Hamas Gaza government dissolves; Dr. Abu Safiya beaten, expects to be killed; 40,000 still missing in Venezuela
Drop Site Daily: July 6, 2026
From Drop Site:
Sudan’s El-Obeid Under Siege: “Civilians Should Not Have to Wait for Death”
A Third Party Breached The Intercept’s Signal Tip Line and Has Been Soliciting Whistleblowers
Six killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Monday. Hamas’s Gaza government announces dissolution; President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace says “all weapons” must be consolidated under the control of Administrative Committee. Palestinian doctor detained by Israel, Hussam Abu Safiya: “They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving.” Israeli attacks kill at least five Palestinians in Gaza over the weekend. Israeli forces, settlers carried out over 11,000 attacks in occupied West Bank in the first half of 2026. Iranians gather to mourn late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iranian officials meet with Yemeni, Lebanese, and Palestinian counterparts. U.S. Navy suspends search for missing sailor. Iran says “security of Hormuz” lies with Tehran and Oman alone following joint UK-French statement. Report: U.S. special operations task force remained on standby for possible Iran uranium recovery mission. Israel kills four in Lebanon, demolishes homes despite “ceasefire.” Netanyahu claims Lebanese Christians have asked Israel to annex their villages. Drop Site Exclusive: Internal poll finds Mallory McMorrow supporters lean toward Addul El-Sayed, giving potential boost after McMorrow quits race for U.S. Senate seat. AOC meets with NYC primary winners. Rep. Jim McGovern promises votes on Israel, Gaza, and Humanitarian Aid, if Democrats retake the House. Trump pressures FIFA to remove red card on U.S. star. Drone strike kills 18 civilians in DRC. Ansarallah attack kills 16 soldiers of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government. OPEC+ agrees to increase oil production. Death toll from Venezuelan earthquakes rises to 3,342, more than 40,000 still missing.
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Palestine
Killed and wounded: Over the last 24 hours, three Palestinians were killed and seven were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. Two bodies were also recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,098 killed, with 173,571 injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,072 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 3,463, while 799 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.
Hamas’s Gaza government announces dissolution: Gaza’s Government Media Office announced Monday that its Emergency Committee has been dissolved, saying the move is intended to facilitate the transfer of administrative authority to the Palestinian-led National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) under Trump’s Board of “Peace.” The office said it had received “full assurance” that preparations for the handover had been completed and formally presented to Palestinian factions, clan leaders, and a United Nations observer. It added that only technical and professional staff would remain in their posts to prevent “an administrative and technical vacuum,” while stressing that all public employees are “fully prepared to work” under the NCAG. The statement concluded by urging all relevant parties to “expedite the immediate entry” of the committee so it can assume its responsibilities.
Hamas’s statement: Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said that “a new positive step today to remove the occupation’s pretexts” was taken today, following the announcement. Hamas has repeatedly stated its willingness to hand over governance to the NCAG since signing the October 2025 agreement.
BoP’s response: The “Board of Peace” said it has “taken note” of the announcement, stressing that its assessment “will be guided by actions, not promises.” In a post on X, the Board said any transition must be “comprehensive” and comply with the Roadmap’s requirements for governance, security, and political transition. It reiterated that the guiding principle remains “one authority, one law and one weapon,” adding that “all weapons” must be consolidated under the control of the NCAG.
Israel and Trump’s Board have made the entry of the NCAG contingent on Palestinian acceptance of a 15-point “roadmap” that appears aimed at disarming the Palestinian resistance and the abandoning of the struggle for Palestinian national liberation. Read Drop’s Site report on negotiations between the Board and Palestinians here.
Six killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza: At least six Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis on Monday morning, according to WAFA. Two people were killed after an Israeli warplane struck an apartment in the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City. In a separate attack, an Israeli drone struck a vehicle in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis, killing two and wounding at least 15 others. Two people were also killed in an Israeli strike on a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern Gaza Strip.
