Israel continues attacks on Gaza with airstrikes, artillery fire, and shootings. UNICEF says Israel has killed an average of almost two children every day in Gaza since the “ceasefire” went into effect on October 10. Israeli troops shoot dead two Palestinian teenagers in Kafr Aqab, East Jerusalem. Human Rights Watch concludes that Israel’s forced displacement of 32,000 Palestinians from three West Bank refugee camps earlier this year amounts to a war crime. Netanyahu says Rafah crossing will only open for exits after Israel receives remaining bodies of captives. U.S. Coast Guard to stop classifying the swastika as a hate symbol. Judge lifts injunction on Trump administration’s immigration enforcement in Chicago. Listeria regulations are softened in the shutdown bill, The Lever reports. U.S. and Russia jointly draft a Ukraine deal that gives Russia land in the Donbas, prevents Ukraine from joining NATO, and eases sanctions. Darfur governor says over 27,000 people were killed in just three days after the Rapid Support Forces captured El-Fasher last month. 89 killed in an attack by Islamic State-linked rebels in the Congo.
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An inscription on the wall of a building in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine reads “Yesterday: give them Crimea already, they only need it. Today: give them Donbas already, they only need it. Tomorrow: give them Odesa already.” U.S. and Russia jointly drafted a Ukraine deal that gives Russia land in the Donbas, prevents Ukraine from joining NATO, and eases sanctions (Photo by Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images).
The Genocide in Gaza
The Israeli military continued attacks across Gaza on Friday with airstrikes and artillery fire in Khan Younis, the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza, and in the southern city of Rafah, according to Al Jazeera. At least one person was killed south of Khan Younis and four children were injured in an Israeli drone attack in Beit Lahia in the north, according to the Wafa news agency.
At least 67 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect on October 10, according to UNICEF—an average of almost two children killed every day.
The Israeli military claimed on Friday to have killed five fighters who emerged from a tunnel in Rafah in an area under its control. Dozens of Hamas fighters remain trapped in Rafah’s tunnel network. Israeli media says its army has carried out “assassination operations” in the Al-Jeninah tunnels, severed most passageways to Gaza City, and is now facing a standoff that could delay the next phase of the Gaza agreement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will not allow the fighters to cross back into Hamas-controlled areas, while the Trump administration is reportedly tying any resolution to talks on expelling Hamas’ leadership from Gaza. Proposals to resolve this standoff range from safe passage west of the Yellow Line to disarmament of the troops via Egypt, though Hamas rejects any terms it views as tantamount to surrender.
Israel confirmed it abducted senior Gaza health official Marwan al-Hams in July, claiming—without evidence—that he knew the location of Lieutenant Hadar’s burial in a Rafah tunnel. Reuters and Gaza’s Health Ministry say al-Hams was seized by an undercover unit on July 21.
West Bank and Israel
Israeli troops killed two Palestinian teenagers during an overnight raid in the Kafr Aqab neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Wafa news agency. Israeli forces deployed to the streets and building rooftops before opening fire. Sami Ibrahim Mashaikha, 16, and Amr Khaled Al-Marboua, 18, were both struck and later died of their wounds.
Israeli settlers continued a wave of attacks in the occupied West Bank on Friday, setting fire to properties in Huwara and Abu Falah, near Nablus. Israeli troops reportedly detained Palestinian journalist Hisham Abu Shaqra, a photographer for Anadolu Agency, while he was covering the settler attack on Huwara. Israeli troops also raided homes and made arrests in towns and villages near Tulkarem and Salfit.
Israel plans to seize large parts of Sebastia, a major historic site in the West Bank, according to a government document obtained by the Associated Press. The anti-settlement group Peace Now, which provided the document to AP, said the site is around 1,800 dunams (450 acres) and is on Palestinian land where thousands of olive trees grow. It would mark Israel’s largest ever seizure of archeologically important land.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an interview to Abu Ali Express, in which he said the U.S has assured him it will maintain Israel’s “qualitative military edge” in the wake of a recent announcement that the U.S. would begin selling F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu added that he strongly opposes any sale of F-35s to Turkey. He also suggested the “intense phase” of the Gaza war is over, but said that Israel can resume large-scale fighting “on any front.” He insisted that he would travel to New York, despite mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promise to arrest him under the ICC’s warrant. He added that there would be no Palestinian state, even if it jeopardizes normalization with Saudi Arabia, and he said that the Rafah crossing will only open for exits after Israel retrieves the bodies of its missing captives.
