Saudi Arabia executes 2 Bangladeshis over 'indecent acts,' and other Mideast news
Saudi Arabia says it has executed 2 Bangladeshi nationals over “indecent acts” inside a mosque in Mecca. Bangladesh said that it hadn't been informed of the executions beforehand.
Meanwhile, Israeli police have arrested 10 suspects in connection with a wave of settler violence, including against a U.S. journalist and European diplomats in the occupied West Bank over the weekend.
Here's the latest news from the Middle East on Monday. Read our full coverage here.
Saudi Arabia has executed two Bangladeshi nationals after they were convicted of committing indecent acts in a mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
Bangladesh said that it wasn't informed before the sentences were carried out and has sought information from Saudi Arabia.
The Bangladeshis, a man and a woman, were executed on Wednesday after their death sentences were upheld by the highest court and a royal decree authorized their executions, the Saudi Interior Ministry said.
The statement said that they were executed because of “the gravity and seriousness of their actions in violating the sanctity of both time and place.” The ministry didn't elaborate.
Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry official Shama Obaed said that her ministry sent a letter to the Saudi government seeking “detailed information.”
Saudi authorities on Saturday also executed five Saudi nationals who were convicted of terrorism-related charges, the ministry said.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most prolific users of the death penalty, with 356 executions in 2025, behind only China and Iran, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
So far this year, the kingdom has executed more than 170 people, according to the Interior Ministry.
Ten suspects were arrested on Monday following a string of violent attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, police said, after the attacks led to heavy international criticism against Israel.
Israeli police didn't identify the suspects or their roles in the attacks, which also targeted Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine and European diplomats. The attacks came during a spike of settler violence during the annual olive harvest.
Levine was beaten Friday by a crowd of young male settlers in the village of Abu Falah, leaving her with several broken ribs and vertebrae. A day later, masked settlers attacked a group of European diplomats and others visiting the Christian village of Taybeh.
Settler violence has surged in recent years, and rights groups say that attackers are rarely arrested or punished for attacks on Palestinians.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck a military camp for government forces in southern Yemen, killing at least 20 soldiers, Yemeni military officials said, in one of the deadliest attacks in the recent surge in fighting.
The rebels fired ballistic missiles on the al-Alam military camp in the southern province of Shabwa in an attack that also wounded at least two dozen troops. The casualties were primarily new recruits, one of the officials told The Associated Press.
The military officials with the internationally recognized government of Yemen spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief the media.
The attack was part of a recent escalation in fighting, which began months ago as tensions spiked in the wider Iran war. The escalation between the Houthis and forces of the Saudi-backed government shattered a 2022 ceasefire deal that largely stopped fighting in Yemen’s civil war.
— By Samy Magdy in Cairo
The United Kingdom's top diplomat has urged companies not to help build new Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying they could breach international law if they do.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said that the E1 settlement project approved by Israel “is a direct threat to the prospect of a two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said that Monday is the deadline for companies to bid for work on the project, which would effectively cut the West Bank in two.
Israel’s top diplomat responded by saying his country wouldn't be “intimidated by threats.”
“The days when Israel would quietly accept threats, sanctions and attempts to dictate its policies are over,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a statement.
“Judea and Samaria are not foreign lands to the Jewish people,” he said, using the biblical name of the West Bank. “Our historical rights are not subject to approval from London.”
In September, the U.K. government, along with France and Canada, banned trade with Israeli settlements. The U.K. also gave itself power to sanction companies that provide services for the settlements, including financing, construction, infrastructure, real estate and advertising.
An adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei says that Iran will respond forcefully to any renewed U.S. attack.
Conservative politician Mohammad Mokhber said that Iran would strike “nine countries” if Iranian bases or “petrochemical” facilities were struck again.
“If they want to hit a base, we have to hit the bases of nine countries,” he said Monday in recorded comments posted by Tasnim, a semiofficial news agency close with the Revolutionary Guard.
The report didn't name the nine countries.
Mojtaba Khamenei was named Iran’s supreme leader after his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed by Israel on the first day of the war. The younger Khamenei hasn't been seen or heard publicly since his appointment.
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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
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