Drop Site Daily: November 25, 2025
Israeli strikes hit multiple areas in the Gaza Strip as demolitions continue. Rains drench displaced Palestinians once again, with winter storms continuing to wreak havoc on Gaza’s increasingly exposed population. Unexploded munitions kill a child and injure several others in Gaza City. Hamas to return the body of another Israeli captive. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it is leaving Gaza, but that its model—which has been condemned as a series of “death traps”—will be adopted and expanded. A new study by the Max Planck Institute says that more than 100,000 died in the Gaza genocide. The Israeli military launches a raid into Nablus. Trump plans to speak with Maduro. The Trump administration plans to re-interview every refugee (all 200,000 of them) admitted to the country during the Biden administration. Rumblings of additional Republican congressional retirements emerge. The U.S. takes the early steps to designate three national branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as “foreign terrorist organizations.” Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces declares a unilateral humanitarian truce. Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of carrying out drone and air strikes killing 10 people—nine of whom were children. Ukraine and Russia trade drone strikes, with Kyiv suffering serious infrastructural damage and casualties. Northern Nigeria sees a huge spike in hunger, with 35 million people facing starvation. Cameroon’s opposition leader escapes to Gambia.
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The Genocide in Gaza
- The bodies of 17 Palestinians arrived at hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, including three killed in new Israeli attacks and 14 recovered from under the rubble. At least 16 Palestinians were wounded. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 69,775 killed, with 170,965 injured.
- Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 345 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 889, while 588 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health.
- Israeli attacks included artillery and airstrikes in multiple areas in the eastern part of Gaza as well as home demolitions east of Jabalia and in eastern Gaza City, fresh shelling west of the “Yellow Line” in Khan Yunis, and naval fire into Rafah.
- Heavy rains hit Gaza overnight as a winter storm drenched thousands of displaced families sheltering in tents, damaged buildings, or out in the open with no cover. Footage from The Sameer Project shows conditions in Sawarha Camp in central Gaza worsening as people struggle to make do without adequate shelter.
- A leftover Israeli rocket exploded inside a camp near the Al-Fayrouz towers in the northern beach area of Gaza City, injuring several people, setting tents on fire, and prompting crews to evacuate residents for safety, according to reports from Gaza’s Civil Defense. The emergency rescue agency said another unexploded Israeli munition detonated inside a damaged home on Al-Nasr Street in west Gaza City, killing a child and injuring several others after children reportedly began playing near the remnants. The house had been hit earlier in the war, and some of the wounded are in critical condition after being rushed to Al-Shifa Hospital. Read Drop Site’s report last month on unexploded munitions in Gaza here.
- The U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it is ending its mission in Gaza after more than 2,600 Palestinians were killed and some 20,000 wounded between May 27 and October 9 while seeking aid (many of whom were gunned down while seeking aid at GHF distribution sites, in what the UN called “death zones”). Executive Director John Acree said the group always intended to hand off control of its operation, adding that it has been in talks “for weeks” with the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center and international organizations that he says will now “adopt and expand” its approach.
- Hamas announced it will return the remains of another Israeli captive on Tuesday. The body was found by Palestinian Islamic Jihad earlier this week in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The bodies of 25 Israeli captives have been returned to Israel since the ceasefire took hold on October 10. Three, including the one being returned today, are believed to still be in Gaza. Israel has returned the bodies of 330 Palestinian captives back to Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect. Israel has not provided details on their identities and many of them bore signs of torture and summary execution. Only 95 of the bodies have been identified, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Palestinian rescuers say some 10,000 Palestinian bodies are likely buried under rubble, the majority of which remain out of reach and unidentifiable as Israel continues to block most heavy machinery and all DNA-testing equipment needed to identify victims.
- Israel barred American trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa from entering Gaza to treat thousands of wounded patients despite initially approving his trip, Haaretz reports, revoking permission hours before his MedGlobal team was due to depart Jordan and leaving him stranded for about 10 days. Sidhwa—a specialist in abdominal reconstruction—was slated to operate and train staff at Nasser Hospital, and officials suspect the unexplained denial was retaliation for his public testimony on Gaza’s collapsing medical system. An appeal is pending.
