Will halt $4b in aid to Israel: Trump

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the US is cutting off $4 billion in aid to Israel at the end of the year because “they don’t need it”. 
Trump, speaking to Fox News on the morning of Election Day, suggested that US aid to Israel has become a powerful political talking point for Democrats and questioned why Republicans should “suffer the slings” from candidates like Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed when Israel isn’t in need of assistance. 
“Israel no longer needs it and that some Democrats and left-wing politicians were using this US funding to Israel as a talking point to criticize Republicans,” he said.
Trump also said, “It’s a bad talking point because when you say, ‘Why don’t we give everybody $4 billion?’ Israel’s our number one; we give them more than anybody else, and they no longer need it.” 
"Now, as far as paying Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that we give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we're stopping," Trump told Fox News' Fox and Friends.
"We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel. Now we'll help Israel if they need it," he added.
The US provides Israel $3.8 billion of military aid a year under a 10-year memorandum of understanding that began in 2018. It is set to expire in 2028. Trump appears to be suggesting he would terminate it at the end of this year. 
Meanwhile, the US carried out "defensive" strikes on Iran's Qeshm island on the eve of Tuesday’s crucial midterm elections, with a US official saying the strikes targeted surface-to-air missiles used against US assets. Another official said the strikes appeared limited and did not signal a return to major combat operations.  
Iranian state media reported explosions being heard on the islands of Qeshm and Hengam in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, and in the nearby mainland area of Bandar Abbas. Unlike earlier in the war, the strikes were not publicly announced. 
Trump on Tuesday renewed threats of possible military action, telling Fox News Channel: "I'm not looking to kill lots of people. If we'll have to we'll have to."
Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that a return to war would benefit "no one", hours after reported US strikes on an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's chief negotiator in talks with the US, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said the Islamic republic was "ready for battle with its finger on the trigger", while deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Iran retained the right to "legitimate self-defence" after the strikes.
But Pezeshkian said his government was still trying to resolve the crisis "through dialogue", adding that "no one will benefit from this war" if it reignited, and emphasising that the country's supreme leader had recently granted the government new powers to negotiate issues previously "off-limits".
The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday it had intercepted a drone in the region of Mecca, Islam's holiest city, as the Houthis reported 17 people killed in Yemen over two days.
Saudi Arabia has accused the Houthis several times of targeting Mecca and Medina, another holy city, accusations the Iran-backed fighters systematically reject.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree denied that they had carried out any attacks on Saudi territory on Tuesday, calling the Saudi statement "a slanderous and recycled lie".
The Houthis said on Tuesday that Saudi strikes had killed 17 civilians over two days this week.
An India-flagged cargo vessel was struck by an "unidentified aerial object" off Oman, killing one Indian crew member, New Delhi said Tuesday.
Indian Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the tanker MSV Al Jusufi had 14 Indian seafarers on board when it was attacked.