Drop Site Daily: September 9, 2025
Israel strikes Doha, Qatar, targeting senior Hamas officials. At least 35 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since dawn, Al Jazeera reports, with 83 killed over the past 24 hours. Netanyahu boasts of destroying 50 high-rises in Gaza City, as Israel issues displacement orders for over 1 million in Gaza City. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent allegedly threatens to punch a financier in the face. The Trump administration threatens to block diplomats from countries including Brazil and Iran from visiting wholesale stores like Costco and Sam’s Club on visits to the United States. Israel conducts more airstrikes on Lebanon and Syria. Nineteen dead amid protests over a ban on social media in Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu, as the prime minister resigns. British government “finds” that Israel is not committing a genocide in Gaza. The Sumud Flotilla ship Family was rocked by an explosion on its front deck overnight while docked off the coast of Tunis.
Jeremy Scahill discussed Israel’s strike on Hamas HQ in Doha live on Breaking Points this morning.
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Watch yesterday’s ⚡️Drop Site Video Recap, for September 8, 2025.
Breaking: Israel’s Strike on Hamas in Doha
- Israeli forces carried out a strike in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday, targeting senior Hamas leaders. Local media reported six powerful simultaneous explosions and smoke across the capital. A senior Hamas source told Al Jazeera Arabic the delegation survived the attack, while Qatar condemned the strike. According to Al-Arabiya, an Israeli official said Israel informed the U.S. in advance, and that Washington gave its “full support” for the operation. It is not yet confirmed whether anyone was killed.
- The Israeli military and Shin Bet published a statement confirming they “conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership” of Hamas. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on X: “Today’s action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation. Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.”
- Before the Doha strike, Senior Hamas official Basem Naim called Trump’s proposal for Gaza a “humiliating surrender document” and a push for either “a shameful peace or continued war.” He said the U.S. plan demands Hamas hand over all captives on day one, ties Israeli withdrawal to a government approved by Israel, seeks to disarm the resistance, while completely ignoring Gaza’s reconstruction. Naim stressed Hamas seeks a deal to end the war and “halt the genocide,” and “Hamas leadership has no emperor like Japan’s Hirohito.”
- Channel 12 reported that Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer met Monday with U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to discuss the American proposal on a captive deal and ending the genocide in Gaza, as well as the U.S. “day-after” plan for the Strip. The report cited a senior U.S. official.
- Israel also launched a series of airstrikes in Syria today, hitting a base near Homs as well as targets near Latakia and Palmyra. Monitoring groups report that Israel has carried out over 97 operations in 2025, marking a significant escalation. Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes as violations of sovereignty and regional stability, while casualty and damage reports remain unclear. A separate wave of Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley killed at least five people and injured five more, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
The Genocide in Gaza
- At least 35 Palestinians have been killed since dawn in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports. Gaza’s Ministry of Health reports at least 82 Palestinians killed and 223 injured in the past 24 hours. Fourteen Palestinians were killed and 37 injured while seeking aid. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 64,605 killed, with 163,319 injured.
- Six more deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours due to starvation and malnutrition, bringing the total since the start of the war to 399, including 140 children.
- Israel issued a formal order to all Palestinians in Gaza City to forcibly displace and empty every neighborhood, and head to the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Al-Mawasi, in the south. Civilians were told to use the Al-Rashid coastal road, with the army threatening: “Remaining in the area is extremely dangerous.” Many are refusing to leave. Gaza’s Government Media Office said more than 1.3 million people remain in Gaza City and areas north of the city as the Israeli army “attempts to carry out the crime of forced displacement in violation of all international laws.”
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted of destroying 50 high-rises in Gaza and warned Palestinians in Gaza City to “get out.” In a harrowing report, Abdel Qader Sabbah and Rasha Abou Jalal speak to residents who have been forced to displace once again by Israel’s devastating air campaign on Gaza City, their belongings destroyed. “The tent we used to live in cost 200 shekels ($60), and today its price has risen to 4,000 shekels ($1,200), an amount most families cannot afford,” said Um Samir al-Ajlouni.
