Israel strikes southern Gaza. U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff expected to meet Hamas’s chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, in Istanbul. Israeli troops round up 200 Palestinians in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar. Congress votes to declassify the Epstein files. The Trump administration authorizes covert CIA action in Venezuela, intending to boot President Nicolás Maduro and take as much oil as possible. Trump lavishes Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with praise, attacks reporters, and gives Saudi Arabia a non-member NATO affiliation. A West African woman deported from the U.S. to Ghana commits suicide in custody. Israel continues attacks on Lebanon, killing 13 in airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Saida, in the deadliest strike since a “ceasefire” last year. Jihadist militants kill 9 in a raid on a town in Nigeria’s northeast. Pakistani forces kill 38 in a series of raids across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sisters are reportedly detained after a protest. Filipino President denies his senatorial sister’s allegations that he is a cocaine addict. This is Drop Site Daily, our new, free daily news recap. We send it Monday through Friday.
Those injured and killed in the Israeli military’s airstrike on the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp seen taken to hospitals in Saida, southern Lebanon, on November 18, 2025. At least 13 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the refugee camp (Photo by Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images). Israel launched new air strikes across southern Gaza on Wednesday, targeting areas in Rafah and Khan Younis, as well as earlier strikes hitting eastern Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera. At least one person was killed and a woman and a child wounded. The bodies of seven Palestinians arrived at hospitals in Gaza over the past 48 hours, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, including five killed in new Israeli attacks and two recovered from under the rubble. At least 33 Palestinians were wounded. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 69,513 killed, with 170,745 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 280 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 672, while 571 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health. Israel has carried out 393 attacks so far in violation of the ceasefire, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza. In addition to killing 280 Palestinians and wounding over 600, he office documented over 100 shooting incidents by the Israeli military targeting civilians, homes, residential neighborhoods, and displaced persons’ tents; incursions by occupation vehicles into residential and agricultural areas, crossing the “yellow line;” over 80 demolitions of homes and civilian and civilian infrastructure; and scores of shellings and airstrikes. An estimated 17,000 families in Gaza have been directly affected by flooding and heavy winter rains, according to UNICEF, which described the situation for families and children as “catastrophic.” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said at a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday: “We are seeing heartbreaking stories of desperate families feeling completely lost and exhausted after their tents got flooded.” He added, “When children are sleeping in flooded tents without warm clothing, or dry bedding—many lacking the required nutrition with very low immunity and already traumatized by conflict—winter becomes extremely dangerous.” U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet Hamas’s chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss the Gaza ceasefire, according to the Times of Israel. Asked about the reported meeting by Al Jazeera, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group has not commented publicly: “It was reported in the media… If there is something meaningful, we will address it when appropriate.” Asked whether Hamas opposes direct talks with U.S. officials, Hamdan replied, “We have never refused meetings with any party except the Israeli occupation… Meeting an American official to defend our people’s rights is natural. We simply don’t comment on media reports unless there is something concrete.” Hamdan said that the movement had been in direct contact with China, Russia, and “most Security Council members” as part of a diplomatic push to block the U.S.-sponsored resolution for an international force in Gaza. He said Hamas and other factions sent detailed memoranda warning that the plan would “impose guardianship” on Gaza, neuter Palestinian institutions, and fail to protect civilians from renewed Israeli attacks. Hamdan added that the group attempted to include Arab and Islamic nations and urged them to back an alternative framework grounded in Palestinian sovereignty and the protection of Palestinian civilians.
The Israeli military detained at least 200 Palestinians in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, after troops raided the area overnight and sealed all of the town’s entrances, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said that the “extensive” field interrogations were marked by harassment, beatings, and destruction of property. Overnight Israeli raids also hit the areas around Jenin, Bethlehem, and Tubas. Israeli forces reportedly shot and wounded a 14-year-old boy in al-Yamoun, according to Al Jazeera. A report from Samidoun says that the imprisoned Palestinian leader Abdullah Barghouti, serving 67 life sentences in Israel’s Gilboa Prison, has faced years of torture, prolonged isolation, starvation, untreated fractures, infections, and has lost more than 77 pounds. Guards in his prison have allegedly employed dogs and electric shocks to torture him and exposed him to scabies. Rights groups warn he is among several high-profile detainees facing escalating abuse, as at least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October 2023.
