Do Rural Residents Have the Power to Say No?

This piece by Raj Patel, a research professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, and Jim Goodman, a retired dairy farmer, looks at the way hyperscalers are approaching the construction of data centers in rural communities and the rights those communities have. The piece is part of Drop Site’s ongoing collaboration with Barn Raiser to put a focus on rural politics with a newsletter running through November.

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Donna Hull stakes a “no data center” signs on her property’s fence line next to the proposed Crusoe data center in Jewett, Texas. Photo by Antranik Tavitian/for The Washington Post via Getty Images.

*Story by Raj Patel and Jim Goodman*

Today’s data center proponents argue that such projects bring needed jobs and a boost to local economies. Rural America has heard confident pitches like these before. Nearly 40 years ago, concentrated animal feeding operations ([CAFOs][2]) arrived one barn at a time with bold promises of jobs and a county tax base.

By the time neighbors organized, right-to-farm laws and state preemption had cut the ground from under them. All the while, manure lagoons leached into the groundwater and fouled the air, shortening the life expectancy of the farmworkers and downwind neighbors.

Organizing still won real victories, to be sure, from North Carolina’s[ CAFO moratorium][3] in 1997 to[ Chris Jones’s clean-water campaign][4] for agriculture secretary in Iowa today. When it comes to CAFOs, the lessons came late, but in the age of artificial intelligence, those same lessons can give rural communities a leg up.

While CAFOs crept into rural America, data centers are arriving as a land rush. This speed is both terrifying and an advantage.[ Texas alone has some 248 proposed data center projects,][5] even though[ 56% of Texans tell pollsters][6] they do not want one nearby, which means that rural communities are now asking questions before the deals are locked in. According to the Pew Research Center, of the more than 1,500 data centers proposed or under development,[ 67% are in rural communities][7].

The ultimate question will be: Do rural residents have the power to say no?

The answer is playing out across the country. In November 2025, 800 people filled a board meeting to oppose a billion-dollar Meta-linked project in Howell Township, Michigan, and the developer[ withdrew][8]. In February,[ the city council of San Marcos, Texas, rejected a $1.5 billion campus][9] after nearly nine hours of public comment, then became the first[ Texas city to ban data centers][10] through its zoning code. Fort Worth is[ drafting][11] data center zoning rules of its own.

Nationally, the poorest census tracts resist data center projects at[ five times the rate of the richest][12]. Projects that meet resistance are[ cancelled at several times t][13]he rate of those that do not. One[ tracker][14] counts tens of billions of dollars in blocked or delayed projects.

Opposition to data center projects is one of the few issues that many Americans agree on. A[ June Reuters/Ipsos poll][15] found that only 14% of respondents would support a data center being built in their community. On July 18, organizers held 142 protests across 42 states in the[ first nationwide protest against data centers][16] and artificial intelligence.

Data center hyperscalers are copying the CAFO playbook as best they can. West Virginia has[ stripped its counties][17] and towns of the power to regulate data centers; similarly, the state’s[ right-to-farm law][18] prohibits local governments from bringing civil or criminal action against an agricultural operation as long as it meets state and federal laws, permits, and regulations. When Hill County, Texas, passed the state’s first county moratorium in May, a developer sued for $100 million and the county[ rescinded][19] within a week, because Texas counties can zone against neither a data center nor a feedlot. Hood County[ pulled][20] its own moratorium after state Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) asked whether counties even hold that power; the same senator[ calls][21] the San Marcos ban illegal.

Right-wing organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), behind the pro-CAFO model legislation of[ right-to-farm laws][22] since the 1990s, likewise appear intent on denying local control in the data center buildout. At its annual meeting in July, ALEC[ considered a model legislative framework][23] that would undercut local bans and moratoriums and give data centers the “clear authority to secure power…subject only to objective safety and interconnection standards,” as the Center for Media and Democracy[ reported][24]. The meeting featured speakers from Google and Nvidia, along with a Meta sponsorship.

The outburst of anti-data center sentiment ahead of the midterms has forced political leaders to reckon with the issue of local control. This is where data centers and CAFOs diverge. In June, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who once hailed Texas as “the epicenter of AI development,” called for a[ ban on AI data centers in rural neighborhoods][25] and a cut to their billion-dollar-a-year tax exemption after facing rare bipartisan pressure. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law to[ preserve local control][26] over data centers. Michigan’s candidates for governor are[ split][27] over the server halls sprouting between Lansing and Detroit. Illinois recently reversed course on its data center policy,[ reeling in the subsidies it had rolled out][28] in 2019. And in July, New York became the first state in the nation to enact a one-year moratorium.

So, who hasn’t been able to say no? We pulled the locations of CAFOs and data centers in North Carolina and Texas, where the data is easily available, and—yes—got Claude to plot it for us against[ demographic][29] and[ county boundaries][30].

CAFOs, data centers, and race by county in Texas.
CAFOs, data centers, and race by county in North Carolina.

In North Carolina the answer is pretty clear. The state’s 2,482 permitted animal operations cluster in the Black Belt coastal plain where the epidemiologist[ Steve Wing found hog lagoons a generation ago][31]. Weighted by the number of permits each county holds, those counties are 46% people of color, against 34% across North Carolina’s hundred counties as a whole. Duplin County alone holds over[ 500 permits][32] and[ 2.2 million allowable hogs][33] in a county where almost half the population of 49,000 are people of color.

Data centers are the inverse of CAFOs. The state’s data centers sit in counties whiter than the state average, in the Piedmont towns that lost their historic furniture and textile businesses as well as in wealthy Wake and Mecklenburg counties (respectively home to large cities Raleigh and Charlotte). Two of the state’s suspended projects are in adjacent Edgecombe County and Pitt County, where residents informed their resistance based on their history fighting CAFOs.

In 1995, residents of predominantly Black Kingsboro, in Edgecombe County, successfully[ blocked][34] a major meatpacker from building a 300-acre slaughterhouse in their backyard through efforts to rezone land. When a $19 billion,[ 400-acre data center][35] came knocking three decades later, residents opposed it en masse. The developer Energy Storage Solutions withdrew its proposal in July, and by August Edgecombe County enacted a two-year moratorium.

In Texas the pattern is a little more complex. Rural Texas tends to be whiter than a state average balanced by majority-Hispanic cities. Yet the feedlot Panhandle is majority-Hispanic meatpacking country, with counties like Deaf Smith and Castro where the workforce lives beside the feedyards it staffs. The rural counties now hosting data centers likewise run less white than rural Texas as a whole.

The Stargate Oracle AI data center campus in Abilene, Texas. The Stargate Oracle AI data center will span roughly 4 million square feet and will be operated by Oracle for OpenAI. Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images.

Other outlier cases in the U.S.: the[ world’s densest data center cluster is outside Washington, D.C., in Loudoun County][36], Virginia, among the wealthiest counties in America, while[ xAI’s Colossus runs beside Boxtown,][37] a majority-Black neighborhood in Memphis.

The patterning and the possibilities for asking questions about data centers are very different. CAFOs were put next to the disempowered by history. In most of the counties with proposed data centers, there’s no local billionaire hyperscaler whose family has been on the land for generations to champion the project, with the historical ability to make people of color, in particular, suffer the consequences in the ways that CAFOs had.

In contrast, data centers are being aimed by site selectors in a hurry, looking for cheap land and water, cheap power, and thin resistance. But they don’t have their local defenders and hands on the levers of power in the ways that CAFOs do.

Race and class are the oldest American proxies for who can, and who can’t, say no. Here are the questions that constituents can ask their local governments about new data center projects:

### **1. About water**

Does the permit say the cooling loop is closed, with maximum gallons per day, public metering and penalties? We have yet to find a binding closed-loop commitment in any permit. Who owns the aquifer data, and who pays for the test wells?

### **2. About power**

Electric cooperatives, unique to rural America, have long been a way for farmers and rural people to claw back some power over their destiny. These cooperatives were established with a “duty to serve” the areas that investor-owned utilities refused to serve because the load factors were low. By pooling their demand, cooperatives could connect their members to a grid and lower their prices.

In the age of artificial intelligence, public utilities—rural electric cooperatives included—face a dilemma. The more a cooperative buys from its wholesale supplier, the greater its load factor and therefore the lower the cooperative’s average cost of power. When a data center project fields new requests for power, it can be life changing. Having a client with a reliable 24/7 demand for electricity means a predictable increase in the co-op’s load factor. All that new volume could, in principle, make every member’s bill cheaper and bring new system upgrades. It’s tempting to shut up and take the deal.

But as with any gift horse, every farmer knows to check the teeth. Data centers often have greater access to capital than their would-be electric cooperative providers, and their rise as buyers means a shift in the balance of bargaining power in the marketplace. Will attitudes toward universal service obligations remain in place? Will consumer protection policies evolve? And which regulator should be responsible for developing and overseeing new industry guardrails?

Who pays for the substation and the lines? Port Washington, Wisconsin, found itself on the[ hook for a $90 million substation it did not need][38]. Is there a curtailment agreement[ cutting the data center first in a grid emergency][39], as Texas now requires of loads over 75 megawatts? Are residential rates fenced off in a separate rate class? And for rural electric cooperative members: Does the all-requirements wholesale contract cap the solar and wind members may build, and would a giant new load deepen that dependence? Why do big loads get lower per kilowatt prices as they increase their usage while conservation earns nothing? Will data centers inherit the same pricing structure?

### **3. About money**

What does each abatement cost per permanent job, when a hyperscale facility employs a few dozen people? Will advance payments be required to pay for infrastructure upgrades? Will they accept provisions for interruptible power during times of peak demand to prevent rolling blackouts? Are there clawbacks? Is there a decommissioning bond for the day the hardware is scrap, as we now demand of wind farms?

### **4. About democracy**

Did any utility or government official sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)? Can our county or township legally say no, and if not, which law took the power and who voted for it?

Everything CAFO country learned, it learned too late, after the wells were ruined, after the smell lowered adjacent property values and health outcomes, after the statutes were written. Data centers are arriving early enough that the questions can still be asked in time, even as the hyperscalers[ find friends in Washington, D.C][40]., and in statehouses around the country, who’ll say yes to them so that local communities won’t be able to say no.

If we want to prevent Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI from** **riding roughshod over our communities and land, it will be because average people, urban and rural alike, have joined forces to stop the trillionaire class from building their wealth off our backs.

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[1]: https://barnraisingmedia17744.activehosted.com/f/71
[2]: https://barnraisingmedia.com/category/agriculture/concentrated-animal-feeding-operations/
[3]: https://www.deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/water-resources/water-quality-permitting/animal-feeding-operations/program-summary
[4]: https://thefern.org/blog_posts/back-forty-how-chris-jones-found-his-voice-on-iowas-water-woes/
[5]: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/02/texas-data-centers-hood-county-local-control-rural-water-power/
[6]: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/06/24/poll-shows-most-texans-oppose-ai-data-centers/90678089007/
[7]: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/13/most-new-data-centers-in-the-us-are-coming-to-rural-areas/
[8]: https://barnraisingmedia.com/data-centers-are-reshaping-local-politics-in-the-great-lakes/
[9]: https://www.statesman.com/business/technology/article/san-marcos-data-center-rejected-21356764.php
[10]: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/30/texas-san-marcos-data-center-ban-zoning-laws/
[11]: https://texasscorecard.com/local/fort-worth-weighs-data-center-pause-as-zoning-rules-sent-back-to-council/
[12]: https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/working-cl
[13]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertszczerba/2026/07/22/130-billion-in-ai-data-centers-stalled-the-bottleneck-is-consent/
[14]: https://www.datacenterwatch.org/report
[15]: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/americans-wary-ai-driven-data-center-boom-reutersipsos-poll-shows-2026-06-11/
[16]: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-data-center-protests-go-national-backlash-grows-2026-07-18/
[17]: https://apnews.com/article/west-virginia-charleston-data-management-and-storage-legislation-general-news-b33c051439bd3694ee3f2b04981f4555
[18]: https://acre.wisc.edu/right-to-farm
[19]: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/05/texas-hill-county-moratorium-rescinded-data-centers/
[20]: https://texasscorecard.com/local/hood-county-rejects-citizen-pleas-for-moratorium-on-data-centers/
[21]: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/30/texas-san-marcos-data-center-ban-zoning-laws/
[22]: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2011/08/05/alec-exposed-protecting-factory-farms-and-sewage-sludge
[23]: https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2026/07/23/alec-caters-to-maga-big-oil-and-tech-industry-at-its-2026-annual-meeting/
[24]: https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2026/07/23/alec-caters-to-maga-big-oil-and-tech-industry-at-its-2026-annual-meeting/
[25]: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/30/texas-abbott-data-center-development-ban-rural-communities/
[26]: https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2026/governor-ron-desantis-signs-law-protect-floridians-subsidizing-data-centers
[27]: https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2026/05/04/michigan-governor-candidates-positions-on-data-centers/89860088007/
[28]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/climate/data-centers-pritzker.html
[29]: https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2023.B03002
[30]: https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/carto-boundary-file.html
[31]: https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2015/01/20/the-peoples-professor/
[32]: https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/cafopresumptionpetitionfinal_oct2022.pdf
[33]: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a46eae79d0e2484bb2909ce1fe8b8f52
[34]: https://caro.news/we-can-do-better-the-kingsboro-fight-against-environmental-racism/
[35]: https://www.theledgernews.com/news/volume-of-data-centers-rises-as-do-community-voices-leading-to-moratoriums-104b835a
[36]: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/how-loudoun-county-became-the-data-center-capital-of-the-world/4126916/
[37]: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/musk-xai-colossus-supercomputer-boxtown-memphis-tennessee-rcna206242
[38]: https://www.gmtoday.com/news_graphic/commentary/cloverleaf-infrastructure-port-washington/article_fb4006df-586f-5513-98e4-47e23e9d0916.html
[39]: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/texas-law-gives-grid-operator-power-to-disconnect-data-centers-during-crisi/751587/
[40]: https://issueone.org/press/big-tech-spends-millions-to-buy-influence-in-washington-in-first-half-of-2026/
[41]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/rural-residents-say-no-data-centers-ai-cafos/comments
[42]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/rural-residents-say-no-data-centers-ai-cafos?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share


https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/rural-residents-say-no-data-centers-ai-cafos

U.S. sanctions UK’s Palestine Action as “terrorist group”; ICE agent released from Texas jail; Russia threatens to strike UK military targets in Ukraine

Demonstrators protest outside the Royal Court's of Justice as the Court Of Appeal makes its judgement on the Home Office's challenge to the Palestine Action decision on June 15, 2026 in London, England. Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images.

**Thursday, August 27, 2026 –***** **Israeli drone strikes wound Palestinians in Gaza City and Khan Younis. Israeli settlers expand outpost in occupied West Bank; five Palestinians wounded in Hebron and Jerusalem. UN: Israel has killed at least 100 Palestinians in Gaza in last two weeks. Haaretz: Israel cultivating network of armed militias across Gaza. Israeli court acquits settler who attacked French nun. Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov discusses Trump's Board Gaza plan before UNSC. Gaza Board of Peace “failing” development chief tells Security Council. Palestinian envoy tells UNSC that Israeli annexation has reached point of no return. Canada revokes Jerusalem deputy mayor’s visa. Tanker hit by projectile while transiting Strait of Hormuz. Iranian warship confronts vessel in Hormuz. Drones shot down over Iraqi Kurdistan. Qatari, Iranian FMs meet in Tehran, discuss mine clearing and potential Hormuz corridor. U.S. officials signal readiness to attack Iran, though “prefer
diplomacy.” Iran says “hostile” Persian-language media could be “potential military targets.” IAEA’s chief says no “solid evidence” that Iran is rebuilding nuclear facilities. Araghchi calls U.S. sanctions “state and economic terrorism.” Iran cannot import enough petrol as a result of U.S. blockade. Pakistan says it is not bound by U.S. sanctions on Iran, and rejects reports that army chief visited Tehran as Trump's envoy. Ansarallah strikes Mokha port and Yemen’s western coast. Saudi-backed forces claim seizure of vessel carrying drone equipment to Ansarallah. Newlywed woman killed as Israel strikes southern Lebanon. U.S. designates three left-wing groups in Europe “terrorists”, including UK's Palestine Action. ICE agent Christian Castro released from Texas jail. Maine GOP governor nominee says he’ll seek ICE presence at polling places. Sen. Chris Van Hollen forces Senate resolution demanding accounting of Israel’s West Bank human rights record. Pentagon panel claims it found “hidden”
documents on Afghanistan withdrawal. West Point professor sues, says he was fired for refusing to omit climate science. Navy sailor who jumped overboard USS Abraham Lincoln faces disciplinary charges. Russia threatens to strike UK military targets. Israeli forces fire shells near Syrian town. Sudan’s army shoots down drone that crossed into Sudan from Ethiopia. Sudan’s RSF closes markets and cuts off internet in West Kordofan amid intensifying fighting. U.S. official condemns Sudanese Army strike in Chad. Democratic Republic of the Congo Suspends 11 Universities in M23-Held Goma and Bukavu. Taiwanese parliament rejects government's $6.6 billion military drone plan. Death toll from Nepal-China border floods rises to at least 353, with 826 missing. Nigerian kidnappers collected nearly $5.8 million in ransom over past year, report finds. Forest fires kill 12 in northeastern Algeria, dozens injured. WHO: Uganda's Ebola outbreak over, but DRC's continues to rise.*

**This is Drop Site Daily, our free news recap We send it Monday – Friday**

# Palestine

* **Israeli drone strikes wound Palestinians in Gaza City and Khan Younis:**

* Israeli drones [struck][1] a home in western Gaza City on Thursday morning, injuring several people, WAFA reported.
* A separate drone strike also hit a tent sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Strip, wounding several..
* **Israeli settlers expand outpost in occupied West Bank; five Palestinians wounded in Hebron and Jerusalem:**

* **Bethlehem:** Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, [continued expanding][2] an outpost in the Ush Ghrab area on Thursday, bringing in mobile homes and installing them at the site, WAFA reported. Settlers also raised Israeli flags along the road. The area, which includes an Israeli military base, had been designated around 15 years ago for a children’s hospital serving the Bethlehem governorate, but the project was never completed after settlers established an outpost there.
* **East Jerusalem: **Israeli soldiers [tear gassed][3] and fired upon Palestinians in Beit Anan on Wednesday evening, northwest of East Jerusalem, and injured two Palestinians during the raid, one of whom was shot in the knee.

* Israeli authorities [tightened][4] movement restrictions on Palestinian communities northwest of occupied East Jerusalem, requiring residents of Nabi Samwil, Beit Iksa and the Khalayleh neighborhood to obtain special permits to enter and leave their communities, with some families removed from lists allowing them access to their homes, according to the Jerusalem Governorate.
* **Hebron: **Israeli soldiers [shot][5] and wounded two women and a 14-year-old girl in Al-Kamel on Wednesday night, WAFA reported, during a raid on the town.** **The women were returning from a wedding when soldiers fired heavily at their vehicle without warning, according to the town’s mayor and husband of one of the wounded women. He said his 58-year-old wife and the 14-year-old girl suffered serious injuries to the face, while a 30-year-old woman was wounded by shrapnel.

* Also in the Hebron governorate,** **Israeli settlers [chased][6] Palestinian shepherds off their land near the village of Masafer Yatta on Wednesday, with several other incidents of theft, harassment, and military assistance of settlers reported in the area.
* **UN: Israel has killed at least 100 Palestinians in Gaza in last two weeks: **Israeli air strikes since August 12 have [killed][7] at least 100 Palestinians and wounded 400 others in Gaza, Ramiz Alakbarov, the acting UN special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday, noting that conditions remained “dire despite a nearly year-old ceasefire.”
* **Haaretz: Israel cultivating network of armed militias across Gaza: **A Haaretz investigation based on Israeli soldiers’ testimony, Palestinian sources, UN information, and satellite imagery [revealed][8] the extent of Israel’s cooperation with armed Palestinian militias in Gaza. Haaretz identified five prominent groups operating in areas under Israeli control, with apparent activity at a sixth location.

* The militias, which have regularly clashed with Hamas fighters, operate from compounds near Israeli military outposts and are integrated into IDF operations, with call signs on army radio networks and positions marked on military maps. Soldiers said Israel has built compounds for some groups, with others saying the IDF has provided artillery and drone support.
* Haaretz also documented accounts of militia members looting and burning Palestinian homes and helping force residents from their communities. “You see the State of Israel, the IDF and Shin Bet sending armed, trained militias to commit war crimes, and I’m the one who has to protect them during their operations so they don’t get hurt,” an Israeli air force officer said.
* **Israeli court acquits settler who attacked French nun: **The** **Jerusalem Magistrate Court [acquitted][9] Wednesday Yona Schreiber, a settler from the occupied West Bank settlement of Peduel, who assaulted a French Catholic nun near Jerusalem’s Old City earlier this year, finding him not responsible because of “mental illness.”

* Schreiber attacked the 48-year-old nun and researcher in April, pushing her to the ground, kicking her in the head and wounding her outside the Cenacle on Mount Zion.
* **Mladenov discusses Trump’s Board Gaza plan before UNSC: **Nickolay Mladenov, the “High Representative” for the Gaza Board of Peace, [spoke][10] before the the UN Security Council on Wednesday, telling the body that Hamas’s decision to disarm and transfer authority to a transitional administration would be an “opportunity to dramatically improve life in a sustainable way for Palestinians in Gaza”.

* In his testimony, he hailed Hamas’ acceptance of “complete demilitarization” of the Strip. Hamas has stressed that it has agreed for heavy weapons to be restricted and stored under the authority of a Palestinian committee governing Gaza.
* Mladenov claimed that “Three things must be in place for the process to move forward: the International Stabilization Force must deploy; Israel’s undertakings under the Sharm el-Sheikh protocol must be implemented; and Hamas must adhere to its commitments.”
* The representative said, in light of recent attacks on the Strip, that “Gaza does not have it in it to bear another catastrophe.” He tiptoed around Israel’s responsibility for carrying out these attacks, noting that Israel was “not a signatory” to the Board’s plans, having only affirmed its commitments verbally, and claimed that Israel’s present use of force in the Strip did not pose an “immediate threat” to peace.
* Mladenov [called][11] Israel’s policy on shelter, in light of the approaching winter, “not acceptable,” and urged Israel to “allow better shelter into the Strip for dignity, for health, and for safety.”
* Mladenov also issued a rare criticism of Israel’s continued airstrikes on Gaza, though he refrained from framing them as targeting civilians: “After three years of war and 20 years of military operations, I ask, will another strike on a munitions depot stop Hamas from rearming or tightening its grip on Gaza?” he said. “It will not. It only delays the demilitarization that would happen, and it obstructs the civilian transition that should take place to ensure that remilitarization will not be possible in the future.”
* Israel’s deputy UN ambassador, Noa Furman, also [spoke][12] before the body, saying that Hamas’s “disarmament must come first” before Gaza’s reconstruction can begin, while still claiming Israel remains committed to Trump’s plan.
* **Gaza Board of Peace “failing,” development chief tells Security Council: **Athena Rayburn, the executive director of the Association of International Development Agencies, [condemned][13] the U.S.-led Gaza Board of Peace for failing to stop Israel’s daily attacks on the Strip before the Security Council on Wednesday.

* She said that the Board had, as an institution, failed to provide “immediate protection, relief and safety for the civilian population” in Gaza in the short term, and seemed unable to move Gaza towards “the end of Israel’s unlawful presence and the realization of the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination.”
* Rayburn noted that, “the rights of Palestinians in Gaza have been made subordinate to the far-reaching, capricious and arbitrary requirements of its occupier,” and called the arrangement “untenable.”

* **Palestinian envoy tells UNSC that Israeli annexation has reached point of no return: **Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, also [spoke][14] before the UN Security Council on Wednesday, telling the body that Israel’s annexation of Palestinian land has reached a point of no return.

* “Annexation has long been under way, but Israel has now crossed the Rubicon when it comes to full-fledged, full-blown annexation with the release of the tenders for the E1 plan,” Mansour said. The E1 settlement project would effectively divide the occupied West Bank in two.

* **Canada revokes Jerusalem deputy mayor’s visa: **Canada has [removed][15] travel authorization for Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor Arieh King over his activities on behalf of illegal settlements on Tuesday, leading King to cancel a planned visit to Toronto and Montreal.

* King, an especially vocal advocate of settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, had been scheduled to attend a fundraising event in Canada for his settlement initiatives, the report said.

# Iran

* **Tanker hit by projectile while transiting Hormuz: **A tanker was struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz Tuesday, setting the vessel on fire, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency [reported][16] on Thursday. The attack caused no injuries to the crew and the fire has since been put out, local authorities said.
* **Iranian warship confronts vessel in Hormuz:** A “large Iranian Warship” [confronted][17] an Indian ship attempting to transit the southern U.S.-backed route in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

* The ship was deterred from passing through the Strait after receiving a warning, the agency said, alleging that no traffic had been observed through the southern route in the 24 hours preceding the confrontation.

* **Drones shot down over Iraqi Kurdistan: **At least one drone was [shot down ][18]near the village of Badalyan in Iraq’s Erbil governorate on Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera, which reported an attack on the area by two drones.

* The downed drone sparked a fire in the region. No casualties were reported from the attack. The attack reportedly targeted facilities belonging to Iranian Kurdish opposition parties.
* **Qatari, Iranian FMs meet in Tehran, discuss mine clearing and potential Hormuz corridor: **Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, [met][19] with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran on Thursday, a meeting during which, “the latest developments in the regional situation were reviewed, along with the efforts being made to reduce escalation and create appropriate conditions for dialogue,” according to a statement from Qatar’s Foreign Ministry.

* During the meeting, the ministers also discussed a “joint project” to clear mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and a “proposed interim framework” that would include the creation of a temporary shipping corridor through the Strait, according to the statement.
* **U.S. officials signal readiness to attack Iran, though “prefer diplomacy”: **U.S. President Donald Trump [told][20] Al Jazeera Wednesday he was “not in a hurry” to continue talks with Iran, and that he had “no time schedule” for their resumption. In a phone interview with the outlet, he claimed that military and economic measures against Iran had “both” been effective.