Civil Defense teams also recovered the remains of eight Palestinians from beneath the rubble of a home in the Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City, which had been destroyed in an earlier Israeli air strike. At least 9,500 bodies remain buried under the rubble in Gaza, according to Palestinian estimates.
Life of imprisoned Palestinian physician is in danger, report says: Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s life is in immediate danger, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and his lawyer warned Saturday, after a prison visit. The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital had fresh, severe injuries to his head, eyes, ears, and neck, they said, leaving him so disfigured his own attorney initially struggled to recognize him.
Attorney Nasser Odeh, who saw Abu Safiya Thursday at the underground Rakefet interrogation facility in Nitzan Prison, said he arrived shackled hand and foot, escorted by masked guards, struggling to breathe and speak, unable to sit upright, and repeatedly on the verge of losing consciousness.
Abu Safiya told him that after his Supreme Court appeal was heard June 10, four or five guards entered his solitary cell at Ganot Prison and beat him with a hammer and batons, and that since his June 24 transfer to Rakefet he has been beaten daily, losing consciousness several times and receiving no medical treatment.
“This is the last time you will see me,” he told his lawyer. “They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end.” He has been held without charge since December 27, 2024. Dr. Abu Safiya’s son described the visit in an Instagram post, available here.
Following an April petition filed by PHRI and Dr. Abu Safiya’s lawyer, Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday ordered the state to respond by Tuesday, July 7, to a petition seeking the release of 14 Palestinian doctors detained without charge, and to specifically address the charges made about Dr. Abu Safiya’s condition.
Israeli attacks kill at least five Palestinians in Gaza over the weekend:
An Israeli strike on a group of civilians at a water desalination plant east of Gaza City killed two on Sunday, according to WAFA. Another man died on Sunday, following an Israeli artillery attack east of al-Masdar.
Israeli forces also fired at the tents of displaced people on the outskirts of Rafah, demolished residential buildings in northwestern Gaza, and fired upon fisherman’s boats off the coasts of Rafah and Khan Younis.
An Israeli drone strike killed a Palestinian man in Gaza City on Saturday evening, and wounded several others, Palestine Online reported. Also on Saturday, an Israeli strike near the Jabalia refugee camp killed another Palestinian man and wounded four others, in an attack that caused severe injuries to several, including a very young child.
Israeli restrictions on crossings continue to suffocate Gaza: Five trucks of cooking gas entered the Strip, the Gaza Petroleum Authority reported on Sunday, reaching about 11,829 gas suppliers across Gaza.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, at least 50 trucks of fuel are supposed to enter the Strip every day. Only 14.9% of the agreed-upon fuel has been allowed to enter Gaza, according to Palestinian figures obtained by Drop Site.
On Sunday, it was reported that Israeli authorities would be moving the inspection center for Palestinians returning to Gaza from the area near the Rafah crossing to the Kerem Shalom crossing, according to Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster. The change—justified by Israel by pointing to increased “smuggling” operations—will further limit evacuations, which have already been heavily curtailed by Israel since October of 2023. Israel has only allowed about a third of agreed crossings since it re-opened Rafah.
Israeli attacks on West Bank escalate:
On Sunday evening, Israeli forces shot and killed a 16-year-old in the Qalandia refugee camp, near Jerusalem, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.
A four-month-old Palestinian infant died on Sunday after Israeli soldiers blocked his urgent medical transfer at the military checkpoint around his village of Deir Ammar, west of Ramallah, according to Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam. Ghannam called his death “a stain on the conscience of humanity.”
More than 100 Israeli settlers reportedly stormed and burned a café opposite Al-Zaytouna University in the Wadi al-Sha’ir area of Lubban ash-Sharqiya, south of Nablus.
Additional settler attacks were reported in Khirbet al-Kharaba south of Hebron, where homes came under attack; in the al-Ka’abneh community east of Jerusalem, where livestock were released among Palestinian homes; and in Masafer Yatta, where settlers reportedly stormed a home and tampered with its electricity.