Human Rights Watch published a 105-page report titled “All My Dreams Have Been Erased” that concludes the Israeli government’s forced displacement of the populations of three refugee camps in the West Bank in January and February amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report details “Operation Iron Wall,” an Israeli military operation across Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps that began on January 21, 2025—days after a temporary ceasefire was announced in Gaza. The 32,000 people displaced have not been permitted to return to their homes. Satellite imagery verified that more than 850 buildings have been demolished or heavily damaged. The group called on senior Israeli officials to be investigated for war crimes and crimes against humanity over the operations. Read the report in full here.
Israel has responded to U.S. pressure to release imprisoned American citizen Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim—and to reports that his health is collapsing—by “hardening its line,” according to Drop Site contributor Jasper Nathaniel. A recent statement falsely accused him of committing a “potentially deadly crime.” Officials are now signaling they intend to keep him in custody, a grim turn given his condition as reported by a U.S. embassy employee earlier this week.
U.S. News
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that he would introduce a resolution yesterday “rejecting Nick Fuentes and his white supremacist views, condemning Tucker Carlson’s platforming of hate, and condemning antisemitism and white supremacy.” Schumer said he is seeking bipartisan support for the measure.
After mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani publicly and privately moved against his campaign, City Council Member Chi Ossé urged Democratic Socialists of America to endorse his primary challenge against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, saying “the national leader of the Democratic Party could be anywhere in America—right now, it’s a man whose millions from AIPAC become billions for bombs.” Ossé cited more than $150,000 raised and 1,000 volunteers already committed, arguing the left has “an obligation of circumstance” to “try.”
The U.S. Coast Guard will stop classifying the swastika—an emblem of fascism and white supremacy historically tied to the murder of millions of Jews—as a hate symbol under a new policy taking effect next month. Instead, the service will label the Nazi-era insignia as “potentially divisive” under revised guidelines.
Former Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers and his wife, Elisa F. New, spent their honeymoon on financier Jeffrey E. Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean—the center of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation— as confirmed by Steven Goldberg, a spokesperson for Summers, in a statement to The Harvard Crimson.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing yesterday claiming Honduras’s upcoming election is at risk of being stolen by the left-wing LIBRE Party, with Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar casting the election as “democracy vs. socialism,” Center for Economic and Policy Research reported. The figures sounding the alarms now include many who backed Honduras’s actual election fraud in 2017, when the Trump administration recognized Juan Orlando Hernández, despite evidence of rigging so severe that the Organization of American States (OAS) refused to certify the results. Today’s witnesses include former OAS Ambassador Carlos Trujillo, whose lobbying firm now represents clients tied to the Honduran right, such as those associated with the libertarian “private city” Próspera.
A federal appeals court granted the Trump administration’s request to temporarily block a judge’s order requiring the release of hundreds of people arrested by immigration agents in the Chicago area. Judge Jeffrey Cummings had ordered most of the 615 detainees freed on bond after finding many arrests violated a consent decree limiting warrantless detentions. The decision comes amid extensive evidence documenting the use of force by immigration officials and reports of horrific conditions in ICE facilities.
After the Senate dropped provisions weakening food safety rules from its shutdown-ending spending bill, the House introduced new language that would temporarily bar states from regulating which foods can be labeled “healthy” and pause new listeria regulations for “low-risk,” ready-to-eat products. This move follows a multimillion-dollar lobbying push from major food companies and trade groups. The bill would block states from imposing stricter “healthy” labeling rules until 2028 and delay new federal guidance despite recent listeria outbreaks tied to foods regulators often classify as low risk. Read more at The Lever here.
Paramount Skydance, Netflix, and Comcast on Thursday formally submitted bids to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes cable channels like CNN, TBS, and HBO. According to the Guardian, senior White House officials favor Paramount’s bid and one official discussed potential programming changes at CNN with Larry Ellison, the largest shareholder of Paramount, including firing CNN hosts criticized by Donald Trump such as Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar.