* During an interview on Newsmax, War Secretary Pete Hegseth assumed a more belligerent tone, saying that “by no means” had the U.S. “foreclosed using kinetic strikes anywhere in the Strait of Hormuz.”
* At a press conference with International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Rafael Grossi, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the administration “prefers diplomacy” with Iran, though it would strike Iran again to destroy its nuclear facilities “if necessary.”

* **Iran says “hostile” Persian-language media could be “potential military targets”: **Brigadier-General Abolfazl Shekarchi, the spokesperson for Iran’s armed forces, [accused][21] several Persian-language media outlets, including BBC Persian, Iran International, and Radio Farda, of direct connections to “Mossad, the CIA and enemy intelligence organizations,” on Wednesday, and said that these outlets and their employees could be considered military targets, according to AFP citing remarks on state television..
* **IAEA’s chief says no “solid evidence” that Iran is rebuilding nuclear facilities: **International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi [told][22] the Argentinian paper Clarin on Wednesday that there is no “solid evidence” to suggest that Iran is rebuilding its nuclear facilities following U.S. and Israeli attacks.

* “The facilities have suffered significant damage” he noted, saying that, though there is a possibility that Iran had begun to rebuild “some of their infrastructure,” no evidence exists of a resumed nuclear activity.
* Grossi also told the paper that Iran’s existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium remains buried following U.S. strikes during the Twelve-Day War last year.
* Iran’s atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami told Iran’s IRNA News Agency on Wednesday that the IAEA would not be able to inspect Iranian nuclear sites that have suffered attacks in recent months until it develops a specific inspection protocol for the sites which ensures their security.

* **Araghchi calls U.S. sanctions “state and economic terrorism”: **Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi [called][23] the newest wave of U.S. sanctions an “act of state and economic terrorism” in a Wednesday letter to the UN secretary-general, the Security Council and all UN member states.

* Araghchi accused the U.S. of seeking to “cut Iran’s lawful economic ties with other states” after failing to achieve its objectives through war or persuade other countries to join its campaign.
* “The sanctions deliberately harm civilians by restricting access to food, medicine, medical equipment, energy and other essentials, violating rights including the rights to life, health, food and an adequate standard of living,” he wrote in the letter.

* **Iran cannot import enough petrol as a result of U.S. blockade: **Iran has been [unable][24] to import enough petrol to offset reduced domestic production as a result of the U.S. naval blockade, Mohammad Jafar Ghaempah, a senior official, told IRNA.
* **Pakistan says it is not bound by U.S. sanctions on Iran, and rejects reports that army chief visited Tehran as Trump’s envoy: **At a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Taher Andarab [said][25] Pakistan does not believe Washington’s unilateral sanctions on Tehran adhere to international law and that issues should be resolved through dialogue.

* At the same conference, Andarab rejected reports that its army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, travelled to Iran earlier this week on Trump’s behalf, calling the claims “misleading and factually incorrect.”
* He said Munir’s visit was undertaken “purely in the context and backdrop of Pakistan’s ongoing role as mediator.”

# Yemen

* **Ansarallah strikes Mokha port and Yemen’s western coast: **Yemen’s Ansarallah fired ballistic missiles at Mokha port on Wednesday, with at least three missiles striking the port area and a fourth landing toward the Al-Barah intersection, a source from the Saudi-backed Yemeni army told Al Jazeera. At least five additional missiles struck the Al-Khawkhah area of Hodeidah governorate on Yemen’s western coast. There were no immediate reports of casualties or the extent of damage.
* **Saudi-backed forces claim seizure of vessel carrying drone equipment to Ansarallah: **Yemeni naval forces [claimed][26] they seized a vessel carrying drone-making equipment off the coast of Mokha in the Red Sea on Wednesday evening, alleging the shipment had been smuggled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was bound for Ansarallah, according to the Aden-based Saba news agency,

* Naval patrols also opened fire on five Ansarallah boats approaching islands overlooking the international shipping lane, forcing them north toward Hodeidah, and shot down a reconnaissance drone.

# Lebanon

* **Newlywed woman killed as Israel strikes southern Lebanon:**

* A newlywed woman was killed and others wounded Thursday when Israeli warplanes [struck][27] and destroyed her home in the center of Arabsalim in the Nabatieh district, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. The woman had been married just 48 hours ago. Israeli warplanes struck the town again less than 10 minutes later, while an Israeli drone carried out two strikes on Nabatieh Al-Fawqa.
* Earlier Thursday, Israeli warplanes [launched][28] two strikes on the Ali Al-Taher hills on the eastern outskirts of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, firing several missiles that caused large explosions.
* In Marjayoun, Israeli forces accompanied by tanks and military bulldozers [advanced][29] into the western outskirts of Mays Al-Jabal, in the Al-Dabsh area, as artillery struck several homes. Israeli forces also set homes on fire and bulldozed agricultural tents.

# U.S. News

* **U.S. designates three left-wing groups in Europe “terrorists”, including UK’s Palestine Action: **The U.S. State Department [designated][30] three European left-wing groups as “transnational terrorist organizations.”

* Two of the groups, **Palestine Action** and **Masar Badil**, are focused on activism in support of Palestine, and the third, **Autistici Inventati**, offers free digital tools to leftists around the world.
* The U.S. Treasury Department announced, in coordination with the State Department, that it would be imposing sanctions on the groups, allowing its OFAC to block the U.S. property of anyone who supports or is linked to any of the groups.
* Palestine Action, which describes itself as a “direct action movement committed to ending global complicity with Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime”, has also been banned in the UK, where it is based. The UK ban has been criticized by numerous human rights groups, including Amnesty International.
* In a statement to Al Jazeera, Palestine Action cofounder **Huda Ammori **has lambasted the U.S. for blacklisting the group as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”, saying it should serve as “a wake-up call to anyone who cares about free speech and civil liberties”.

* **ICE agent Christian Castro released from Texas jail:** Federal Judge** Fernando Rodriguez Jr.** ruled Wednesday in favor of Texas Gov. **Greg Abbott** in an extradition dispute with Minnesota, finding Minnesota had not proven Abbott acted wrongfully by delaying action on a request to return ICE agent **Christian Castro** to face four charges of assault in Minnesota.

* Rodriguez’s decision [resulted][31] in Castro’s release from a Texas jail Thursday under the state’s 90-day detention limit.
* Hennepin County Attorney **Mary Moriarty** warned the ruling risks letting Castro flee to Mexico, where he has discussed marrying a woman and buying a house.
* Minnesota Attorney General** Keith Ellison,** a Democrat, said he disagreed with Rodriguez’s ruling and would “continue litigating this case.”
* **Maine GOP governor nominee says he’ll seek ICE presence at polling places:** **Bobby Charles,** the Republican nominee for Maine governor, [told][32] supporters at an August 20 event that he plans to ask White House border czar **Tom Homan** to send ICE agents and U.S. marshals to Maine polling places ahead of this fall’s election, according to audio first reported by the Bangor Daily News and cited by NBC News.

* Charles later said the goal was to “prevent violence,” “intimidation,” and “illegality” at voting locations.
* Maine Secretary of State **Shenna Bellows** said in response to Charles’s remarks that ICE agents are legally barred from polling places.
* **Van Hollen forces Senate resolution demanding accounting of Israel’s West Bank human rights record:** Sen. **Chris Van Hollen** [plans][33] to introduce a privileged resolution Thursday, co-signed by 10 Senate Democrats, that would require the Trump administration to provide Congress with a detailed accounting of Israel’s human rights practices in the West Bank within 30 days, forcing a Senate vote regardless of Republican leadership’s cooperation.

* The resolution focuses on at least nine American citizens killed in the West Bank since January 2022, including** Aysenur Ezgi Eygi** and journalist **Shireen Abu Akleh**.
* Van Hollen said “if the United States Senate shines a spotlight on this, we will save lives.”
* **Pentagon panel claims it found “hidden” documents on Afghanistan withdrawal:** Pentagon spokesman **Sean Parnell**, who also chairs War Secretary** Pete Hegseth’s** review panel investigating the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, [said][34] Wednesday the probe uncovered “highly relevant, classified documents” that had been “stashed and hidden away in safes where they would not be found.”

* Parnell did not disclose the documents’ contents or say when they might be made public, adding only that “after the team reviewed these documents, it became clear why someone tried to hide them.”
* Parnell’s panel, launched by Hegseth in May 2025, has reviewed 9 million documents and completed interviews with military figures involved in the withdrawal, which Parnell has argued will be more thorough than a 2024 congressional Republican report he criticized as “over-classified.”
* **West Point professor sues, says he was fired for refusing to omit climate science**: Dr. **Adam Kalkstein**, a tenured West Point science professor, is [suing][35] the U.S. Military Academy after he says he was ordered to cut information about human-caused climate change from his curriculum and was later told his contract would not be renewed, according to The New York Times.

* Kalkstein, described by his attorney as a conservative Republican who believes understanding climate change is essential for national security matters like Arctic competition with Russia, said Brig. Gen. **Shane R. Reeves**, then West Point’s dean, stormed out of a meeting after Kalkstein declined a suggestion he resign.
* The lawsuit accuses the academy of violating his First Amendment rights by requiring him “to omit a massive, fundamental, essential component of the course and to defy science.”
* **Navy sailor who jumped overboard USS Abraham Lincoln faces disciplinary charges:** A sailor who threw himself overboard from the USS Abraham Lincoln earlier this month in what his wife described as a suicide attempt is now facing disciplinary charges from the Navy, [according][36] to MS NOW. The sailor is accused of “absence without leave” and “malingering,” which is defined as a service member “intentionally faking an illness or hurting themselves to avoid work, duty or service,” according to the sailor’s wife and charging documents.

📥 Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email DC Correspondent Julian Andreone at [email protected]

# Other International News

* **Russia threatens to strike UK military targets: **Russia [warned][37] Thursday that it could strike British military installations and equipment “in Ukraine and beyond its borders” in response to Ukrainian attacks inside Russia using British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

* Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused London of being “one step away” from legal complicity in what Moscow calls terrorism against Russian civilians and warned that Britain’s policy could escalate the war “to an entirely new level.”
* The threat followed Russia’s accusation that Ukraine fired Storm Shadows at a shopping center in Russian-controlled Donetsk, wounding civilians, including children. It also came days after Britain announced that Kyiv would receive classified technology to begin producing the long-range missiles domestically.
* **Israeli forces fire shells near Syrian town: **Israeli forces [fired][38] three artillery shells near the Syrian town of Beit Jinn, southwest of Damascus on Wednesday, the Syrian news agency ANHA reported.

* Israeli forces reportedly fired the shells from the occupied Golan Heights towards a strategic hill overlooking the town.
* Israeli forces have previously used the hill to stage raids on Beit Jinn, which an Israeli drone struck on Saturday.
* **Sudan’s army shoots down drone that crossed into Sudan from Ethiopia**: Sudan’s army [said][39] Thursday it shot down a hostile drone that crossed into southeastern Blue Nile state from Ethiopian territory, intercepting it north of Sarkam, marking the third such incident reported in the border area in recent days, according to Sudan Tribune.

* The military did not identify the drone’s operator, origin, or intended target.
* **RSF closes markets and cuts off internet in West Kordofan amid intensifying fighting: **Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) indefinitely [closed][40] all public markets and cut off Starlink internet access in Al-Nuhud, West Kordofan on Wednesday, according to the Dar Hamar Emergency Response Room, a local volunteer group.

* The group warned that the blackout disables mobile banking and remittance services residents depend on amid severe cash shortages. It also accused RSF forces of widespread looting and harassment and urged international humanitarian organizations to intervene
* **U.S. official condemns Sudanese Army strike in Chad: **U.S. advisor Massad Boulos [condemned][41] Sudan’s military for airstrikes inside Chad, writing on X on Wednesday that there is “absolutely no justification for expanding the violence beyond Sudan’s borders.”

* The Sudanese army says the August 20 strikes hit a Rapid Support Forces resupply convoy of roughly 200 combat vehicles moving from Libya’s Kufra region, Sudan Tribune reported.
* Chad’s army confirmed that aircraft “belonging to the Sudanese Armed Forces or forces supporting them” bombed a convoy more than 100 km inside its territory, and condemned it as a violation of its sovereignty.
* **DR Congo Suspends 11 Universities in M23-Held Goma and Bukavu: **The Democratic Republic of Congo has [suspended][42] academic operations until further notice at 11 public universities and institutes in Goma and Bukavu, two eastern cities controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23, the AFP reported on Wednesday. Registration, teaching, examinations and deliberations are suspended for 2026–2027, with students in their final year of school being sent to Kinshasa to complete their studies.

* **Taiwanese parliament rejects government’s $6.6 billion military drone plan: **Taiwan’s opposition-controlled parliament [rejected][43] the government’s proposed $6.6 billion special budget to acquire roughly 210,000 military drones through 2031, instead approving a smaller plan to acquire drones over the next six years.

* The government has argued the expansion is urgent given lessons from the wars in Ukraine and Iran and the growing threat from China. The defense ministry said its original plan had been coordinated with unnamed allied countries, while the United States has strongly backed Taiwan’s effort to build a large domestic drone force.
* **Death toll from Nepal-China border floods rises to at least 353, with 826 missing**: Nepal Police [reported][44] at least 353 dead and 826 missing Thursday following a catastrophic glacial-collapse flood that swept through communities the day before, according to CBS News, while Chinese state broadcaster CCTV separately reported 558 people missing in Tibet, including 260 foreigners.

* The tourism board later said 27 foreign nationals, including two Americans, had been rescued from Nepal’s Rasuwa district.
* The U.S. Geological Survey revised its initial assessment of a magnitude 4.4 earthquake to instead identify a magnitude 5.2 glacial collapse as the cause.
* **Nigerian kidnappers collected nearly $5.8 million in ransom over past year, report finds**: Nigerian kidnappers [collected][45] roughly $5.79 million in ransom payments between July 2025 and June 2026, according to a report from security consultancy SBM Intelligence.

* 7,825 people were kidnapped between July 2025 and June 2026, up 66% from the year before, according to the report, with at least 1,142 people killed in the region.
* A faction of Boko Haram collected 90% of recorded ransom payments, roughly 7 billion naira, largely from two mass kidnappings involving more than 300 victims each.
* **Forest fires kill 12 in northeastern Algeria, dozens injured**: Forest fires [killed][46] 12 people and injured dozens across northeastern Algeria’s Bejaia, Jijel, and Tizi Ouzou provinces Wednesday, according to Interior Minister Said Sayoud.

* 54 people were being treated for burns, including six serious cases, at a hospital in Bejaia, where an eight-year-old boy and a 22-year-old woman were among the dead, according to local radio.
* Algeria has recorded nearly 2,000 fires nationwide this year, part of a pattern authorities and scientists say climate change is intensifying through more frequent droughts and heat.
* **WHO: Uganda’s Ebola outbreak over, but DRC’s continues to rise**: The World Health Organization declared Uganda’s Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak over, following the country’s own July 28 declaration after 20 cases and two deaths, but WHO official Dr. Marie Roseline Belizaire [said][47] the outbreak remains uncontrolled in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where cases continue to climb despite some progress.

* The Congolese outbreak, now the second-deadliest in history, has caused more than 2,700 deaths and 5,600 cases as of Tuesday.

📖 **[READ][48] **Elements of Venezuelan Government Loyal to Chavismo Warn of Possible U.S. Assault

📖 **[READ][49] **Pakistani “Double-Tap” Strike in June Wrought Havoc on Afghan Villagers

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[1]: https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/174142
[2]: https://www.wafa.ps/news/2026/8/27/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B5%D9%84%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D8%A4%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%81%D8%B9%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-152893
[3]: https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/174127
[4]: https://www.facebook.com/jergover/posts/%D8%AD%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%B2-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%AA%D8%B9%D8%B2%D9%84-%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%89-%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B3-%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%8A%D9%8F%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B9%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A5%D9%84%D9%89-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%84%D9%87%D9%85%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B4/1409884991328873/
[5]: https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/174133
[6]: https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/174124
[7]: https://palestine.un.org/en/321745-alakbarov-more-10-months-ceasefire-situation-unacceptable
[8]: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2026-08-27/ty-article-magazine/gaza-israel-sending-militias-commit-war-crimes-i-have-to-protect-them/0000019f-f0f0-df61-a3ff-f9fe6ca70000
[9]: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwl54kddeko
[10]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092779413599322219
[11]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092782668320485689
[12]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092782668320485689
[13]: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/08/1168204?ifr-dir-postId=66ce9b8b-7412-4255-8888-0a2b5e2e6236
[14]: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/08/1168204?ifr-dir-postId=89324912-e955-4699-8c1f-3a6ddb7214aa
[15]: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/canada-bars-jerusalem-deputy-mayor-arieh-king-entering-country-war-crimes
[16]: https://x.com/UK_MTO/status/2092777815103901864
[17]: https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/iranian-warship-confronts-vessel-attempting-hormuz-transit
[18]: https://aje.news/l5td90?update=4888250
[19]: https://x.com/MofaQatar_EN/status/2092945465977221478
[20]: https://aje.news/l5td90?update=4886697
[21]: https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1545690/iran-says-persian-language-media-outlets-abroad-on-military-target-list.html
[22]: https://www.clarin.com/mundo/entrevista-optimista-rafael-grossi-argentino-carrera-liderar-onu-asegura-candidatura-fuerte-solida_0_Aj3zjqv47C.html
[23]: https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/iran-calls-us-sanctions-economic-000337370.html
[24]: https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/iran-says-us-naval-blockade-limiting-petrol-imports
[25]: https://www.app.com.pk/national/afghan-dialogue-linked-with-verifiable-anti-terror-action-makkah-agreement-open-to-states-with-common-security-interests-fo/
[26]: https://www.sabanew.net/story/en/151401
[27]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/559828/%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B4%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B9%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B3-%D9%88%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%AD-%D8%A2%D8%AE%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%B5%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85-2
[28]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/559698/%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B5%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%A7-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%AC-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D9%86%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%B7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%88%D9%82%D8%A7-2
[29]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/559773/%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%BA%D9%84-%D9%84%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%88-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D8%B7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%81-%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%A8%D9%84-%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%81-%D9%88%D8%AC%D8%B1%D9%81-%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%82-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%84-%D9%88%D8%AE%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%B2%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%A9-2
[30]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/26/us-imposes-sanctions-on-palestine-action-and-other-left-wing-groups
[31]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/08/27/ice-agent-wanted-shooting-immigrant-minneapolis-is-released/
[32]: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/gop-nominee-maine-governor-calls-ice-agents-state-polling-places-rcna594589
[33]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/us/politics/senate-democrats-israel-human-rights.html
[34]: https://www.notus.org/foreign-policy/afghanistan-withdrawal-pentagon-files
[35]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/us/politics/west-point-climate-professor-lawsuit.html
[36]: https://www.ms.now/news/navy-sailor-jumped-overboard-uss-lincoln-discipline-punishment
[37]: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-it-could-strike-uk-military-targets-response-ukrainian-strikes-using-2026-08-27/
[38]: https://hawarnews.com/en/israeli-strike-on-beit-jinn-vicinity-and-incursion-into-quneitra-countryside
[39]: https://sudantribune.com/article/317947
[40]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092724544431616281
[41]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092794302116028509
[42]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092737304653709767
[43]: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/taiwan-parliament-approves-military-drone-spending-rejects-special-budget-2026-08-27/
[44]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nepal-tibet-missing-flash-flooding-mud-flow-glacier-collapse/
[45]: https://www.internazionale.it/ultime-notizie-reuters/2026/08/26/nigerian-gunmen-raise-over-5-million-from-mass-kidnappings-study-finds
[46]: https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20260826-wildfires-algeria-severe-heatwave-sweeps-north-africa
[47]: https://www.internazionale.it/ultime-notizie-reuters/2026/08/26/who-says-ebola-outbreak-in-uganda-over-as-cases-continue-to-rise-in-congo
[48]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/venezuela-maduro-juan-contreras-trump-oil
[49]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/pakistan-double-tap-afghanistan-samkani
[50]: https://shop.dropsitenews.com/products/drop-news-not-bombs-hoodie
[51]: https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbC8sIT2Jl8B4r4N202q
[52]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/account
[53]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/account


https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/us-sanctions-palestine-action-ice-texas-russia-uk-ukraine

Elements of Venezuelan Government Loyal to Chavismo Warn of Possible U.S. Assault

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Chavista activists and representatives from various state institutions gather at the 23 de Enero housing complex to commemorate the 72nd birthday of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 28, 2026. Photo by Diko Betancourt/Anadolu via Getty Images.

Leaders of a key local stronghold in Caracas have been warned that the U.S. is planning a joint operation to root out resistance and eliminate the leadership of the 23 de Enero Parish, Juan Contreras, the main spokesperson of the Simón Bolívar Coordinator, a 33-year-old grassroots organization, told Drop Site News.

According to elements of the Venezuelan government loyal to Chavismo, the political movement associated with former President Hugo Chávez, U.S. agencies are developing plans for a “large-scale operation” targeting the well-organized working-class stronghold, said Contreras, a prominent political organizer and parish leader who served as a deputy in the National Assembly between 2010 and 2015.

The State Department did not answer questions about the allegations.

23 de Enero is a densely populated, hilly parish characterized by large public housing blocks and a thriving political life. Its proximity to Miraflores Palace and key military posts makes it strategically important, and since 1998 it has served as an ideological stronghold for Chavismo, carrying a legacy of popular struggle from the fall of the Pérez Jiménez dictatorship in 1958 through the armed resistance movements of the 1960s–1980s against police persecution and neoliberal policies. That legacy proved decisive during the 2002 U.S.-backed coup, when residents from the city’s lower income areas helped secure Chávez’s return to power. Today, the parish is home to numerous assembly-driven organizations, including communes that are leading the country’s socialist aspirations.

Contreras said the information reached the Coordinator “directly through an internal source linked to patriotic officials” connected to Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Police (PNB). In a [communiqué][3] published June 3, the Coordinator warned of the rumored joint operation between the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the PNB’s Special Tactical Operations Unit (UOTE), operating from command centers in Flores de Catia, a sector geographically contiguous with the 23 de Enero. Since then, according to the Simón Bolívar Coordinator, the information has been corroborated by the group’s longstanding connections inside the Venezuelan state.

“To try to neutralize us, they intend to use rotten sectors of the police apparatus in complicity with the DEA, attempting to impose the same infamous narrative and framework they used to justify the act of war on January 3,” Contreras said, warning that Washington may attempt to “falsely link social organizations with drug trafficking and crime.” Contreras said this was the same playbook used when the U.S. branded the Nicolás Maduro government a “cartel” to justify the abduction and transfer of the Venezuelan president and his wife National Assembly deputy Cilia Flores to stand trial in New York on alleged “narcoterrorism” charges. The presidential couple has pleaded not guilty and their trial is scheduled to begin on June 1, 2027.

The DEA declined to comment.

According to Oswaldo Rivero, a popular communicator who [reports][4] on the daily struggles of working-class Venezuelans, the security forces still include officers or sectors who hail from the country’s Fourth Republic (1958–1998), when popular leaders from the 23 de Enero parish were targeted, imprisoned, and tortured. Rivero himself was a political prisoner in the 1980s and 1990s.

“Many of those torturers, those who persecuted us back then, remain within the State security forces; they remain within the intelligence agencies,” Rivero told Drop Site.

In 2009, Hugo Chávez created the PBN in an effort to reform the security forces of the Fourth Republic, including the Metropolitan Caracas Police and the DISIP intelligence agency, which had a history of human rights abuses involving the persecution, torture and disappearance of guerrilla, left-wing and union activists. Many PNB commanders and officers have since been accused of human rights violations.

The abduction of Maduro and Flores has been widely rejected by the Venezuelan Chavista grassroots, calling for their liberation and return to Venezuela. The U.S. justified the military strike on Venezuela on the basis that it was a “law enforcement” operation.

“The accusations of narcoterrorism [against Maduro and Flores] are a blatant lie that the U.S. used as an excuse to steal our oil and mineral wealth,” said Contreras, known for his long-standing popular leadership in 23 de Enero, where he grew up and still lives.

Some in the 23 de Enero parish fear that the fight against narcotrafficking will now be used as a smokescreen to dismantle decades of community organizing to advance grassroots democracy, community-run production enterprises, political formation, and self-determination within their own territories. These self-organized community organizations now stand as one of the last bastions of resistance to the U.S. agenda inside Venezuela.

“They want to strike the cornerstones of the Bolivarian Revolution: the communal councils, the communes, the social movements, and historical organizations like our Simón Bolívar Coordinator and other forces that work on this territory,” Contreras said.

Chavista activists and representatives from various state institutions, including Caracas Mayer Carmen Melendez and Tachira state Gov. Fredy Bernal, gather at the 23 de Enero housing complex to commemorate the 72nd birthday of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 28, 2026. Photo by Diko Betancourt/Anadolu via Getty Images.

**What Makes 23 de Enero a Target?**

The Simón Bolívar Coordinator has a decades-long history of armed resistance within 23 de Enero. Founded in 1993, it united Marxist-Leninist guerrilla groups to prioritize a more cohesive political organization mobilizing the popular vote that eventually saw the victory of the Chávez-led Fifth Republic Movement.

Today, the Coordinator represents one of the few remaining sources of independent political power in a country firmly in the grasp of Washington. It runs social programs, political education, territorial organizing and defense, and supports communities building self-governing collectives. With the 23 de Enero’s and the Coordinator’s history and proximity to power, controlling or destabilizing the territory would directly pressure the Venezuelan government.

According to Contreras, the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, in office by Constitutional mandate since January 5, is aware of the Coordinator’s public concerns about the community’s safety and recently sent a top political representative “who formally committed to thoroughly investigating the situation.”

The Rodríguez government did not respond to questions for this article.

“We understand this is also part of the cognitive warfare intended to instill fear and demobilize,” said Contreras, hinting that the U.S. may be trying to create friction between the government and its political grassroots, which remain an important pillar of support.

