Supporters call on Platner to drop out after rape story; Three cancer patients die every day in Gaza; Goodbye, DOGE

Drop Site Daily: July 7, 2026

Commercial tanker struck off coast of Oman; Qatar says Iran “fully… responsible.” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's coffin arrives in Qom as funeral procession continues. Iran warns final talks “will not commence” if threats continue, as President Donald Trump says U.S. would either reach a deal with Tehran or “finish the job.” Israeli forces continue to violate ceasefire in southern Lebanon. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun says he will visit the White House in July; Israeli ambassador states next round of Lebanon-Israel negotiations will begin on July 15. Christian mayors threatened by Israel, reject Netanyahu’s claim that they seek annexation. Israeli strikes kill two Palestinians in Gaza; seven fishermen detained off coast. Three cancer patients die daily in Gaza amid healthcare system collapse, doctor says. Israeli Foreign Minister says Gaza government dissolution is a “trick” as Hamas charges Israel is obstructing agreement. Woman says Graham Platner entered her home and raped her; Platner considering withdrawal from Maine Senate race. AIPAC-backed super PAC runs deceptive ad in support of Wesley Bell. DOGE formally shuts down on July 4. Louisiana nurses hold longest strike yet in ongoing UMC contract fight. UN: At least 330 children killed in Sudan in 2026. Explosions strike Damascus during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Syria. Islandwide blackout hits Cuba. China sentences corrupt former official to death.

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Palestinian patients and wounded people gather outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza on July 5, 2026, to demand medical treatment abroad amid Israeli restrictions. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images.

Iran and Ceasefire

• Commercial tanker struck off coast of Oman; Qatar says Iran “fully… responsible”: The Al Rekayyat, a commercial tanker owned by the Qatari government and carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG), was struck by an unknown projectile about 8 nautical miles east of Limah, Oman, while sailing southbound, the UK Maritime Trade Operations reported on Monday.

  • The impact caused a fire, but no casualties or environmental damage were initially reported. The ship had loaded LNG at Qatar’s Ras Laffan terminal earlier this month and was reportedly sailing with its transponder switched off when it was hit.

  • Qatar held Iran “fully legally responsible” for the attack, with Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari condemning the incident as “an aggression against the security and safety of international navigation,” in a statement posted Tuesday on X.

  • Iran has not taken responsibility for the attack.

• Khamenei’s coffin arrives in Qom as funeral procession continues: The coffin of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrived in the city of Qom south of Tehran on Monday, state television reported, following a funeral procession in Tehran attended by large crowds. Khamenei’s coffin will next be taken to Iraq before it is returned to the Iranian city of Mashhad for burial on Thursday.

• Iran warns final talks “will not commence” if threats continue: After President Donald Trump said the United States would either reach a deal with Iran or “finish the job,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations on a final agreement with the United States “will not commence” if threats continue. In a post on X Tuesday, Araghchi said “millions of proud Iranians” were gathering for the funerals of the slain Supreme Leader and added that “neither them nor our Brave Armed Forces are moved by any threats.”

  • Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said, “We can knock down their bridges in one hour. We can knock out their energy supply, all of those big plants that they built.”

• Convoy carrying 12 million barrels of crude oil begins to exit Hormuz: A fleet of 10 Japan-linked commercial vessels began transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Monday through the Iranian-approved shipping corridor, marking the largest coordinated movement of ships trapped since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran began on February 28, according to shipping data monitored by LSEG and Bloomberg.

  • The convoy includes six crude tankers carrying roughly 12 million barrels of oil. The crude was loaded in late February and early March from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, but the ships remained stranded for around 100 days after the Strait was effectively closed.

• U.S. crude stocks dip again: U.S. crude stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by another 6.2 million barrels in the week ending July 3, dropping to 319.5 million barrels, the lowest level since April 1983, according to Department of Energy data reported by Reuters.

  • The reserve has been drained steadily since Trump ordered the release of 172 million barrels in March to plug gaps in global supply and hold down fuel prices after launching the war on Iran.

  • Since the war began at the end of February, total U.S. inventories have fallen by nearly 121 million barrels to 734 million.

