Israel continues to attack Gaza, with at least three airstrikes on Gaza on Wednesday. The UN says Israel is blocking vaccines and baby bottles. More than 1,500 buildings beyond the “yellow line” have been destroyed. Settlers set fire to vehicles, including dairy trucks, in West Bank villages. Israel’s Parliament advances the “Al Jazeera Law” aimed at curtailing access for unfavorable journalism in its territories. A 13-year-old boy dies one month after being hospitalized in an Israeli tear gas attack on olive harvest. The U.S. House is set to vote on a bill to reopen the government, restore some funding, jobs, and pay. A major corporate landlord in the U.S. is owned by a large Israeli company that profits from West Bank settlements. Israel is building a massive concrete wall kilometers inside of Lebanon. The USS Gerald R. Ford arrives in the Caribbean, while the UK and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro adjust their intelligence sharing with an increasingly belligerent United States. Russia pushes further into eastern Ukraine. Six Maoist rebels were killed in India as the government tries to end the Naxalite insurgency. A UN migrant organization says it is becoming unable to deliver aid in North Darfur.
This is Drop Site Daily, our new, free daily news recap. We send it Monday through Friday.
The United States Capitol building in Washington D.C. The US Senate passed legislation Monday to end the longest-ever government shutdown and sent it to the House of Representatives for final approval, which is now in its 42nd day (Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images).
The Genocide in Gaza
Israel continued to attack Gaza on Wednesday despite the U.S. brokered ceasefire, with at least three airstrikes on Beit Lahia, shelling in areas east of the Jabaliya refugee camp, and shooting east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.
In the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported 3 bodies recovered from the rubble, and 4 others were wounded and taken to hospitals. This brings the recorded death toll from the Israeli genocide in Gaza to 69,185 and 170,698 injuries.
Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 245 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 627, while 532 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health.
UNICEF says that Israel is blocking the medical supplies necessary to carry out its childhood vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip, including 1.6 million syringes and nearly 1 million baby bottles, it tells Al Jazeera. The campaign intended to vaccinate the roughly 40,000 children who missed routine vaccinations during the war. The syringes have been stuck in Israeli customs since August, with Israel labeling them “dual-use” items that could have military applications.
The Israeli military announced on Wednesday that it opened the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza for the entry of humanitarian aid. Since the ceasefire went into effect on October 10, Israel has severely restricted the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza—where a famine was declared in summer—in violation of the agreement.
Israel has destroyed more than 1,500 buildings in areas behind the “yellow line” that Israeli forces withdrew to after the ceasefire went into effect a month ago, according to satellite images reviewed by the BBC. The photos show that entire neighborhoods have been razed in less than a month, including in areas where buildings did not appear to be damaged prior to being destroyed. Targeted areas include Abasan Al-Kabira in eastern Khan Younis, Al-Bayuk, east of the city of Rafah, as well in the eastern neighbourhood of Shejaiya in Gaza City, and near the Indonesian hospital on the edge of the Jabaliya refugee camp. The BBC reports the actual number of destroyed buildings could be significantly higher.
The next stage of President Donald Trump’s plan, creating a transitional authority and multinational security force in Gaza, is frozen according to Reuters. Ten diplomats said no state will send troops if the mission goes beyond peacekeeping, while some argue that Washington is letting Israel dictate the terms of the ceasefire. Hamas refuses to disarm under occupation, Israel rejects any Palestinian Authority role, and no government has agreed to participate in the disarmament of Palestinian resistance groups.
West Bank and Israel
Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf on Tuesday, setting fire to vehicles, farmland, tents, and other property, while wounding four Palestinians. In a rare move, Israeli police clashed with the settlers and arrested four Israelis in what it described as “extremist violence.”
Israeli soldiers shot a young Palestinian man during a raid Tuesday evening on the village of Aqaba, near Tubas, according to Al Araby. Troops used live ammunition and sound bombs during the operation. The wounded man was evacuated by the Red Crescent to a nearby hospital.
Israeli forces have issued a military order to seize and confiscate more than 38 dunams (more than nine acres) in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa.
13-year-old Palestinian boy Aysam Jihad Labib Naser died on Tuesday one month after Israeli forces attacked his family while they were harvesting olives, according to Defense for Children International - Palestine. Aysam Jihad Labib Naser, 13, was harvesting olives with his family around 10 a.m. on October 11 in the Wadi Aziz area on Jabal Qamas in Beita, south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, when Israeli soldiers heavily bombarded the area with tear gas and fired several tear gas canisters toward Aysam, causing him to choke severely and collapse. Aysam was resuscitated and hospitalized where he remained in critical condition until he died on Tuesday afternoon.
Israel’s parliament on Monday approved the first reading of a bill expanding the so-called “Al Jazeera Law,” allowing the government to shut down foreign media outlets without court approval, according to Haaretz. The measure, passed 50–41, would let the communications minister and prime minister close any outlet deemed a “security threat,” a move legal advisers warn could be unconstitutional for removing judicial oversight.
