Drop Site Daily: December 5, 2025
Israeli attacks continue across Gaza. Trump plans to unveil his “Board of Peace” before Christmas. The UN says aid into Gaza is still being blocked. Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti is brutally beaten. Nicholas Kristof confronts former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak about his Epstein ties. Another U.S. strike in the Pacific. NYC Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani asks 179 city officials to resign, while outgoing Mayor Eric Adams signs a pro-Israel executive order. Federal judge dismisses antisemitism suit against Harvard. U.S. President Donald Trump shortens asylum seekers’ work permits. Rwanda and the DRC sign a peace deal in Washington. Forty-seven killed, mostly children, after the RSF attacks a kindergarten in Sudan. Ukraine is staring at a massive population crisis, according to a Reuters report. Russian President Vladimir Putin is found culpable for a 2018 death by a UK public inquiry. Clashes between the Yemeni government and UAE-backed separatists in Hadramaut. A boycott of Israeli participation in Eurovision materializes. Netflix to buy Warner Bros.
This is Drop Site Daily, our new, free daily news recap. We send it Monday through Friday.
The Genocide in Gaza
- Israeli attacks on Gaza continue: Artillery shelling, airstrikes, and gunfire were reported in Gaza City, near the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, and in Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, according to Al Jazeera. At least one Palestinian woman, Samar al-Shubarsi, was killed in the Gaza City neighborhood of al-Tuffah, according to Gaza Civil Defense. Spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said her body lay inside an ambulance while her toddler, born at the start of the war, stood beside the body holding his uncle’s hand, staring at his mother “as if [he was] waiting for her to come back.”
- Trump plans to unveil “Board of Peace” before Christmas: President Donald Trump plans to unveil his Gaza “Board of Peace” and a new governing structure for the enclave before Christmas, according to Axios. U.S. officials say the “Board of Peace” would be led by Trump and made up of roughly 10 leaders from Arab and Western states, and below that an “International Executive Board” which would include Tony Blair, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and senior officials from countries on the “Board of Peace.” Beneath that would be a Palestinian Technocratic Government made up of members with no affiliation to Hamas, Fatah or any other Palestinian faction. Under the proposal, Israeli troops would withdraw further from Gaza and be replaced by an International Stabilization Force. One diplomat told Axios: “The equation will be IDF out of Gaza, but Hamas out of power.”
- UN says aid is still being blocked: The UN says its teams still cannot scale up aid in Gaza despite the ceasefire agreement, saying that “full respect” of the ceasefire is necessary for its workers to deliver aid. It urged the opening of more crossings and the entry of more aid through multiple routes without delay, and asked that customs be waived and restrictive registration rules be removed.
West Bank and Israel
- Israeli raids: Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 38-year-old Palestinian man during a raid on the town of Awarta south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to the Ramallah-based ministry of health. Israeli forces conducted raids and arrests across the West Bank today, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office.
- The UN’s latest figures: UN OCHA reported on Thursday that over 95,000 Palestinians have been affected by expanded operations by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank this week, particularly in Jenin and Tubas governorates with the military imposing curfews, taking over residential buildings, and significantly restricting movement. The UN also documented 1,680 attacks by Israeli settlers in more than 270 communities across the West Bank so far in 2025—an average of five incidents per day.
- Three more Palestinians killed in Israeli prisons: Palestinian rights groups released the names of three more Gaza detainees—Taysir Saeed al-Abd Sabbaba, Khamees Shukri Mer’i Ashour, and Khalil Ahmad Khalil Haniyeh—who were abducted from Gaza and later killed inside Israeli prisons or military camps. The Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society cite these cases as examples of “slow-motion executions,” noting that more than 100 Palestinian prisoners have been killed since the genocide began and urging international bodies to hold Israeli leaders accountable.
- Marwan Barghouti brutally beaten in prison: Qassam Barghouti, the son of prominent Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti, wrote in a social media post on Friday that his father was severely beaten and abused in prison. “I woke up to a phone call from a recently released Palestinian prisoner this morning. He told me: ‘Your father was brutally beaten. They broke his teeth and ribs, cut off part of his ear, and fractured his fingers gradually for their amusement,’” Qassam Barghouti wrote. “What am I supposed to do? Who do I turn to? We’re living this nightmare every single day… My God, have mercy on us. My father is now 66 years old. My God, where will this generation find its strength?” Barghouti’s family launched a global campaign last week for his release.
- Palestinian doctor discusses treatment in Israeli prison: A doctor from Gaza, Dr. Mu’nis Muhsin, spoke to Sahat English about his torture, isolation, and abuse in Rakkevet, a secret underground Israeli prison, during the 19 months he spent in Israeli custody. A recent audit by the Israeli Public Defender’s Office documents extreme overcrowding, routine physical assaults by guards, and severely inadequate food and hygiene, according to the Wall Street Journal, a rare official acknowledgement of grueling conditions long described by former detainees.