Lebanon

• Israeli forces continue violations in southern Lebanon: Israeli forces continued military activity in southern Lebanon on Tuesday despite the “ceasefire,” with an Israeli drone dropping four stun grenades over the border town of Hadatha—which Israel declared it had occupied as part of the “security zone” the previous day—Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. Meanwhile, the town of Beit Yahoun came under Israeli artillery shelling as Israeli forces carried out a controlled demolition in the nearby town of Kounine in the Bint Jbeil District. Separately, Israeli troops raided villages in the western sector of southern Lebanon, accompanied by heavy gunfire.

  • On Monday, Israeli forces shelled the border town of Houla. The Israeli military also carried out a large explosion in the town of Hadatha and demolished several homes in Hadatha and Beit Yahoun, both in the Bint Jbeil District.

• Aoun says he will visit the White House in July: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told the Egyptian television network Al-Nahar that he is preparing to visit the White House before the end of July to meet Trump and reinforce a U.S.-backed framework agreement with Israel.

  • He called the framework “not ideal,” but said that Lebanon accepted it because “the balance of power in the south…is in Israel’s favor,” while insisting Lebanon will continue seeking the return of its occupied territory.

  • Aoun said in the interview that he would not meet Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and that he would leave any room into which he entered.

• Israeli ambassador to U.S. says next round of negotiations will begin on July 15: Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., said on Monday the next round of Israel-Lebanon negotiations would be held in Rome on July 15-16, the Israeli outlet Ynet reported.

  • Leiter said Israeli forces would continue to occupy areas in southern Lebanon until the Lebanese Armed Forces begin disarming Hezbollah. He added that a separate deconfliction mechanism involving the Israeli military, the Lebanese army, and the U.S. military’s Central Command is operating “very closely” and directly together, adding that he was unaware whether the U.S.-Iran channel announced last month was functioning.

• Christian mayors threatened by Israel, reject Netanyahu’s claim that they seek annexation: Mayors in several predominantly Christian towns in Lebanon’s Marjayoun district said on Monday that they received text messages from the Israeli military warning them not to allow displaced residents to return home, according to L’Orient Today.

  • The mayor of Qlayaa said the messages have left residents in a “constant state of anxiety and tension.”

  • Separately, on Monday, the mayors, mukhtars, and local leaders of 15 predominantly Christian villages in southern Lebanon rejected Netanyahu’s claim on Fox News that they sought annexation by Israel, calling the allegation “completely fabricated.” They remain committed to Lebanon’s sovereignty, they said, and are “proud of their national identity.”

Palestine

• Israeli strikes kill two Palestinians in Gaza; seven fishermen detained off coast: A Palestinian was killed and several others, including critically wounded victims, were injured on Tuesday after an Israeli drone strike on the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to WAFA. Another Palestinian was killed in an Israeli attack on a tent west of Gaza City.

  • Israeli forces also detained seven Palestinian fishermen while they were working off the coast of Al-Zawaida in central Gaza and took them to an unknown location. Israel has continued to target Palestinian fishermen through arrests, live fire, and restrictions, depriving thousands of families of their livelihoods and further worsening the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

• Israeli attacks on the occupied West Bank:

  • Israeli forces opened fire at a civilian vehicle near Hebron on Monday and, in a separate attack near Al-Ram, shot and wounded a Palestinian man near a separation wall. Israeli raids were also reported in Tubas, Salfit, Tammun, and in an area housing displaced families from the Jenin refugee camp near the Arab American University.

  • Israeli settlers assaulted a Palestinian man in Aqraba and left him injured and raided the municipalities of Khallet al-Natsh and Khirbet Sha’ab al-Butm. In Masafer Yatta, settlers were filmed deliberately driving over sheep belonging to Palestinian farmers in the area.

  • Also in Masafer Yatta, eight Palestinians, including children, were wounded after Israeli settlers attacked residents on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

  • Israeli forces detained four sanitation workers on Monday in Beit Anan, near Jerusalem, WAFA reported. The area governorate accused the Israelis of targeting these men as part of an effort to disrupt the region’s essential services and called for their immediate release.

  • A report from the Palestine Information Center published on Monday tallied 540 documented violations by Israeli forces and settlers in occupied East Jerusalem in June, and noted that there had been 11 deaths, 191 wounded, and 866 arrests in the Jerusalem Governorate in the first half of this year.

• Three cancer patients die daily in Gaza amid healthcare system collapse, doctor says: Three cancer patients are dying every day in Gaza, where around 11,000 people are living with cancer and about 4,000 urgently require medical evacuation, according to Dr. Saleh Sheikh Al-Eid, head of the Oncology and Blood Department at Nasser Medical Complex. Al-Eid said cancer patients are “waiting for death” as the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system due to Israeli attacks and severe shortages of medicines leave doctors unable to provide lifesaving treatment.

