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Photo: NASA MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Satellite file photo of the Strait of Hormuz and Qeshm Island, December 2020, not a photo of Monday's explosions.
The United States struck Iran's Qeshm Island on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials, in the latest sign that Washington's eight-month-old war with Iran is continuing in smaller, quieter operations even as President Donald Trump publicly talks up the chances of a deal.
The report followed several explosions on Qeshm Island, which sits in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media outlet IRNA. The Journal said the strike was part of a series of limited attacks carried out by Washington in recent weeks, deliberately kept small and secret so as not to signal a return to a major military campaign against Iran. US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What was reported, and what is confirmed
The confirmed core of Monday's story is narrow, and the distinction matters. IRNA reported explosions on Qeshm Island, with other Iranian outlets reporting five blasts in quick succession and further blasts near Bandar Lengeh, further west along the coast. Residents were reported to have seen two aircraft over the island. No Iranian authority has publicly confirmed the cause of the explosions, any target, or any casualties.
The claim that the explosions were a US strike comes from the Wall Street Journal, citing US officials, and from Israeli broadcaster N12, which reported that a US strike hit an air defence system on the island. Neither account has been independently verified, and no official US confirmation has been published. The Journal's account should therefore be treated as a well-sourced report, not as an announced US operation.
Separately, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed on Monday that it had shot down three US drones near the Strait of Hormuz, including an MQ-9 and two MQM-170 reconnaissance aircraft. US Central Command has dismissed at least part of Iran's drone claims as false, and the Pentagon has not confirmed the drone losses. Any link between the drone claims and the Qeshm explosions is unknown.
Why Qeshm Island matters
Qeshm is Iran's largest island and one of the most strategically sensitive pieces of land in the Gulf. It lies in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman through which about a fifth of the world's oil moves. Control of, or pressure on, the strait has been central to the war since it began on February 28, with shipping attacks, a US naval blockade, and repeated threats to close or reopen the route shaping both the fighting and the diplomacy.
That is why even a limited strike there carries weight beyond its size. A small attack on an air defence system, if confirmed, would show Washington still using force to shape the battlefield while negotiators talk. It would also raise the risk of Iranian retaliation against Gulf energy infrastructure and US bases in the region, the outcome Gulf governments have warned about most consistently since the war began.
Trump's very different message on Monday
The strike report landed hours after Trump himself sounded a strikingly different note. Asked by reporters on Monday whether he was considering striking Iran after Tuesday's midterm elections, he replied "no." After a speech at the Washington Reflecting Pool, billed as his closing argument before the midterms, he said he believed Iran wanted to make a deal and that such an agreement "could happen."
Trump stressed that his bottom-line demand had not changed: Iran must not possess a nuclear weapon. "We're not going to allow Iran ever to have a nuclear weapon, and they understand that," he said. Vice President JD Vance said there had been "a number of good conversations with the Iranians" and that he and Trump felt "pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement."
The contrast is not necessarily a contradiction. Trump has in recent weeks hinted at renewing major attacks after the midterms, while also saying he is in no hurry and wants to give diplomacy more time. Iranian negotiators spent a third consecutive day in Doha on Sunday with Qatari mediators, and Tehran has said a deal is possible if Washington demonstrates goodwill, while insisting the US lift its naval blockade and meet its demands in full.
What happens next
Three questions will decide the coming days. First, whether Washington confirms, denies, or stays silent on the Qeshm report, and whether Tehran issues its own account of what exploded. Second, whether the Doha talks produce a follow-up meeting or a concrete proposal on reopening the strait. Third, whether Tuesday's midterm results change Trump's political room to either escalate or settle — high gasoline prices, driven in part by the war, have been weighing on Republican candidates, and Trump has acknowledged the election may not go well for his party.
For now, the facts that can be stated plainly are these: explosions were reported on Qeshm Island on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing US officials, that the US struck the island, and Trump said on the same day that he was not considering strikes after the midterms and that a deal could happen. Everything beyond that — the target, the damage, and whether this was a one-off or the start of something larger — remains unconfirmed.
Sources: Reuters, November 3, 2026 (Wall Street Journal report and IRNA explosions); Reuters, November 2, 2026 (Trump remarks); Al Jazeera, November 3, 2026; Times Now and The Hindu Business Line, November 3, 2026 (IRNA blast reports and IRGC drone claims). The US strike is as reported by the Wall Street Journal citing US officials and has not been confirmed by US Central Command; the IRGC drone claims are unverified and partly disputed by the US military.