President Trump authorized CIA planning for covert operations in Venezuela, while reopening secret backchannel talks with President Nicolás Maduro, according to a new report from the New York Times. Those briefed on the discussions say Maduro raised the possibility of stepping down after a two-to-three-year transition, which the White House rejected. The administration has reportedly been planning either a negotiated exit for Maduro or a forced removal, and Washington has weighed plans to secure increased U.S. access to Venezuelan oil. Congress overwhelmingly approved a bill requiring the Justice Department to release all unclassified records on Jeffrey Epstein after a 427–1 House vote, as Republican Rep. Clay Higgins casted the lone vote in opposition. The Senate unanimously agreed to approve the Epstein files bill, sending the bill to President Trump to sign into law. President Trump had previously dismissed the focus on the files as a “hoax.” The bipartisan push—led by Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, and backed by Epstein’s accusers—forces federal disclosure unless the information is tied up in ongoing investigations, with the Justice Department reportedly withholding some documents that purport to risk “national security.” When an ABC News correspondent pressed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the CIA’s assessment that he ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s killing, Trump defended bin Salman and said Khashoggi was “extremely controversial,” and claimed that the Crown Prince “knew nothing about it.” MBS called the murder “painful” and a “huge mistake,” and he said that bin Laden “used Saudi people in 9/11 to destroy the U.S.-Saudi relationship,” adding that the present close relationship between the countries shows that the effort failed. At the conclusion of Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman’s visit, President Trump announced that Saudi Arabia would be designated “a major non-NATO ally.” He also invited Saudi Arabia to join his Gaza “Board of Peace,” saying that “everybody wants to be on the board.” The Trump administration unveiled a sweeping plan to transfer major Education Department responsibilities—including K-12 and higher-ed grant programs—to the Labor Department and other agencies as part of its long-term goal of shuttering the department, according to reporting from the New York Times. Critics say the restructuring is illegal and will weaken civil-rights enforcement and the ability of the federal government to monitor public education. Parkland shooting survivor and March for Our Lives co-founder Cameron Kasky announced his candidacy for the congressional seat of New York’s 12th District, running on a progressive platform that includes Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, AI regulation, and ending American support for wars in Gaza and Sudan. With Rep. Jerry Nadler stepping down, the seat is open to a crowded Democratic field, which includes Kennedy heir Jack Schlossberg, Micah Lasher, Erik Bottcher, Alex Bores, Jami Floyd, and Liam Elkind. The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) shut down its Travel Intelligence Program, which sold warrantless access to hundreds of millions of passenger flight records to federal agencies, after lawmakers revealed the IRS used the system without legal review amid fears that ICE might do the same. ARC told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that it has notified its remaining government clients and will end the program this year. Lawmakers called the move a major privacy victory as they push airlines—ARC’s co-owners—to adopt policies requiring legal compulsion before sharing travel data. Read more from Migrant Insider here. A West African woman deported to Ghana attempted suicide in custody, according to a new report from In These Times. At least one other African migrant sent initially to Ghana has been secretly sent back to his home country, despite U.S.-Ghana agreements promising protection from persecution. These “third country” migration deals, which U.S. immigration officials use in place of deporting migrants seeking asylum to their countries of origin, have been harshly criticized. Read the full report here.
An Israeli airstrike on a car in the village of Tiri in southern Lebanon killed one person and wounded 11 others, mostly students who were aboard a nearby school bus on Wednesday, according to Lebanon’s ministry of health. The Israeli military later warned the residents of buildings in two villages—Deir Qifa and Shihor—in southern Lebanon to evacuate saying it will attack targets in the area. Israel bombed the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh near the southern Lebanese town of Saida on Tuesday, killing at least 13 people and wounding several others in the deadliest Israeli attack on Lebanon since a ceasefire was declared a year ago. Ein el-Hilweh was established in 1948 and is the largest of Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps. The Israeli military claimed, without evidence, that it targeted a Hamas training compound. Hamas rejected the claim calling them “sheer lies” and added that “what was targeted was a public sports playground frequented by youths from the camp, well-known to all the camp’s residents, and that those targeted were a group of young men who were present in the playground at the moment of the targeting.” Washington abruptly cancelled planned talks with Lebanese Armed Forces commander Gen. Rudolf Haykal after objecting to a statement made on Sunday in which Haykal accused Israel of “insisting on violating Lebanese sovereignty, causing instability and obstructing the army’s deployment in the south.” Haykal called off his trip to the U.S. in response. Jihadists from Islamic State West Africa Province killed at least nine people in Mayenti village in Nigeria’s Borno state on Monday, including five members of the Civilian Joint Task Force and four laborers, with several soldiers still missing, according to AFP. The attackers burned government trucks as they retreated, days after killing four security personnel in nearby Damboa. The latest incident is part of a 16-year conflict that has left over 40,000 dead and displaced around two million across the Lake Chad region. Mali’s army and allied militias killed at least 31 civilians in two October attacks on villages in the Segou region, burning homes and executing residents they accused of aiding the al-Qaeda-linked