More than 100 Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank early Tuesday, drawing rare Israeli government condemnation after they injured three members of the security forces.

The raid, along with another attack on a different West Bank village on Tuesday, comes amid mounting international criticism of settler violence, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed in an address last week to the United Nations.

Gen. Hossein Mohebbi, spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard, held a news conference dubbed “A letter to the American people” in Tehran, Iran's capital.

He said that the only way for the war to end is for Washington to admit defeat and leave — a message apparently meant for the U.S. public just weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections for the U.S. Senate and Congress.

Syria early on Tuesday said an explosion caused by sabotage on an eastern gas pipeline the night before halted the flow of gas to power stations.

"A fire broke out Monday evening in a gas pipeline between the Al-Shoula area and Deir Ezzor due to the explosion of a sectional valve caused by sabotage," the official SANA news agency said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he expected a formal answer on Tuesday from the United States to Tehran's proposal to open the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported.

Qatari intermediaries "presented ideas, and we discussed them; they are set to raise the matter with the American side once more, after which the final U.S. response will be conveyed to us", Araghchi said late Monday.

The UAE's vice president will visit Saudi Arabia on Tuesday following an invitation from the defense minister, state media said, for a rare high-level meeting amid a months-long rift over Yemen.

In July, top officials and ministers from both countries began posting messages on social media about friendship and unity, signaling a rapprochement months after a public fallout over the UAE's role in Yemen.

Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tuesday that if his country's security was not guaranteed, no infrastructure in the region would be safe from attack, state media reported.

"In a region where we cannot sell oil, no one else will sell oil either; or if our security is not guaranteed, no infrastructure will remain safe," said Ghalibaf, who is also Iran's parliament speaker, according to video released by state TV.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has praised his country’s fighters for allegedly preventing "enemy forces" from "roaming freely" in the Strait of Hormuz.

Khamenei said in a message carried by the state broadcaster on Monday that Iran’s enemies now "do not come" closer to the strait than the Arabian Sea, which is part of the Indian Ocean.

Three officials tell The Associated Press that mediators were still working with Iran and the United States on a deal to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz, with the indirect talks expected to resume on Monday.

The details were revealed as the war enters its eighth month after causing widespread economic suffering. Multiple efforts to allow safe shipping on one of the world's most crucial waterways have failed.

Benjamin Netanyahu traveled secretly to the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to ask its leader to deny reports he'd warned the Israeli prime minister about a looming Hamas threat ahead of the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

The meeting between Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan took place on Sunday, two people who were briefed on the Israeli leader's trip confirmed on Monday.

Israel's upcoming elections are being followed closely by its regional neighbors, who are aware that any outcome will have ramifications far beyond the country's borders.

In his Likud party's campaign launch this month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his refrain that he "has changed the face of the Middle East" and vowed to continue doing so.