- NYT’s Nicholas Kristof confronts former Israeli PM Ehud Barak: Kristof asked Barak about his association with Jeffrey Epstein: “Your aide spent a lot of time in Epstein’s house. Did Epstein ever traffic a woman or girl to you, or offer one to you?,” to which he responded “No, never,” adding that he now “deeply” regrets his association with the convicted sex trafficker. The interview did not address Epstein’s assistance to Barak in brokering Israeli security deals around the world.
U.S. News
- Another U.S. strike in the Pacific: The U.S. Southern Command says it conducted a lethal strike on a vessel in international waters on December 4, killing four men it labeled “narco-terrorists,” and asserted the ship had been moving illicit narcotics along a known trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific.
- New video of controversial September 2 strike: On Thursday, members of Congress were shown video behind closed doors of a September 2 strike on a vessel that killed 11 people. The video shows two men who survived the initial strike clinging to the wreckage of the boat for an hour before they were killed in a second strike, according to Reuters. After Secretary of War Pete Hegseth came under criticism for ordering the second, lethal strike on the survivors, Hegseth said he had authorized Admiral Frank Bradley to conduct such strikes. The men were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible radio or other communications equipment.
- In NYC, Zohran Mamdani asks 179 members of the Eric Adams administration to resign: Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani asked 179 current city employees to resign, many of whom were political appointees and with jobs across City Hall. Their departures are expected before Mamdani takes office on January 1. Mayor-elect Mamdani can revoke the directive on day one of his administration, since it creates no new legal obligations he is bound to follow.
- Eric Adams signs a pro-Israel executive order on his way out: On the same day, outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued Executive Order 60, which directs city agencies and pension-fund trustees to steer clear of procurement or investment decisions that could be construed as discriminating against Israel, which urges contracting officers to avoid anything resembling a boycott of Israel, and which tells mayoral pension trustees to oppose divestment from Israeli assets.
- Also in NYC mayoral news: According to a report from the NY Daily News, the brother of NYPD police commissioner Jessica Tisch called Zohran Mamdani an “enemy” of the Jewish people at a charity dinner last night; after the story was published, Tisch reached out to Mamdani to apologize for her brother’s comments.
- Columbia opens claims process for its EEOC antisemitism settlement fund: Columbia University has opened the claims process for a $21 million EEOC-supervised settlement fund for employees who say they faced antisemitic harassment or retaliation—harassment tied to their being Jewish, practicing Judaism, or being Israeli—between October 7, 2023 and July 23, 2025. The EEOC will determine who is eligible to receive payment and how much they will be paid. Under a broader agreement with the Trump administration, the university also paid a $200 million fine and accepted federal monitoring.
- Judge dismisses Harvard antisemitism suit: A federal judge dismissed a former Harvard Business School student’s discrimination lawsuit alleging the university failed to act after pro-Palestinian protesters harassed him during a 2023 “die-in,” ruling that the complaint did not show “severe and pervasive racial harassment” or plausibly indicate the protesters were motivated by race-based antisemitism. The judge also rejected claims that Harvard ran a “sham investigation,” leaving no remaining civil cases against the university over its handling of campus protests.
- A disastrous Navy deployment to the Middle East: Navy investigations into a series of major accidents that struck the Truman carrier group during its nine-month deployment in the Middle East found that three of the four incidents—including a friendly-fire shootdown of a U.S. jet, a collision with a merchant ship, and the loss of an aircraft due to arresting-gear failure—stemmed from poor training, procedural breakdowns, and severe crew fatigue. While no sailors were killed, the probes warn the mistakes could have been fatal and reveal critical equipment and readiness deficiencies across the strike group, faulting a “culture of procedural noncompliance.”
- Trump shortens work permits for asylum seekers: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will shorten the length of work permits for asylum seekers, refugees, and other humanitarian migrants from five years to 18 months, a move the agency links to last week’s shooting of two National Guard members in Washington. The change, which reverses a Biden-era policy and affects hundreds of thousands of people with pending or new applications, is expected to deepen backlogs and push many asylum seekers out of the workforce.
- Trump admin sabotaging legal aid for migrant children: The Trump administration is moving to restructure—and, effectively, undo—the legal defense system for unaccompanied immigrant children, proposing new contract rules that would force attorneys to share confidential client data with the government, slash their funding, and cap their services. Read the full report from the Lever here.
- Netflix to Buy Warner Bros: Netflix announced on Friday it has reached a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s film studio and streaming business, HBO Max, in a deal valued at approximately $82.7 billion in cash and stock. The deal came after a bidding war between Netflix, Comcast, and Paramount. The transaction is expected to close in 12-18 months, subject to approval from federal regulators.
International News
- Rwanda and DRC sign peace deal in Washington: President Donald Trump hosted Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Washington to sign what the White House calls a “historic” U.S.-brokered peace deal aimed at ending the long-running conflict in eastern Congo and opening the region’s critical mineral reserves to American companies. The agreement, which builds on earlier negotiations, comes even as fighting between the DRC and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels was reported as late as Wednesday, and residents of the DRC’s east say the war is far from over. Trump also announced new bilateral mineral agreements with both countries, deals that seek to counter Chinese influence in the region.