• Israeli FM says Gaza government dissolution is a “trick”; Hamas charges Israel is obstructing agreement: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar dismissed Hamas’s announcement that Gaza’s governing administration had been dissolved as a “trick,” accusing the group of trying to avoid disarmament while leaving a technocratic body to handle municipal services in a post on X Monday.

  • Disarmament was not part of the first phase of the agreement which Israel continues to violate on a daily basis. Hamas said in a statement it remains committed to implementing the ceasefire agreement and transferring authority in Gaza to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG). Hamas accused Israel of trying to obstruct the agreement and create an “administrative vacuum.”

  • Hamas has for months sought to transfer governance in Gaza to the NCAG, but Israel has prevented the committee from entering Gaza and has made its entry contingent on Palestinian disarmament.

• The Guardian: Israeli program identified 850,000 “real-time targets” in Lebanon and Gaza: A presentation at a London military conference from Israel’s largest arms supplier, Elbit Systems, claimed that the Tzayad “digital army” system, designed by the company, flagged 850,000 real-time targets across Gaza and Lebanon between October 7, 2023, and the end of 2025, according to reporting from the Guardian on Monday.

  • One official noted that the figure could imply that the IDF had at one point marked up to half of Gaza’s 2.2 million people and 300,000 buildings for attacks, while another said that properly vetting 1,000 targets a day for civilian harm—the number touted by the company—would be impossible. “Even characterizing 50 a day is hard enough,” the official said.

  • Contacted afterward, Elbit denied the number meant targets, calling it “system activity” despite the slide’s wording.

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• Woman says Graham Platner entered her home and raped her; Platner considering withdrawal from Maine Senate race: Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner is weighing “the best path forward” after Politico and CNN reported on Monday that he entered the home of a former partner uninvited in 2021 and sexually assaulted her.

  • “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice,’” Jenny Racicot told Politico. According to messages reviewed by Politico, the woman warned one other woman about Platner in 2023, and another friend corroborated her account, telling CNN that Platner’s accuser told her about the assault in August 2025.

  • Platner called the allegation “categorically untrue,” though he strongly suggested that he is considering dropping out, saying in a video released on Monday that he was “mindful of the political reality” that the report had created, and that he was “taking the time to reflect on the best path forward.”

  • Platner reportedly remained undecided as of Monday evening as to whether or not he would drop out, with a source telling the New York Times that he would step down “only with a guarantee of being replaced by a candidate who he believes is true to the values and vision and policy agenda of the campaign that Maine voted for.”

  • Several Democrats withdrew their endorsements of Platner, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ruben Gallego, and Rep. Ro Khanna. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee vowed not to invest in the race until Platner withdrew, and the Maine Democratic Party also called on Platner to drop out, with Drop Site contributor Nathan Bernard reporting that Maine Democrats are planning for a rapid convention process to select a potential replacement.

  • Troy Jackson, a logger and former state senator who finished third in the state’s gubernatorial primary, is being floated as an alternative, as is Rep. Chellie Pingree. Jackson, a progressive who started his career organizing loggers against low wages, unsafe conditions, and the illegal hiring of Canadian loggers over their Maine counterparts, received endorsements from Sanders and Khanna in his gubernatorial campaign.

• AIPAC-backed super PAC runs deceptive ad in support of Wesley Bell: United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s super PAC, is currently running ads in support of Missouri Rep. Wesley Bell that claim Bell “is leading the fight to abolish ICE” and “is fighting against Trump.”

  • Bell, however, joined 74 other Democrats and voted for a June 2025 resolution that expressed “gratitude” to ICE in a resolution tied to an attack on a synagogue in Boulder, as pointed out by political commentator Hasan Piker. The resolution came in the midst of ICE incursions into downtown Los Angeles, during which Trump activated 700 Marines to deploy to the city and in which over 550 people were arrested.

  • Former Rep. Cori Bush, whom Bell unseated in 2024, is challenging Bell for her old seat in the 2026 primaries.

• DOGE formally shuts down on July 4: The Department of Government Efficiency ceased operations on Saturday, July 4, with the department saying its mission to “eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse” would continue despite the formal shutdown.