In Venezuela, the communal project and popular movement has its own ministry, electoral processes, and leverage over political and economic decisions, making them a likely target of U.S. action.

The Simón Bolívar Coordinator and other collectives have reinforced community surveillance to monitor unusual police or vehicle movements at parish entry points. Security committees from community councils and communes are holding regular assemblies and have increased protection for communal spaces such as radio stations, soup kitchens, cultural centers, and organizational headquarters.

Following Maduro’s removal, the Trump administration began enforcing a strict naval blockade and operational control over Venezuela’s oil exports, with the proceeds being deposited into U.S.-controlled accounts overseen by the U.S. Treasury Department. The Trump administration has collected more than [$13 billion][5] from Venezuelan oil sales, according to a [Financial Times][6] estimate, but has not disclosed how that money is being used. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress in June that the money is being held in a Citibank account and that disbursements are audited by the accounting firm KPMG. Caracas must submit specific requests to Washington to receive allocations of its own oil revenue, and disbursements are reportedly limited to essential civic functions.

Washington has reiterated that a “[three-phase process][7]” of “stability, recovery, and transition” is underway. The Rodríguez administration, balancing U.S. pressure and a desire to survive, has begun extensive domestic and economic reconfiguration.

Under the unequal partnership, Rodríguez has restored diplomatic ties with Washington and carried out reforms to key legislation, such as the historical hydrocarbon and mining laws, allowing for long-term concessions for the entry of private and foreign capital, establishing new tax and royalty schemes, and international dispute resolution mechanisms. The changes have undermined Venezuelan sovereignty over its natural resources.

These overtures fall under the new cooperation agenda ushered in since January 3. But in this context, cooperation becomes a “relative term” because the Rodríguez administration “has very little choice” in the matter, according to Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities.

“Washington now effectively controls Venezuela’s oil revenue and decides how, when and where it will be allocated. Caracas simply cannot afford to ignore Washington, let alone defy it, because doing so would jeopardize much of its national budget and further strain an economy that is as vulnerable today as it was when Nicolás Maduro was in power,” DePetris told Drop Site.

This dynamic is ultimately one-sided, DePetris explained. “The Trump administration will continue to use control over Venezuela’s oil revenue as a pressure tactic, both to reward the Venezuelan government when it complies with U.S. demands and to punish it when those demands aren’t met.”

**U.S.-Venezuela Military Cooperation**

The newly established cooperation between the U.S. and Venezuela covers a wide range of issues and has recently involved military and intelligence cooperation to counter alleged drug trafficking. This makes the warnings from 23 de Enero even more urgent. On June 12, the Venezuelan government announced that it had carried out a joint operation with the U.S. military to strike and dismantle criminal groups operating in the mineral-rich southeastern Bolívar state, where illegal mining has increased amid the economic crisis in recent years.

Venezuela’s Communication Ministry announced that clashes had resulted in the death of Héctor “El Niño” Guerrero, the leader of an unspecified criminal organization, while President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social that Guerrero was the [leader][8] of the defunct Tren de Aragua gang—a group the administration has falsely linked to President Maduro and to migrant and drug trafficking operations targeting the United States.

Caracas said the operation involved intelligence-sharing and technological cooperation. The Washington Post, citing a senior U.S. administration official, [reported][9] that the CIA provided the intelligence leading to the strike.

Prior to the operation, General Dan Caine, the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conducted a one-day visit to Caracas on June 3 while Rodríguez was on an official trip to India. Caine met with U.S. staff and [Marines][10] stationed at the U.S. Embassy in the Colinas de Valle Arriba urbanization in Caracas. The general held bilateral discussions with [Oliver Blanco][11], the recently appointed Vice Minister for Europe and North America and a figure who hails from the moderate opposition, on security and strengthening cooperation mechanisms. The Venezuelan government did not issue an official statement.

Caine’s visit and the joint military operation in Bolívar state confirmed the close collaboration of U.S. intelligence and military forces with Venezuela’s security apparatus. This follows the controversial U.S. military exercise carried out on May 23, during which two U.S. aircraft flew over the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, and Marines disembarked in the building’s parking lot.

“For the [Chavista] militant factions, seeing U.S. aircraft legally flying over the skies of Caracas was received as a very harsh symbolic blow and a capitulation to foreign domination,” Contreras said.

Following the deadly double earthquakes that struck Caracas and La Guaira on June 24, Washington deployed approximately 900 military personnel to La Guaira and stationed naval vessels off Venezuela’s coast, citing relief and rescue operations as justification, according to SOUTHCOM spokesperson Steven McLoud. The Rodríguez administration has dismissed the threat of an imminent occupation and stated that Venezuelan authorities maintain command over the country’s emergency response and reconstruction efforts.

According to SOUTHCOM, its operations with the U.S. Air Force included [assisting][12] Venezuelan aviation officials with air traffic control and ground operations at Simón Bolívar International Airport, with a stated aim of clearing bottlenecks for humanitarian aid cargo.

On July 21, as relief operations wound down, the Marine Corps’ Maritime Raid Force (MRF) [conducted exercises][13] off the coast of La Guaira to simulate a maritime interdiction. Since September, the U.S. military, operating under the rubric of Operation Southern Spear, has carried out dozens of strikes against small boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific, killing at least 227 people. In a July report, the Washington Office on Latin America [described][14] the bombings as “murder under domestic law and extrajudicial killings under international human rights law.”

**Political Tensions**

The Rodríguez government has faced strong criticism for its compliance with the Trump administration, the recent military cooperation and the steady stream of U.S. officials, including CIA director John Ratcliffe, and corporate representatives who have visited Caracas to reach energy and mining agreements. More recently, the government has faced scrutiny over the presence of Israeli officials, the reestablishment of diplomatic ties with Israel at a consular level, and an AIPAC-sponsored visit of U.S. lawmakers.

In the aftermath of January 3 kidnapping of Maduro, the acting administration forcefully condemned the U.S. for violating Venezuela’s sovereignty, but has since rapidly normalized ties with the U.S. to maintain internal political and economic stability, while calling on the Chavista grassroots not to fall for divisive narratives and rejecting accusations of foreign tutelage. In August, a government delegation led by National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez began talks with the former opposition-majority parliament elected in 2015, which is still recognized by the U.S. The first agreements centered around judicial reforms and recovering 31 tons of gold withheld by the Bank of England since 2019.

The majority of grassroots organizations, especially communes and social movements such as Alba Movimientos, view this period as a necessary strategy: negotiating with the erratic Trump administration to buy time for Chavismo to regroup under more favorable conditions.

Contreras described the government’s decisions as a “complex and painful reorganization” undertaken to prevent a full-scale military escalation and to sustain the state apparatus.

“The main contradiction today lies between the institutional leadership, which seeks avenues for coexistence and negotiation with the occupying power, and a grassroots community that resents the loss of sovereignty and the surrender of strategic resources, and is seeking autonomous ways to reorganize popular resistance,” he said.

[1]: https://givebutter.com/dsn-substack
[2]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe?
[3]: https://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2026/06/04/venezuela-grave-denuncia-de-organizaciones-chavistas-pretenden-preparar-un-operativo-represivo-a-gran-escala-contra-la-emblematica-y-luchadora-parroquia-23-de-enero-advierten-tambien-que-la-de/
[4]: https://www.instagram.com/laotratvfvh/?hl=es
[5]: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/27/trump-says-us-has-sold-more-than-13-billion-of-venezuela-oil-.html
[6]: https://www.ft.com/content/0e562e03-106e-4729-83d7-675c27eb8c4d
[7]: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rubio-says-us-plan-venezuela-is-stability-recovery-then-transition-2026-01-07/
[8]: https://www.ice.gov/most-wanted/hector-rusthenford-guerero-flores
[9]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/06/13/us-forces-kill-venezuelan-tren-de-aragua-gang-leader-trump-says/
[10]: https://x.com/thejointstaff/status/2062277338659004865
[11]: https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/viceministro-venezolano-niega-militancia-chavista-y-aboga-por-pol%C3%ADtica-exterior-%22firme%22/90986706
[12]: https://x.com/Southcom/status/2081756503841841341
[13]: https://x.com/The24MEU/status/2079610639467561147
[14]: https://www.wola.org/analysis/killing-spree-extrajudicial-executions-in-the-u-s-boat-strikes-campaign/


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Pakistani “Double-Tap” Strike in June Wrought Havoc on Afghan Villagers

Afghan families along with children escape from the area amid the ongoing clashes between Pakistani forces and Taliban security personnel in the Samkani district of Paktia province on March 6, 2026. Photo by AFP via Getty Images.

*Story by Fazelminallah Qazizai*

GARDEZ, Afghanistan—Dr. Amanullah Aman, medical director of Paktia Central Hospital in Afghanistan, was asleep at home with his children when he received a phone call in the early morning hours of June 29**.**

On the other end was Dr. Masoom Sahak, the physician on duty at the hospital that night. The news was urgent: a Pakistani airstrike had struck the Samkani district and dozens of people were believed to be wounded or killed. The local hospital was already overwhelmed with patients being transported via ambulances with traumatic injuries.

The attack on Samkani was part of a wider Pakistani operation across the eastern Afghan provinces of Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar that night. Pakistan said the strikes targeted camps belonging to the militant group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), [claiming][1] that 25 militants were killed.

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According to Islamabad, the operation was launched in response to TTP attacks inside Pakistan, including an [assault][3] on a regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi the previous day. Pakistan has been faced with an increasing number of militant attacks in recent months, including ambushes and attacks on police stations near its border with Afghanistan, raising domestic pressure to suppress the attacks.

But Afghan authorities said that residential areas in Samkani were struck by Pakistani aircraft, and that the victims included women and children. According to locals, the first Pakistani jet struck the area shortly before midnight, killing a child and burying others in the debris of what had been their home.

As the loudspeakers of the village’s mosques called out across the area to alert others to what had happened, neighbors rushed to the scene of the bombing with shovels and bare hands to dig through the debris. It was then that the second bomb fell.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan [later][4] confirmed that two successive strikes had hit the residential area in Samkani. Its initial investigation documented at least 22 civilians killed and 47 wounded, including women and children, although it warned that those figures were preliminary. A subsequent UN account said that five children were among the dead and that most of the casualties [occurred][5] during the second strike, while local people were trying to rescue victims from the rubble.

On the night of the attacks, Dr. Aman had rushed through the corridors to organize his staff. He instructed the entrance team on how to direct and park the incoming vehicles, then waited in front of the emergency gate for their arrival. At 3:30 in the morning, as the first call to prayer echoed across the city, the caravan of wounded began arriving at Paktia Central Hospital. They came in local cars, not professional ambulances.

“Some of the wounded were transferred with their intestines exposed. Some were bleeding or burned by flames,” Dr. Aman later recalled. Among them were children, women, and old men.

The hospital declared an emergency and patients who had just undergone operations hours earlier were sent home to make space. The emergency room, recovery wards, and even hallways quickly filled with the wounded. Additional beds were ordered for every room and corridor, and stretchers were brought in to accommodate the overwhelming numbers.

Dr. Aman and his team worked without rest and some of his nurses and orthopaedic specialists performed as many as nineteen surgeries without a single break. They had no breakfast, no lunch—pushing themselves to the brink of exhaustion.

“We called on doctors from the private hospital to help,” said Dr. Aman. “The corridors were covered in blood. The cleaners worked just to clean the blood. Even the guards were busy cleaning.” Of the critically wounded, 20 were sent to Kabul by helicopter, and four others by road ambulance.

In total, 74 wounded reached the hospital, according to Dr. Aman. Twenty-five required operations—cases of blunt trauma, broken limbs, and head injuries. Four of them died at the hospital.

Dr. M. Farooq Samimi, another doctor on duty, later said: “I saw patients that I had never seen before—they were all [braindead], deadly injured or beyond repair. When I saw them, it was heartbreaking.”

Dr. Aman credits the mass casualty management training provided by the World Health Organization for helping his team cope. “We were trained for natural and human-made disasters,” he said. “That training helped us a lot.”

The doctors also worked with the ever-present dread that the hospital itself may be targeted at any moment by Pakistani jets. “My staff were worried. There were rumors that the hospital would be bombed next,” Dr. Amanullah said. The doctors and nurses worked through the fear.

The Samkani attack was just one episode in a conflict that has been escalating for months. Between October 2025 and the end of June 2026, UN investigators documented 499 civilians killed and 1,216 wounded inside Afghanistan during fighting with Pakistan.

Pakistan has disputed the UN’s findings, maintaining that its operations had been directed exclusively at militant hideouts, sanctuaries, and support infrastructure.

Those denials mean little to many Afghans, who accuse Pakistan of waging a war against the Afghan population writ large while using the presence of militants as an excuse to violently settle long-standing territorial disputes between the two neighbors.

The Taliban-led Afghan government has vowed revenge for the attacks, with government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denouncing the Pakistani campaign as a war of aggression. The Pakistani attacks on its neighbor also come as the country engages in a widening crackdown internally, including mass killings of demonstrators in Kashmir and the ongoing suppression of a nascent insurgency in Balochistan.

In recent weeks the aerial campaign appears to have paused, but Afghan officials have accused Pakistan of launching armed incursions into the country aimed at exacerbating local tribal conflicts, a charge that the Pakistani government has denied.

The Pakistani attacks on Afghanistan have taken a toll on an already war-weary population still recovering from the legacy of a two-decade long U.S.-occupation of their country. On August 23, local news outlets [reported][6] that another victim of the double-tap strike in Samkani who had been wounded in the attack had succumbed to their injuries, nearly two months after the bombing.

The report added, “some of the injured are in such difficult financial circumstances that they cannot even afford ordinary povidone iodine for dressing and treating their wounds.”

When Dr. Aman finally returned home to rest after treating the victims of the Samkani attack on the night of the June 29,** **he tied a cloth around his legs. He had walked too much between the wards, trying to find space for the wounded. “We wanted to cry,” he said, “but we had no time for it.”

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[1]: https://www.investing.com/news/world-news/pakistan-forces-kill-29-militants-in-border-operation-kabul-says-dozens-of-civilians-dead-4765167
[2]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe?
[3]: https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-operation-afghanistan-border-killed-fab8de4e4e82590da5a259587e0b84ff
[4]: https://unama.unmissions.org/en/node/136081
[5]: https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-pakistan-fighting-human-rights-women-ea3b44f95662e38f189d9888a3193629
[6]: https://ranatv.com/fear-of-the-use-of-banned-weapons-victims-of-pakistans-airstrike-in-paktias-chamkani-still-face-serious-treatment-challenges/
[7]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/pakistan-double-tap-afghanistan-samkani/comments
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Meta settles social media addiction suit; Canada strikes back in U.S. trade war; at least 95 killed in Nepal flash flood

An aftermath view of flash flood and mudslides on the Nepal-China border on August 26, 2026 in Nuwakot, Nepal. Photo by Safal Prakash Shrestha/Anadolu via Getty Images.

**Wednesday, August 26, 2026 –***** **Israeli strikes kill six Palestinians in Gaza, wound pregnant woman. Israeli attacks in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. UN chief “greatly alarmed” as Israeli forces seize UNRWA’s oldest training center. President Donald Trump’s Gaza Board warns Hamas over kites as Israel continues strikes. Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz visits troops illegally occupying Syria. Israel expels Dutch officials from U.S.-backed Gaza center over settlement trade ban. Forty-one U.S. lawmakers call for the release of Palestinian-American student. Iran and Oman discuss phased Hormuz deal. China condemns latest wave of Iran sanctions. Regional oil exports plunge, with Saudi and Iranian exports first among losers. Iraq loads largest single-day oil shipment. Iran says U.S. minesweepers would be “very good targets.” Iran slams U.S. sanctions as global coercion. Israel continues assault on southern Lebanon despite “ceasefire.” Meta agrees to up to $17.1 billion
settlement with 47 states over child safety claims. Tuesday’s primary results. Second “Dan Sullivan” advances to Alaska Senate ballot. Canada announces up to 50% retaliatory tariffs on American goods. ICE arrests hit record 49,571 in July. Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers attends spate of AIPAC fundraisers in L.A as part of Senate campaign. Pro-Israel Democrats win key posts on House Foreign Affairs Committee. CIA director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow, holds talks with Russian intelligence officials. Ukrainian drones destroy Wildberries warehouse, strike Russian oil refinery. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu orders rescue operation after possible mass kidnapping of 600 in Nigeria. Nepal flash flood kills at least 95, hundreds missing. At least 14 infants killed in Islamabad hospital fire. Ethnic attacks in South Kordofan kill 27 civilians, including 4 children. Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces dissolve, folding fighters into Syria’s army. Sikh separatist leader warned of new credible death
threat by FBI, Canadian police.*

**This is Drop Site Daily, our free news recap We send it Monday – Friday**

# Palestine

* **Killed and wounded in Gaza:** Over the past 24 hours, seven Palestinians were killed—five in new Israeli attacks and two due to wounds sustained in earlier attacks—and 10 were injured in attacks across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. One body was recovered from beneath the rubble.

* The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,438 killed, with 174,447 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,303 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 4,336, while 814 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.
* **Israeli strikes kill six Palestinians, wound pregnant woman: **At least one Palestinian was killed and several others wounded in an Israeli strike Wednesday on a tent sheltering displaced people in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, Al Jazeera reported. A pregnant woman was wounded in a separate Israeli strike on Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

* On Tuesday, Israeli forces [killed][1] four Palestinians and wounded others in the Jabalia refugee camp, with airstrikes hitting an area near the Abu Hussein schools. Drop Site’s Mohamed Ahmed reported from the scene. One resident, whose brother was killed in the attack, told Ahmed that “Every hour there is another attack.” “Whether there’s a ceasefire or not, it’s the same. There is no difference,” he said. **Watch Ahmed’s video dispatch [here][2].**
* A separate Israeli strike on Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis killed another Palestinian.
* **Israeli attacks in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem:**

* **Nablus: **An Israeli settler abducted two young brothers while they were traveling on the road linking Asira Al-Shamaliya to Nablus on Wednesday, WAFA reported, after stopping their truck and seizing its keys.** **Israeli settlers also [attacked][3] a home in Madama on Tuesday evening, with gunshots heard in the area. Israeli lawmaker Tzvi Succot was [filmed][4] taking a sledgehammer to a Palestinian memorial in the same village, while Israeli soldiers and police stood guard.

* In Qusra, Israeli forces [installed][5] a gate on the only remaining road leading to three homes in Ras Al-Ain, south of Nablus, that have been under siege by Israeli settlers and soldiers for 18 consecutive days, WAFA reported. The other roads leading to the area have already been blocked with earth mounds, effectively isolating the three families, who are facing shortages of food and medicine.
* **Tulkarm: **Israeli forces [raided][6] the Shuweika suburb of Tulkarm on Tuesday, ransacked several shops, and detained two young men after assaulting them, WAFA reported.
* **Bethlehem:** On Tuesday, Israeli settlers [attacked][7] a three-person AFP team covering settler attacks on Palestinians in the village of Jannatah, near Bethlehem, in violence that injured at least five people, AFP and medics said.
* **East Jerusalem: **Israeli forces shot and [wounded][8] a Palestinian child on Tuesday during an attack on the Qalandiya refugee camp, north of East Jerusalem, also [wounding][9] several journalists, according to WAFA. Israeli authorities also [removed][10] signs bearing the Arabic name “Bab Al-Amud” at Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem and installed a sign reading “Old Gate.” The Jerusalem Governorate said the move was part of a broader policy of replacing the city’s historic Arabic place names with Hebrew names and reshaping its cultural and historical identity.
* **UN chief “greatly alarmed” as Israeli forces seize UNRWA’s oldest training center: **UN Secretary-General António Guterres [condemned][11] on Tuesday the “unlawful” entry and seizure of the Qalandiya Training Center, an UNRWA vocational school in occupied East Jerusalem that has been training Palestinian refugees for more than 70 years.

* “The Secretary-General is greatly alarmed at this development, as it will deprive young people of the vocational education they were receiving,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.
* Israeli officials entered the institute Wednesday and began what they described as “maintenance and renovation,” as part of plans to establish an Israeli-run educational complex there.
* **Trump’s Gaza Board warns Hamas over kites as Israel continues strikes: **The Board of Peace overseeing the Gaza plan [warned][12] Hamas on Tuesday to halt all “militant activity,” including flying kites, after Israel threatened further attacks over kites, drones or balloons, France 24 reported. The UN human rights office called Israel’s threat of expulsion over children flying kites “outrageous.”

* A Board official said Israel must also respect the ceasefire and restrict military action to “genuine and imminent threats”—a justification Israel has repeatedly invoked for attacks in Gaza without evidence.
* Since Hamas agreed to a second-phase plan with Trump’s Board on July 30, Israel has killed 89 Palestinians in Gaza.
* **Katz visits Israeli troops illegally occupying Syria:** Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz [visited][13] Israeli troops illegally occupying the summit of Mount Hermon, also known as Jabal Al-Shaykh, in southern Syria on Tuesday, pledging to keep forces there indefinitely, according to the AFP.

* Katz justified Israel’s incursions and attacks, saying it sought to “thwart threats, to eliminate remnants of the old regime, [and] to prevent dangerous consolidation of the new regime.”
* He also directly addressed Syria’s president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, saying, “When you wake up in the morning in your palace in Damascus, look up at Mount Hermon and see the IDF.”
* Syria’s Foreign Ministry noted the visit was a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty and a breach of the 1974 disengagement agreement. It comes after two separate days of Israeli strikes near Damascus in the past week.
* **Israel expels Dutch officials from U.S.-backed Gaza center over settlement trade ban: **Israel is [expelling][14] Dutch representatives from the U.S.-backed Civil-Military Coordination Center for Gaza in Kiryat Gat, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said, citing “a series of anti-Israel moves by the Dutch government,” according to Israeli and international media.

* In explaining the expulsion, Sa’ar pointed to a Dutch law that bans trade in Israeli products from the illegally occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, which is set to take effect on September 22. The representatives were given one week to leave.
* The Netherlands is the second country expelled from the center, which was set up under President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan and is run by U.S. Central Command. Spain was removed in April.
* **Forty-one U.S. lawmakers call for the release of Palestinian-American student: **Forty-one members of Congress are demanding Secretary of State Marco Rubio secure the immediate release of Sama Safi, a 20-year-old Palestinian-American citizen and Birzeit University student held by Israel without charge since June 2.

* Lawmakers say her severe chronic illness has rapidly deteriorated in detention and doctors warn she risks “irreversible and life-threatening” organ damage.
* The letter says Safi, who suffers from Familial Mediterranean Fever, has received medication inconsistently and, since being returned to detention August 16 after a brief medical release, has reportedly received none of her daily medication or seen a doctor. “Her life is at risk on your watch,” lawmakers told Rubio.
* Signatories to the letter [include][15] Sens. **Bernie Sanders**, **Chris Van Hollen**, and **Elizabeth Warren**, and Reps. **Rashida Tlaib,** **Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez**, **Ilhan Omar**, and **Greg Casar**.

# Iran

* **Iran and Oman discuss phased Hormuz deal: **Iran and Oman announced Tuesday that they are [discussing][16] a phased framework to restore safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

* In a joint statement after talks in Tehran between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi, the two sides said the proposal includes establishing a “temporary joint navigation corridor” through Hormuz and launching a “joint project to clear the Strait of mines.”
* Following the talks, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi [said][17] the sides had agreed to close the U.S.-backed southern route, and that, per the agreement, vessels entering the Persian Gulf would travel through Iranian waters, and that those exiting would use both Omani and Iranian waters. He compared the corridor to a “two-way highway.”
* The agreement, once binding, would bar all military vessels from passing through, Gharibabadi said. “No military vessel will be permitted to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.”
* Iran and Oman said any arrangement must preserve their sovereignty and called for consultations with other Gulf coastal states.
* Technical talks will continue on a permanent navigation corridor, the future management of the Strait, and related maritime security services. An IRGC spokesperson said Wednesday that an agreement was reached between the two countries on the share of each “in the waters of the strait” and their respective shares of its revenues, according to Tasnim.

* **China condemns latest wave of Iran sanctions: **China’s Foreign Ministry [condemned][18] the Trump administration’s “economic D-Day” against Iran, saying Beijing “firmly opposes” sanctions that “have no basis in international law.”

* “Economic warfare and maximum pressure provide no solution,” the ministry said, warning they will fuel tensions, disrupt the global economic and financial order, and “hurt everyone else’s interests.”

* **Regional oil exports plunge, with Saudi and Iranian exports first among losers:** Saudi and Iranian oil exports [collapsed][19] in August, while the UAE and Iraq captured some of the displaced Gulf trade, Kpler data released on Tuesday indicates.

* Saudi exports fell to 1.93 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, down 2.68 million from July and 3.74 million from last August.
* Iran shipped only 277,000 bpd, falling by 616,000 month-over-month.
* Meanwhile, UAE exports rose by 631,000 bpd month-over-month to 3.58 million, while Iraq gained 699,000 bpd to reach 2.15 million.
* Iraq, which gained from the displacement, has still [exported][20] nearly half of what it shipped before the war, according to State Oil Marketing Organization figures obtained by Rudaw, with an average of 54 million barrels per month exported at present to 106 million barrels per month sold overseas previously.
* **Iraq loads largest single-day oil shipment: **Iraq [loaded][21] nearly 11 million barrels of crude onto seven tankers at Basra on Tuesday, marking its largest single-day surge in export activity in three months, according to Kpler data.

* The surge follows Iran’s decision Saturday to grant several Iraqi oil tankers special permission to pass through the Strait of Hormuz after repeated requests from Baghdad, Reuters reported.

* **Iran says U.S. minesweepers would be “very good targets”:** Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, warned that U.S. mine-detection vessels would become “very good targets” if they entered the region, according to remarks reported by The New Arab.

* He dismissed President Trump’s comments on demining as “only aimed at calming the markets.”
* Gharibabadi also [said][22] that Tehran still considers itself at war and warned it could take preemptive action against the U.S., but would change its posture if the U.S. adhered to the terms of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding.

