Saudi Executions of Bangladeshi Workers Strain Labor Ties

Saudi Arabia’s execution of two Bangladeshi nationals, carried out without advance notice to Dhaka, has added a diplomatic friction point to the Gulf kingdom’s labor and migration relationship with Bangladesh, one of the largest sources of foreign workers in the Saudi economy. The Saudi Interior Ministry said the man and woman were executed after being convicted of committing “indecent acts” inside a mosque in Mecca, the Muslim holy city, citing “the gravity and seriousness of their actions in violating the sanctity of both time and place.” It did not elaborate. Bangladesh said it was not informed before the sentences were carried out and has sought information from Riyadh.

The case comes amid a broader set of developments across the Middle East on Monday, several of which carry direct commercial and financial weight, from the resumption of commercial truck deliveries into Gaza to Houthi attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and a British warning to companies over settlement construction.

Israel’s military said Monday it would resume coordinating the entry of commercial trucks into Gaza, ending a halt in place since Wednesday that had cut off the flow of food and goods into the territory. The resumption carries a warning for merchants: future reports of businesses paying taxes to Hamas would lead to their licenses being revoked. COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees humanitarian affairs in Gaza, attributed the shutdown to disagreements between Hamas and merchants over taxes and claimed to be communicating a decision made by the merchants themselves. Truckers in Gaza offered a different reading, saying Israel was using the dispute as a pretext to undermine Hamas’s taxation efforts, and that officials in Gaza had described the money as a “donation” to pay civil servants rather than a tax. COGAT said Monday that Hamas had withdrawn its demands.

In Yemen, the stakes are starker. Iran-backed Houthi rebels killed at least 53 soldiers in ballistic missile strikes on the al-Alam military camp, wounding 200 recruits according to the Shabwa provincial government, in one of the deadliest attacks on the Saudi-backed government’s forces since the rebels shattered a 2022 ceasefire in the country’s civil war. The Houthis also claimed Monday to have carried out six military operations targeting oil infrastructure, airports and military sites across Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities say recent Houthi missile and drone attacks have killed 19 people and injured more than 350 others, and the Saudi Civil Defense issued further danger alerts across parts of the kingdom on Monday, a sign of continued risk to the country’s economic infrastructure and its operating environment for businesses.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli police arrested 10 suspects following a wave of settler violence that targeted a U.S. journalist and European diplomats and drew heavy criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Police did not identify who attacked the group, which had come to support Palestinians during the annual olive harvest. Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine was beaten Friday by a crowd of young male settlers while documenting the scene, leaving her with several broken ribs and vertebrae. Masked settlers attacked a group of European diplomats on Saturday. Rights groups say Palestinians have faced surging attacks that rarely lead to arrests or punishment. Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main rival in the Oct. 27 elections, called the violence “Jewish terror,” writing on X that “a handful of criminals is burning the last shreds of legitimacy left to the state of Israel.”

The United Kingdom’s top diplomat issued a direct warning to businesses: companies could be violating international law if they help build new Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where construction has surged under Netanyahu’s government. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the E1 settlement project approved by Israel, which would cut the West Bank in two, “is a direct threat to the prospect of a two-state solution.” The U.K. government has banned trade with Israeli settlements and created a mechanism to sanction companies that service them. Israel’s top diplomat responded that his country would not be “intimidated by threats.”

Iranian officials, meanwhile, struck a combative tone. Mohammad Mokhber, a conservative politician and adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said Iran would respond forcefully to any renewed U.S. attack and would strike “nine countries” if Iranian bases or petrochemical facilities were hit again. His recorded comments, posted by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency, did not name the countries. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, called for stronger cooperation with Russia after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Tehran, including joint economic projects such as the completion of transportation corridors. Lavrov condemned the U.S.-Israeli military attacks on Iran as illegal. President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking during the Lavrov meeting, said Iran has no “fundamental disagreements” with its neighbors and blamed U.S. interference and the presence of American military bases in the region for tensions and instability.

Also in Tehran on Monday, Iran summoned Germany’s ambassador over what it called baseless accusations, the same day Germany summoned Iran’s ambassador in Berlin following a court sentence for two men with ties to Iran’s intelligence service who plotted to kill the leader of a Jewish organization in Germany.

Separately, Israeli strikes on Gaza killed at least four people: three strikes hit Gaza City, killing at least two according to Shifa Hospital, and two 17-year-olds were killed in a strike on Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital. The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas fighters in the Gaza City attacks and did not comment on the other strike, more than a year after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal. Whether the truck deliveries resume without further interruption, and whether the U.K.’s sanctions mechanism draws corporate responses, remains to be seen.