  • The agency, overseen early on by Elon Musk before Amy Gleason took over as acting administrator. It was plagued by privacy concerns, as when its employees sought individual and business tax returns from the IRS, and many of its promised “cuts” were immediately reversed: the federal government has since rehired hundreds of employees who were laid off under its aegis.

  • Its cuts to foreign aid programs, however, largely remain in place. Multiple estimates have indicated that these cuts, conservatively, have cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

• Trump promotes Dell stock during White House market ceremony: President Donald Trump urged people to buy Dell computers during a joint White House ceremony with the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, marking the launch of his “Trump Accounts” investment program, to which Dell CEO Michael Dell and his wife have pledged over $6 billion.

  • Dell shares rose more than 7% following his remarks, according to CNBC. Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure showed 24 Dell trades between January and November.

• ICE internal watchdog office pursues civilians over online criticism, WIRED investigation finds: ICE agents visited a Syracuse, New York polling site in June to warn poll worker Paigelynne Gonyea about a social media post the agency said doxxed an agent, and made her sign a warning notice saying she was aware it was unlawful to “threaten to assault, kidnap and/or murder” federal officials or their immediate family members and which requested her to remove her post “and/or discontinue” her behavior. Read more about ICE’s attacks on free speech in this new investigation from Wired, available here.

• Louisiana nurses hold longest strike yet in ongoing UMC contract fight: Nurses at University Medical Center in New Orleans held their sixth strike since 2023 on May 1 in an attempt to get their first contract, as part of negotiations that have lasted over 765 days. If successful, this will be the first unionized hospital in Louisiana.

  • The nurses, represented by National Nurses United, are seeking a set wage scale, evenly enforced discipline, and increased full-time staffing, while accusing LCMC Health, which operates the hospital, of canceling bargaining sessions and switching law firms to delay a contract.

  • Read more about the strike from our friends at Labor Notes, here.

Other International News

• Israeli settlers illegally cross into Syria: Dozens of Israeli settlers attempted an illegal crossing into Syria on Sunday, the New Arab reports, as part of an attempt to establish a settlement near Mount Hermon.

  • The settlers, who belong to an extremist group called the Pioneers of Bashan, were intercepted before reaching the border crossing at Jabal al-Shaykh, according to Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.

  • The Israeli military has shelled agricultural land in Syria’s Quneitra province, part of an ongoing project to permanently displace Syrians in the buffer zone and border regions between the two countries. Read more about Israel’s assault on Syria from Drop Site contributor C.P. Ward here.

• At least 330 children killed in Sudan in 2026, UN says: UNICEF said on Monday that at least 330 children have been killed or wounded in Sudan during the first six months of 2026, with the Darfur and Kordofan regions of the country being the hardest hit and noting the danger posed to children by recent drone strikes in El-Obeid.

  • “For many children, there is no safe place left,” the UNICEF Representative for Sudan said. “They are being killed and injured in their homes, on the roads, in markets, and while attempting to access essential services.”

  • The UK-based charity Save the Children also reported on Monday that more than 5,500 children had been displaced by recent fighting in El-Obeid, and that thousands remain at risk.

  • Separately, the UN Human Rights Council passed a motion on Monday condemning escalating violence around El-Obeid and ordering the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission to conduct an urgent inquiry into abuses in the besieged North Kordofan city. The United Kingdom, which brought the motion, warned of large-scale atrocities similar to those that occurred when the Rapid Support Forces took over El-Fasher last year.

  • Read more about the siege of El-Obeid from Drop Site contributor Eisa Dafalla here.

• Saudi-backed Yemeni government denounces Iranian flight to Sana’a: The Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council of Yemen, which is the country’s internationally recognized government, accused Iran on Monday of violating Yemeni sovereignty by operating a flight to the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.

  • The government alleged, without presenting evidence, that the aircraft carried IRGC personnel, including missile experts, who were sent to assist Ansarallah, which has resisted the Saudis since the Yemeni civil war broke out in 2014 and opposed the government since its formation in 2022.

  • Ansarallah said the flight in question was carrying a delegation returning from Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral in Tehran, as well as ill Yemenis returning from treatment in Iran.

• Prison riot in Sri Lanka kills 26: Inmates from rival groups began fighting on Sunday at a prison near the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. The clashes, which continued Monday, led to 26 deaths and over 100 injuries, including six prison officers, Al Jazeera reported.