* **Iran slams U.S. sanctions as global coercion: **Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei [condemned][23] the latest U.S. sanctions on Iran, part of a campaign U.S. officials have called an “economic D-Day,” in a post on X on Tuesday.

* “When a bully declares that every bank, company, port, and government must choose between obeying Washington’s whims or facing American vengeance, this is no longer just about Iran,” he wrote.

# Lebanon

* **Israel continues assault on southern Lebanon despite “ceasefire”:** Israeli forces heavily [shelled][24] along the Litani River in the Marjayoun district on Wednesday, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. An Israeli Apache helicopter also flew over the area and conducted a sweep above the same section of the river that had been shelled. In the Tyre (Sour) district, Israeli forces [carried out][25] a large demolition in Buyout Al-Sayyad, opposite Mansouri.

* On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes [launched][26] a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon, hitting the village of Dohat Kfar Roummane, the nearby village of Dabsha, and the important Ali Al-Taher hills outside Nabatieh. Strikes also targeted Al-Qantara and the outskirts of Srebbine in the Bint Jbeil district, Lebanon’s Al-Nahar reported.
* Journalist Courtney Bonneau [documented][27] artillery fire on 11 towns and areas, airstrikes on six, home demolitions in ten and machine-gun fire in three.

# U.S. News

* **Meta agrees to up to $17.1 billion settlement with 47 states over child safety claims**: Meta [reached][28] a landmark settlement Wednesday with 47 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories, agreeing to pay up to $17.1 billion in penalties and impose major product changes after it had been accused of endangering children with addiction to its social media platforms.

* The product changes for users under 18 include two-hour daily time limits on Instagram and Facebook, notification blackouts between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., and restrictions on features like beauty filters and “like” counters linked to negative social comparison.
* The agreement follows a suit filed by four states in the U.S. Northern District of California, in which the plaintiffs sought roughly $200 billion.
* **Tuesday’s primary results:**

* **Darline Graham** won Tuesday’s Republican Senate runoff in South Carolina, CBS News projects, defeating Rep. **Ralph Norman** to secure the party’s nomination for a full six-year term following the death of her brother, longtime Sen. **Lindsey Graham**, last month. Graham, appointed by Gov. **Henry McMaster** to serve out her brother’s current term, will now face Democratic nominee Dr. **Annie Andrews** in November.
* Former Gwinnett County School Board Chairman **Everton Blair **won Tuesday’s runoff election to serve the remainder of the late Rep. **David Scott’s** term in Georgia’s 13th District, defeating Scott’s daughter, **Marcye Scott**. Blair, who campaigned on progressive policies including a tax on households earning over $50 million, “Medicare for All,” and universal childcare, will serve only a short term, as State Rep. **Jasmine Clark**, who did not run in the special election, is the heavy favorite to win the regularly scheduled November election for the deep-blue Atlanta-area seat; Blair had run against Clark in that separate primary and lost.
* **Second “Dan Sullivan” advances to Alaska Senate ballot: **Former teacher **Dan J. Sullivan** will [appear][29] alongside Republican Sen. **Dan Sullivan** and Democratic challenger **Mary Peltola** on Alaska’s general election Senate ballot.

* Alaska’s elections are ranked choice, with the top four candidates advancing regardless of party in the primary. While voters could rank both Sullivans in the general, which is also ranked choice, some may rank only one, a dynamic that could matter in what’s expected to be one of the closest Senate races in the country this year.
* State and federal prosecutors are investigating whether the second Sullivan’s candidacy is part of a coordinated effort to sow confusion, with a grand jury issuing subpoenas last week related to his campaign.
* **Canada announces up to 50% retaliatory tariffs on American goods**: Canada announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on about 700 American products Tuesday, set to take effect September 8, following the collapse of trade talks and new U.S. tariffs.

* The measures, covering roughly $20 billion in annual U.S. imports to match the value of Canadian exports hit by American tariffs, include a doubling of tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum to 50%, and levies on appliances like dishwashers and stoves. Canada also announced it would maintain its 25% tariffs on American-made cars.
* **Mélanie Joly**, Canada’s industry minister, said that some of the items on the tariff list were chosen to target states that voted for Trump.
* **ICE arrests hit record 49,571 in July:** U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [arrested][30] 49,571 people in July, the highest monthly total of Trump’s second term and a 15% jump from June, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the Associated Press.

* The surge, which follows a February dip after fatal shootings in Minnesota sparked public backlash, has come through less visible tactics including traffic stops and expanded 287(g) partnerships with state and local police.
* Data shows more than half of those arrested in July had no criminal convictions or pending charges. It also shows that more than half were “non-custodial,” meaning that ICE arrested people in the community rather than people already in prison or held by local police.
* **Rogers attends spate of AIPAC fundraisers in L.A.:** Michigan Republican Senate nominee **Mike Rogers** [attended][31] four AIPAC-hosted fundraisers in Los Angeles on Sunday and Monday, according to the Detroit News.

* At the fundraisers, Rogers reportedly conveyed “significant” reservations to AIPAC board chair Michael Tuchin about the pro-Israel group’s planned ad campaign against Democratic nominee **Abdul El-Sayed**, fearing it could galvanize El-Sayed’s supporters.
* AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, spent $32 million trying to defeat El-Sayed in his primary against **Haley Stevens**.
* UDP spokesman **Patrick Dorton** said the group’’ board has not yet decided how it will help Rogers but remains “unequivocal in its goal of defeating Abdul El-Sayed.”
* **Pro-Israel Democrats win key posts on House Foreign Affairs Committee: **Three vocally pro-Israel House Democrats—Reps. **Jared Moskowitz **(Fla.), **Debbie Wasserman Schultz **(Fla.), and **Wesley Bell **(Mo.)—were [appointed][32] to the House Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday.

* Moskowitz will lead Democrats on the subcommittee overseeing U.S.-Middle East policy, with the congressman noting that if Democrats retake the House, he would be positioned to “help steer U.S. policy on Israel and the Middle East” as the subcommittee’s chair.
* All three appointees defeated left-wing primary challengers who had targeted their stances on Israel this election cycle.
* Progressive Rep. **Mark Pocan** (Wisc.) was also appointed to the subcommittee.
* **CIA director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow, holds talks with Russian intelligence officials: **Central Intelligence Agency Director **John Ratcliffe** [traveled][33] to Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Russian intelligence officials, with officials from the Kremlin acknowledging the meetings.

* Ahead of the visit, Washington reportedly asked Kyiv to pause strikes on Ukraine until the American delegation departed Russia.
* The trip, Ratcliffe’s first known visit to Moscow as CIA director, followed the sighting of a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane and a diplomatic motorcade in the Russian capital, and comes as U.S.-mediated peace talks between Ukraine and Russia remain largely stalled.

📥 Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email DC Correspondent Julian Andreone at [email protected]

# Other International News

* **Ukrainian drones destroy Wildberries warehouse, strike Russian oil refinery:** Ukrainian long-range drones [struck][34] a Wildberries warehouse in Russia’s Tambov region on Wednesday, hitting the facility for the second time in five weeks and burning it to the ground. Two people were injured in the attack.

* Ukraine’s General Staff also announced that a drone hit a Lukoil refinery in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region overnight. The facility, which has a processing capacity of about 125 million barrels annually, remained on fire after the attack.
* Separately, Russia struck a residential building in northern Ukraine’s Chernihiv, killing a woman and a 4-year-old child, and a house in Lipetsk, killing two more.
* **Tinubu orders rescue operation after possible mass kidnapping of 600 in Nigeria**: Nigerian President Bola Tinubu [ordered][35] security agencies to launch an immediate rescue operation Tuesday after an armed group allegedly kidnapped about 600 women, children, and elderly people during an attack on a mosque in Niger State, according to a video posted by the group and cited by residents. A district official said 30 people were killed in the attacks. At least 2,000 people fled into neighboring Benin, according to a tribal official.
* **Nepal flash flood kills at least 95, hundreds missing**: A massive flash flood [swept away][36] villages in Nepal’s mountainous Rasuwa district near the Tibet border Wednesday, killing at least 95 people and leaving hundreds missing, including 384 tourists and eight South Korean employees at a hydropower project.

* Across the border in Tibet’s Gyirong county, a mudslide caused “major casualties” and cut off roads, communications, and power, prompting Chinese President Xi Jinping to call for “all-out” search efforts.
* **At least 14 infants killed in Islamabad hospital fire**: At least 14 infants were killed when a fire broke out in the mother and child health ward of Pakistan’s state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad Wednesday, the Associated Press [reported][37].

* Health Minister Mustafa Kamal attributed the blaze to an air conditioner explosion that spread quickly amid ample oxygen in the ward.
* Grieving parents claimed that the ward lacked proper fire exits, that doctors and nurses were absent at the time of the fire, and that bodies were removed “in boxes” without allowing families to view them.
* Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif suspended his health secretary and ordered an investigation into the incident.
* **Ethnic attacks in South Kordofan kill 27 civilians, including 4 children: **Attacks in Sudan’s South Kordofan [killed][38] at least 27 civilians, including four children, a Sudanese medical group said Tuesday, in the latest bloodshed from an ethnic conflict layered on top of the country’s civil war.

* The killings were carried out by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in Qardud and Abu Hamama, areas home to the Otoro tribe, a minority in the Nuba Mountains, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks casualties nationwide.
* Separately, the SPLM-N [claimed][39] that it re-established control over its regional stronghold of Kauda on Wednesday, releasing footage showing its forces entering civil administration offices in the city.
* **Kurdish-led SDF dissolves, folding fighters into Syria’s army: **The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces [announced][40] its dissolution as an independent military force, completing its merger into the Syrian state, commander Mazloum Abdi said in a televised speech from the presidential palace in Damascus, Rudaw reported.

* “We announce today the end of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces and announce with full responsibility its dissolution as an independent military force,” Abdi said.
* The U.S.-backed SDF, which spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State and once controlled an autonomous zone in Syria’s northeast, agreed to integrate in January after losing most of its territory in a government offensive led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
* U.S. envoy Tom Barrack praised the outcome, crediting Trump’s “leadership.” The core Kurdish YPG had already been folded into state forces, with its commander named deputy defense minister for eastern Syria in March.
* **Sikh separatist leader warned of new credible death threat by FBI, Canadian police:** Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun [said][41] Tuesday that FBI agents visited him August 12 to warn him of a new credible threat to his life and advise against travel, followed by a Tuesday phone warning from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, though neither agency disclosed details of the plot.

* Pannun, who is considered a terrorist by India for advocating a separate Sikh state, said he remains “unfazed and undaunted.”
* The warnings, issued under a U.S. “Duty to Warn” law requiring notification of credible murder threats, come as Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national who pleaded guilty to conspiring in a 2023 plot to assassinate Pannun after being directed by an Indian government employee to do so, awaits a November sentencing in Manhattan federal court.

📖 **[READ][42] **“Access to Oxygen Is Not a Medical Luxury”: With No Spare Parts Allowed In, Gaza’s Hospital Equipment Is Collapsing

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[11]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092416576192405694
[12]: https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260825-us-gaza-peace-board-hamas-kites-israeli-threat
[13]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092414948785688941
[14]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092410577444385142
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[25]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/559620/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%86%D9%81%D8%B0-%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D9%83%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D9%82%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A-2
[26]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092371181961626022
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[28]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/technology/meta-settlement-social-media-addiction-lawsuit.html
[29]: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/second-dan-sullivan-makes-general-election-alaskas-senate-race-rcna593464
[30]: https://apnews.com/article/border-immigration-customs-enforcement-data-statistics-f07f56a34bda225e5afa356781ac1740
[31]: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2026/08/24/aipac-mike-rogers-abdul-el-sayed-michigan-senate-race/91447301007/
[32]: https://www.axios.com/2026/08/25/democrats-israel-moskowitz-house-foreign-affairs
[33]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-director-john-ratcliffe-russia-secret-trip/
[34]: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-wildberries-oil-refinery-2a90ab9665931b35ddd191a2beaa9165
[35]: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nigerias-president-orders-rescue-after-mass-kidnapping-2026-08-25/
[36]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/26/at-least-eight-killed-in-nepal-flash-floods-that-swept-away-villages-roads
[37]: https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-islamabad-hospital-fire-nursery-infants-killed-277ecc4d3dc2e87b7be49e2911c43c0b
[38]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092425318699356225
[39]: https://sudantribune.com/article/317896
[40]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092408555210993797
[41]: https://apnews.com/article/india-nikhil-gupta-pannun-sikh-murder-b1c6a424dc2bfc4d8606d08ba70b00c6
[42]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-hospitals-medical-equipment-supplies-israeli-blockade
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“Access to Oxygen Is Not a Medical Luxury”: With No Spare Parts Allowed In, Gaza’s Hospital Equipment Is Collapsing

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Fatma Al-Ajab stand beside her her ailing mother, Hanan Al-Ajab, holding up a nasal cannula that is unattached as a result of a lack of available oxygen cylinders inside the oncology department of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. August 2026. Screenshot of video by Abdel Qader Sabbah.

GAZA CITY—Hanan Al-Ajab lay on a gurney in the oncology department of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, barely clinging to life—her mouth agape, her eyes shut. Her daughter, Fatma Al-Ajab, held up a nasal cannula, the end of the plastic tube dangling in the air and unattached. “There is no oxygen cylinder,” Al-Ajab told Drop Site News in distress. “There is nothing. Nothing is available. Most things are unavailable. The staff have done everything they can, God bless them, and they are working with whatever they have. But when there is a shortage of oxygen, everything deteriorates.”

“My mother has become a skeleton,” she said pointing to her mother’s emaciated body. Hanan, 63, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer several months ago. She is one of an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 cancer patients in Gaza who depend on access to specialized healthcare, according to the UN. Yet critical shortages in chemotherapy agents and other lifesaving medicines, as well as a lack of properly functioning medical equipment, have left her unable to receive proper care.

Israel has continued to heavily restrict humanitarian aid and life essentials from entering Gaza—in blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement that went into effect on October 10, 2025.

“She reaches the point where she is suffocating and dying,” Al-Ajab said. “Look at her—do you see how her mouth is wide open? Look at the tube. She doesn’t have what she needs. She is supposed to be receiving oxygen continuously. Her blood levels drop, everything drops. All of her bodily functions deteriorate at once because there is no oxygen and she can’t breathe.”

In adjacent rooms and hallways, other patients lay prone on hospital beds wearing oxygen masks and nasal cannulas—some attached to oxygen cylinders, others not, and all of them struggling to breathe.

Scenes inside the oxygen filling station and the oncology department at Al-Shifa Hospital. August 2026. Video by Abdel Qader Sabbah.

Last week, Gaza’s Ministry of Health issued an urgent appeal, warning that the few functional oxygen plants in the enclave were operating beyond their maximum capacity and frequently breaking down. The ministry called for the immediate opening of crossings to allow for the importing of spare parts and technical equipment necessary for maintenance, as well as the emergency supply of new plants.

“Access to oxygen is not a medical luxury, it is a lifeline for many vital and life-saving departments,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

“Before the war, we had 34 oxygen generation plants. The occupation put 22 of them out of service,” Mazen Al-Aryashi, the head of the Engineering Department at the Ministry of Health, told Drop Site. He stood inside the oxygen filling station in Al-Shifa Hospital—a mess of rusted cylinders and dusty machines surrounded by destroyed equipment piled in a corner. “The 12 remaining plants urgently need routine and emergency maintenance to ensure they continue operating properly and can supply ministry facilities with the oxygen needed to keep critical departments running—particularly neonatal units, intensive care units, operating rooms, and inpatient wards.”

“Before the war, we had 30 filling units. Now, only four are available to serve all of these needs,” Al-Aryashi continued. “If any one of these plants breaks down, God forbid, it would mean shutting down numerous departments in a hospital. If a central oxygen plant stops operating, it would effectively be a death sentence for patients.”

Since the war began in October 2023, Gaza’s health care system has come under sustained assault by the Israeli military. Hospitals, clinics, and medical centers were systematically bombed and raided, while doctors and health care workers killed and imprisoned. A suffocating siege on supplies caused severe shortages of not only medicine but also parts to repair and restore critical equipment. Little has changed since a so-called “ceasefire” went into effect nearly a year ago.

“The healthcare system in the Gaza Strip has experienced systemic collapse,” UNRWA said in a [report][3] earlier this month. “The healthcare services in the Gaza Strip have been degraded at every level, from primary healthcare and specialist treatment to disease surveillance, maternal care, emergency response, and medical referral systems…. Despite the ceasefire, no health facility in the Gaza Strip has been rehabilitated to full functionality, while the healthcare system remains severely strained by shortages of personnel, medicines, medical supplies, and fuel.”

Along with Israel’s near-daily bombing, shelling, and shooting attacks in Gaza, the report stresses the continuing blockade as a primary cause for the collapse of medical infrastructure.

“Continued restrictions on the entry of humanitarian assistance, essential medicines, medical equipment, and construction materials needed to sustain and expand essential health services as well as rebuild destroyed healthcare facilities and infrastructure, have prevented much of the sector from being rehabilitated,” the UNRWA report said. “As of June 2026, WHO reported that the principal barriers to health facilities being rehabilitated in the Gaza Strip were a lack of medical equipment, affecting 97% of facilities, and shortages of medicines, affecting over 80% of facilities.”

In the face of crumbling medical equipment, teams of engineers in Gaza have resorted to salvaging parts from damaged machinery and refitting them in a desperate attempt to repair what they can and restore some functionality to various medical devices, including critical diagnostic equipment.

Inside Al-Shifa Hospital, the walls of the medical equipment maintenance room are lined with open shelves stacked with disassembled medical devices, soldering irons, circuit boards, and tangles of wires.

“In the past, spare parts were supplied as equipment broke down. Currently, that option is no longer available to us because of the situation in Gaza,” Ahmed Younis, an engineer at Al-Shifa Hospital told Drop Site. “We now collect equipment damaged during the [Israeli] ground incursion and the bombing of the hospital. We collect them, dismantle matching equipment of the same type, salvage and repair the parts, and then reassemble the equipment. We have managed to restore only around 15% of the hospital’s equipment. Most of the equipment needs to be replaced and is difficult to repair under the current conditions.”

Inside the medical equipment maintenance room at Al-Shifa hospital where engineers try to repair what they can with salvaged parts. August 2026. Video by Abdel Qader Sabbah.

Once the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip, accounting for nearly a third of the entire territory’s healthcare and medical capacity, Al-Shifa hospital is now a bombed-out, charred shell following successive Israeli raids.

Younis said most of the equipment at the hospital—diagnostic devices, laboratory equipment, X-ray machines, echocardiography machines, and ultrasound machines—have been refurbished in this way. “But the equipment is not operating at the level of efficiency it is supposed to,” he warned. “The MRI machines and other radiology equipment, such as CT scanners and lithotripsy machines, were completely destroyed. Not a single one is currently operational at Al-Shifa hospital. There are no CT scanners, no MRI machines, no catheterization machine, and no other radiology equipment.”

The lack of functional diagnostic equipment has severely impaired doctors’ abilities to treat patients in Gaza.

“Most of the equipment was lost as a result of the destruction and fires caused by the war and the bombardment of Al-Shifa medical complex,” Dr. Mohammed Amin Matar, the head of the radiology department at Al-Shifa and a specialist in diagnostic and interventional radiology, told Drop Site. “This has severely affected our ability to diagnose patients and manage medical cases. Diagnosis is the first step in treating a patient. Without a diagnosis, patients cannot receive proper treatment. In many cases, patients need an MRI for diagnosis, but it is not available. They also need other advanced tests that are completely unavailable now, although they were available before the war. We no longer have these capabilities. This has resulted in severe complications and, in some cases, patients have lost their lives because we were unable to determine the correct diagnosis.”

The destruction of medical facilities and the steady deterioration of equipment that remained comes as Israel continues to bomb Gaza on a routine basis, including targeting civilian infrastructure. On Monday alone, the Israeli military struck a water desalination plant in Gaza City and destroyed a warehouse in Deir al-Balah belonging to Ard El Insan, a local humanitarian organization working in partnership with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). The warehouse stored nutrition supplies intended for children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers in Gaza.

“The loss of these supplies comes at a time when nutritional needs in Gaza remain severe,” MAP said in a statement. “A new UNICEF report this week has shown there are concerning rates of maternal and chronic malnutrition in Gaza and that humanitarian aid is vital to prevent further deterioration of people’s conditions.”

Gaza’s healthcare system is still reeling from nearly three years of attacks targeting medical personnel and infrastructure. As of June, the World Health Organization (WHO) documented 971 attacks on healthcare in Gaza, affecting at least 804 health facilities, including hospitals and clinics, and 268 ambulances. More than 1,700 health workers have been killed or injured, according to WHO, while hundreds of others have been arrested and imprisoned.

Meanwhile, the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza has declined throughout 2026 in an ongoing violation of the so-called ceasefire. “Between March and May 2026, over 42% of planned aid delivery missions to the Gaza Strip were cancelled or impeded by the Israeli authorities, the majority involving critical medical, water, and sanitation supplies,” the August UNRWA report found. “During the same period, the volume of aid entering the Gaza Strip fell by over 43% compared with the first three months of the ceasefire. Of the total aid entering, only around 1.2% included medicines and health supplies.”

In parallel with the decimation of Gaza’s health care system, Israel is continuing to severely restrict the number of Palestinians allowed out of Gaza to seek treatment abroad. Some 300 Palestinians have died waiting for medical evacuations since the “ceasefire” went into effect, according to the Health Ministry, with 20,000 patients waiting for authorization and only around 2,000 being allowed to cross so far.

Raed Al-Hagag received a referral for medical evacuation to receive treatment abroad for his heart condition, but like thousands of Palestinians he has spent months waiting for approval. August 2026. Screenshot of video by Abdel Qader Sabbah.

Raed Al-Hagag, 59, has been suffering from heart problems for over a decade and has required surgery to insert stents several times over the years. “Three of my main arteries are blocked, and I have narrowing in another artery, which is also very weak, so the doctor filled out a referral for me to receive treatment abroad,” Al-Haggag told Drop Site as he sat in his makeshift tent in the Jawazat displacement camp in western Gaza City. “But unfortunately, until now, I haven’t been able to leave. I’m waiting for my turn, just like thousands of other patients.”

He continued, “Before, hospitals had the resources. I could get stents that helped keep me alive, and that gave many other patients a chance to live….After the war that was waged against us, the hospitals have no resources. The hospitals are destroyed, treatment is unavailable, and there are no facilities equipped to receive patients with serious conditions like heart disease.”

“Medical equipment is virtually nonexistent, and what remains is poor quality and worn out,” he said. “We are suffering from an extremely severe shortage of medical equipment. The longer this continues, the greater the danger. Our lives are at risk.”

*Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Jawa Ahmad contributed to this report. Sami Vanderlip edited the video.*

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Imran Khan’s Health, Iran Under Sanctions

Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan was recently taken from prison to hospital for medical treatment amid reports of his failing health in custody, including continued loss of eyesight in his right eye. The fate of Khan, the country’s most popular politician, has held politics in limbo in the nuclear-armed country of 240 million for the past three years. While the ruling military junta has expanded its ties with Washington, and begun building new alliances with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, domestic political and economic conditions continue to deteriorate within Pakistan itself—including brutal military crackdowns on protests in the province of Kashmir, insurgencies in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and rampaging inflation nationwide triggered in part by the ongoing Iran War.

On this week’s episode of the Drop Site News livestream, host** Murtaza Hussain** discusses the fate of Khan and the future of Pakistan with Drop Site reporter **Waqas Ahmed**.

Later in the episode, Murtaza is joined by **Esfandyar Batmanghelidj**, head of the Bourse and Bazaar Foundation economic think tank to discuss the status of the Iran War, including the dueling blockades over the Strait of Hormuz and economic impact of U.S. sanctions on civilians in Iran. Batmanghelidj also provides a prognosis on the future of the conflict, which has shifted to an economic siege amid the U.S. Treasury declaration of an “Economic D-Day” against Iran this week, while giving an analysis of whether these measures will lead to compromise or escalation in the current standoff.

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https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/imran-khans-health-iran-under-sanctions

U.S. kills two in extrajudicial boat strike; 47 killed in Haiti gang raid; Israel seizes Jerusalem UNRWA center

People react following overnight violence where more than forty people were killed by armed gangs in Kenscoff, a neighborhood near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on August 24, 2026. Photo by Clarens Siffroy / AFP via Getty Images.

**Tuesday, August 25, 2026 –***** **Israel continues to strike Gaza despite “ceasefire.” Israel shoots 10-year-old Palestinian girl in the back, killing her in Gaza tent. Israeli forces seize UNRWA center in East Jerusalem, expel staff. Settler attacks and Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank. Iconic Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour passes at 79. Oil tanker struck off Omani coast. U.S. unveils latest wave of Iran sanctions. China warns U.S. sanctions on Iran's trade partners will "only intensify tensions." New York Times: U.S. prepares to return diplomats to Middle East embassies evacuated during Iran war. International Energy Association not discussing second emergency oil release, official says. Tehran hosts Pakistan Army Chief. Omani Foreign Minister visits Iran for talks on Hormuz. Iran’s central bank chief calls currency collapse “temporary” as rial hits record low. Saudi confirms Ansarallah attack on tanker. Israel continues violating ceasefire across southern Lebanon,
bombing Tyre and advancing in Bint Jbeil. U.S. kills two in eastern Pacific boat strike. Senate runoff in South Carolina. U.S.-Canada trade dispute escalates. Treasury could tap $1 trillion cash account to fund bond buybacks, officials say. Trump administration prepares largest mass visa revocation in U.S. history, targeting up to 200,000 people. Trump administration proposes new $103,000 H-1B visa fee after court struck down earlier version. U.S. partners with British firm to develop nuclear-powered merchant fleet, challenge China's shipbuilding dominance. Supreme Court opens path for Trump mail voting restrictions ahead of midterms. New poll shows Democratic voters overwhelmingly think Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. 47 killed in Haiti in gang raid near capital. U.S. removes Syria from terrorism list. Investigative journalist and Drop Site News correspondent Ali Younes faces up to a year in prison in Jordan. Greece moves Patriot battery. U.S. pushes nationwide Sudan arms
embargo, criticizes unnamed "external actors."*

**This is Drop Site Daily, our free news recap We send it Monday – Friday**

# Palestine

* **Killed and wounded in Gaza:** Over the past 24 hours, nine Palestinians were killed—six in new Israeli attacks and two due to wounds sustained in earlier attacks—and 36 were injured in attacks across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. One body was recovered from beneath the rubble.