In an Instagram post on Monday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced his plan for a “revolution in settlement,” which would not only include the West Bank, but would extend into the Negev and the Galilee. His announcement follows last week’s approvals of 13 new settlements by the Knesset.
Israeli forces, settlers carried out over 11,000 attacks in occupied West Bank in the first half of 2026: Israeli forces and settlers carried out 11,074 attacks against Palestinians and their property across the occupied West Bank during the first half of 2026, according to the Palestinian Commission Against the Wall and Settlements. Commission head Moayad Shaaban said the attacks included land seizures, settlement expansion, forced displacement, extrajudicial killings, land bulldozing, tree uprooting, property destruction, and movement restrictions through road closures and military checkpoints. He said 3,488 of the attacks were carried out by Israeli settlers, who killed a total of 17 Palestinians. Israeli authorities also approved the construction of 7,963 settlement units in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in the first half of the year.
Iran and Ceasefire
Iranians gather to mourn late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: Hundreds of thousands of Iranians attended a funeral procession in Tehran for Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran murdered by a U.S.-Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war, February 28.
The six-day funeral ceremony will travel from Tehran, to the Iranian holy city of Qom, the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, and Khamenei’s hometown of Mashhad, where he will be buried on Thursday.
Khamenei will be interred alongside several family members killed in the February strike, including his 14-month-old granddaughter, eldest daughter, son-in-law, and the wife of his son Mojtaba, Iran’s new Supreme Leader.
Mojtaba, the Supreme Leader’s successor, is not expected to appear publicly; three of Khamenei’s other sons attended the funeral prayers, according to the Associated Press.
Mourners demanded revenge for Khamenei’s killing, carrying placards with images of U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Al Jazeera.
President Trump told Axios on Saturday that negotiations between the U.S. and Iran would be paused until the funeral ceremonies conclude on Thursday, saying both sides agreed to “take a week off” and that “neither side will shoot at the other” during that time. Nonetheless, he appeared to threaten mourners by saying, about the Iranian leadership structure, “They are all there.” “One shot [and we can take them all out],” he said, before saying that he had decided against such a course of action “because then we would have nobody to negotiate with.”
Israel’s Defense Minister: “Any Iranian leader” threatening Israel will “also be thwarted”: Israel Katz said on Monday that any future Iranian leader who seeks to destroy Israel “will also be thwarted,” claiming that Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was “assassinated by Israel because he set in motion and led the plan to destroy Israel,” the Times of Israel reported.
Netanyahu could visit White House as early as this week: Trump told Axios on Saturday that Netanyahu could visit the White House as early as this week, though Trump is expected to be in Turkey for the NATO summit on July 7-8.
Iranian officials meet with Yemeni, Lebanese, and Palestinian counterparts: Amid the funeral ceremonies for Khamenei, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf held meetings with representatives for Hamas, Yemen’s Ansarallah, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Describing his Sunday meeting with Hamas political chair Mohammed Darwish, Ghalibaf said that Iran was “not at peace with the United States,” nor with Israel, and that, following the Supreme Leader, the government would continue to support “Muslims and the Resistance Front.” “That support may take the form of missiles when necessary,” he said, “and if political pressure is needed, then pressure will be applied through negotiations.”
Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, also commemorated Khamenei by noting that the group had maintained a close relationship with the Supreme Leader for 34 years, and commended him for his “principled commitment” in support of the Palestinian cause. In an interview with al Alam during the funeral procession on Sunday, Hamdan said Khamenei had provided support for resistance groups while allowing them to make their own military and political decisions.
Ship attacked off the coast of Yemen: A cargo vessel triggered a distress alert after coming under attack about 30 nautical miles southwest of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, the UKMTO reported on Sunday.