group JNIM, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. The watchdog urged Mali and the African Union to investigate as the insurgency expands southward, even as Bamako downplays the threat the group poses to the capital. Pakistani forces killed 38 militants during a series of raids that targeted Dera Ismail Khan, North Waziristan, Bajaur, and Bannu in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to the AP. Authorities described those killed as “Khawarij,” linked to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and accused Afghanistan and India of backing the group—allegations both governments deny. Aleema Khan, Noreen Niazi, and Uzma Khar—sisters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan—were detained by police outside Adiala Jail after staging a sit-in while being denied a scheduled meeting with their brother. A video of the incident is here. Russia launched major overnight drone and missile strikes on western Ukraine, killing at least 25 people, including three children, while injuring dozens more in Ternopil. Additional attacks in Kharkiv inflicted damage on buildings and infrastructure. A Russian drone briefly entered Romanian airspace during the assault, prompting both Romania and Poland to scramble NATO fighter jets. The strikes hit regions many Ukrainians considered more safe, heightening concerns about spillover risks near NATO borders, as the U.S. pushes forward with a new peace proposal to end the conflict. The U.S. and Europe’s E3 introduced a draft resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors demanding swift Iranian cooperation regarding its nuclear sites and enriched-uranium stockpile, Reuters reported. The text urges Tehran to “provide the Agency without delay with precise information on nuclear material accountancy and safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran, and grant the Agency all access it requires to verify this information,” and diplomats say it is likely to pass. The UN General Assembly’s human rights committee passed its annual resolution reaffirming Palestinians’ inalienable right to self-determination and statehood, citing the ICJ’s finding that Israel’s occupation is unlawful and must end immediately. The measure passed 164–7 and was backed by Canada, Australia, every EU member state, and most of South America, Asia, and Africa, while the U.S., Israel, Argentina, Paraguay, Micronesia, Nauru, and Papua New Guinea voted against it. Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. denied accusations made by his sister, Senator Imee Marcos, that he has been a long-term cocaine user. The claims surfaced during mass protests over government corruption, framed by Senator Marcos as stemming from lack of presidential accountability. The president’s office dismissed the allegation as a baseless political distraction, though the administration is known to be investigating a multibillion-peso flood-control corruption scandal. Recent surveys show most Manila residents believe graft has worsened under President Marcos’s leadership.
“Jeffrey Epstein Pursued Swiss Rothschild Bank to Finance Israeli Cyberweapons Empire”: Our latest entry on Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with Israel’s intelligence apparatus focuses on his effort to finance Israeli cyberweapons firms with money from the Rothschilds’ Swiss bank. Years-long private talks centered on using Rothschild as a vehicle for a donor-advised venture capital fund aimed at boosting “offensive cyber” startups connected to Israeli intelligence. Epstein advanced the plan with the help of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and leveraged his personal relationship with French banker Ariane de Rothschild, who is now the firm’s CEO. Read Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim’s most recent article here. Polish Bombs in Gaza: A new report from a coalition—including People’s Embargo for Palestine, Shadow World Investigations, and the Palestinian Youth Movement—claims that the state-owned Polish firm, Nitro-Chem, has supplied roughly 90% of the TNT used in U.S.-made Mk 80 bombs sent to Israel. The report concluded there is “a high probability that a significant proportion of [Mk 84s] that Israel dropped on the Gaza Strip since October 2023 are filled with Polish-made TNT.” The report said Israel’s destruction of Gaza would have been impossible without Poland’s TNT supply chain and warns continued exports “may meet the legal criteria for aiding and abetting genocide.” Read Drop Site’s coverage of this here, a contribution from Alexander Zaitchik. Ryan Grim’s Piers Morgan Debut: Ryan Grim made his first appearance on Piers Morgan’s show to talk about the Venezuela. Grim said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio views Venezuela as his “Caribbean sandbox” for the U.S.’s ambitions for regime change. He warned that a U.S. effort to topple President Nicolás Maduro “would not be the cakewalk” that its backers claim, saying Trump knows a Libya-style collapse is the likely outcome. Grim contended that the U.S. motive is access to resources—“oil, in particular”—and that Washington cannot selectively invoke human rights while ignoring ICC standards elsewhere. HIGHLIGHTS FROM DROP SITE’S TUESDAY LIVESTREAM Jeremy Scahill argued that yesterday’s resolution at the UN Security Council lends an “international stamp of legitimacy” to the U.S.-Israeli project to privatize and militarily control Gaza, adding that the measure effectively “endorses Israel’s war of subjugation and apartheid.” Palestinians have been “isolated as the only people on Earth denied the right to self-determination or resistance to occupation,” he said. Watch more here. Ryan Grim and Scahill outlined how the U.S., Israel, and allied states may attempt to impose the disarmament of Palestinian resistance groups, potentially by conditioning access to basic humanitarian aid. Beyond pressure at border crossings, “private contractors are likely to become a major point of contention,” Scahill contended, adding that with Trump hesitant to deploy U.S. troops directly, some forces may come from governments eager to curry favor, while the real operational power could stem from a “very large tail” of private military firms. He points to figures like Erik Prince and his mercenary networks “coming back into play,” potentially deploying forces into Gaza. Watch more here. Watch the full livestream here.
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