* The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,431 killed, with 174,437 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,296 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 4,296, while 814 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.
* **Israel continues to strike Gaza despite “ceasefire”: **Israeli strikes on Gaza [killed][1] nine Palestinians, including two children, on Monday, with attacks reported on homes, tents, prayer halls, and a desalination plant.

* Israeli forces struck a home east of Bureij refugee camp, killing a four-year-old child and trapping residents under rubble.
* Israeli aircraft bombed the Ashkelon prayer hall and a home in Al-Shati camp, wounding residents.
* An overnight drone strike on a tent near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital killed two brothers.
* Israeli forces killed two more Palestinians in strikes on Khan Younis, with one Palestinian dying on Tuesday from wounds sustained in the strikes.
* **Israel shoots 10-year-old Palestinian girl in the back, killing her in Gaza tent: **Israeli forces shot 10-year-old girl Amal Abu Khater in the back, killing her instantly as she sat eating lunch inside her displaced family’s tent in western Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Monday. Amal had just returned from memorizing the Quran and performing the Dhuhr prayer, her family told Drop Site’s Mohamed Ahmed.

* “There were people who felt safe, sitting in their tents. It’s supposed to be a safe area, and it is full of displaced people,” Amal’s relative Hassan Abu Khater told Drop Site.
* “What did she do to deserve to be killed? She was sitting and eating sweets... What sin did this little girl commit?” Amal’s grandmother, Samira Abu Khater, said.
* **Watch Ahmed’s dispatch from Khan Younis [here][2].**
* **Israeli forces seize UNRWA center in East Jerusalem, expel staff: **Israeli forces [raided][3] and seized the UNRWA-run Qalandiya Vocational Training Centre in Kafr Aqab, north of occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, storming the compound with four armored vehicles and 50 Israeli security forces and raising an Israeli flag inside. Around 40 employees and others inside were detained and questioned before being expelled, with Israeli forces firing tear gas around the center. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir participated in the raid.

* The seized UNRWA compound would be replaced with an educational and community center, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, while claiming the land has been owned by the Jewish National Fund since 1937. The facility, established in 1952 and which had hosted a diplomatic mission on Monday investigating Israeli attacks, is UNRWA’s oldest vocational training center and trains roughly 340 young Palestinian refugees annually.
* The seizure marked a shift “from raids and restrictions to eviction and imposing control on a United Nations facility,” the Jerusalem Governorate [said][4] in a statement. It warned that the move was part of “an Israeli plan targeting the Palestinian presence and international institutions in Jerusalem.”
* **Settler attacks and Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank**:

* **Bethlehem**: Israeli settlers [attacked][5] international solidarity activists near Harmala on Tuesday morning, choking and bruising several during the assault. The activists were attempting to open a road that had been closed by the settlers; the settlers assaulted them with sticks and pepper spray. Settlers [injured][6] three Palestinians Tuesday in the Al-Hashwa area east of Bethlehem, WAFA reported. Separately, Israeli forces detained three Palestinians in the governorate, including Palestinian journalist Thaer Al-Fakhouri.
* **Ramallah:** Settlers [prevented][7] firefighting crews from reaching a fire that broke out on agricultural land in Wadi Ammar, northeast of Ramallah, delaying efforts to extinguish the blaze.
* **Nablus:** Settlers have continued to besiege three Palestinian homes in Qusra, south of Nablus, for a third consecutive week. Israeli forces have also tightened restrictions and closed roads leading to the area.
* **Jenin:** Israeli forces [uprooted][8] more than 100 olive trees in Wadi Al-Yahmour in Barta’a, southwest of Jenin.
* **Jordan Valley: **Israeli forces [arrested][9] a 16-year-old Palestinian after he reportedly ambushed and stabbed an Israeli soldier outside a commercial complex. The soldier sustained wounds, including internal bleeding, and is hospitalized in stable condition.
* **Iconic Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour passes at 79: **Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, whose work became a visual language of Palestinian identity, land, and resistance, has died at the age of 79, his family announced Monday. “The final chapter has been written,” his family said. “To the world, he leaves behind a life filled with beauty, memory, and a legacy that will continue to live through all those he touched.”

* Born in Birzeit in 1947, a year prior to the Nakba and the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians by Israeli militias, Mansour spent more than five decades depicting a Palestine rooted in its people and landscape.
* His work was repeatedly targeted by Israeli authorities. In 1980, the Israeli military shut down an exhibition featuring Mansour in Ramallah just three hours after it opened. Mansour later recalled that the artists were summoned and told they could not use the colors of the Palestinian flag, even in depictions of flowers or watermelons. Palestinian artists and activists drew inspiration from Mansour’s story and started using the watermelon as a symbol of their identity. During the First Intifada, he co-founded the New Visions collective, with artists boycotting Israeli art supplies and instead working with mud and henna, incorporating Palestine into their art.

# Iran

* **Oil tanker struck off Omani coast: **An oil tanker was [struck][10] by an “unknown projectile” off northern Oman on Monday, damaging its engine room and disabling the vessel, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

* The attack occurred 9 nautical miles northeast of Ash Shishah, on Oman’s Musandam Peninsula near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.
* UKMTO said the crew was safe, but the environmental impact remained unknown. No group claimed responsibility.
* **U.S. unveils latest wave of Iran sanctions: **U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent [announced][11] sanctions against nearly 60 people, entities, and vessels on Monday, dubbing the campaign “Operation Economic Outcast,” aimed at disrupting Iran’s global financial and economic connections.

* The announcement provided few details regarding secondary sanctions on countries that do business with Iran, and Bessent declined to identify the countries that would be targeted or say when penalties would take effect. China, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates are Iran’s largest trade partners.
* Bessent claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump is now personally calling world leaders and asking them to end dealings with Tehran.
* Seyed Ali Madanizadeh, Iran’s Economy Minister, [responded][12] to Monday’s announcement by curtly noting that the U.S. would “fail this time as well” to hinder Iran, and adding that the country had “long been preparing for days like this.”
* Iranian Parliament Speaker and lead negotiator Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf also [issued][13] a statement, writing on X that Iran’s trading partners had made clear to Tehran that they would completely disregard Washington’s threats. “They don’t take these statements into account at all,” Ghalibaf said.
* Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari described the U.S. sanctions on Iran as unilateral, instead reaffirming Doha’s support for mediation between Washington and Tehran.
* **China warns U.S. sanctions on Iran’s trade partners will “only intensify tensions”: **China [said][14] it would take “necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.” Ahead of Bessent’s announcement, the Foreign Ministry warned that “sanctions and pressure do not help solve problems; they only intensify tensions.”
* **NYT: U.S. prepares to return diplomats to Middle East embassies evacuated during Iran war: **The U.S. is [preparing][15] to return diplomats to several Middle Eastern embassies evacuated during the war with Iran, the New York Times reported. Foreign Service officers could begin returning as early as this week to missions in Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Iraq, and Kuwait, according to an internal State Department document obtained by the Times. The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon is expected to receive returning diplomats first but will remain below full staffing, while missions in Israel, Jordan, and Oman are eventually expected to return in full.
* **IEA not discussing second emergency oil release: **International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol [told][16] Reuters on Monday that the agency is not currently considering a second release from member countries’ strategic oil reserves. “Not for the time being,” he said, adding that 80% of the reserves remain after member nations announced a 400 million-barrel release in March.

* Birol also warned that Europe could face gas shortages during the winter. European storage is around 62%, below historical averages and short of the EU’s target of 80% by December 1, as the bloc seeks to eliminate Russian imports while still hoping to receive supplies from the Middle East.

* **Tehran hosts Pakistan Army Chief: **Pakistani army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi [arrived][17] in Tehran on Monday.

* Naqvi said that Munir’s meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian made “significant progress” toward restoring the Islamabad memorandum between Iran and the United States.
* The Interior Minister said Pezeshkian presented Tehran’s concerns and the meeting ended on a “highly positive note.”
* Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reportedly [told][18] his Pakistani counterparts that Iran “distrusts the United States,” and that it must “change its behavior” before any talks, urging the U.S. to “implement the terms” of the previous memorandum of understanding.
* **Omani Foreign Minister visits Iran for talks on Hormuz: **Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi [arrived][19] in Tehran on Tuesday for talks about the Strait of Hormuz.

* Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei described the conversations as strictly bilateral, having nothing to do with the U.S.
* Shipping data showed just two tankers crossed the Strait on Monday, down from seven vessels on Sunday.
* Trump claimed Tuesday that the U.S. Navy had removed or detonated all mines in international waters in the Strait, saying in a [post][20] on Truth Social that Iran had been warned that any vessel laying new mines would be “immediately and systematically destroyed.”

* **Iran’s central bank chief calls currency collapse “temporary” as rial hits record low: **Iran’s currency [slid][21] to a record low of about 2.02 million rials to the U.S. dollar on Monday. Central Bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati insisted the depreciation was “temporary, meaning they fluctuate,” in remarks aired on state TV, and reported by The New Arab.

* The rial has lost nearly 10% in two weeks, on top of a plunge early in the war.

# Yemen

* **Saudi confirms Ansarallah attack on tanker:** Saudi national shipping company Bahri [confirmed][22] Monday that its tanker Amzan had been attacked in the Red Sea. Ansarallah said it struck the vessel with a ballistic missile off Yanbu, causing a fire. Bahri said the crew was safe and reported no injuries. Yanbu has become Saudi Arabia’s main oil export route since Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz.

# Lebanon

* **Israel continues violating ceasefire across southern Lebanon, bombing Tyre and advancing in Bint Jbeil:**

* In the Tyre district, Israeli aircraft [carried out][23] two strikes on Mansouri and another on Wadi Hassan on Tuesday, alongside extensive demolition operations in Mansouri and Majdal Zoun, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
* Israeli forces fired toward Ainata and Beit Lif in the Bint Jbeil district, while military vehicles advanced from Hadatha.
* In Marjayoun, Israeli artillery shelling near the Hamames hill [sparked][24] a fire, while Israeli forces [erected][25] new earth barriers near Kfar Kila and Tall Al-Nahhas, including one roughly 150 meters from inhabited homes in Burj Al-Muluk.
* On Monday evening, a major explosion was [reported][26] in Zawtar Sharqieh, in Nabatieh district, while an Israeli drone dropped a stun grenade near rescue crews in Dohat Kfar Roummane. No injuries were reported. Additional shelling hit Yater, Braasheet and Ainata, while two new airstrikes hit Mansouri. Israeli forces also carried out demolitions and detonations in Houla.

# U.S. News

* **U.S. kills two in eastern Pacific boat strike:** The U.S. military conducted a strike on a boat in the eastern Pacific on Monday, killing two people, according to U.S. Southern Command. SOUTHCOM posted [video][27] of the strike and said it “executed a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel,” claiming without evidence it was engaged in narco-trafficking. The Trump administration’s targeting of vessels has killed at least 223 people in dozens of strikes on boats in the Pacific and Caribbean since September 2025.
* **Senate runoff in South Carolina: Darline Graham**, the sister of the late Sen. **Lindsey Graham** [faces][28]** **Rep. **Ralph Norman **in today’s South Carolina Republican senatorial runoff. Graham received more than $827,000 worth of calls and text messages in the runup to the primary from Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, the first significant expenditure for the PAC, which has $400 million in reserve.
* **U.S.-Canada trade dispute escalates:** President Donald Trump [warned][29] Canada on Monday to “fall in line” or face tariffs “far WORSE” than existing ones and threatened new 50% tariffs on Canadian vehicles, auto parts, and steel starting next year.

* Prime Minister **Mark Carney**, whose government is expected to announce retaliatory tariffs on Tuesday, accused Washington of trying to “destroy [its] major industries” and treat Canada as “a subsidiary of the United States.”
* Trump also attacked Ontario Premier **Doug Ford** as “the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great Rob Ford” after Ford said Canadians were prepared for “an economic war” and threatened to cut off electricity and critical minerals if the dispute worsens.
* **Treasury could tap $1 trillion cash account to fund bond buybacks, officials say:** The Treasury Department [could][30] use its nearly $1 trillion general account to help fund an announced increase in long-term government bond purchases, according to two senior Treasury officials cited by CNBC.

* The move follows Secretary **Scott Bessent**’s surprise announcement that Treasury would double buybacks of off-the-run securities from $2 billion to at least $4 billion. The bond market, which was skeptical of Bessent’s ability to do this, saw its yields sharply rise.
* The TGA, essentially the government’s cash reserve held at the Federal Reserve, currently has around $950 billion, well above the roughly $550-600 billion target set under the Biden administration, and officials said tapping it—rather than relying solely on short-term bill sales, as Bessent’s “Treasury Twist” comment suggested—would give the operation more firepower while avoiding any need for Federal Reserve assistance.
* **Trump administration prepares largest mass visa revocation in U.S. history, targeting up to 200,000 people**: The State Department is [preparing][31] to revoke B1 and B2 business and tourism visas from up to 200,000 asylum seekers between 2016 to 2026, according to State Department documents obtained by the Associated Press, in what would be the largest single mass visa revocation in U.S. history.

* State Department spokesperson **Tommy Pigott** said the department is “coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently.”
* The revocations would not necessarily trigger immediate deportation, officials said, but would recategorize most pending asylum cases and strip holders of business or tourism status.
* **Trump administration proposes new $103,000 H-1B visa fee after court struck down earlier version**: The Trump administration [proposed][32] a $103,265 fee for employers seeking H-1B skilled worker visas, according to a regulation posted Monday and reported by The Washington Post, taking a new legal approach after U.S. District Judge **Leo T. Sorokin** struck down a similar $100,000 fee in June.

* Unlike the administration’s previous proposal, it would apply broadly to H-1B holders already in the U.S., not just new applicants from abroad. The regulation exempts some groups, including most U.S. colleges, universities, and nonprofit hospitals affiliated with academic institutions.
* The estimated $8.8 billion generated by the fee annually will fund federal immigration courts, ICE, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to the regulation.
* **U.S. partners with British firm to develop nuclear-powered merchant fleet, challenge China’s shipbuilding dominance:** The Trump administration signed a public-private partnership agreement on Tuesday with the London-based company Core Power to accelerate development of a U.S.-flagged nuclear-powered commercial fleet, an agreement initially reported on by the Financial Times.

* A representative from the U.S. Maritime Administration cited the U.S.’s desire to counter Chinese shipping pre-eminence when discussing the deal, saying that the deal forwards U.S. plans to “compete on technology.”
* Core Power, which has raised about $200 million from investors including Mitsui, Mitsubishi, and Sumitomo, plans to begin building its first nuclear-powered vessel in 2028.
* **Supreme Court opens path for Trump mail voting restrictions ahead of midterms**: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority [ruled][33] Monday that states suing to block President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting lacked legal standing to challenge it, opening a path for the order’s implementation without ruling on its legality.

* The order, signed in March, would require states to submit voter eligibility lists before USPS delivers mail ballots.
* Ballots are set to be mailed out as early as September 4, the date on which North Carolina will send its ballots to military and overseas voters. About 30% of 2024 ballots were cast by mail, according to federal data.
* The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice **Ketanji Brown Jackson** writing the ruling “lets another shoe drop in the Kafkaesque nightmare that our precedents have been steadily creating” for plaintiffs bringing election-related suits before the Court.

* **IMEU poll shows Democratic voters overwhelmingly think Israel is committing genocide in Gaza: **Across the first six states set to vote in the 2028 Democratic presidential primaries, the majority of likely Democratic voters say Israel is [committing][34] genocide in Gaza. Under 5% of Democratic voters believe Israel is not committing a genocide, according to YouGov polling reported by IMEU, though a sizeable number were unsure .

* Even in South Carolina, which recorded the lowest “yes” response, the divide is overwhelming: 57% said Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, just 4% said it is not, and 39% were unsure.

📥 Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email DC Correspondent Julian Andreone at [email protected]

# Other International News

* **47 killed in Haiti in gang raid near capital:** At least 47 people were [killed][35] and 22 wounded in a heavily armed gang raid on a neighborhood near Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, the UN reported on Monday, with homes set ablaze. The hillside farming community of Kenscoff has suffered numerous attacks by armed gangs since last year, forcing thousands to flee their homes.
* **U.S. removes Syria from terrorism list: **U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that after nearly 47 years, Washington has formally removed Syria from its list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism.” Rubio said the move is intended to “unlock new potential for Syria’s economic revitalization and progress,” marking another major step in the Trump administration’s normalization of relations with the Al-Sharaa government in Damascus.

* The designation had subjected Syria to sweeping U.S. restrictions on foreign assistance, arms exports and financial transactions since December 1979, when the State Sponsors of Terrorism list was first created, and Syria was placed on it from the outset.
* The U.S. justification centered on the Syrian government’s support and safe haven for Palestinian resistance groups and, later, Hezbollah.
* **Investigative journalist and Drop Site News correspondent Ali Younes faces up to a year in prison in Jordan:** On August 17, Younes, an American-Jordanian citizen, was [stopped][36] and questioned by Jordanian intelligence officers on arrival at Queen Alia Airport, taken into custody, and later released with an order to appear before prosecutors in Amman. Younes and his lawyer have been informed that he has been accused of allegedly retweeting an article from the American Conservative that included a call to cut U.S. funding to Jordan, an act authorities are treating as the crime of “undermining the national security of Jordan.” At a court hearing this week he was also informed that he had been charged with sedition and hate crimes in connection with the alleged retweet.

* **Greece moves Patriot battery:** Greece [began][37] transferring a Patriot air-defense battery from the eastern island of Karpathos to Crete on Sunday, following reported Iranian threats against U.S. military targets in Europe. Euronews, citing Greek media, report that the system is being moved to the Souda military facility, home to the largest U.S. and NATO base in the eastern Mediterranean.

* Images showed the truck-mounted missile batteries at Karpathos’s port awaiting transfer by barge. Greece’s Defense Ministry had not publicly commented on the redeployment as of Monday, August 24.
* **U.S. pushes nationwide Sudan arms embargo, criticizes unnamed “external actors”: **At Monday’s UN Security Council briefing, Trump advisor Massad Boulos [introduced][38] a draft resolution to expand the Darfur arms embargo across Sudan, explicitly include drones and related technology, enlarge the UN monitoring panel, and strengthen investigations of sanctions violations, ahead of the sanctions regime’s September 12 renewal.

* The expansion would newly extend the embargo into SAF-held central and eastern Sudan. Russia opposed the move, while Sudan requested only a technical renewal of the existing Darfur regime, AFP reported.
* The briefing repeatedly placed the forces on equal footing. Boulos said the “brutality” of the SAF and RSF had discredited both, while UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo blamed external support “to both parties,” without criticizing the UAE for supporting the genocidal Raid Support Forces.
* Denmark acknowledged that the RSF’s atrocities in El Fasher met the elements of genocide, but still backed a nationwide embargo.

📖 **[READ][39] **Documents Reveal Trail of Unreported Millions From Israeli Military to U.S. Universities

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[3]: https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-press-statement-kalandia-training-centre-occupied-east-jerusalem
[4]: https://www.facebook.com/100069221559491/posts/pfbid0ADKLd5NkPSJVYD1B8DwJAzyKCL6AD3uiCKRMiucdVFf7ZPzPPYXXpDJEeowPt4kZl/
[5]: https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/174096
[6]: https://www.wafa.ps/news/2026/8/25/%D8%A5%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A9-%D8%AB%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AB%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AA%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%87%D9%85-%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%82-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AA-%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%85-152754
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[8]: https://www.wafa.ps/news/2026/8/25/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%B9-%D8%A3%D9%83%D8%AB%D8%B1-%D9%85%D9%86-100-%D8%B4%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%91%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%B7%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%88%D8%A8-%D8%BA%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%86-152768
[9]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092020674558611472
[10]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092030819200123368
[11]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092033749131083971
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[13]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092070601116504389
[14]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091912994091356331
[15]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/world/middleeast/us-diplomats-middle-east-embassies.html
[16]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091903760196866405
[17]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091912484844196333
[18]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092064821097246956
[19]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092034752349892851
[20]: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117156624974445904
[21]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091914069208969326
[22]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092025201890619673
[23]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/559426/%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D9%88%D8%B7%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%81%D8%A7-%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D9%88%D9%85%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%84-%D8%B2%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%81-%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%A7-%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AA-%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%81-%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%BA%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%AD%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AB%D8%A7-%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B5-2
[24]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/559411/%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%81-%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%B9%D9%8A-%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%87%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%AC%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AF%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%86-2
[25]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/559367/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%88-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%AF%D8%AB-%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%B7-%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3-2
[26]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092022012055302558
[27]: https://x.com/Southcom/status/2091757856018104599
[28]: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/24/trump-maga-inc-darline-graham-south-carolina-01048038
[29]: https://apnews.com/article/canada-trade-trump-ontario-53c4f83c8365c14b372b314396ae8179
[30]: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/24/bessent-1-trillion-treasury-general-account-bond-buybacks.html
[31]: https://apnews.com/article/trump-rubio-visas-revoke-e9c14fdfd0ada439d2b9d8694e678a46
[32]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/08/24/trump-administration-proposes-103000-fee-h-1b-visas-after-legal-setback/
[33]: https://apnews.com/article/trump-mail-voting-supreme-court-157afc3c195ce0a62c522da5ce904b04
[34]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092049417444446324
[35]: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/gang-attack-near-haitis-capital-leaves-30-dead-2026-08-24/
[36]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091901077704618067
[37]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2092018902049939788
[38]: https://x.com/arabnews/status/2091955487449182510/video/1
[39]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-military-funding-universities
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https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/us-boat-strike-haiti-gang-raid-israel-palestine-jerusalem-unrwa

Documents Reveal Trail of Unreported Millions From Israeli Military to U.S. Universities

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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march from Columbia University to City College of New York City, on Thursday, April 30, 2026. Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense and Israeli defense companies have directed millions in unreported funding to U.S. university research programs for weapons development, sponsoring research directly or serving as the pass-through entity for the funding, a Drop Site investigation has found.

A sample of state and university audits, foreign-funding disclosures, and other institutional records identified millions of dollars in financial ties over the last two decades between the Israeli Ministry of Defense (MOD), Israeli weapons manufacturers, and American universities, much of which does not appear consistently in national databases intended to track foreign funding into U.S. universities.

An analysis of audit records, building on findings compiled by the [Antiwar Initiative][3], an academic research group that documents the connections between universities and the global arms industry, found more than $15 million of unreported or inconsistently reported entries for funding tied to the Israeli MOD or defense manufacturers.

The true scale of Israeli support is difficult to determine because entries for such funding were often not reported in public filings mandating disclosure of foreign gifts, but were discovered by manually cross-referencing public and internal databases, audit records, and acknowledgments in academic papers. Some projects listed in university materials as being sponsored by the Israeli MOD or defense companies also did not include the amounts of funding provided, or contained inconsistent or contradictory records in audit databases.

Drop Site reviewed and verified public records that showed research grants, tuition payments, and receipts of gifts totalling millions of dollars to dozens of colleges and universities around the country. The data shows examples of financial support and sponsorship for American researchers from the Israeli Ministry of Defense as well as Israeli weapons manufacturers like Elbit Systems.

Records dating from 2004 to 2025 point to a large number of schools that have had financial relationships with the Israeli MOD or Israeli weapons manufacturers, including Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, Northwestern, Georgia Tech, Texas Tech, the University of Connecticut, the University of Tennessee, the University of Maryland, the University of Florida, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Rhode Island, the University of New Mexico, the Washington University in St. Louis, and the State University of New York.

The recorded financial relationships include time-bound research contracts and do not indicate whether relationships with the MOD are still ongoing. Previous reporting has documented MOD funding of programs at MIT and student protests there over the relationship.

In addition to financial support from the MOD and Elbit, records also showed sponsorship of individual research projects related to military technologies by Israeli defense manufacturers Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries.

Taken together, the records reveal an opaque defense-research pipeline spread across some of the country’s most prominent universities.

In one example that illustrates the typical nature of these ties, an Israeli MOD-sponsored [project][4] at the University of Connecticut was listed in [public audit records][5] with the title, “Impact Point Prediction Research for Short & Medium Range Thrusting Projectiles.”

Connecticut’s annual federal-award schedules record $668,456 in funding under that title across nine fiscal years between 2013 and 2023 with the funder listed as Israel’s Ministry of Defense. Another Israeli MOD-linked research project at the school titled, “High Sensitivity SQUIDs for Magnetic Field Detection,” received $251,336 in funding across the same time period.

Federal law requires colleges and universities receiving federal assistance to disclose gifts and contracts totaling at least $250,000 in a calendar year from a foreign source, though transactions below that threshold may remain outside the public reporting system. But these multi-year contributions do not consistently appear in federal databases intended to help the public track foreign money flowing into American universities. The Education Department’s latest[ public disclosure][6] of foreign gifts and funding contains no Israel-attributed entry for the University of Connecticut, even as entries for MOD funding show up in other databases and audit documentation.

The Israeli government and its allies in Congress are now seeking to transform relationships like these from a scattered research pipeline into formal American defense policy. The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act already[ directed the Pentagon][7] to establish a U.S.-Israel Defense Industrial Base Working Group to consider integrating Israel into what it calls “the American National Technology and Industrial Base.”

A proposal advanced by the House Armed Services Committee for the fiscal 2027 NDAA would go further, creating a[ United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative][8] charged with expanding bilateral research, development, testing, weapons production, and industrial cooperation. If these measures become law, the scattered funding connections documented in American university audit trails and research papers would become part of the architecture of the American military-industrial base.