The vessel was reportedly approached by a small, unknown skiff carrying armed men, who opened fire. The ship’s armed security team returned fire, and the attackers withdrew to a larger “mother ship” about 2 nautical miles away with its tracking system switched off. No injuries were reported and the vessel continued safely.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack. The incident took place near Ansarallah-controlled territory, but the group did not immediately publicly issue a statement on the incident.
U.S. Navy suspends search for missing sailor: The U.S. Navy announced on Sunday that it had suspended its search for a sailor who went missing in a helicopter crash in the Arabian Sea last week. Three of the MH-60 Sea Hawk’s crew members were rescued and in stable condition.
The Navy also indicated that there was no evidence that suggested the helicopter crash was a result of hostile action. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Strait of Hormuz updates:
The number of traceable daily transits through the Strait has more than quadrupled, the Financial Times reported this weekend, rising from 1-2 per day for most of the war, to 8 per day on July 1. Roughly 125-140 transited per day before the war.
Crude oil shipments have recovered to about 7 million barrels per day, up from near-zero levels during the height of the conflict, according to Citibank analysts cited by the Financial Times. Before the war, the strait carried roughly 15 million barrels of crude oil daily.
Citibank said the 7 million barrels/day estimate likely understates actual traffic because many commercial tankers have switched off their public transponders for security reasons.
At least 8 ships attempting to exit the Gulf along the Omani coast turned back between Friday and Saturday, Bloomberg reported on Saturday, with some completing transit only after diverting to Iran’s designated northern route.
Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, Iran’s ambassador to China, reiterated on Sunday that Tehran plans to introduce new service fees for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz once the current 60-day fee-free period expires, but would offer “special treatment” to countries it considers friendly.
Iran responds to joint UK-French statement: After France and the United Kingdom intimated that they would use military force to work with Oman to secure Omani territorial waters in the vital Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister Kareem Gharibabadi responded with a “serious warning,” saying that the “security of Hormuz” lies with Iran and Oman alone and that “the crisis-makers” would be held responsible for “the consequences of their adventurism.”
Report: U.S. special operations task force remained on standby for possible Iran uranium recovery mission: A U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) task force has reportedly spent more than three months deployed in the Middle East preparing for a potential mission to recover highly enriched uranium from underground facilities in Iran, according to The High Side. The report said the operation would have involved transporting the recovered uranium to a laboratory in Hanford, Washington.
Planning reportedly relied in part on Israeli intelligence to identify the locations of the uranium. According to the report, some officials believed the mission could cost an entire JSOC squadron of 60 to 90 operators. By late June, however, the mission was viewed as increasingly unlikely, with one former defense contractor saying the deployment had become more of “a deterrent to force a diplomatic solution” than a practical military option. Although most of the task force reportedly remains in the Persian Gulf region, a special operations official said that personnel are gradually returning to the United States.
Lebanon
Israeli military continues its attacks in Lebanon on Monday, despite “ceasefire”:
An Israeli airstrike on a Jeep in Nabatieh Al-Fawqah killed four people on Monday, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency, including one elementary school principal, her mother, and two foreign workers.
Israeli forces demolished several homes in Aitaroun on Monday morning, after demolishing other structures in Houla overnight, the NNA reported.
Israel’s operations in the country continue despite a U.S.-backed framework deal, which was signed by the Israeli and Lebanese governments last week, and despite the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding, whose first clause calls for an end to hostilities “on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
Israeli attacks on Lebanon continued throughout the weekend:
Israeli attacks killed one person and wounded another from Saturday to Sunday, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported, bringing the toll since March 2 to 4,304 killed and 12,203 wounded.
An Israeli Apache Helicopter fired repeatedly on Majdal Zoun on Saturday evening, killing a man who it claimed was armed, according to a statement from the Israeli military.
Local journalists reported Israeli shelling in the municipalities of Deir Serian, Qantara, and Braasheet, and near Mount Basil in Bint Jbeil, machine gun fire and explosions in Beit Yahoun, and a stun grenade dropped near Aita Al-Shaab.