Far-right Israelis attacked Arab lawmaker Ayman Odeh during a town-hall style meeting at a home in the northern Israeli town of Pardes Hanna, according to a reporter from Israel’s N12. Video of the attack shows a mob banging on his car and throwing stones as he leaves the event. Police were present but made no arrests. Odeh said the attack reflected “the fascism raging in this country under the current government,” and vowed that Jews and Arabs would stand together to defeat it.
The group of soldiers accused of gangraping a detainee at Sde Teiman prison received a standing ovation on Tuesday from an audience at the Israeli Supreme Court. “We are all force 100,” they chanted, referring to the unit allegedly responsible for the atrocities.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Tuesday and met with President Felix Tshisekedi. They announced plans to upgrade bilateral relations and discussed diplomatic bodies. Israel applauded the DRC’s upcoming tenure in the Security Council, and thanked the DRC for continuing to support its observer status in the African Union. Herzog also used the opportunity to chide the world for not focusing enough on “major humanitarian crises in Africa,” and instead focusing “obsessively on Israel.”
France and the Palestinian Authority will form a joint committee to “consolidate the state of Palestine,” including finalizing a new constitution, after Mahmoud Abbas presented a draft to President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, according to The Times of Israel. Macron added that France would contribute 100 million euros ($116.62 million) in humanitarian aid to Gaza for 2025. Abbas responded to the developments with the following: “We are committed to a culture of dialogue and peace, and we want a democratic, unarmed state committed to the rule of law, transparency, justice, pluralism, and the rotation of power.”
Israeli attorney Ben Marmarelli says his Palestinian clients show “clear signs of rape and torture,” including men walking with difficulty, covered in bruises and blood, their eyes swollen and blindfolded. In a Facebook post, he described detainees “forced to lie on the floor with faces to the wall, 24 hours a day without light, bedding, or toilets.” Marmarelli said one client “gets a broomstick up his ass every time he has a lawyer visit.” After he filed complaints, Israel’s Prison Service retaliated, submitting a grievance to the Israeli Bar Association accusing him of “incitement.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog received a letter from President Trump on Wednesday urging him to consider granting a pardon to Prime Minister Netanyahu, according to a statement by Herzog’s office. “While I absolutely respect the independence of the Israeli Justice System, and its requirements, I believe that this ‘case’ against Bibi, who has fought alongside me for a long time, including against the very tough adversary of Israel, Iran, is a political, unjustified prosecution,” Trump wrote in the letter. Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in three separate corruption cases and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
U.S. News
The House is set to return to session after a 54-day hiatus today, with legislation to end the government shutdown on the docket. The bill already passed the Senate and has President Trump’s support. If passed, the bill would fund the government through January 30; cover spending for some agricultural programs, veterans’ agencies, military construction, and the legislature itself; and would also restore the jobs of federal employees fired or furloughed during the shutdown.
Katie Wilson pulled ahead of incumbent Bruce Harrell by about 1,300 votes in a close race to become Seattle’s next mayor, The Seattle Times reported. A co-founder of the Transit Riders Union, Wilson is campaigning on building 4,000 new shelter units and expanding non-police public safety programs.
Fourteen liberal Jewish groups—including two affiliate organizations of IfNotNow, J Street NYC, The Temenos Center for the Arts, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice—condemned the ADL’s attacks on mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as Islamophobic and racist. In a statement, they urged, “Jewish institutions to work in good faith with the new administration to advance efforts that address all forms of hatred and bigotry.”
A legal office at the White House has decided to redefine the word “earnings,” which might bankrupt the already largely gutted and dormant Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), according to a report from The American Prospect. More can be read here.
Senators inserted language into this week’s emergency spending bill that eliminates rules designed to prevent food contamination and foodborne illnesses at farms and restaurants, according to a new report from The Lever. Industry lobbies have spent millions petitioning federal regulators, as hospitalizations and deaths attributable to food-borne illnesses have risen steeply, with over 53,000 annual hospitalizations and nearly 1,000 deaths. Read the full report from The Lever here.
American Landmark—a major corporate landlord in the U.S., with roughly 34,000 units concentrated in 111 mega-complexes—is tied to Elco, one of Israel’s largest corporations, as revealed by new reporting at The Nation. Elco has a majority ownership stake in the real estate company. American Landmark has also been repeatedly caught in predatory real estate practices—from steep rent increases to unannounced fees—precipitating evictions. Elco has deep ties to the Israeli military and to the settlement apparatus in the West Bank, profiting off of tunnels for travel into the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, for example, and operating gas and bus companies in the settlements themselves. Read the full report here.
International News
Israeli forces have begun constructing a massive concrete wall inside southern Lebanon, according to a report from The New Arab on Tuesday. The wall, whose construction Israeli media confirmed, is two kilometers into Lebanese territory. Israel says that the wall’s location is one of five “strategic sites” of occupation along the Blue Line—the temporary boundary the UN drew after Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2006. Israel has continued to occupy five sites in southern Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire agreement signed last year and has conducted near daily airstrikes and raids.
