbub front overlooking the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, killing everyone aboard.