International News
A draft plan to end the Ukraine war would hand Russia control of the entire Donbas, bar Ukraine from NATO, limit the size of its military, ease sanctions, and return Moscow to the G8, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by the Associated Press that was co-written by the United States and Russia and discussed Thursday with a U.S. representative. The deal would grant Russia territory it has not yet captured in exchange for a pledge of no future attacks and would release $100 billion in frozen assets for reconstruction. Kyiv says ceding any land is unconstitutional and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected such terms. Zelenskyy said, in a speech on Friday, that Ukraine now faces “one of the most difficult moments in our history,” describing pressure on Kyiv as “one of the heaviest.”
Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels killed at least 89 civilians—including at least 20 women and an undetermined number of children—in a series of attacks across eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province between November 13 and 19, according to Reuters’s reporting and the UN. The atrocities include burning a Catholic health center in Byambwe and killing women who had arrived for maternity care. The UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo urged Congolese authorities to launch independent investigations, as ADF attacks persist despite joint Congolese-Ugandan military operations. Other parts of North Kivu remain controlled by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels amid ongoing mediation efforts led by the United States and Qatar.
The governor of Darfur, Minni Arkou Minnawi, said in public comments that 27,000 people were killed in just three days after the RSF captured El-Fasher late last month—a massive increase compared with earlier estimates of about 2,500 deaths. The city had been under siege for more than 550 days, and since its fall, reports of large-scale massacres have surged, with aid workers warning that unusually few civilians have managed to flee despite the scale of violence.
A domestically-built Indian Tejas fighter jet crashed during an aerobatic display at the Dubai Air Show, killing the pilot after the aircraft lost control during a low-altitude maneuver and burst into flames. The crash occurred around mid-afternoon and prompted an immediate suspension of the show as emergency crews responded. Indian authorities have announced a formal investigation to determine whether mechanical failure, pilot error, or aerodynamic factors were to blame.
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian warned that Tehran is becoming ecologically unsustainable, saying the country now has “no choice” but to relocate its capital due to extreme strain on water, land, and infrastructure. Speaking in Qazvin, Iran, he said parts of Tehran are sinking by up to 30 centimeters a year as water supplies dry up and mismanagement and upstream construction worsen the crisis. He called the situation a looming “catastrophe” and said moving the capital has become an unavoidable obligation despite limited government funds.
At least 47 people were arrested outside the Ministry of Justice in London on Thursday during a protest in support of Palestine Action. More than 2,000 people have been arrested since the House of Commons voted in July to proscribe Palestine Action under Britain’s anti-terrorism laws. Read a recent Drop Site profile on Palestine Action here.
More From Drop Site
Dispatch from Gaza: Israeli airstrikes late Wednesday and early Thursday killed more than 30 Palestinians—most of them women and children—and wounded dozens in Gaza City and Khan Younis, marking one of the deadliest assaults since last month’s ceasefire. Bodies arrived at Al-Ahli and Al-Shifa hospitals in continuous waves as officials described the attacks on the Strip as “a horrific massacre.” Israel claimed without evidence that Hamas fighters had fired on its troops, while Hamas condemned the strikes as a “dangerous escalation,” which came just two days after the UN Security Council approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution authorizing an international stabilization force chaired by President Donald Trump. Read the latest by Abdel Qader Sabbah and Sharif Abdel Kouddous here.
New from Drop Site: “Modi on board”—Jeffrey Epstein Pressed Steve Bannon to Meet With Indian PM Shortly Before His Death
Jeffrey Epstein offered to set up a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in mid-2019, less than two months before his arrest, according to a review of documents released by the U.S. House Oversight Committee. The documents, which reveal previously unknown details about the depth of Epstein’s relationships with high-profile Indian political and business figures in the years prior to his death. Epstein had close ties with powerful figures in the Israeli intelligence establishment, and his high-level interactions on India also came at a time when the bilateral relationship between New Delhi and Tel Aviv was beginning to accelerate. Read the full story here.
Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill made an appearance on The Majority Report, where he discussed our recent reporting on Epstein and Gaza. His full appearance can be watched here.
Drop Site’s Ryan Grim joined Tavis Smiley on his KBLA radio show yesterday. His full appearance can be watched here.
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