The USS Gerald R. Ford has arrived in the Caribbean sea “under the responsibility of U.S. Southern Command,” the U.S. Navy announced. The Gerald R. Ford joins warships, a nuclear-powered submarine, and aircraft based in Puerto Rico constituting the largest American military presence in the region in decades—likely tied to a broader push for regime change in Venezuela.
The UK halted intelligence sharing with the United States on suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean, in what CNN reported as a major break between the two allies. British officials fear their intelligence could be used to select targets for the U.S. military’s drone and missile strikes, which have killed at least 76 people since September. The UK believes the attacks are illegal under international law and reportedly shares the UN human rights chief Volker Türk’s view that they amount to extrajudicial killings. Canada has also reportedly distanced itself in the past month, maintaining cooperation with the U.S. Coast Guard, while warning Washington that its intelligence must not be used for lethal targeting.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered security forces to halt intelligence sharing with U.S. agencies until Washington ceases its attacks on boats in the Caribbean, Reuters reported.
Russia’s military pushed further into the eastern Ukrainian cities of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk, according to Reuters, which shared a video depicting Russian soldiers rolling into Pokrovsk on motorbikes. Russia claimed that taking Pokrovsk is critical to its plans to wrest control of the entire Donbas from Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that recent developments have been “difficult,” while Zelenskyy’s commander, Oleksandr Syrski, says their military position has “significantly worsened.”
The UN’s International Organization for Migration reported severe stress on its operations in the North Darfur region of Sudan, where it said its delivery of aid is at risk of coming to a complete halt unless immediate funding is secured and supplies can be safely delivered, per a report from the Associated Press. “Warehouses are nearly empty,” it said in a statement, and “aid convoys face significant insecurity, and access restrictions continue to prevent the delivery of sufficient aid.” The recent military seizure of El-Fasher by the RSF left hundreds dead and forced tens of thousands to flee amid reported atrocities by the paramilitary group, according to aid organizations and UN officials.
Indian security forces have killed six Maoist rebels in a firefight in the Bijapur district of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, according to AFP. This comes only two months after the Naxalite rebels declared an end to their insurgency and their intention to negotiate with the Indian government aiming to root out the insurgency entirely by next March.
Australia and Indonesia have announced that they have reached an agreement to sign a landmark treaty in January that will commit them to joint responses to security threats. The treaty comes amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region with China and a growing military buildup in the region. Announcing the agreement alongside Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described it as a “watershed” moment in bilateral ties between the two countries and for the ASEAN region more broadly.
More From Drop Site
Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain Appeared on Democracy Now!: Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain have been publishing a running series at Drop Site on Jeffrey Epstein’s close ties to Israeli intelligence and Israel’s Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. On Wednesday morning, Hussain appeared on Democracy Now! to talk about the latest on Yoni Koren, an Israeli military intelligence officer and Barak’s aide, who stayed at Epstein’s Manhattan apartment on multiple occasions and appears to have coordinated business transactions with Epstein. The interview aired as House Democrats released a new batch of emails, including correspondence between sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his former companion Ghislaine Maxwell saying that an alleged victim had “spent hours at my house” with President Trump. During his appearance on Democracy Now! Hussain said that “This is stuff that the media could be covering … Epstein was helping Barak facilitate Israeli interests around the world.” Watch here.
Highlights from Tuesday’s Drop Site Livestream
“The Genocide Hasn’t Stopped”: Our Sharif Abdel Kouddous provides an overview of the state of affairs in Gaza and the West Bank, including repeated ceasefire violations, the persistence of famine and blockades, and the escalating violence by settlers in the West Bank. “The genocide in Gaza is continuing,” Sharif notes. “It has slowed with the so-called ceasefire, but it has not stopped.” Watch here.
“They Want to Terrify Palestinians—Then Steal Their Land”: Palestinian-Canadian lawyer Diana Buttu argues that the recent surge in settler attacks is part of a broader project by the Israeli state to seize Palestinian land permanently. “They start going after the farmlands… then set up these outposts backed by the Israeli army. And after they set up these outposts, they’re fortified, given electricity, and from that we see an Israeli settlement go up.” Watch this portion here.
“Every Released Palestinian Has Spoken of Torture, Starvation, or Medical Neglect”: Buttu also describes the torture regime that is being unmasked by the testimonies of recently released Palestinian captives. She discusses how hundreds of bodies returned from Sde Teiman show signs of torture and execution — “hands tied behind their backs, blindfolded, ropes around necks, and tank tracks over their legs,” and Kouddous adds a description from a gang-rape at Sde Teiman, a video of which has sparked controversy in Israel – primarily around its leaker, who as a result of her whistleblowing was detained herself. Watch here.
“Jeffrey Epstein: Israel’s “Freelance Diplomat”: Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain debuts our latest reporting on the Epstein saga, including his work on behalf of the Israeli government in Côte d’Ivoire and Syria, as well as brand new reporting about his relationship with an Israeli military-intelligence officer. Epstein, Hussain says, was a “freelance diplomat for Israeli interests.” Watch this section of the livestream here.
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