Israeli forces also carried out large-scale demolitions in the Bint Jbeil district towns of Beit Yahoun and Kounin on Sunday, according to the NNA.
Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, visited the occupied Beaufort (Shiqif) Fortress on Sunday, saying the Lebanese Army must remove Hezbollah fighters from the area under the ceasefire framework. Israeli forces would continue operating from Lebanese territory, he said, prepared to launch new military operations if the ceasefire is violated.
Netanyahu claims Lebanese Christians have asked Israel to annex their villages, dismisses rumors of Trump split: In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Netanyahu discussed his country’s ongoing attacks.
Netanyahu claimed that Israel “take[s] care of its friends, especially the Christians in the Middle East,” and alleged that village leaders had asked to be “annexed to Israel.”
Netanyahu considers limited withdrawal in Sunday meeting: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a high-level security meeting on Sunday to approve a pilot withdrawal from two villages in southern Lebanon under the U.S.-mediated framework, according to Israel’s Channel 13.
The withdrawal would reportedly be phased, with an initial “gradual” reduction of the Israeli military’s presence, and Israeli officials have reiterated that redeployment depends on the Lebanese Army taking control of the areas.
U.S. News
By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.
Drop Site Exclusive: Internal poll finds Mallory McMorrow supporters lean toward Addul El-Sayed, giving potential boost after McMorrow quits race for U.S. Senate seat: Democratic Michigan state senator McMorrow suspended her campaign to represent the state in the U.S. Senate on Sunday. Her exit clears the way for a head-to-head matchup in the August 4 Democratic primary between progressive Abdul El-Sayed, a physician and former Wayne County Health Director, and Rep. Haley Stevens, who has received millions of dollars from pro-Israel groups and has run to the right of both of her primary opponents.
McMorrow had secured endorsements from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). With her exit, attention now turns to whether either senator will endorse El-Sayed or Stevens in the final month of the primary.
An internal poll from Tulchin Research, conducted in late June for a pro-Abdul organization, Fighting for Michigan PAC, found 47% of McMorrow’s supporters picked El-Sayed as their second choice, with 42% moving toward Stevens. That finding cuts against the conventional wisdom that Stevens would be the beneficiary of McMorrow’s departure. The poll’s overall finding—putting El-Sayed in front by 19 points—was a generous outlier toward El-Sayed, so caution is warranted, but the survey does complicate the picture.
AOC meets with NYC primary winners: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met with Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, two of three Mamdani-endorsed candidates who won major victories in last month’s New York primaries for dinner at a Himalayan restaurant in Jackson Heights on Sunday.
Ocasio-Cortez did not endorse either of the two DSA members, though she has defended both forcefully since, telling party colleagues attacking Avila Chevalier’s old social media posts: “If you are already panicking and sending little messages in your group chats about how these people need to be reined in and tamped down and shown their place, you are creating the antagonistic dynamic that we do not need.”
McGovern promises votes on Israel, Gaza, and Humanitarian Aid: Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told Al Jazeera that if Democrats retake the House, he will become chair of the Rules Committee and would ensure votes and debates take place on Israel, Gaza, and humanitarian aid.
Describing the Committee as the “traffic cop of Congress,” McGovern blamed Republicans for “routinely” blocking amendments on humanitarian aid, Gaza, and the occupied West Bank from being considered.
“I can at least guarantee that we’re going to have votes on these matters,” he said, telling Al Jazeera that he did not “come to Congress to just be window dressing.”
McGovern criticized the Trump administration and his congressional colleagues for failing to ensure the entry of vital aid into Gaza, including minimum levels of food, water, medicine, and medical equipment, describing the administration’s “indifference toward the suffering” of Palestinians in Gaza as “stunning,” and characterizing this failure as “war crimes.”
Democratic Socialist of America has more than 120,000 members: The DSA announced on Saturday that their membership passed 120,000.
With this, the group became the largest socialist organization in U.S. history, surpassing the 19th century Socialist Party of America, which was led by Eugene Debs. (One caveat: The U.S. population is three times bigger today than it was in the 1920s.)
Internal Poll finds populist Will Lawrence the only Dem beating Republican Rep. Tom Barrett: A new poll sponsored by the Lawrence campaign, and conducted by Data For Progress, finds Sunrise co-founder Will Lawrence ahead of Barrett 48-46%, with his two corporate Democratic opponents behind by 1 point. The poll finds Lawrence with a commanding 19-point lead among independents, as he has leaned into his opposition to data center construction and condemned U.S. support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the war on Iran. Lawrence appeared on Breaking Points Friday. The survey was first reported by Semafor.
Trump pressures FIFA to remove red card on U.S. star: FIFA reversed the suspension of Folarin Balogun, the U.S. team’s top scorer, after President Trump reportedly called FIFA president Gianni Infantino after the U.S. match on Wednesday to ask him to review the ruling, the NYT reported on Sunday, making Balogun eligible to play against Belgium on Monday.
The move is extremely rare; according to the Times, it is the first reversal of a disqualifying decision in the World Cup since 1962. Belgium has appealed the decision.
The Times also reported that commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, and White House task force head Andrew Giuliani put together a team of elite lawyers—from outside the government and against FIFA rules—to challenge the Balogun red card.
House speaker plans reconciliation push for voter ID bill after floor revolt: House Speaker Mike Johnson said he intends to move the SAVE America Act through budget reconciliation once the House returns from its July Fourth recess, after a group of conservative Republicans led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna blocked a procedural vote last week to protest the bill’s stalled progress.
Trump renewed his push for the legislation in a Saturday night speech on the National Mall, and Johnson said he plans to tie the bill to the defense authorization package to pressure the Senate, despite Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s warnings that doing so could jeopardize that must-pass legislation.
Rubio tells U.S. embassies to lobby against Cuba resolution at the UN: Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly directed U.S. embassies to lobby countries to oppose a July 7 U.N. General Assembly debate on the humanitarian impact of U.S. sanctions on Cuba, according to The Nation, citing a leaked State Department cable obtained by reporter Ken Klippenstein.
The cable reportedly directed embassies to pressure their host nations, if they are strong U.S. allies, to criticize Cuba, to encourage nonaligned states to stay silent, and to warn countries supporting the debate that Washington “will be listening very closely” to their remarks.
Other International News
Drone strike kills 18 civilians in DRC: A drone strike allegedly conducted by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group killed at least 18 civilians in the Congolese village of Mulima on Friday, local officials said.
A regional administrator said health facilities, schools, and livestock were destroyed in several villages, driving a new wave of displacement. Officials blamed M23 and its allies and condemned repeated Rwandan violations of Congolese airspace.
The killings come more than a year after Trump brokered a U.S. peace deal between Congo and Rwanda, one that also handed American firms preferential access to the region’s cobalt, lithium, and coltan.
Ansarallah attack kills 16 Yemeni soldiers: An Ansarallah assault on Saturday killed 16 soldiers of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and wounded 23 near the Red Sea city of Hodeidah, a government military official told AFP, in one of the deadliest clashes between the two sides in years.
An officer said Ansarallah fighters briefly seized government positions using snipers, drones, and mortars before a counterattack retook them.
On Sunday, a representative from the Ansarallah Foreign Ministry promised that the group would continue to try to break the Saudi-led blockade of the territory under the group’s control, and to this effect would reopen the Sana’a International airport, “without asking for anyone’s permission.” Days earlier, Ansarallah repelled Saudi warplanes trying to prevent an Iranian civilian flight from landing in Sana’a.
Though a de facto ceasefire has largely held since 2022, the Saudi-American blockade has never been lifted, creating a humanitarian catastrophe the UN has called one of the world’s worst.
Armed groups strike five locations across Mali as army claims control restored: Armed fighters attacked five locations across Mali on Saturday, including the northern towns of Aguelhok, Anefis, and Gao, the central town of Sevare, and Kenieroba in the south, according to the AFP.
The army reported that 20 fighters were killed in Sevare and six in Gao, and said the situation was “totally under control.”
The Azawad Liberation Front confirmed it had attacked Anefis in the Kidal region, where government and Russian forces are based following the ALF’s earlier seizure of the town of Kidal in April.
OPEC+ agrees to increase oil production: OPEC+, an alliance of the 12-member OPEC oil group and 10 partner producers led by Russia, agreed on Sunday to increase oil production by another 188,000 barrels per day starting in August.
The move continues its gradual rollback of voluntary output cuts and marks the fifth straight monthly production increase.
The decision comes partly in response to continued uncertainty over the status of the Strait of Hormuz and efforts by OPEC+ to calm global oil markets by increasing total supply.
RSF attacks displace thousands in North Darfur villages near Tine: The Rapid Support Forces launched ethnically motivated attacks on six villages near Tine in North Darfur state starting last Wednesday, killing several civilians, injuring dozens, and forcing thousands to flee into neighboring Chad, according to Sudan Tribune.
The attacks on the villages in the region which are home to the Zaghawa ethnic group follow recent gains by the Joint Force, an alliance backing the Sudanese army, which seized land in the area from the RSF.
Separately, the cholera outbreak in Sudan’s Kordofan region has reportedly worsened, with hundreds of new infections registered. “The health system is unable to limit the spread of the disease due to deteriorated sanitation, contaminated water sources, damaged sewage networks, and a severe scarcity of safe drinking water,” a doctor told the Sudan Tribune.
More on life in El-Obeid, which has been under siege for months, is available in the latest from Drop Site contributor Eisa Dafalla, available here.
Russian strikes on Kyiv kill at least 18: Russia launched waves of missiles and drones at Ukraine early Monday, killing at least 18 people and wounding at least 60 in Kyiv and the surrounding region, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukraine’s air force said all 29 ballistic missiles launched by Russia overnight struck their targets, a fact Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said highlighted the country’s need for Patriot missile interceptors amid a global shortage of the technology, calling on the United States and European allies to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week.
Separately on Monday, the mayor of the Russian city of Yaroslav reported that an Ukrainian drone attack on his city wounded two people.
A wave of Ukrainian drones also struck the Omsk oil refinery—Russia’s largest refinery accounting for 10% of its total output—amid an escalating Ukrainian campaign targeting oil and gas infrastructure.
Death toll from Venezuelan earthquakes rises to 3,342, more than 40,000 still missing: Venezuela’s official death toll from the June 24 twin earthquakes has risen to 3,342, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez announced on Saturday.
The UN estimates between 41,000 and 50,000 people remain unaccounted for, and Venezuelan authorities say more than 16,740 have been injured, and another 16,000 have been displaced from their homes.
With the 72-hour survival window long past, AFP reports that international rescue teams from the U.S. and across South America are beginning to wind down search-and-rescue operations in the country.
Syria delays first session of new transitional parliament: Syrian authorities postponed the inaugural session of the country’s new transitional parliament, which had been scheduled for Monday, The New Arab Reported, though it did not specify a reason for the delay.
President Ahmed al-Sharaa appointed 70 members of the 210-seat body this week, while the Druze-Majority Suweida province has yet to select its members following last year’s sectarian violence there.
China conducts first ballistic missile test in Pacific since 2024: China test-fired a long-range ballistic missile from a nuclear-powered submarine into the Pacific on Monday, sending a dummy warhead into what Beijing called a “designated area” in the first such test in two years.
The test drew criticism from New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, with officials calling it destabilizing and part of China’s accelerating military buildup in the region.
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It’s harder and harder to review world events unfolding and yet it is a responsibility to know. How any conscious person was able to celebrate the US 4th of July was beyond me. What is being celebrated? The end of a Republic? This while Israel is now publicly displaying the torture of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and other Palestinians. His for the crime of being a physician.