- New research from the Max Planck Institute estimates that more than 100,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023—far above the Health Ministry’s confirmed total of 67,173 deaths—with demographic modeling, household surveys, and social-media death reports suggesting the ministry undercounts by 35–41 percent. Especially undercounted, according to the report, are women, older people, and those buried under rubble. The researchers estimate between 99,997 and 125,915 Palestinians were killed from October 7, 2023, to October 6, 2025, with a mid-range of 112,069—about 27 percent children and 24 percent women—and say the pattern of deaths resembles other documented genocides. The researchers also modeled the effects of this mass death on average life expectancy, with a projected collapse from roughly 77 to 46 years for Gazan women and 74 to 36 years for Gazan men.
- Israel’s COGAT says nearly 300 Palestinians—including patients, caregivers, and some dual citizens or visa-holders—were allowed to leave Gaza today through Kerem Shalom before continuing to Jordan via the Allenby Bridge, with each case having required Israeli security approval. Such departures remain rare under the present blockade, and most of the roughly 22,000 wounded who urgently need treatment abroad still cannot exit as Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals operate with severe shortages of medicine, power, equipment, and specialist doctors.
West Bank and Israel
- A new report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development has found that two years of Israeli military operations and restrictions have triggered an unprecedented collapse across the Palestinian economy. The economic crisis across the occupied Palestinian territory is among the ten worst globally since 1960, while the situation in Gaza in particular is the most severe economic crisis on record. GDP per capita returned to the level seen in 2003, erasing 22 years of development in less than two years. “Extensive damage to infrastructure, productive assets and public services has reversed decades of socioeconomic progress in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the report said, referring to the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
- Israeli forces launched a raid in eastern Nablus in the West Bank, with IDF, Shin Bet, and Yamam units reporting an active gunfight with a Palestinian fighter Tuesday evening. A medical source told Al Jazeera that one Palestinian was killed, and that his body remains inside a house under Israeli fire.
U.S. News
- President Donald Trump has told advisers he plans to speak directly with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro days after his administration formally labeled Maduro the head of a terrorist organization, according to Axios, a move officials say signals that U.S. missile strikes or a ground assault are not imminent. A date has yet to be set for a Trump-Maduro call, which Axios reports is still “in the planning stages.”
- The Trump administration plans to re-interview every refugee admitted during the Biden years—nearly 200,000 people—after suspending green card approvals for that entire group, according to an internal USCIS memo obtained by AP. Advocates point out that these migrants have already gone through extensive vetting, often waiting years before they can migrate to the United States, and that the plan is both cruel and “shockingly ill-conceived.”
- Vahid Abedini, an Iranian professor of Iranian Studies at the University of Oklahoma, was arrested by ICE while trying to board a flight to the Middle East Studies Association conference in Washington, D.C., according to fellow faculty member Joshua Landis, who says Abedini holds a valid H-1B visa. The ICE detainee locator confirms he is in custody without listing his location. The arrest comes amid a surge in ICE detentions of Iranian immigrants following the U.S. bombing of Iran on June 22, with no clear explanation yet for why Abedini was taken into custody.
- Following Marjorie Taylor Greene’s announcement of her departure from Congress, Punch Bowl reporter Jake Sherman found that several GOP lawmakers have been considering an early retirement. One senior Republican congressman gave the following, anonymous report: “More explosive early resignations are coming. It’s a tinder box. Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel and they will lose the majority before this term is out.”
- The Trump administration opened a formal process to label specific Muslim Brotherhood chapters in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, directing the State and Treasury Departments to review each national branch and to recommend designations within 45 days if any of them meet the U.S. criteria for “terrorism”. The White House claims—without presenting evidence to the public—that these chapters supported activity tied to Hamas and the October 7 attack. If given this designation, these chapters of the Brotherhood would have their assets frozen, “material support” for them would be criminalized, and they would be subject to scrutiny from U.S. military intelligence.
- Bari Weiss told an assembly at Tikvah’s Jewish Leadership Conference last week that she wants to use her new role at CBS News to “redraw the lines of what falls in the 40 yards of acceptable debate” in American political and cultural life. Weiss continued saying that she aims to sideline figures like Hasan Piker, Tucker Carlson, and Nick Fuentes. She says her goal is to elevate “charismatic” voices like Alan Dershowitz and Dana Loesch, who she claims better represent “where the vast majority of Americans actually are.”