## **Gears of War**

Israeli forces have used drones, automated intelligence tools, persistent aerial surveillance, precision-guided projectiles, and large-scale data analysis throughout the genocide in the Gaza Strip, as well as wars in Lebanon, Iran, Syria, and Yemen.

Those operations draw upon the technologies originating in the same research fields that the Israeli government and weapons manufacturers have paid American academics to advance: video surveillance, human-activity recognition, autonomous flight, network analysis, target identification, magnetic sensing, and projectile impact modeling. At the University of Central Florida, researchers have received[ funding from Elbit Systems][9] to develop algorithms to recognize human activity and detect objects in video.

Records from the University of Tennessee show that a U.S. subsidiary of Elbit also provided $514,500 in payments to the school between[ 2023][10],[ 2024][11], and[ 2025][12]. The available public documentation does not identify what programs or researchers the contributions are intended to support, with the description listing the purpose of the funding as simply “tuition payments for various students.”

“For relatively small sums—like the price of funding a single PhD—Israel has gained major new capabilities that have bolstered its capacity to commit genocide in Gaza, carry out a brutal occupation of Lebanon, and spark a war with Iran that has escalated to a region wide conflict,” said William Hartung, a political scientist and expert on the U.S. arms industry and Pentagon budgetary practices.

Many awards from the Israeli MOD are classified as U.S. Department of Defense expenditures, with the Israeli ministry identified as the pass-through entity that administers the grants. MIT, for example, has[ stated][13] that the money for its projects funded by the Israeli ministry originated with the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. provides an estimated $3.8 billion in annual military aid to Israel on top of other forms of assistance.

Some audit records identify the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which administers U.S. security assistance and weapons-transfer programs, as the primary agency providing the funding that was ultimately directed by the Israeli MOD. The public documents do not establish whether every dollar for particular research support at a school came from Israel’s treasury, from U.S. military assistance placed under Israeli procurement authority, or from some combination of the two.

## **Audit Trail**

In the summer of 2025, MIT professor Markus Buehler withdrew from an Israeli Defense Ministry grant after a student-led campaign publicized the project. The decision followed more than a year of protests over MIT’s defense relationships with Israel, which the university[ says amounted to $4 million][14] for individual ministry-linked projects between fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2024, plus $290,000 in fiscal 2025.

A trail of open source records traces similar financial and research relationships between the Israeli defense establishment and schools in Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Florida, New Jersey, Texas, California, and Virginia.

At Columbia University, annual audits name two ministry-linked projects and record $799,190 in grants. One MOD-funded project for “Direct 3D Printing of Integrated Electro Mechanical Systems” accounted for $469,999 from 2016 through 2021, while another for “Optimizing Micro Resonators Based Sensor” accounted for another $329,191 from 2021 through 2024. Columbia’s[ fiscal 2024 audit][15] lists the latter project under the U.S. Department of Defense, with the “Israeli Ministry of Defense” as the “pass-through name,” and records $25,327 in funding.

The Research Foundation for the State University of New York shows audit entries for five Israeli MOD-linked projects[ totaling][16] $949,915 from 2010 through 2021.

Florida’s statewide audits record $1,195,795 in expenditures passed through the Ministry of Defense from 2012 through 2021, while not identifying the schools that received all of this funding.

Campus records connect at least some of the awards to the University of Central Florida and the University of Florida. One University of Florida engineering[ publication][17] names an Israeli MOD-sponsored project, “Coupled Size and Rate Effects in Ultra-High-Performance Concrete,” beginning in 2012. While listing the project under “Sponsored Research,” the newsletter did not identify the amount the school received from the MOD for the study.

In response to a request for comment about another $150,000 contract beginning in March 2015 that named the Israeli Ministry of Defense at UC Berkeley, a spokesperson said that, “UC Berkeley complies with all of the statues and regulations that apply to contracts and gifts from foreign sources,” noting that the school is only involved in fundamental research and adding that, “every government, every researcher, every person in the world is able to read the results of our research in freely available scientific publications.”

UC Berkeley did not respond to additional questions about the purpose of the MOD funding. Other schools contacted by Drop Site did not respond to requests for comment or stated that they could not provide information about the cited funding.

In addition to records from audits, public information from individual researchers provides more hints of the scope of Israeli military’s U.S. research funding.

In February,[ The Nation reported][18] that computer-vision researchers Mubarak Shah and Abhijit Mahalanobis received a $200,000 Elbit Systems of America grant in 2020 to develop “human activity recognition” technology, while Mahalanobis received another $60,000 for algorithms involving object detection and human-activity recognition.

At the University of Maryland, aerospace engineering professor Inderjit Chopra’s[ research page][19] lists two Israeli ministry grants: $150,000 for “Autonomous Operation of Micro-Helicopters,” from 2011 to 2012, and $300,000 for “Aeromechanics of Rotorcraft in High Speed Flight,” from 2014 to 2016.

A curriculum vitae[ filed][20] by another researcher in a separate U.S. Patent and Trademark Office proceeding lists Israeli MOD funding of $150,000 for “Functional Targeting of Terror Networks: A Big Data Approach,” from February 2017 through December 2018, and $153,520 for “Fast Algorithms for Group Between-ness Centrality in Massive Social Networks.”

Princeton University records identify physicist Michael Romalis on a $600,000 contract called “Pulsed Scalar Atomic Magnetometer.” The university’s fiscal 2018 sponsored-awards[ report][21] names the Government of Israel’s Ministry of Defense and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency as sponsors and gives a contract period from July 2015 through June 2019.

Texas Tech University’s engineering newsletters list yet another award for $400,000 from the Israeli Defense Ministry to research a “Sealed Vircator HPM System,” naming James Dickens, John Mankowski, and Andreas Neuber as researchers. The same amount and title appear in both the[ January 2014][22] and[ April 2015][23] newsletters.

The vircator technology has a clear military application: Texas Tech’s Center for Pulsed Power and Power Electronics[ describes][24] vircators as compact, high-power microwave sources and says its work includes coordinating vehicle-mounted emitters with GPS timing to place a microwave “hot spot” at a desired location—an application potentially useful for combatting drone swarms.

The purpose of a separate Israeli Defense Ministry-linked funding stream at the University of Texas at Austin is less clear from the public records. UT Austin’s fiscal 2013 financial report[ identifies][25] $58,992 in expenditures under an Israeli Ministry of Defense purchase order. Statewide audit schedules record expenditures under the same purchase order reappearing in public audit records from 2010 through 2014, for a total of $299,952.

The audit archive contains still more Israeli military-named expenditures, including recorded contributions to[ Northwestern University][26] and [Washington University in St. Louis][27], and repeated entries for the MOD in [audits][28] for the state of Virginia.

But the opaque nature of some support that turned up in public records means that financial and in-kind support to universities may not even be recorded in any audit trail at all.

At the University of Texas at Dallas, Haoran Wei and Nasser Kehtarnavaz produced a video-surveillance system in a study that the[ published][29] paper indicated was “funded by Elbit Systems of America through a contract with the University of Texas at Dallas” without mentioning the amount of financial support. The report also noted that the company had provided “far-field video clips” to help conduct their research on target recognition.

The researchers did not respond to requests for comment about the nature of their work and ties to Elbit.

## **Disclosure Gap**

Section 117 of the[ Higher Education Act][30] generally requires a federally assisted university to report covered gifts and contracts from a foreign source when they meet or exceed $250,000, including multi-year contracts meeting that threshold over their duration. Under the Education Department’s example, a five-year research contract worth $50,000 a year is reportable at signing because its lifetime value is $250,000.

The Education Department’s inspector general[ warned][31] in February 2025 that oversight of the system was weak with insufficient controls to ensure reporting requirements were being met. The current disclosure thresholds also make it easier for foreign countries to contribute amounts below that number to avoid triggering reporting requirements but can be significant for individual research projects.

That lack of oversight contributes to a situation in which millions of dollars from a foreign military under increasing scrutiny in the U.S. for human rights abuses and facing genocide charges from international courts has been able to spend millions of dollars funding military research at American universities.

These relationships are now coming under greater scrutiny at a time when public opinion on Israel has soured in the U.S. due to the genocide in Gaza and Israeli conduct in other regional conflicts.

“No self-respecting university should accept funding from Israel, given its destabilizing, destructive, and inhumane use of U.S. weapons,” said Hartung.

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[1]: https://givebutter.com/dsn-substack
[2]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe?
[3]: https://www.antiwar.io/
[4]: https://www.nas.org/foreign-donor-database/?ff_per_page=20&ff_search=&ff_country=19&ff_school=4&ff_source=&ff_type=
[5]: https://wp.cga.ct.gov/apa/wp-content/cgacustom/reports/FullReports/STATEWIDE%20FULL_20240327_FY2023.pdf
[6]: https://fsapartners.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2025-05/Sec117PublicRecordsCompleteFeb2025.xlsx
[7]: https://armedservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fy26_conference_summary_final.pdf#page=27
[8]: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/06/08/house-panel-quashes-attempt-to-stop-integration-of-us-israel-defense-tech-sectors/
[9]: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/universities-israel-drones-weapons-manufacturing-military-contractors/
[10]: https://comptroller.tn.gov/content/dam/cot/hero/documents/foreign-contracts-and-disclosures/2023/University%20of%20Tennessee%20Foreign%20Vendor%20Report%20FY%202023.pdf
[11]: https://comptroller.tn.gov/content/dam/cot/hero/2024-foreign-contracts/University%20of%20Tennessee%202024.pdf
[12]: https://comptroller.tn.gov/content/dam/cot/hero/2025-foreign-contracts/University%20of%20Tennessee%20System%202025.pdf
[13]: https://chancellor.mit.edu/faq-campus-events
[14]: https://chancellor.mit.edu/faq-campus-events
[15]: https://www.finance.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/Finance%20Documents/Financial%20Reports/Columbia_Uniform_Guidance_FAC_FY24_Report_signed.pdf
[16]: https://www.rfsuny.org/media/rfsuny/documents/internal-audit/single-audit-report-fy2018-19.pdf
[17]: https://web.archive.org/web/20240701224247/https://cipps.eng.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/212/2020/02/CIPPS_Newsletter_Summer_2015.pdf
[18]: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/universities-israel-drones-weapons-manufacturing-military-contractors/
[19]: https://inderjitchopra.umd.edu/research/
[20]: https://ptacts.uspto.gov/ptacts/public-informations/petitions/1554722/download-documents?artifactId=Llf0FLDOu__OJQYyHFYskDoQJUP1yZ5T8QGYqK-7YRtNcN8-9awi7v8
[21]: https://research.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf1771/files/media/fy2018_orpa_annual_report.pdf
[22]: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/coe/publications/archive/COE_Today/COE_Today_January2014.html
[23]: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/coe/publications/archive/COE_Today/COE_Today_April2015.html
[24]: https://www.p3e.ttu.edu/highPower
[25]: https://apps.highered.texas.gov/index.cfm?page=19BE2893EE43D92E60D61EAFF6ABCDEA5CFFE0F4A6B1DA5A1404267300603BDF&docID=3591&format=pdf
[26]: https://www.northwestern.edu/asrsp/docs/fy20-northwestern-university-single-audit-report-final-2021-05-28.pdf
[27]: https://financialservices.wustl.edu/app/uploads/2016/03/SPA_WP_AR_FY16A133_Signed.pdf
[28]: https://dlasprodpublic.blob.core.windows.net/apa/3749529C-7E7D-4B82-A6EA-17BD06D00871.pdf
[29]: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-4990/1/3/44
[30]: https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/topics/section-117-foreign-gift-and-contract-reporting/resources/frequently-asked-questions
[31]: https://oig.ed.gov/reports/inspection-evaluation/fsas-oversight-section-117-reporting-requirements
[32]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-military-funding-universities/comments
[33]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-military-funding-universities?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share


https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-military-funding-universities

Gary, Indiana still without power; U.S. to unveil "economic D-day” sanctions against Iran; Israel bombs mosque, desalination plant in Gaza

A makeshift road block prevents drivers from driving through downed utility lines stretching across a street on August 20, 2026 in Gary, Indiana. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.

**Monday, August 24, 2026 –***** **Israeli strikes kill six Palestinians on Monday. Palestinian man executed by Israel in Gaza, family says. Israeli forces kill Palestinian child, settler assaults elderly amputee as attacks continue across the West Bank. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says Israeli military will act “forcefully” over kites from Gaza. Drop Site contributor Mohamed Awad to be detained without charge for months. Hamas tells U.S. envoy Jared Kushner that it will not abide by an unenforced deal. Hamas discusses electoral strategy. “Anti-Netanyahu” says there will be no Palestinian state if he controls government. U.S. to announce “economic D-Day” sanctions against Iran. Iran permits Iraqi tankers to pass through Hormuz. Qatari spending is dramatically reduced by war. U.S. officials claim that 40 tankers crossed Hormuz on Friday; data shows none. Iranian refinery approaching full repair, official says. Pakistan army chief set to visit Iran on Monday. Iran announces it
will choke “shuttle” trade through Hormuz. Ansarallah targets Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea. Israeli forces kill two 17-year-old boys, demolish and burn homes across Southern Lebanon despite ceasefire. U.S. envoy walks back comments on Hezbollah role in negotiations. Thousands are still without power in northwest Indiana after deadly storms, sparking lawsuit. Father of USS Abraham Lincoln sailor detained by ICE while son deployed at sea. Canada “at war” over trade after U.S.-Canada talks collapse, oil supply squeeze looming for U.S. refiners. U.S. Postal Service moves forward with mail-in ballot restrictions. Trump made more than 1,000 stock trades in June, disclosure shows. Migrants who resisted deportation flight to Liberia forced onward to Equatorial Guinea. Federal judge strikes down Trump administration’s visa ban on 75 countries. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met privately with Jared Kushner. Israel strikes Syria near the Golan Heights. U.S. envoy suggests Israel bombed
Syria’s Abu al-Duhur airbase to “bait” Turkey. Ukraine strikes Russian refinery, Russians strike Ukrainian mall. Sudanese Army strikes inside Chad. Venezuela unable to ship oil, Reuters reports. Embattled Mexican governor Rubén Rocha out again. Germany records over 14,000 heat-related deaths. DR Congo and M23 rebels agree on peace roadmap in Switzerland. Video shows hundreds held captive after mass abduction from Nigerian mosque.*

**This is Drop Site Daily, our free news recap We send it Monday – Friday**

# Palestine

* **Killed and wounded in Gaza:** Over the past 24 hours, two Palestinians were killed and 32 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

* The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,422 killed, with 174,401 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,288 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 4,290, while 813 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.
* **Israeli strikes kill six Palestinians on Monday: **At least six Palestinians, including a child, were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Monday, Al Jazeera reported. A Palestinian was killed and others wounded when Israeli forces [struck][1] a tent sheltering displaced people near Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, WAFA reported. Separately, another Palestinian died from wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza City port area last Tuesday which killed seven. Israeli forces targeted a mosque and a water desalination plant in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan district.
* **Israel continues to kill in Gaza over the weekend despite “ceasefire”**:

* An Israeli drone struck a home in the Al-Bassa area north of Deir al-Balah on Saturday, killing one Palestinian man and wounding another. Separately, a woman was shot by Israeli forces near Nuseirat.
* Israeli artillery [shelled][2] areas around Al-Bureij, Khan Younis, and eastern Gaza City on Saturday, including homes in Khan Younis’ Al-Amal neighborhood.
* On Sunday, Israeli forces [killed][3] a Palestinian in Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. In a separate airstrike near Al-Zawayda, Israel [killed][4] a 4-year-old Palestinian, sources told Drop Site, wounding two others Palestinian in the same strike.
* Israeli tanks also [fired][5] toward displacement tents near Asdaa City and Hamad Towers, warships opened fire off Rafah, and artillery shelling was reported in northern Al-Bureij on Sunday.
* **Palestinian man executed by Israel in Gaza, family says: **The family of Ibrahim Mohammed Kawarea [says][6] Israeli forces executed the father of three after detaining him near the “Yellow Line” east of Khan Younis on Friday, according to Felesteen.

* Kawarea was suffering a severe mental health crisis. Relatives said his state of mind had worsened after his cousin had been killed days earlier.
* His uncle, Jaber Kawarea, said Ibrahim’s body arrived at Nasser Medical Complex with multiple gunshot wounds to his head, chest, and abdomen—some apparently fired at close range—and his legs were still bound. “We were shocked that his legs were also tied,” he said.
* The family described his killing as a “field execution” and is demanding an international investigation.
* **Israeli forces kill Palestinian child, settler assaults elderly amputee as attacks continue across the West Bank:**

* **Nablus**: Israeli forces shot and [killed][7] a 14-year-old Palestinian during a raid on New Askar refugee camp, east of Nablus, on Sunday. Israeli forces also continued their siege of three Palestinian homes in Qusra for the third consecutive week on Sunday, restricting movement and blocking aid and solidarity groups, while allowing settlers to move freely around the besieged homes. Israeli attackers [withdrew][8] on Sunday from one of these homes after occupying it for 10 days, but remained stationed outside the property.
* **Hebron: **An Israeli settler [assaulted][9] an elderly Palestinian amputee in Masafer Yatta on Saturday, while another videotaped it. After Saturday’s assault, Israeli forces raided his home, confiscating his family’s phones, per WAFA. Israel police announced on Sunday that two Israeli teenagers were arrested—the 16-year-old who clubbed the disabled Palestinian man and the 17-year-old who filmed the attack, [according][10] to the Times of Israel. The 17-year-old was later released to house arrest, the police said.
* **Jordan Valley:** An Israeli settler was [stabbed][11] Sunday morning near the Palestinian village of Al-Auja in the occupied Jordan Valley, according to The New Arab. The 24-year-old man was being treated for his injuries as Israeli forces searched the area for the attacker. Al-Auja has been subjected to so much sustained settler violence that residents were forced to abandon the village earlier this year.
* **Katz says Israeli military will act “forcefully” over kites from Gaza: **Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz [ordered][12] the Israeli military on Sunday to “act immediately and forcefully” over kites launched from Gaza, declaring that Israel will treat every kite or balloon as an “act of war,” even those carrying no explosives.

* Four kites flown from Gaza landed in Kibbutz Nahal Oz over the weekend, according to the Times of Israel. The Israeli military said nothing suspicious was found on them and they posed no danger to the public.
* “A balloon is treated like a kite, and a kite is treated like a drone, with or without explosives,” Katz said, threatening those behind the launches with the “utmost severity.”
* Senior Hamas official Basem Naim [responded][13] on Sunday, writing that it was a “surreal paradox” that a “nuclear state that practices terrorism daily” would “issue orders to deal forcefully with paper kites coming out of Gaza.”

* **Mohamed Awad to be detained without charge for months: **Palestinian journalist and Drop Site contributor Mohamed Awad was [ordered][14] to be held in administrative detention for four months by Israeli military authorities, according to his lawyer. Awad was arrested from his home in the village of Beitunia, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on August 12 by the Israeli military. Administrative detention is a mechanism by which Israeli authorities imprison Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial.

* **Hamas tells Kushner that it will not abide by an unenforced deal: **Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan [said][15] the group told Jared Kushner in their meeting last weekend that if Israel does not publicly accept the proposed framework and begin implementing its obligations, including halting attacks and withdrawing from Gaza, Hamas will not consider itself obligated to implement any part of the deal. Hamdan made the remarks on an Iraqi podcast released this week.

* Hamdan stressed that Hamas has not agreed to surrender its weapons. He said the framework calls for heavy weapons to be restricted and stored under the authority of a Palestinian administrative committee governing Gaza, while remaining in Palestinian hands.
* He also said that none of Hamas’s weapons would be transferred to any non-Palestinian party and not a single bullet would leave Gaza under the agreement.

* **Hamas discusses electoral strategy: **Hamas said in a statement that it would [contest][16] the upcoming Palestinian legislative elections as part of the “broadest possible national alliance” to build a more unified Palestinian political system.

* Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on July 9 setting legislative elections for November 28 in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. They would be the first Palestinian legislative elections since 2006. Hamas urged Abbas not to reverse course “as happened in previous stages.”
* **“Anti-Netanyahu” says there will be no Palestinian state if he controls government: **Gadi Eisenkot, the former Israeli military chief of staff now leading in polls to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu in the October 27 election, [declared][17] on Saturday there will be no Palestinian state under a government he forms. “There is no Palestinian state, and in the government we will form, no Palestinian state will arise,” he wrote on X.

* A recent New Yorker profile by editor David Remnick cast him as the “anti-Bibi” in “manner and character,” a humble soldier fighting for a “Jewish, democratic, progressive, and liberal state.”

# Iran

* **U.S. to announce “economic D-Day” sanctions against Iran:** Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to announce new U.S. sanctions against Iran at a press conference on Monday afternoon. In an [op-ed][18] in the Financial Times, Bessent wrote: “At dawn begins an economic D-Day—the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary. Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.” He added that any country that “serves as a financial artery” for Iran “should expect to share in its isolation” and would become a “global pariah.”

* Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei criticized the move as “a clear example of economic terrorism to punish a nation that insists on defending its sovereignty and independence.” He warned that Iran would respond harshly to expanded U.S. sanctions. “Any escalation of this situation will undoubtedly bring about consequences,” Baghaei said. “Our hands are not tied.”
* Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, [warned][19] other countries not to join the campaign against Iran, saying that “any country participating in the imposition of economic restrictions against us is considered an enemy.”
* Rezaei said Iran is prepared to target “all American oil and economic companies in the region” if Washington escalates to economic war, and that in a full economic war, Iran would let no oil leave the Persian Gulf “even through other means,” signaling potential strikes on bypasses.
* **Iran permits Iraqi tankers to pass through Hormuz: **Iran [granted][20] special permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz after repeated requests from Baghdad, IRNA reported.

* The issue was a key request during Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf’s visit to Iraq. The Iraqi President said Iran had already allowed the passage of vessels carrying Iraqi crude in recent days, according to Reuters.
* Iraq produced about 4 million barrels per day before the Iran war, and virtually all seaborne exports left from the southern Basra terminals in the Persian Gulf, meaning they had to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

* **Qatari spending dramatically reduced by war: **Qatar is [slashing][21] spending at home and abroad as the six-month U.S.-Israel war with Iran takes a severe toll on one of the world’s richest states, the Financial Times reported.

* Qatari government departments have had budgets reduced by as much as 30%, according to the FT, while funding for overseas aid has been cut by about 85%.
* Qatar has also halted Liquified Natural Gas production, its main source of export revenue, after Iranian strikes damaged the Ras Laffan complex and the war disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
* The International Monetary Fund expects Qatar’s economy to contract 8.6% this year, the steepest decline among the six Gulf states. Qatar is leaning on its roughly $500 billion sovereign wealth fund to absorb the shock from the war, but officials are reportedly considering deeper cuts if the crisis continues.

* **U.S. officials claim that 40 tankers crossed Hormuz on Friday; data shows none: **Three U.S. officials [told][22] Axios’s Barak Ravid on Saturday that 40 tankers crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, carrying 16 million barrels of oil out of the Gulf.

* Kpler’s vessel-tracking data, however, showed zero west-to-east tanker crossings on Friday and zero barrels of oil exiting through the Strait.
* **Iranian refinery approaching full repair, official says:** The repair of Iran’s South Pars Phase 14 gas refinery, [hit][23] in an Israeli strike during the 12-day war in June 2025, is 70% complete, Pars Oil and Gas Company CEO Touraj Dehqani said on Saturday, according to Iran’s oil ministry news agency SHANA. Dehqani claimed the refinery would be fully restored and its damaged section reintegrated into the production cycle by year’s end.

* South Pars, the offshore field Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, is the world’s largest gas field and supplies roughly 80% of Iran’s natural gas.
* Iran’s oil minister also [announced][24] the discovery of more than 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in southern Fars province on Sunday.

* **Pakistan army chief set to visit Iran on Monday: **Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir arrived in Tehran on Monday, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

* Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the trip is part of Pakistan’s continuing efforts to strengthen “peace and security” in the region, per New Arab.
* Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem says the meeting is meant to reactivate mediation between the U.S. and Iran.

* **Iran announces it will choke “shuttle” trade through Hormuz:** Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority [announced][25] on Sunday that any vessel cooperating with a blacklisted ship, including through ship-to-ship (STS) transfers, will be blacklisted and face fines, detention, or confiscation on future Strait of Hormuz passages.

* The move seeks to thwart the workaround that has kept oil moving despite Iran’s grip on the strait: a “shuttle” trade in which tankers make short, dark-transit runs through Hormuz with transponders off, then transfer their cargo to other ships via STS just outside the Gulf.
* Energy analysts have said this covert corridor is a major reason global supply hasn’t collapsed. U.S. authorities say it is helping move about 8 million barrels daily.

# Yemen

* **Ansarallah targets Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea:** The group’s military spokesperson issued a [statement][26] saying an oil tanker belonging to Saudi Arabia “was targeted off the coast of Yanbu in Saudi Arabia with a ballistic missile.” Earlier in the day, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile about 63 nautical miles west of Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, causing a fire on the vessel’s main deck.

# Lebanon

* **Israeli forces kill two 17-year-old boys, demolish and burn homes across Southern Lebanon despite ceasefire:**

* In Mays Al-Jabal in the Marjayoun district, Israeli bulldozers [demolished][27] a temporary school complex in the Dbayeh area, while troops brought in explosives and rigged several homes for demolition, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. In Khiam, forces [blew up][28] homes near Al-Mabarrat schools before setting fire to additional homes, properties and agricultural fields.
* The bodies of two 17-year-old boys who had been missing since Sunday were [recovered][29] from the Dawhat Kfar Remman area in Nabatieh. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said they had been killed in an Israeli attack with reports saying an Israeli drone struck the motorcycle they were riding.
* On Saturday, Israeli warplanes struck Ali Al-Taher hill twice, and Israeli artillery hit Dawhat Kfar Remman, Dabsha hill and the wooded area around Ali Al-Taher with phosphorus shells, according to NNA.
* Two additional Israeli airstrikes hit between Sirbin and Rshaf. No injuries were reported in that strike.
* Israeli troops demolished civilian homes in the Zawtar pilot zone; reporting [here][30] from journalist Courtney Bonneau.
* **U.S. envoy walks back comments on Hezbollah role in negotiations: **U.S. envoy Tom Barrack walked back remarks suggesting Hezbollah and Iran should be represented in negotiations surrounding Lebanon. In an interview with Mario Nawfal on Saturday, Barrack [said][31] that any serious settlement in Lebanon requires Hezbollah and Iran at the negotiating table and the U.S. negotiating team is trying to bring them into the process.

