Day 234 brief — Israel names regime removal as the objective, Cairo approves a deployment, and Tehran puts a dated Hormuz reopening back on the table

Israel's declared objective changed. Netanyahu said he had instructed Israel's security agencies to pursue bringing down the Islamic Republic, told i24News the threat "is like cancer" that returns unless the regime is removed, and pledged in a Likud video to eliminate the Iranian threat within two years or sooner — eight days before the 27 October vote and hours after Trump issued a "Complete and Total Endorsement" of him, writing "BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!" Netanyahu replied: "Together we will complete the mission!" Egypt moved in the same cycle from pre-authorisation to approval: the National Defence Council approved a defensive deployment to Saudi Arabia, the presidency pledged "all necessary and possible forms of support", and the parliamentary vote was postponed to Monday. Iran's parliament confirmed Mehrdad Akhlaghi Ketabchi — head of the Defence Industries Organisation since 2013, under UN, US and EU sanctions — as defence minister; he said US troops would be carried out "in a horizontal position" if Washington drops "a single bomb". Against that, Abbas Araghchi said Iran's seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, submitted through Qatar, "remains on the table", the strait opening on day six and talks on day seven, and said the decision now rests with Washington. Trump said instead that the United States could "soon finish the job". A projectile struck a residential area in Najran injuring six; a Saudi National Guard helicopter crashed there killing two officers, which the Houthis claim as a shoot-down; and the Houthi-run Saba said a Saudi strike on a Saada home killed nine. King Khalid airport reopened and most carriers did not. Direction holds escalating; the thirty-day probability holds at 5.