- Powerful business lobbies—including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ExxonMobil-aligned groups, and major agricultural federations—are asking the Supreme Court to block California’s forthcoming climate-disclosure laws by claiming that requiring companies to publish emissions data and climate risks violates their First Amendment rights, complaining that such a law “pressures [firms] to alter their behavior.” Aside from the climate consequences of a potential reversal, legal experts warn that if courts embrace this “compelled speech” argument, it could undermine a host of transparency and consumer-protection rules nationwide. Read more about it here at The Lever.
International News
- Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) declared a unilateral three-month humanitarian truce on Monday, with commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, or Hemedti, saying the pause is intended to improve civilian protections and to facilitate the delivery of more aid, according to reporting from Al Jazeera. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces, rejected a similar “Quad”-backed proposal (from Egypt, UAE, U.S., and Saudi Arabia) as “the worst yet” on Sunday. The Quad’s plan would result in a three-month humanitarian truce followed by nine months of political negotiations. Burhan accused the UAE of arming the force and criticized a U.S. adviser for trying to “impose conditions” on his faction in his response to the earlier truce, and he insisted he would only agree to a ceasefire if the RSF withdrew from civilian areas. He did not confirm whether or not an agreement had been reached after the RSF’s Tuesday announcement.
- Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday that RSF fighters committed war crimes as they captured El-Fasher, executing scores of unarmed men and raping dozens of women and girls. Amnesty interviewed 28 survivors who managed to reach safety in the towns of Tawila, to the west of El Fasher, and Tina, on the border with Chad after fleeing El-Fasher. “The world must not look away as more details emerge about the RSF’s brutal attack on El Fasher. The survivors we interviewed told of the unimaginable horrors they faced as they escaped the city,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “These atrocities were facilitated by the United Arab Emirates’ support for the RSF. The UAE’s ongoing backing of the RSF is fuelling the relentless cycle of violence against civilians in Sudan. The international community and the UN Security Council must demand that the UAE disengage from supporting the RSF.”
- Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused Pakistan of carrying out overnight drone and air strikes that killed nine children and a woman in its Khost province. It vowed to “respond appropriately” as cross-border hostilities have surged after Monday’s suicide bombing in Peshawar.
- A major Ukrainian drone barrage on southern Russia killed three people and injured at least 16, according to Reuters. Russian officials reported that 249 of these drones were downed overnight. Drones that were not downed damaged apartment blocks, houses, warehouses, and oil-port infrastructure in Novorossiysk, Rostov-on-Don, and Krasnodar. Russian forces carried out retaliatory attacks on Kyiv early Tuesday, sparking fires in residential buildings, damaging the city’s energy grid, and killing six people, according to Ukrainian officials.
- Violence in northern Nigeria has increased hunger to record levels in the region, according to officials from the UN’s World Food Programme. Nearly 35 million people are in danger of starvation, which is the highest estimate produced since the WFP began monitoring the country. Rural farming communities are the most imperiled by the instability, with six million people already lacking basic food supplies in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe, while 15,000 people in Borno are already facing famine-like conditions.
- Cameroon’s opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary fled to Gambia for his safety after deadly post-election protests erupted over President Paul Biya’s disputed re-election, with Gambian authorities saying they are hosting him temporarily on humanitarian grounds, while seeking a regional diplomatic solution. Bakary, who claims the vote was stolen, faces likely legal action at home for urging on the nationwide protests, as Biya—the 92-year-old leader in power since 1982—tightens his grip after securing his eighth term.
More From Drop Site
- Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill joined Breaking Points to discuss his recent interviews with leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad where they discussed the state of the war, the recent plan for Gaza passed by the UN Security Council, and the trustworthiness of U.S.-led political and economic designs for Gaza. Watch his full appearance here and read the report here.
- A single Jersey City warehouse, privately owned by G&B Packing, became a central artery of Israel’s war machine, funneling over a thousand tons of tank parts, ammunition, and military vehicles every week from U.S. weapons makers to the Israeli military, according to a new investigation by the Palestinian Youth Movement and Progressive International. Untangling a web of logistics firms tied to Israel’s Defense Ministry, Drop Site reveals how Interglobal Forwarding Services, weapons manufacturers, shipping giants like Maersk, and an Israeli logistics office in New York collaborated to form a supply chain for Gaza’s devastation. Read the newest from José Olivares and Alex Colston for Drop Site here.
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