* “The problem is you don’t have the people who can make decisions at the table,” Barrack told Mario Nawfal. “The people who can make the decision are Hezbollah and Iran.”
* On Sunday, however, Barrack told the Associated Press that he had been describing the difficulty of resolving Hezbollah’s weapons rather than proposing their participation in negotiations. “Hezbollah is a designated foreign terrorist organization. We do not negotiate with it, and nothing I said suggests otherwise,” he said.

# U.S. News

* **Thousands are still without power in northwest Indiana after deadly storms, sparking lawsuit**: More than 28,000 customers [remained][32] without power as of Sunday in northwest Indiana following storms that began August 11, which killed at least seven people and displaced about 1,000.

* In Gary, a majority-Black city where more than half of residents lost power and about one in three lives in poverty, resident **Shatiya Hardin** described conditions as “absolutely horrible,” saying that families are struggling with the heat and that many rely on a community center for meals, air conditioning, and phone charging.
* Indiana Gov. **Mike Braun** requested an expedited major disaster declaration from FEMA for 54 counties, estimating losses could exceed $5 billion.
* **Father of USS Abraham Lincoln sailor detained by ICE while son deployed at sea:** **Luis Manuel Aviles**, a Nicaraguan immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for roughly 20 years, was [detained][33] by Border Patrol during a traffic stop in Key West, Florida, on Saturday, his family said. His son **Joshua Aviles** serves aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed at sea for more than nine months.

* Family members said Aviles had a work permit, Social Security card, and driver’s license. There have been more than 50 documented detentions of parents and spouses of active-duty service members during Trump’s second term, according to a recent Associated Press investigation.
* **Canada “at war” over trade after U.S.-Canada talks collapse, oil supply squeeze looming for U.S. refiners**: Canadian Prime Minister **Mark Carney** [declared][34] Canada “at war” over trade after suspending talks with the U.S., saying President Donald Trump “miscalculated” by demanding a “bad deal” that included new restrictions on Canada’s ability to strike trade agreements with other nations and “exclusive access” to Canadian critical minerals.

* The breakdown triggers new tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian exports on top of existing levies on steel, aluminum, lumber, and vehicles, with Carney saying Canada would match the fresh U.S. tariffs “dollar for dollar.”
* Separately, U.S. refiners, which are processing the most crude oil in eight years and taking advantage of record diesel margins, face a supply drop from Canada, their largest foreign crude supplier, as planned maintenance in Alberta’s oil sands is set to take about 300,000 barrels a day offline next month, according to reporting from Bloomberg.
* **USPS moves forward with mail-in ballot restrictions:** The U.S. Postal Service [announced][35] Friday new eligibility guidelines for mail-in ballots that closely mirror President Donald Trump’s March executive order restricting the practice, according to The Hill, even though a federal judge later struck down that order.

* The 95-page report, set for official release August 26, would give states 60 days before the November 3 midterms to notify USPS if they intend to submit citizenship-based voter eligibility lists, echoing Trump’s earlier order to the agency.
* U.S. District Judge **Indira Talwani** blocked the order’s enforcement earlier this month, warning it would create “confusion” and “chaos” close to the election.
* Nearly a third of 2024 general election ballots were cast by mail, according to a U.S. Election Assistance Commission report.
* **Trump made more than 1,000 stock trades in June, disclosure shows:** President Donald Trump [made][36] more than 1,000 securities trades in June, including significant purchases of Berkshire Hathaway, Visa, Mastercard, and Cintas, totaling between $78.1 million and $263.1 million, according to a financial disclosure published Saturday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

* Trump made more than 21,000 securities trades worth between $600 million and $1.86 billion in 2025, often in bursts tied to market-moving events and occasionally involving same-day buying and selling of the same security.
* **Migrants who resisted deportation flight to Liberia forced onward to Equatorial Guinea**: At least five migrants who [refused][37] to get off a U.S. deportation flight in Liberia were instead flown to Equatorial Guinea on Thursday, the New York Times reported.

* Three of the deportees, all Cuban men, told the Times that officers placed knees on their necks while restraining them in Liberia, that they were told they would be returned to the U.S., and that instead they landed in Equatorial Guinea, where they were met by dozens of masked, armed officers and taken to a guarded hotel in the country’s capital, Malabo.
* The case is part of a broader deal in which the U.S. approved a $5 million payment to Liberia to accept up to 1,200 deportees.
* **Federal judge strikes down Trump administration’s visa ban on 75 countries**: Judge **Jeannette A. Vargas **of the Southern District of New York [ruled][38] Friday that the Trump administration’s ban on issuing visas to immigrants from 75 countries was “contrary to law” and exceeded Secretary of State **Marco Rubio’s** legal authority, disputing the administration’s stated rationale that targeted immigrants were likely to become “a financial burden to Americans.”

* Vargas distinguished the case from the Supreme Court’s 2018 upholding of Trump’s first-term travel ban, noting that ruling concerned entry restrictions rather than visa issuance.
* The Trump administration is expected to appeal the decision.
* **Jeffries met privately with Kushner amid preparations for possible Democratic House majority:** House Minority Leader **Hakeem Jeffries** [met][39] privately in recent weeks in New York City with **Jared Kushner**, President Trump’s top outside adviser and son-in-law, to discuss potential areas of common ground including housing, immigration, and cost of living, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

* Kushner suggested Jeffries meet with White House Chief of Staff **Susie Wiles**, and has reportedly told others that Jeffries is “the most serious person among Democratic leaders” for any bipartisan dealmaking.
* The meeting comes as Trump’s inner circle prepares for a possible Democratic House majority, with Jeffries telling the Times last month he has “not ruled anything in and not ruled anything out in terms of accountability,” naming War Secretary **Pete Hegseth** as a cabinet official he wants “next on the list” for removal.

📥 Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email DC Correspondent Julian Andreone at [email protected]

# Other International News

* **Israel strikes Syria near the Golan Heights:** Israel [carried out][40] a drone strike Saturday on a vehicle in Beit Jinn, southwest of Damascus near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Israeli military said it targeted a man it accused of being in the “final stages” of preparing an imminent attack on Israeli soldiers. Syrian state media said at least one person was wounded and condemned the strike as a violation of Syrian sovereignty.

* The attack came four days after Israel carried out a larger unprovoked aerial bombardment of the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province on August 18.

* **Barrack suggests Israel bombed Syria’s Abu al-Duhur airbase to “bait” Turkey: **U.S. envoy Tom Barrack [said][41] U.S. intelligence found no Turkish military assets at the base and no plan by Ankara to move in, contradicting Netanyahu’s justification for Tuesday’s attack—and said Turkey was exercising “restraint.” He warned Turkey could have scrambled fighter jets against the Israeli aircraft, potentially triggering “World War III.” Barrack said another possibility was a “miscommunication” between Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli military and Mossad.

* Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a rare Sabbath statement rejecting Barrack’s account as “full of inaccuracies.” Katz claimed Syria was warned directly, and said Washington was informed beforehand, something Barrack denied.

* **Ukraine strikes Russian refinery, Russians strike Ukrainian mall: **Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy [said][42] on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had struck Russia’s Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery, roughly 1,000 kilometers from the front line, as Kyiv expands its long-range campaign against Russian energy and military infrastructure.

* Ukrainian forces also hit a logistics hub in the Samara region and targets in the Black Sea, according to Zelenskyy.
* Separately, Russian drones struck a busy shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih on Friday evening, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 130, including 23 children, the Financial Times reports. As of Saturday morning, nine people remained missing, including two children. Twenty-nine victims were in serious condition, among them five children.
* President Volodymyr Zelenskyy [said][43] the drones hit in two waves, with the second strike coming about 30 minutes later as emergency crews responded, a “double-tap” attack.
* **Sudanese Army strikes inside of Chad: **The** **Chadian military [confirmed][44] on Saturday that the Sudanese Army conducted a strike on vehicles roughly 100 kilometers into its territory, with reports suggesting the army targeted an RSF convoy traveling through the country.

* Previous reporting has documented similar convoys carrying arms shipments from the UAE through Chad.

* **Venezuela unable to ship oil, Reuters reports:** Venezuela’s aging ports have [prevented][45] it from moving crude oil as quickly as the country is producing and selling it, according to a Reuters report, with tankers waiting up to 30 days to load because of equipment failures, power outages, storage shortages, and crude-quality problems.

* Venezuela has been unable to push exports above roughly 1.25 million barrels per day, despite rising production and strong demand.

* **Embattled Mexican governor Rocha out again:** Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya is [stepping aside][46] again, just a day after returning from leave, following intense pressure from his own party and President Claudia Sheinbaum. Rocha stepped away from office after being accused of drug trafficking and alleged collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel’s Chapitos faction by U.S. authorities; he suddenly announced Friday he would return only to then reverse course Saturday, saying he would take an indefinite leave. Morena leaders, including President Sheinbaum, criticized the governor’s return as prioritizing personal ambition over party unity and state stability.
* **Germany records over 14,000 heat-related deaths:** Germany registered around 14,000 heat-related deaths this summer amid a series of heatwaves, official data showed, [according][47] to AFP. Around 9,600 of those deaths took place in one week in late June when temperatures in Germany rose over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), according to the Robert Koch Institute, which operates under the Federal Ministry of Health.

* **DR Congo and M23 rebels agree on peace roadmap in Switzerland: **Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo said in a statement Saturday that the government and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group have established a roadmap for peace after five days of negotiations in Switzerland.

* Both sides committed to continuing talks and agreed to create a ceasefire monitoring mechanism, building on the 2025 U.S.-brokered peace framework. A monitoring team is scheduled for its first verification mission in South Kivu’s Minembwe region.
* Despite the milestones, Drop Site correspondent [Godfrey Olukya reports][48], key disputes persist over detainee releases, political reforms, and sanctions on M23.
* Separately, DR Congo President Joseph Kabila is [challenging][49] U.S. sanctions imposed over allegations that he supported the Rwanda-backed M23 rebellion. Kabila filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to overturn Treasury Department sanctions imposed April 30. He was sentenced to death in absentia by a Congolese military court in 2025 over ties to M23.
* **Video shows hundreds held captive after mass abduction from Nigerian mosque: **An armed group released a video [showing][50] what residents said were roughly 600 women, children, and elderly people abducted from a village in north-central Nigeria’s Niger State over the weekend.

* Unidentified gunmen attacked worshippers during Friday prayers and simultaneously raided several surrounding communities, witnesses said, carrying the captives into a forest.
* No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack though ransom kidnappings by criminal groups and extremists is common in the region and the fate of the abductees is presently unknown.

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[2]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091340701757771992https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091340701757771992
[3]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091460194857353483
[4]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091486023830188478
[5]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091718080959324452
[6]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091421884541792751
[7]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091719689139290127
[8]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091454723966529814
[9]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091474752997102070
[10]: https://www.timesofisrael.com/car-building-torched-in-apparent-settler-attack-in-west-bank-no-injuries-reported/
[11]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091475866337390858
[12]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091481667911188916
[13]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091659454651490793
[14]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091229859942990193
[15]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091240019662893475
[16]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091341733636317625
[17]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091713357501858229
[18]: https://www.ft.com/content/cb865200-1a06-40be-86a3-10ee2bb05804
[19]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091294413733732447
[20]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091115014736240928
[21]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091117203735142822
[22]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091168694785196300
[23]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091336640002158819
[24]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091519889693450702
[25]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091626289262457285
[26]: https://t.me/army21ye/3657
[27]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/559255/%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%88-%D8%AA%D8%AC%D8%B1%D9%91%D9%81-%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B3-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%A8%D9%84-%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%AE%D8%AE-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%87-%D8%AA%D9%85%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%8B-%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%81%D9%87%D8%A7-2
[28]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/559233/%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AF%D9%88-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B5%D9%84-%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D9%88%D8%A5%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%84-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%88%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%85-2
[29]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/559187/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%AC%D8%AB%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A-%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%AA%D9%87%D9%85%D8%A7-%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%91%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%A9-%D9%83%D9%81%D8%B1%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-2
[30]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091529809813791177
[31]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091429519299059831
[32]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deadly-indiana-storms-frustration-mounts-thousands-still-without-power/
[33]: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/father-sailor-uss-abraham-lincoln-detained-immigration-family-says-rcna593961
[34]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-21/us-oil-refiners-face-import-squeeze-from-biggest-foreign-seller
[35]: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6045248-usps-mail-in-voting-guidelines-tighten/
[36]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-22/trump-s-stock-disclosure-shows-more-than-1-000-trades-in-june
[37]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/world/africa/us-deportees-liberia-equatorial-guinea.html
[38]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/us/politics/judge-trump-75-country-visa-ban.html
[39]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/us/politics/judge-trump-75-country-visa-ban.html
[40]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091439710933545398
[41]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091437610056974746
[42]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091134776904167521
[43]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091291467356815474
[44]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091284216105369982
[45]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091139048077242597
[46]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/world/americas/governor-ruben-rocha-moya-sinaloa-mexico.html
[47]: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260820-germany-records-14-000-heat-related-deaths-this-summer-as-heatwaves-scorch-europe
[48]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091615852298703317
[49]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2091506329177219077
[50]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/24/video-shows-hundreds-held-captive-after-nigeria-mosque-kidnapping
[51]: https://shop.dropsitenews.com/products/drop-news-not-bombs-hoodie
[52]: https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbC8sIT2Jl8B4r4N202q
[53]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/account
[54]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/account


https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gary-indiana-power-us-iran-sanctions-israel-gaza-mosque-desalination

U.S. imposes new Cuba sanctions; Progressive wins California special election; Congo Ebola outbreak “growing exponentially”

Residents carry containers while queuing for potable water from a tanker, amid recurring shortages and power outages, in Matanzas, Cuba, on August 6, 2026. Photo by AFP via Getty Images.

**Friday, August 21, 2026 –***** **Fifteen-year-old boy dies after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. Israeli forces and settlers kill two Palestinians, wound several others in occupied West Bank attacks. Drop Site reports on detained Palestinian journalist. Hamas is “fully committed” to Board of Peace roadmap, official says. Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza. European leaders condemn Israeli settlement expansion. Turkey seeks Interpol red notice for Netanyahu over Global Sumud Flotilla attack. Three Palestinian parties in Israel revive Joint List ahead of October Knesset election. U.S. threatens countries trading with Iran with “economic oblivion.” China registers opposition to U.S. economic campaign against Iran. Oil traffic through Hormuz remains constrained. Iranian crude oil offers to Chinese buyers decline. Israeli army continues attacks in Lebanon despite “ceasefire” agreement. Explosions heard over Tyre as Prime Minister Nawaf Salam tells
army its deployment restores state “sovereignty, authority and prestige.” U.S. issues sanctions on Hezbollah. Progressive Aisha Wahab wins California special election, dealing blow to AIPAC-backed opponent. Emails reveal ICE quietly coordinated with Iran on deportation flights. Transgender migrants in ICE detention losing rights, medical care, New York Times finds. Department of Homeland Security spied on at least five Midwest churches amid anti-ICE activist probe, court records show. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott targets Muslim washing stations at airports. Missouri judge allows Trump-backed congressional map for November election. Research finds over 150 Polymarket wallets likely traded on inside U.S. military information. Private prison giant GEO Group donated $1.4 million to pro-Trump PAC after landing major ICE contracts. Ebola virus outbreak in DRC “growing exponentially.” U.S. imposes new Cuba sanctions, detains Americans returning from island. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran
Khan sent back to prison hours after hospital visit. Hundreds protest against Tunisian President Kais Saied. Human Rights Watch: Russian paramilitaries “summarily killed” nine Mali civilians, including four children. Ukraine hits Russian oil and power sites in overnight drone barrage, blacking out much of Crimea. RSF attacks kill six, displace over 1,000 in Sudan’s North Kordofan. U.S. deportees arrive in Liberia. Syria weighs joining security pact with Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia. Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil organizers convicted under national security law. Judge rules Palestine Action did not violate UK terrorism laws.*

**This is Drop Site Daily, our free news recap We send it Monday – Friday**

# Palestine

* **15-year-old boy dies after being shot in the head by Israel in Gaza: **A 15-year-old Palestinian boy died on Thursday after being shot by Israeli troops in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. Footage appears to show him shot in the head.
* **Israeli forces and settlers kill two Palestinians, wound several others in occupied West Bank attacks:**

* **Hebron:** A 17-year-old Palestinian boy was [killed][1] after being shot in the chest by armed Israeli settlers during an attack on homes in Khirbet Hamroush, northeast of Hebron, WAFA reported. A 70-year-old man was also shot and wounded, and settlers burned down a home. In southern Hebron, settlers [attacked][2] homes near Al-Dhahiriya and Al-Samu, injuring five Palestinians, stealing sheep and attacking a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance, preventing it from reaching the wounded. Israeli forces later arrested four Palestinians in Shaab Al-Butum, including a father and son, and three others during a raid on Beit Ummar.
* **Jenin:** Israeli forces [shot and killed][3] Fathi Hazem, a 58-year-old retired police colonel in the Palestinian National Security Forces, during a raid on his home in central Jenin and withheld his body. An eyewitness told AFP, “They shot him seven times in front of his 10-year-old son. They dragged him down the stairs and took him with them.” Two of Hazem’s other sons were killed by the Israeli military in 2022. In Zababdeh, south of Jenin, Israeli forces shot a 14-year-old boy in the chest and back during a raid. Israeli forces also hung Israeli flags along several points of the Jenin–Nablus road.
* **Nablus:** Israeli settlers attacked the Bula Al-Hawa area, east of Nablus, [beating][4] a Palestinian.
* **Drop Site reports on detained Palestinian journalist:** After more than two years in Israeli detention, the first photo of Palestinian journalist Mohammed Arab emerged on Monday. Israeli forces seized Arab from Gaza’s Al-Shifa Medical Complex on March 18, 2024.

* “They are calling on us using the quadcopters. Pray for me, and take care of the children,” Arab told his wife Wafaa Abu Al-Laban in their final conversation.
* “Mohammed’s health is very, very poor,” Abu Al-Laban told Drop Site’s Abdel Qader Sabbah. Arab was subjected to severe abuse at Sde Teiman and forced to remain on his knees for prolonged periods, causing a slipped disc and serious back problems. His eyesight also deteriorated after his glasses were taken away, his lawyer said.
* After more than two years in detention, Arab told his lawyer that seeing his own face had become a dream. “I just want to know what I look like,” he said. A petition had to be filed to obtain underwear and a mirror for him.
* **Watch Abdel Qader Sabbah’s video report on Mohamed Arab for Drop Site [here][5].**

* **Hamas is “fully committed” to Board of Peace roadmap, official says:** Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, [told][6] CNN on Thursday that the group remains fully committed to the “agreed version” of the “Board of Peace” roadmap for Gaza, noting that the group believes that the roadmap satisfactorily handles the decommissioning of its weapons, the future of its tunnels, and implementation timelines.

* President Donald Trump’s envoy Nickolay Mladenov had pledged to secure Israel’s approval for the deal, Naim said, but Israel has since rejected the deal and carried out massacres in Gaza in a deliberate attempt to derail it.
* Naim also [told][7] CNN that Board of Peace mediators and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are asking Hamas to be “sensitive” to Benjamin Netanyahu’s political position ahead of Israel’s upcoming election over the already-agreed Gaza roadmap. “As a Palestinian, I am not in a position to pay the price from the bodies and blood and the lives of our people in order to secure the victory of Netanyahu’s election,” Naim noted to CNN in response.
* **Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza: **Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey “strongly [condemned][8]” recent Israeli attacks on Gaza that have killed civilians, including women and children, in a joint statement Wednesday.

* The statement said the intensification of Israeli attacks “undermines regional and international efforts at a critical juncture,” as work continues to implement the plan to end the war, including the Board of Peace’s meeting with Israeli officials. They stressed that Israel must “fully comply with all its obligations under the ceasefire agreement” and refrain from actions that could escalate tensions.
* **European leaders condemn Israeli settlement expansion:** The leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada [condemned][9] Israel’s decision to issue construction tenders for the E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank in a joint statement on Thursday.

* The statement urges Israel to “retract these plans immediately” and halt settlement expansion.
* It also warns businesses not to bid on the tenders, citing possible “legal and reputational consequences” and the risk of involvement in “serious breaches of international law.”
* **Turkey seeks Interpol red notice for Netanyahu over Global Sumud Flotilla attack: **Turkey [asked][10] Interpol to issue a red notice for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Israeli attack on activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, Justice Minister Akin Gürlek said Friday via Anadolu Agency. Gürlek said proceedings are continuing before an Istanbul court against 35 defendants over the attack in international waters and the detention of activists.

* Arrest warrants were issued for Netanyahu and Israeli official Afek Moskovitch on July 14 on charges including genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, aggravated deprivation of liberty and hijacking, prompting the Justice Ministry to request Interpol red notices.
* **Three Palestinian parties in Israel revive Joint List ahead of October Knesset election**: Three Palestinian parties in Israel, Hadash, Balad, and Ta’al, [announced][11] a reconstituted Joint List on Wednesday ahead of the October 27 Knesset election.

* The list will be led by Hadash’s Yousef Jabareen, followed by Ta’al’s Ahmad Tibi and Balad’s Sami Abu Shehadeh, with the parties targeting at least 10 seats and competing against the United Arab List led by Mansour Abbas.
* Balad deputy secretary-general Yousef Tatur said the party made concessions to reach the agreement given “the gravity of the current moment,” citing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, West Bank displacement, and attacks in Jerusalem, and called on Palestinian voters with Israeli citizenship who are eligible to vote to help “turn unity into a real force on the ground.”

# Iran

* **U.S. threatens countries trading with Iran with “economic oblivion”**: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent [said][12] on Thursday that Washington would impose the “toughest sanctions in history” on Iran following Trump’s declaration of “economic warfare.”

* “The economic pressure means that we are going to all of our allies, and this is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world,” Bessent told CNBC, noting that all countries will now be judged as “either with us or against” the U.S. based on their economic relationship with Iran.
* “If you insist on doing business with them, either transferring money or buying their oil, they are doing seaborne ship transfers, then the US Treasury and the U.S. government, they will put its full might and force toward enforcing against you,” Bessent told CNBC.
* Separately, Bessent [noted][13] his confusion at rising oil prices, saying that the U.S. had “asymmetric information” and he was “not sure why oil has popped up on this.”
* Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the war with Iran had entered “a new phase where the most effective tool we have is the economic pressure we can impose on them.” “It will be a delicate dance,” he added, because Iran “will try to put economic pressure on us.”
* Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf called for a plan to overcome what he described as “cruel sanctions” following the U.S. Treasury announcement. Speaking during a visit to Iraq, Ghalibaf said Iran and other Muslim countries possess significant resources and raw materials that their “enemies are coming to plunder,” and urged Baghdad to cooperate with Tehran in confronting the sanctions.
* **China registers opposition to U.S. economic campaign against Iran: **Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian [said][14] on Friday that the newest round of U.S. economic pressure would “not help to resolve” the conflict in the Middle East.

* Lin called on all sides to address tensions through political and diplomatic means.
* China has repeatedly rejected unilateral U.S. sanctions, arguing that measures not authorized by the UN Security Council lack standing in international law.

* **Oil traffic through Hormuz remains constrained: **Kpler [recorded][15] 10.73 million barrels of west-to-east liquid tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz from August 14–20, an average of just 1.53 million barrels per day, a sharp contrast from the 10 million barrels per day figure that two U.S. officials gave Axios.

* Only 14 outbound tankers were observed during the entire week, with no recorded traffic on August 14 or 17, according to the maritime tracking firm.
* Kpler cautions that its figures may change as more vessel-position data becomes available, including from ships traveling with their tracking systems switched off. But the currently observed traffic is nowhere near the scale Washington described.
* **Iranian crude oil offers to Chinese buyers decline: **Offers of Iranian crude to Chinese buyers have fallen this week, Reuters [reported][16] on Friday, while prices have jumped.

* The number of planned deliveries for September and October declined from July and August, and barrels shipped earlier have already been sold.
* Crude oil, which is usually sold at a lower price, is now being sold at premiums, Reuters reported.

# Lebanon

* **Israeli army continues attacks in Lebanon despite “ceasefire” agreement: **Israeli forces [set off][17] a “massive explosion,” conducted in two stages, in the area between the towns of Arnoun and Kfar Tebnit, in the Nabatieh district in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese National News Agency reported on Friday.

* In Tyre (Sour), Israeli attacks were [reported][18] in the Mansouri-Majdal Zoun area, according to the NNA, with the Israeli military firing artillery shells on Mansouri.
* Israeli soldiers also fired on Khiam, where Israeli forces had blown up a house. Israeli warplanes also struck the outskirts of Baraashit, in the Bint Jbeil district, targeting a house, early Friday morning.
* Israeli forces bombarded the strategic Ali Taher hill in southern Lebanon for more than five hours overnight, with artillery fire beginning after 11 p.m. and continuing until around 5 a.m., L’Orient Today reported.
* **Explosions heard over Tyre as PM Salam tells army its deployment restores state “sovereignty, authority and prestige”: **Explosions were heard over the southern Lebanese city of Tyre (Sour) on Friday as Prime Minister Nawaf Salam [delivered][19] a speech at the Benoit Barakat Barracks, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. Speaking as Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue, Salam said restoring sovereignty requires “one strong army” and bringing all of southern Lebanon under the authority of the state. He said the Lebanese state and its constitutional institutions must regain the “decision of war and peace,” describing the army’s deployment in the south as the restoration of state “sovereignty, authority and prestige.”
* **U.S. issues sanctions on Hezbollah:** The U.S. Treasury Department [sanctioned][20] 10 people it says form a network smuggling cash to Hezbollah, and redesignated Hezbollah itself as operating “under the command” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), OFAC announced Thursday.