- A Palestinian resistance unit launched a deadly raid on an Israeli army encampment near Kafr Jabalia, north of Gaza City, killing four soldiers of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion. The fighters targeted an armored tank, shooting the commander and throwing an explosive inside, killing the entire crew.
- On Breaking Points, host Krystal Ball pressed GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay on whether the organization bears responsibility for the daily massacres outside its sites, while Ryan Grim challenged Fay’s claim that 1,100 UN aid trucks in a month proved Israel isn’t blocking aid; Palestinians need 600 trucks per day to stave off famine. Israel has killed at least 2,430 Palestinians and wounded nearly 18,000 while seeking aid since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations on May 27.
West Bank and Jerusalem
- Israeli forces shot and killed two 14-year-old boys and injured four others in the Jenin refugee camp today, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The attack came just hours after Netanyahu vowed to target “terror nests” in the West Bank in retaliation for a Jerusalem bus stop attack earlier in the day that killed six people.
- Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the demolition of all buildings without permits in the towns where the attackers are from to be demolished and work permits for hundreds of Palestinian workers to be denied: “This morning, I instructed the imposition of civilian sanctions on the relatives and residents of the villages of the terrorists who carried out the murderous attack in Jerusalem last night, to demolish every illegal structure in the villages, and to revoke 750 work permits and entry permits to Israel,” Katz posted on X.
- Hamas praised the “heroic Ramot operation” in occupied Jerusalem—which killed seven Israelis and wounded 17—as a “natural response” to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its crimes in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Senior official Mahmoud Mardawi called it “an act of self-defense in the face of extermination in Gaza.” In its statement, Hamas said Israel’s plans to destroy Gaza City and desecrate Al-Aqsa “will not pass without punishment,” urging Palestinians in the West Bank to escalate confrontation with the occupation and its settlers.
U.S. News
- The Department of Homeland Security launched “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, targeting undocumented immigrants in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods as part of the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on sanctuary cities. While DHS frames the effort as focused on violent criminals, immigrant advocates and local officials report that people with no criminal records have been detained, sparking fear in communities and prompting residents to organize legal aid and protective measures.
- The House Oversight Committee on Monday released hundreds of pages of documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, including a redacted “birthday book” allegedly gifted to the financier on his 50th birthday with messages from high-profile figures, including a controversial sketch and note purportedly from Donald Trump, which the White House denies. The release, which also includes Epstein’s will, a 2008 non-prosecution agreement, and a contact list, is part of an ongoing congressional investigation into Epstein’s network and raises questions about transparency, potential complicity of powerful individuals, and the limits of federal accountability.
- The Trump administration is reportedly considering new visa restrictions on delegations from Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Brazil ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York, following its earlier denial of a visa to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Proposals under review include limiting Iranian diplomats’ ability to shop at wholesale stores like Costco and Sam’s Club, though it remains unclear which restrictions, if any, would apply to Brazilian President Lula da Silva or other foreign delegates.
- According to Politico, at a private Trump administration dinner in Georgetown, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to “punch” top housing finance official Bill Pulte in a heated confrontation, prompting club co-owner Omeed Malik to intervene. The clash highlights ongoing tensions between Bessent and Pulte over control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and differing approaches to Federal Reserve leadership.
International News
- French Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government collapsed after a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly, where he lost by 364 to 194. Bayrou had been pushed for a multi-billion dollar austerity plan, which included cuts to public holidays and social spending, triggering strong public opposition. Bayrou is the third prime minister to be forced out in just 14 months, and his removal weakens the government of Emmanuel Macron.
- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered authorities on Tuesday to study a petition for a presidential pardon for prominent political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah, the state-affiliated human rights council said. Abd El-Fattah has been jailed for much of the past decade.
- Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed officially inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa’s largest hydroelectric project. While the $5 billion dollar project has been hailed in Ethiopia as a symbol of self-reliance, the dam has heightened regional tensions, with Egypt and Sudan warning it threatens their Nile water security in the absence of a binding agreement, and Cairo threatening to engage in a conflict with Ethiopia over the issue.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will reportedly meet International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi in Cairo this week, en route to Tunisia, to finalize a new cooperation deal. At the IAEA Board of Governors meeting earlier today, Grossi said “progress has been made” and voiced hope the talks would conclude within days to allow the agency to “resume our indispensable work with Iran.”
- Nepal is experiencing its most violent civil unrest in decades as mass youth-led protests erupt over corruption and a now-reversed social media ban. At least 19 people have been killed and hundreds injured as demonstrators defy curfews, clash with security forces, and torch symbols of the political elite, including the Parliament building and leaders’ homes. The largely leaderless youth movement, fueled by anger at nepotism and inequality, forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign today; he admitted the country faces an “extraordinary situation.”
- Argentine President Javier Milei suffered a major defeat in Buenos Aires province, with center-left Peronists winning 47% of the vote to Milei’s 33%, raising doubts about his ability to push through fiscal austerity measures and forcing him to consider forming political alliances. The loss, coupled with a sharp drop in markets, signals challenges for Milei ahead of October’s mid-term elections, while Peronist governor Axel Kicillof’s victory boosts his national profile despite internal party tensions.
- The British government does not believe Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the Genocide Convention’s definition, citing a Foreign Office review, though former Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the bombings “utterly appalling,” and critics say the stance shields Israel from accountability amid rising civilian deaths and famine. Meanwhile, PM Keir Starmer met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on September 8, with both agreeing that Hamas should have no role in future governance. Starmer signaled that the UK will recognize a Palestinian state at the UN unless Israel ends the crisis in Gaza, allows UN aid, halts West Bank annexations, and commits to a sustainable two-state solution.
- Mali’s military launched airstrikes in the gold-rich Kayes region after al Qaeda–linked militants imposed a fuel blockade on Bamako, aiming to pressure the government and restrict civilian movement. The escalation underscores the growing strength of Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, which has also targeted transport routes, kidnapped truck drivers, and attacked local and foreign-owned businesses to destabilize the transitional authorities.
- A new Banksy mural outside London’s Royal Courts of Justice shows a judge striking a protester holding a blood-stained placard. Banksy confirmed the politically charged piece on Instagram, just days after nearly 900 people were arrested for carrying signs backing Palestine Action, which the UK has newly outlawed. Authorities swiftly covered the mural and say it will be removed.
- More than 1,200 filmmakers and actors—including Emma Stone, Olivia Colman, Melissa Barrera, Ayo Edebiri, Mark Ruffalo, and Javier Bardem—have pledged not to work with Israeli film institutions “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” Organized by Film Workers for Palestine, the declaration names festivals such as Jerusalem, Haifa, Docaviv, and TLVfest as complicit through ties to the Israeli government. “In this urgent moment of crisis, where our governments are enabling the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything we can to address complicity in that unrelenting horror,” the statement warns.
More from Drop Site
- Global Sumud Flotilla update: The principal flotilla ship Family was rocked by an explosion on its front deck overnight while docked in Tunis. The Global Sumud Flotilla released a statement last night stating that the organization suspects a UAV had dropped an incendiary device onto the ship, causing a small fire that was quickly put out by those onboard. The ship’s crew and the participants of the Flotilla are safe and unharmed. The Tunisian national guard claimed the GSF reports of the drone attack were “unfounded,” adding that the fire was caused by a cigarette butt or a lighter. Footage shared by GSF shows an object emitting light falling to the deck of the Family Madeira and exploding. The source and nature of the exploding object remain unconfirmed. All passengers and crew were evacuated safely, and the Global Sumud Flotilla vowed the attack would not deter their mission to break Gaza’s siege.
- This week on the Drop Site podcast, Murtaza Hussain is joined by Steve Hsu to break down China’s massive military parade and its rise as a global defense power. They explore how Beijing’s growing arsenal and industrial sccould reshape international relations and U.S.-China tensions.
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