• Explosions strike Damascus during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Syria: Two explosions near Damascus’s Four Seasons Hotel wounded at least 18 people on Tuesday, Syria’s Interior Ministry said.

  • The blasts, caused by devices placed in a garbage bin and a parked car, come days after a cafe bombing near Damascus’s Justice Palace killed at least 10 people, and no group has claimed responsibility for either attack.

  • The bombs follow the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron in the city on Monday evening. Macron planned to meet with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaaa, becoming the first Western European leader to visit the country after al-Sharaa ousted former President Bashar al-Assad.

  • Macron reportedly traveled to Syria with a business delegation to discuss regional security issues as well as “investment opportunities,” according to Syrian state news.

  • Al-Sharaa is slated to meet with Trump at this week’s NATO summit.

• Israeli and Greek militaries participate in joint exercises as Turkey seeks U.S. aircraft: The Greek military posted an image of Greek and Israeli planes flying side by side over the Aegean in advance of the NATO summit, publicizing joint military exercises over the island of Crete.

  • Al-Monitor reported that exercises featured refueling of Greek jets by an Israeli tanker aircraft, and followed a December 2025 agreement between the governments of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel to increase “trilateral military cooperation” in 2026.

  • President Trump claimed in late June he would arrive in Ankara with a “big gift bag” for his Turkish counterpart, which prompted Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to denounce the Turkish government as “infected by the Muslim Brotherhood” and to sternly warn the U.S. against a sale of F-35s to Turkey. It would, he argued, “upset the balance of power in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israel’s air superiority.”

• Islandwide blackout hits Cuba: An islandwide blackout hit Cuba on Monday as the country, suffocated by U.S. sanctions, continues to exhaust its oil and fuel reserves. The island’s Energy Minister also reported that “vital services” remained intact.

  • Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel accused the U.S. of trying to “incite social unrest by strangling Cuba’s fuel supply” and called the Trump administration’s campaign against the Cuban government, which escalated in February when the U.S. prevented Cuba from buying Mexican oil, “genocidal.”

  • Separately, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson and bodyguard of former Cuban leader Raúl ​Castro, told USA Today that he was “open” to negotiating with President Trump, though he holds no formal position within Cuba’s government.

  • The remarks follow earlier statements from Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, who said he was “not interested” in anything the Trump administration had to say.

• Morocco says it foiled ISIS attack: The Moroccan government agency responsible for counterterrorism operations announced on Monday that it had arrested a cell of 10 people linked to an Islamic State affiliate in the Sahel and suspected of planning a terrorist attack in the country, according to Reuters.

  • The authorities claimed that they seized instructions for making a bomb, a car modified for use in a bombing or ramming attack, chemicals, and other paramilitary paraphernalia. They also reported finding butane gas cylinders and pressure cookers filled with nails.

  • The last attack by an Islamic State affiliate in the country occurred in 2023, when three militants killed a policeman in Casablanca.

• China sentences corrupt former official to death: A Chinese court sentenced Yang Youlin, an official from the eastern city of Nanjing convicted of accepting bribes totaling more than 2.2 billion yuan ($324 million), to death on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. Youlin held several different civil service jobs over the course of two decades, the court said, during which he accepted money and property to help facilitate “projects, business operations, land grants.”

  • His death sentence is part of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. Lai Xiaomin, a party secretary of a state-owned company, was sentenced in 2021 and later executed for embezzling funds; Li Jianping was executed in 2024 for similar crimes.

• Mexican navy reports 10 dead in security operation: A group of assailants reportedly detonated a bomb when Mexican naval personnel were performing flood-monitoring work in anticipation of the rainy season, the navy said. The explosion killed one sailor and wounded three others. Mexican forces responded to the attack in the Sinaloa state over the weekend, killing 10, Reuters reported. Three other suspects in the attacks were arrested.

• Pakistan reportedly mediating in Libya: The Pakistani government has quietly begun mediating between the groups in charge of eastern and western Libya, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing two Pakistani sources who said that the U.S. was “fully aware” of Pakistan’s role.

  • The U.S. has been leading a push to reach a diplomatic resolution in Libya, which has been cleaved into two states since a NATO operation in the country toppled the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

  • Saudi Arabia also supports Pakistan’s efforts in the country, a source said, and Reuters reports that it was also encouraged to lead these efforts by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey. Saudi Arabia has backed the eastern faction, led by Khalifa Haftar, whereas Qatar and Turkey have supported the western “Government of National Unity.”

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