* The Treasury Department accused the network of using couriers on commercial flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the UAE, and Iran to move “up to hundreds of millions of dollars,” giving Hezbollah a channel outside the banking system to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions.
* A State Department official said the redesignation is meant to show Hezbollah is “not a stand-alone operation” but acts for Iran.
* Hezbollah [responded][21] to the sanctions on Friday morning, rejecting its characterization as “under the command” of the IRGC, adding it did not need anyone to certify its Lebanese identity or patriotism, and describing its relationship with Iran as a “close and fraternal” relationship.
* It described the move as part of longstanding U.S. policies aimed at targeting Hezbollah through political, financial, and security pressure, which it said was intended to “protect the security of the Israeli enemy,” and said the sanctions would “not deter” its fight against Israel.

# U.S. News

* **Progressive Aisha Wahab wins California special election, dealing blow to AIPAC-backed opponent**: State Senator **Aisha Wahab** [defeated][22] transit official **Melissa Hernandez **in the special election to fill former Representative **Eric Swalwell’s **House seat, despite Hernandez’s backing from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, which spent roughly $2.5 million in the race.

* Wahab, who opposes unconditional aid to Israel and has characterized Israel’s conduct in Gaza as a “genocide,” will represent the district for the remainder of the year.
* **Emails reveal ICE quietly coordinated with Iran on deportation flights**: Newly released emails obtained by the National Iranian American Council show U.S. immigration officials worked with Iranian government representatives to deport more than 100 Iranians on three flights between September 2025 and January 2026, with Iranian officials influencing which individuals were included on deportation manifests and ICE at times heeding last-minute requests from the Iranian Embassy, according to CBS News.

* The coordination continued even during the June 2025 U.S.-Israel war with Iran. Then-acting ICE Director **Todd Lyons **called Iranian repatriation a “priority” days after President Donald Trump warned Tehran residents to evacuate, and an ICE official described the deportations as a “White House priority” despite Iran’s closed airspace.
* A separate lawsuit filed by Iranian asylum seekers in July alleges ICE illegally shared confidential information with Iranian officials while the migrants were in detention.
* **Trans migrants in ICE detention losing rights, medical care, NYT finds**: The federal government has halted specialized care for transgender detainees at more than 10 immigration detention centers and deleted an Obama-era policy assuring the basic rights of transgender people in immigration custody, according to a Thursday [report][23] from The New York Times.

* **Camila Toro de Paula**, a 25-year-old transgender Venezuelan asylum seeker who has spent 11 months in a men’s facility in Jena, Louisiana, described being assaulted, denied hormone treatment, and held in solitary confinement without consistent water access to the Times.
* Another transgender asylum seeker, **Wilmar Quintero**, who left her native Venezuela after being tortured by police officers for her transgender identity, described being sexually assaulted while detained in Michigan before she was deported in April.
* **DHS spied on at least five Midwest churches amid anti-ICE activist probe, court records show:** Court filings that emerged last week [reveal][24] DHS agents surveilled five churches in Minnesota and Michigan as part of an investigation into activists opposing ICE known as “Operation Puppet Master.”

* Undercover agents attended events at First Universalist Church of Minneapolis and University Baptist Church, with one undercover agent attending a Mixed Martial Arts class at University Baptist Church in May with a hidden audio recorder, and another agent collecting license plate information near St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in St. Paul during an April activist meeting.
* The revelations raise questions about whether DHS violated a February court injunction barring warrantless enforcement actions at churches.
* **Texas Gov. Abbott targets Muslim washing stations at airports**: Texas Gov. **Greg Abbott **[sent][25] a letter Friday to the heads of Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth airports alleging that their Muslim wudu washing stations constituted “religious discrimination.” Abbott, has consistently pursued anti-Muslim policies, asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to investigate and warned his office is “reviewing all grants” to entities involved, according to The Washington Post.
* **Missouri judge allows Trump-backed congressional map for November election**: Cole County Circuit Judge **Daniel Green** [ruled][26] Wednesday that Missouri’s new Republican-friendly U.S. House districts can be used in November, rejecting a bid by the group People Not Politicians to put the map to a statewide referendum.

* The redistricting, prompted by President Donald Trump’s push for Republican-led states to redraw boundaries ahead of the midterms, targets Democratic Rep. **Emanuel Cleaver **by splitting Kansas City among Republican-held districts and extending his 5th District into rural GOP territory, with about 59% of the district’s voters newly assigned under the plan.
* People Not Politicians executive director **Richard von Glahn **said the group plans to appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court.
* Missouri’s fight joins roughly a dozen lawsuits nationally over redistricting efforts that could net Republicans up to 16 additional House seats across eight states.
* **Research finds over 150 Polymarket wallets likely traded on inside U.S. military information:** More than 150 wallets on Polymarket International [appear][27] to have traded on insider U.S. military information, collectively earning $8 million with a 97.2% win rate on defense-related bets, according to research from the nonprofit Anti-Corruption Data Collective.

* ACDC also found that bets from these accounts appear to attract copycat wagers from larger traders and automated bots, including $200,000 and $100,000 copycat bets placed hours before June 2025 U.S. strikes on Iran.
* **Private prison giant GEO Group donated $1.4 million to pro-Trump PAC after landing major ICE contracts**: GEO Group’s reentry services division contributed $1.4 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting President Donald Trump, in July, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by The Lever, just weeks after the company secured two five-year Department of Homeland Security contracts to operate ICE detention facilities in Colorado and North Carolina worth a combined estimated $165 million in annual revenue.

* The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recently sued GEO Group, forcing the company to allow state inspectors to investigate a tuberculosis outbreak at one of its facilities.
* More on the GEO Group’s political activities is available from The Lever [here][28].

📥 Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email DC Correspondent Julian Andreone at [email protected]

# Other International News

* **Ebola virus outbreak in DRC “growing exponentially”:** The Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is “growing exponentially,” the UN warned on Friday. Julien Harneis, the UN’s Senior Ebola Coordinator, said in a [statement][29] that more than 2,500 people had died in the last three months, with over half of all deaths occurring in just the last 20 days. “The epidemic is spreading to an area that is bigger than France. And the outbreak is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response,” Harneis said. He also stressed the “brutal” conditions facing healthcare workers with 160 healthcare workers contracting Ebola, with 43 dying.
* **U.S. imposes new Cuba sanctions, detains Americans returning from island: **The Treasury and State departments [announced][30] new sanctions Thursday against nine Cuban state-owned mining, metal, and construction companies, and on the leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused of sponsoring “a vast subversive network in the United States aimed at identifying, cultivating, and radicalizing” Americans, according to the Associated Press.

* The move follows an operation at the Miami airport last weekend in which several Americans returning from Cuba after attending events marking Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday were briefly detained and had electronic devices seized for inspection.
* Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said that the U.S. imposed the sanctions with the “deliberate aim of harming” the country’s economy ”to prevent the provision of basic services to the population.” The measures add to an oil blockade the U.S. imposed earlier this year following the removal of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, which has resulted in regular blackouts and medical shortages on the island.
* **Imran Khan sent back to prison hours after hospital visit: **Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was briefly [hospitalized][31], declared medically fit, and returned to prison within hours early Friday, a move his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said violated a Supreme Court order requiring him to remain under medical supervision until at least mid-September.

* Khan’s sister, Uzma Khan, said he told her he was being “repeatedly” tortured in prison, and party officials accused authorities of “contempt of the Supreme Court” after Khan was examined at a state-run hospital, contrary to a court order mandating that he be treated at a private facility.
* Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023 on charges he has characterized as “politically motivated.” PTI officials have announced a nationwide march, planned to take place on September 27, in response to his medical deterioration.
* Separately, Zulfikar Bukhari, a top aide to Khan, told Reuters on Thursday that the former PM would not confront army chief Asim Munir if freed, marking a significant shift in rhetoric from a party whose supporters have long rallied against the military leader they blame for Khan’s 2023 imprisonment.
* **Hundreds protest against Tunisian President Kais Saied:** Hundreds of protesters [marched][32] in Tunis Thursday calling for President Kais Saied’s ouster and rejecting what they called “one-man rule” and “a slide towards dictatorship,” urging the release of jailed opposition figures, activists, and journalists, Al Jazeera reported.

* The demonstration follows a similar protest on July 25 marking the anniversary of Saied’s 2021 dismissal of the government and suspension of parliament.
* Saied, a 68-year-old former constitutional lawyer elected in 2019 on an anti-corruption platform, has faced international criticism for consolidating control over the judiciary and overseeing mass trials of political opponents.
* The country has been racked by mounting economic pressure, with inflation at 5.2%, according to the World Bank. Protests have also emerged in response to widespread water and power cuts, and the environmental problems that accompanied wildfires that hit the country earlier this summer.
* **HRW: Russian paramilitaries “summarily killed” nine Mali civilians, including four children**: Human Rights Watch [said][33] Thursday that Russia’s Africa Corps summarily killed nine civilians, including four children, in Mali’s central Mopti region in the presence of Malian soldiers earlier last month, alleging the paramilitary group also beat dozens of people and burned at least eight homes.

* HRW said more than 100 Africa Corps fighters rounded up at least 80 men and boys in Bombori village on July 10, beating them while interrogating them about alleged ties to armed groups, before shooting six who tried to escape and executing three others in custody, one allegedly by beheading.
* The killings come amid Mali’s ongoing civil war against armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL, with Russia’s Africa Corps having become the country’s main military partner since Bamako’s relations with Western nations, particularly its former colonizer France, deteriorated following the military’s 2021 seizure of power.
* **Ukraine hits Russian oil and power sites in overnight drone barrage, blacking out much of Crimea: **Ukraine [struck][34] a wave of Russian energy targets overnight into Thursday, Aug. 20, in one of its heaviest long-range drone campaigns of the war, hitting oil refineries, a Black Sea export terminal, and a substation feeding occupied Crimea, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. Ukrainian drones struck a substation in Krasnodar Krai, which provides Russian-occupied Crimea with much of its power, leading to a blackout in the area overnight. Drones also struck an export terminal at Volna and a refinery in Tatarstan.
* **RSF attacks kill six, displace over 1,000 in Sudan’s North Kordofan: **Rapid Support Forces fighters [raided][35] the villages of Um Dareisa and Al-Shaqla in Sudan’s North Kordofan state Wednesday, killing six civilians and forcing more than 1,000 people to flee on foot to the state capital El Obeid, Sudan Tribune reported. A local official accused RSF fighters of widespread abuses in the area in recent days, including unlawful killings, physical assaults, sexual violence, looting supplies at gunpoint, and forced displacement. The attack follows a raid last week on the nearby town of Um Arda that killed 18 people and displaced more than 300 families.
* **U.S. deportees arrive in Liberia:** Twenty people deported from the United States [arrived][36] at Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia on Thursday, the first group transferred under a $5 million deal allowing the U.S. to send up to 1,200 third-country deportees to Liberia over the next year. Liberian officials said the group will include people from Africa, North and South America, and the Caribbean, but most of the first arrivals came from Latin America, including Venezuela and Cuba.

* **Syria weighs joining security pact with Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia: **Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani said Damascus was [reviewing][37] whether to join the trilateral “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement” between Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but has not yet made a decision. Speaking on a state visit to Islamabad, al-Shaibani said Syria was seeking to deepen ties with Pakistan, with the two sides moving toward exchanging ambassadors, establishing direct flights and reviving a joint ministerial commission.
* **Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil organizers convicted under national security law:** Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, were [convicted][38] Friday of inciting subversion, following a national security law imposed on the region by the Chinese government. Both were charged in 2021 after organizing annual vigils in commemoration of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Lee and Chow now face up to 10 years in prison.
* **Judge rules Palestine Action did not violate UK terrorism laws: **UK Judge Robert Altham ruled on Friday that five Palestine Action activists would not be sentenced under the country’s terrorism laws, after the cohort was found guilty in June of causing $290,000 worth of damage to a Barclays Bank during an August 2024 protest against the bank’s shareholdings in the Israeli defense company Elbit Systems.

📖 **[READ][39] **The Israeli Siege of Palestinian Families in Qusra Is Part of an Escalating Tactic

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[2]: https://www.wafa.ps/news/2026/8/21/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%A5%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%88%D8%A5%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AA%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%A1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-152546
[3]: https://www.wafa.ps/news/2026/8/21/%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B4%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%86-%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%8A-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%85-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%B5-%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86%D8%A9-%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%86-152534
[4]: https://www.wafa.ps/news/2026/8/21/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%8A%D8%B9%D8%AA%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B6%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%86-%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%82-%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%B3-152554
[5]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090494720967372887
[6]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090564026530984427
[7]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090567150981320838
[8]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090632024608354653
[9]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090515122967982115
[10]: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkiye/turkiye-seeks-interpol-red-notice-for-netanyahu-over-gaza-aid-flotilla-case/4033888
[11]: https://www.newarab.com/news/three-palestinian-parties-revive-joint-list-israel-elections
[12]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090541905788694915
[13]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090519629592690922
[14]: https://english.news.cn/20260820/88a271ca470942d893f0e25820728442/c.html
[15]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090644929055760831
[16]: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/iranian-oil-offers-chinese-buyers-fall-us-blockade-bites-sources-say-2026-08-21/
[17]: https://nna-leb.gov.lb/en/news/224149/undp-lebanese-red-cross-sign-mou-on-disaster-risk-management-climate-resilience-3
[18]: https://nna-leb.gov.lb/en/news/224154/israeli-forces-carry-out-explosion-operation-in-hadatha-town-in-bint-jbeil-district-2
[19]: https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/news/558749/(*)-%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%88%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%83%D9%85-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%88%D8%A8-%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D9%85%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D9%84-%D8%AD%D8%B6%D9%88%D8%B1-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A9-2
[20]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090653192535036206
[21]: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/hezbollah-says-new-us-sanctions-will-not-deter-fight-against-israel/
[22]: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6034868-wahab-wins-california-house-special-election/
[23]: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/nyregion/transgender-migrants-ice.html
[24]: https://religionnews.com/2026/08/19/despite-government-surveillance-of-their-churches-minnesota-congregations-remain-defiant/
[25]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/08/20/fight-over-airport-washing-stations-is-latest-anti-muslim-salvo-gop/
[26]: https://apnews.com/article/redistricting-congress-missouri-trump-gerrymandering-45b51672b78081dc7609e763a0416534
[27]: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/more-than-150-polymarket-wallets-may-have-traded-military-secrets-research-finds-2026-08-20/
[28]: https://www.levernews.com/private-prison-giant-gave-trump-aligned-super-pac-1-4-million-after-landing-mega-ice-contracts/
[29]: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/08/1168182
[30]: https://apnews.com/article/us-cuba-sanctions-rubio-castro-f60f12386ac528c3511d929cc3e1431c
[31]: https://www.internazionale.it/ultime-notizie-reuters/2026/08/21/pakistan-ex-pm-imran-khan-taken-back-to-prison-from-hospital-party-spokesman-says
[32]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/antigovernment-protesters-take-to-tunisias-streets-for-second-month
[33]: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/20/russian-paramilitaries-in-mali-kill-nine-including-children-hrw
[34]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090538402693120041
[35]: https://sudantribune.com/article/317681
[36]: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2090641450614608069
[37]: https://www.trtworld.com/article/df5856943869?utm_source=/live/6a4a86fc2b256d747ffbdfa3&utm_medium=internal&utm_campaign=recommended&utm_content=inline
[38]: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/organizers-hong-kong-tiananmen-vigils-national-security-case-rcna593677
[39]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/qusra-siege-israeli-settlers-soldiers-palestinians-west-bank
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Israel’s Escalating Tactic of Dispossession in the West Bank

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Israeli soldiers and settlers have been besieging three Palestinian families in their homes in the village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank since August 9. Photo on August 14, 2026 by Issam Rimawi/Anadolu via Getty Images.

RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank—For the 12th consecutive day, three Palestinian families, comprising 10 people, including two young children, have been trapped inside their homes in the occupied West Bank, besieged and terrorized by dozens of armed Israelis—both settlers and soldiers. The family members have been stuck in separate homes, unable to shelter together or attend to their basic needs, with food supplies running dangerously low and without access to cooking gas or a fridge.

While the siege on the three families has garnered international media attention and statements of condemnation, the attack is not the first of its kind, but rather a more prominent example of a growing tactic by Israeli settlers and soldiers working in tandem to dispossess Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank. The attacks are increasingly focused on Palestinian communities in Area B, a designation under the Oslo Accords where the Palestinian Authority is nominally in charge of civil administration while Israel retains security control.

The latest Israeli siege targeted a small cluster of Palestinian homes that sit atop a hill on the edge of the village of Qusra, in the southern part of the Nablus governorate in the northern West Bank.

On the morning of August 9, armed settlers blocked off the only road leading to the homes and erected a colonial outpost directly in front of the door of one of the houses. They began pelting the homes with rocks and trying to break inside on a regular basis.

Israeli occupation forces eventually arrived on the scene and removed the outpost, but the settlers were able to erect it again, a pattern that repeated several times. And despite brief clashes with Israeli forces, the settlers were allowed to remain and continued to roam the area freely.

The settlers also cut off access to water and electricity and for more than a week prevented anyone—including emergency workers or ambulances—from reaching the families trapped inside. Qusra municipality employees were eventually allowed to repair the water and electricity lines after being initially assaulted by settlers and detained by Israeli forces.

Israeli troops have also exacerbated the situation by occupying two of the Palestinian homes they claim to be protecting.

On August 14, soldiers forced Yousef and Ruqayya Hassan and their two daughters, four-year-old Kinda and two-year-old Hour, from their home and into their neighbor’s unfinished villa, which belongs to Loui Abu Ridi, a U.S. citizen. Still unfinished, Abu Ridi’s home lacked basic furniture, including beds.

“It feels like there was a death in the family. We’re all distressed, angry and in a state of sadness,” Ruqayya told Drop Site in a phone interview.

Israeli troops occupied another neighboring home that was still under construction and belonged to Abou Ridi’s brother, Raed. The soldiers also erected a tent around twelve meters away, according to the mayor of Qusra, Abdelatheem Wadi.

“It’s the armed settlers on one hand and the military on the other,” Wadi told Drop Site, characterizing the trapped families in Qusra as being under a “double siege.”

Meanwhile, Ruqayya’s daughters fell ill and started exhibiting flu-like symptoms, with a fluctuating fever and a heavy cough. On the afternoon of August 12, Ruqayya and both her daughters were allowed to temporarily evacuate from the area in an ambulance to a medical clinic for treatment. It was when she and her daughters returned to the besieged area two days later that they found Israeli soldiers occupying their home and were ordered to move into Abu Ridi’s.

Another home belongs to Ruqayya’s brother-in-law, Rizq Hassan, who is trapped inside along with his 61-year-old mother and sister. The Israeli military has separated the families and prevented them from seeing each other.

“My daughters keep asking me why their teta (grandmother) is right next door and yet they can’t be with her. They are very distressed. How on earth can I explain what’s happening to them?” Ruqayya, adding that the psychological and physical toll was already visible in her eldest daughter. “Kinda has started urinating involuntarily. Even during the day, when she’s awake, she wets herself,” she said.

## **“Complete Siege”**

The fact that Abou Ridi, a U.S. citizen, was the owner of one of the homes may have helped spark statements of condemnation, including from staunchly pro-Israel U.S. officials like Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who called the settlers “Israeli terrorists” and their actions “criminal,” though Washington did nothing to intervene. Abou Ridi traveled from Ohio back to Palestine on August 17 to join his brother Qusai and his nephew who were staying in his home along with Ruqayya, her husband, and two daughters.

Those staying in Abou Ridi’s home eventually received supplies of food, water, and medicine from a [UNICEF team on August 17][3], as well as personal care supplies for Ruqayya and her daughters. Those in Rizq Hassan’s home, which is under less of a spotlight, were not as fortunate.

“My brother-in-law’s home is under complete siege. They’re not allowed to leave the front door. They don’t have gas, or a fridge—they’re living on bread and a few canned items,” said Ruqayya. “No one is talking about them.”

Wadi, the mayor, said they are being abused by soldiers. “The aid brought in by UNICEF to Rizq Hassan’s home was left by soldiers in the yard for 24 hours in the sun, before the family was allowed to receive it, and half of it was already ruined,” Wadi told Drop Site. “There is media attention only on Loui’s home.”

The military and settler siege expanded beyond the three homes on August 13, when hundreds of Israeli occupation soldiers [stormed Qusra][4] and imposed a curfew across the entire village. Soldiers took over at least eight homes and forced their families out. According to Wadi, they severely vandalized the houses, damaging furniture and belongings.

The soldiers withdrew days later from the eight homes and the rest of the village, but they declared the area of the three besieged homes a closed military zone. Wadi estimates at least 50 to 60 soldiers remain stationed in and around the area of the besieged homes.

While the military claimed this order would be over by Tuesday evening, it remains in place, according to the residents.

Israeli security forces and settlers gather outside the besieged Palestinian houses in the village of Qusra, in the occupied West Bank on August 17, 2026. Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP via Getty Images.

## **“The New Reality”**

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been coming under a steadily escalating assault for the past three years. Israeli settler attacks backed by Israeli soldiers and the state have fully or partially displaced 107 communities since January 2023, alongside unprecedented settlement expansion, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. The Israeli military expelled another 32,000 Palestinians from their homes in the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams camps in January 2025.

The besieged families in Qusra have been under assault [since January][5], when settlers first took over a nearby building that was under-construction and began launching daily attacks on the residents.

Their homes lie in Area B of the occupied West Bank. While settler attacks and the forcible transfer of Palestinians in recent years have largely targeted villages and Bedouin communities in Area C—which comprises roughly 60% of the West Bank and includes almost all the agricultural land—Israeli settler violence and theft of land is now increasingly spreading into Palestinian communities located in Area B.

Last month, a Palestinian family of eight living in the nearby village of Jalud, were [forced from their home][6] after a similar 10-day settler and soldier siege. The concentrated attack began three months prior, when settlers erected a colonial outpost near the Al-Tubassi family and began targeting them on a daily basis.

“During the final month, the settlers occupied a house under construction on the road to the Al-Tubassi family home, and in the last 10 days they cut off the water, electricity and no one could reach them any more,” Bashar Qaryouti, a medic and activist in the area, told Drop Site. “In the last four days the family had no food, nothing left, and on the final day they were held at gunpoint by the settlers and forced to leave.”

In a [statement][7] last week, the UN Human Rights Office condemned the attacks on Qusra. “These criminal actions by the settlers, supported or acquiesced to by Israel, the Occupying Power, are making life unbearable for these Palestinian families, and are clearly aimed at forcing them to leave their homes and land. Time is running out for these three families before they are forcibly displaced,” the UN Human Rights Office said. “The International Court of Justice is clear that all Israeli settlements are illegal and that Israel is obligated to cease all settlement activities, evacuate all settlers, including those terrorizing Qusra and Jalud, and bring to an end its unlawful presence in the West Bank.”

Analysts also warn that the recurrence of the siege tactic in Qusra is ominous and points to a wider pattern unfolding across the occupied West Bank.

“It began with Bedouin Palestinians in the remote areas, then it moved to the small villages at the edges of the governorates, and now they are in large villages, with the active participation of the military, which also supplies the weapons and trains them,” Ramallah-based political analyst Nihad Abu Ghosh told Drop Site.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly transferred by settlers and the military from Area C over the past three years. In addition to the thousand of Palestinians forcibly displaced over the past three years in the West Bank, over 1,000 Palestinians have also been killed, nearly a quarter of them children.

“These are fascist, Jewish-Zionist militias who are carrying out pogroms and killings in the occupied West Bank,” continued Abu Ghosh. “Both the government and the settlers are in a race against time. They consider the few remaining months or days of this government’s tenure to be an exceptional opportunity to change the reality on the ground. That is why they are intensifying their attacks until they reach a point where, in their assessment, it will be difficult to reverse what they have done.”

Conditions for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank deteriorated even further last month after a large-scale settler attack on the village of Tel, southwest of Nablus city, on July 24, during which four Palestinians and two Israeli settlers were killed.

Since the incident in Tel, settlers and soldiers have carried out daily, round-the-clock attacks, including mass shootings, physical assaults, arson, and land theft. Settlers have also erected at least 15 new colonial outposts on Palestinian land across the West Bank, with the vocal backing of top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who [announced][8] a series of steps that included “accelerating the legalization of farm outposts and establishment of new ones.”

Back in Qusra, residents are terrified.

“I keep thinking about what happened to the Al-Tubassi family and praying that we can outlast this,” said Ruqayya.

Wadi, the Qusra mayor, is equally concerned. “We fear that this siege will become the new reality in the occupied West Bank, that Qusra will be another precedent for all the villages,” Wadi said. He also recounted that his older brother and nephew were murdered by armed settlers on October 12, 2023, during a funeral for four other Palestinians killed in the village also by settlers the prior day.

Some warn that the unrelenting settler-colonial violence may be reaching a tipping point. “The distance between the Palestinian people in the West Bank and massacres, is a question of when—not if,” said Abu Ghosh. “When the knife reaches the throats of Palestinians, they will have no choice but to resist with whatever means are available to them.”

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[3]: https://palestine.un.org/en/321143-aid-reaches-trapped-palestinian-families-northern-west-bank
[4]: https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2026/8/13/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%89-%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%84-33
[5]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zfkBnwSoXM
[6]: https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/172835?utm_source=chatgpt.com
[7]: https://x.com/OHCHR_Palestine/status/2087818435069673913?s=20
[8]: https://x.com/IsraeliPM/status/2080631495669027284
[9]: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/qusra-siege-israeli-settlers-soldiers-palestinians-west-bank/comments
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