- Cocaine hidden in banana shipments from the family firm of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa: Balkan traffickers hid at least 535 kilograms of cocaine in banana shipments exported by Noboa Trading, the family firm of Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, according to a new report from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Decrypted Sky ECC chats contain messages from smugglers boasting that only they could load cocaine into Noboa containers, a claim reporters corroborated by matching container numbers and dates to real exports from Guayaquil. Major Serbian, Croatian, and Montenegrin druglords and career criminals were involved in the undertaking. The report creates complications for Noboa, who has presented himself as a drug-war champion to the Trump administration.
- 47 civilians killed in Sudan after RSF strike on kindergarten: About 47 people, mostly children, were reportedly killed and around 50 injured after RSF forces repeatedly attacked a kindergarten, hospital, and government building in Kalogi, South Kordofan. The UN’s OCHA has also warned that sieges, movement restrictions, and ongoing assaults have cut off cities like Dilling and Kadugli—where famine conditions have already been identified—while aid workers have faced extreme danger trying to reach the more than a million people in need.
- Honduras’ Salvador Nasralla called for an investigation into this week’s election: Centrist presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla alleged on Thursday that voting data had been altered and called for an investigation, Reuters reports. Nasralla claims that more than a million votes were transferred to the victorious conservative candidate Nasry Asfura, whom President Trump backed in the lead-up to the election.
- Ukrainian demographic crisis: A new report from Reuters lays out the stark realities of Ukraine’s demographic crisis, precipitated by its three-year long war with Russia. Its population has shrunk from 42 to 36 million, with projections estimating a population of 25 million in 2051, it has both the lowest birth rates and highest death rates in the world, according to data compiled by the CIA’s World Factbook: For every birth, there are roughly three deaths. Male life expectancy has dropped nearly 5 years since the war began. It has also dealt with mass emigration to avoid conscription, which has shattered both its war effort and its domestic economy.
- UK finds Vladimir Putin guilty of 2018 death: A UK public inquiry concluded that the 2018 Novichok attack in Salisbury—carried out by suspected GRU agents in a failed attempt to assassinate former double agent Sergei Skripal—“must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin,” who it found bears “moral responsibility” for the subsequent death of Dawn Sturgess, a mother of three who was fatally poisoned after mistaking the discarded perfume bottle for fragrance. It described the operation as “astonishingly reckless,” noting the vial contained enough nerve agent to kill thousands, and prompted London to summon Russia’s ambassador and sanction the GRU.
- U.S. reviewing relationship with Tanzania: The United States is conducting a “comprehensive review” of its relationship with Tanzania, according to Reuters, citing government repression of religious freedom and free speech, barriers to U.S. investment, and deadly violence against civilians in the wake of the country’s contested Oct. 29 elections.
- Clashes in Yemen: Yemeni government forces and the Southern Transitional Council (STC) clashed on Thursday, as the UAE-backed separatist faction tried to advance toward the strategic al-Ghuraf area in Hadramout, Al Jazeera reports. Videos show STC fighters storming the presidential palace in Seiyun and shelling nearby army headquarters. The fighting—part of a wider STC “Promising Future” operation which seeks the south’s secession from the Yemeni state—has triggered large-scale military engagements across Hadramout, though Saudi mediators have worked to broker a settlement between the government and the STC.
- Major European broadcasters withdraw after Israel allowed to compete in Eurovision: Four major broadcasters—Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands—have withdrawn from the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest after the European Broadcasting Union confirmed Israel would be allowed to compete despite the genocide in Gaza. Facing pressure to bar Israel, the EBU declined to hold a vote on Israel’s eligibility and instead announced reforms to its voting system, including limiting televotes per device and restoring juries in the final round, to prevent “manipulation” of the contest’s results.
More From Drop Site
- John Mearsheimer and Alan Dershowitz responded to Drop Site reporting that he worked with Jeffrey Epstein to attack John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” in an appearance on Piers Morgan: Uncensored. Mearsheimer discussed the effects of these attacks, which you can watch here. Dershowitz defended his work with Epstein and framed Epstein’s connections to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak as typical and not indicative of anything “covert.”
- Drop Site’s Ryan Grim joined Steve Bannon’s War Room to discuss Drop Site’s recently published piece on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief aide, Morgan McSweeney, who helped run a project called Stop Funding Fake News. The piece describes SFFN’s attempt to strip Breitbart of ad revenue and undermine any outlet seen as sympathetic to Jeremy Corbyn’s wing of the Labour Party. Watch his appearance here.
If you want to continue getting this newsletter, you don’t have to do anything. But if this is too much—we do try to be mindful of your inbox—you can unsubscribe from this newsletter while continuing to get the rest of our reporting. Just go into your account here at this link, scroll down, and toggle the button next to “Drop Site Daily” to the off setting. It looks like this:
