Honduras election shock; Mass casualty flooding and fires in Asia; Netanyahu demands a pardon

Drop Site Daily: December 1, 2025

Israel kills two Palestinian children in a drone strike on Khan Younis. Trump is rewarded for his heavy intervention in Honduras’s election as his preferred candidate is leading a close race, with the left-wing party of the incumbent president trailing badly. Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim is released from detention. Trump mandates closure of Venezuela airspace and cancels repatriation flights. A coup in Guinea-Bissau. Fires kill 150 in Hong Kong. Floods kill over 1,000 in Southeast Asia. Rains continue to imperil the people of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces withdraw from Tubas, ending an intense operation in the West Bank city. Attacks continue near Hebron and Bethlehem Netanyahu asks for a pardon. Far-right cabinet members push for more guns for West Bank settlers and promote a Border Police officer who killed surrendering Palestinians. U.S. halts visas and asylum for Afghans. The U.S. Navy is accused of covering up plutonium leaks. Drop Site publishes a dispatch on guerilla fighters in West Papua. The Pope heads to Lebanon and continues the Vatican’s push for Palestinian statehood. Russian-Ukrainian negotiations continue as a lead Ukrainian negotiator departs, due to his role in a growing corruption scandal within the country. Israel kills 13 in Syria. A French investigation finds that Sudan’s Army used chlorine gas as a weapon of war last year against the RSF. Turkish and Kurdish negotiators reach an impasse. Iran seizes another tanker.

This is Drop Site Daily, our new, free daily news recap. We send it Monday through Friday.

Flood waters submerged residential buildings in Hat Yai in Thailand’s southern Songkhla province on November 26, 2025. Tens of thousands of people in Thailand and neighbouring Malaysia were displaced by widespread flooding, with streets submerged, homes inundated and at least 34 dead (AFP via Getty Images).

The Genocide in Gaza

• Nine more bodies were recovered from the rubble and one wounded person was taken to hospital in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. 356 people have been killed and 909 injured since the “ceasefire” went into effect. This brings the recorded death toll from the Israeli genocide in Gaza to 70,112 and 170,986 injuries .

• Children killed in Khan Younis: Two Palestinian children were killed Saturday when an Israeli drone strike hit a group of civilians near al-Farabi School in Bani Suheila, Khan Younis, according to Al Jazeera. The blast—west of the “yellow line”—killed brothers Juma and Fadi Tamer Abu Assi. Israeli forces defended the murders by saying its troops “identified two suspects who crossed the yellow line, conducted suspicious activities on the ground, and approached Israeli troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip, posing an immediate threat to them.” This is just one in a series of Israeli ground, naval, and air attacks across Gaza over the weekend, including air raids in Tuffah, artillery fire on al-Qarara that injured three Palestinians, and strikes in eastern Rafah.

• Israel is blocking milk for infants: Dr. Ahmad Al-Farra of Nasser Medical Complex warns that Gaza’s health system is collapsing, with more than 85% of essential medicines gone and virtually no infant milk or neonatal formulas entering the Strip. In a video published by Translating Falasteen and taken in the neonatal ICU’s milk-preparation room, he shows only five cans left—enough for just two days—putting premature babies at immediate and acute risk of dehydration and malnutrition.

• Israel enabled looting of aid convoys, a French historian says: A French historian who spent weeks inside Gaza said he witnessed “utterly convincing” evidence that Israeli forces were enabling looters to attack aid convoys, The Guardian reports. Jean-Pierre Filiu of Sciences Po documented Israeli quadcopters supporting gangs attacking community security teams guarding UN trucks—attacks which killed two guards in one run and allowed gangs to seize about 20 trucks’ worth of food. He said this type of activity was meant to discredit Hamas and the UN, while empowering Israeli-aligned militias to resell aid. His account aligns with internal UN memos describing Israel’s “passive, if not active benevolence” toward the looters.

• Gaza’s “Bermuda Triangle”: Al Jazeera’s Amal Abu Seif released a new report on Gaza’s humanitarian “Bermuda Triangle,” the 20–30 km stretch between border crossings and displacement camps where lifesaving aid effectively disappears. Six weeks into the ceasefire, Israel claims 600–800 “food” trucks enter daily, but the UN’s World Food Program says only half that number is admitted. Palestinian groups say it’s closer to a quarter. Many of the trucks contain low-nutrition commercial goods, rather than staples. Read his full report here.

• Ceasefire updates: A joint International Committee of the Red Cross and Qassam Brigades team began inspecting an Israeli-controlled area east of the Yellow Line in Beit Lahiya to locate the remains of an Israeli captive, Al Araby reported. Leaks, published by Walla, indicate that Israeli officials told Washington that they will not move to phase two of the ceasefire until the two remaining bodies are recovered. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s plan for an international force in Gaza is faltering amid unresolved demands for disarmament and shrinking troop commitments, with Indonesia and Azerbaijan reconsidering their participation and with no Arab state having yet agreed to join, according to the Washington Post.

• Rains continue in the Gaza Strip: A cold front hit the Gaza Strip today, part of the winter storms that continue to batter an area in which over 80% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed by two years of Israeli strikes. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in tents and makeshift shelters that offer little protection from cold winds and heavy rains.

• Amnesty: Israel is still committing genocide in Gaza. More than a month after the “ceasefire” was announced, Israel is still continuing to deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction without signaling any change in their intent, Amnesty International said in a briefing on Thursday. “The ceasefire risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal. But while Israeli authorities and forces have reduced the scale of their attacks and allowed limited amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the world must not be fooled. Israel’s genocide is not over,” Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said in a statement.

West Bank and Israel

• 200 detained in Israeli operation in Tubas: Israeli forces withdrew from the West Bank city of Tubas after a four-day operation, which involved major raids, mass detentions, and the seizure of homes. Local officials told Al-Araby TV that military vehicles have left and roads are reopening. More than 166 people were treated for injuries from the raids, with around 200 residents detained, WAFA reported. Nearby areas saw similar night raids. Israel, meanwhile, has expanded its “Five Stones” campaign in Jenin, which has witnessed demolitions, mass arrests, and the killing of two young men who were captured on video surrendering to Israeli troops before being executed.

• Promotions for killing Palestinians who surrendered: On Saturday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir promoted the Border Police commander whose unit was caught on camera killing the two Palestinians in Jenin earlier this week. The killings were captured on video. Ben-Gvir visited the unit the next day to laud the Border Police as “heroic fighters” and to announce the commander’s elevation.

• Settler attacks near Hebron and Bethlehem: Six Palestinians, including a pregnant woman, were injured Saturday when armed settlers—backed by Israeli soldiers—attacked homes belonging to the Karaja family in the Hawawer area of Halhul, north of Hebron, WAFA reported. Earlier the same day, another assault by settlers in Khallat al-Louz, near Bethlehem, wounded ten people, including a woman shot with live fire, and four victims were transferred to the hospital, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

• Settlers attack a water well east of Ramallah: An Israeli settler attack on a water well east of Ramallah has severed the water supply to several Palestinian towns, the Jerusalem Water Authority said Sunday, as reported by Al Jazeera.

• Netanyahu asks for a pardon: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formally asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon that would end his long-running corruption trial, Israeli outlet i24 reports. His lawyer submitted the request to the President and the Justice Ministry’s pardons unit on Sunday, framing a pardon as necessary for “national unity.”

• The Israeli far-right plans to give more gun licenses to West Bank settlers: Defense Minister Israel Katz and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have approved a new criterion that will expand personal firearm eligibility for thousands of additional settler applicants, according to Israel’s Channel 14. Ben Gvir’s office says roughly 230,000 gun licenses have been issued since 2023 as part of a broader campaign to arm West Bank settlers and equip state-backed “civilian security teams,” which function as armed militias in the region.

• UN Committee Against Torture calls Israel’s program of torture “de facto” and “widespread”: The UN Committee Against Torture concluded that Israel is operating a “de facto State policy of organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment,” in a report released Friday. These practices have “gravely intensified” since October 7, the report said. The report’s findings detail severe beatings, electrocution, waterboarding, sexual violence, deprivation of food and medical care, and at least 75 Palestinian deaths in custody. The committee further warns that Israel’s broader policies—including the aid blockade, mass displacement, and destruction of civilian infrastructure—may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of the Palestinian population as a whole.

• Updates on Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim: 16-year-old Palestinian-American Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim was freed Thursday from Israel’s Ofer Prison after more than nine months in detainment. Drop Site contributor and Jasper Nathaniel spoke with Ibrahim, who said that he learned of his release only two hours beforehand and had no idea that a ceasefire was in place or that an outside campaign on his behalf existed. Still gaunt and recovering from severe starvation and illness, Ibrahim visited the grave of a cousin killed by settlers and the family of a 17-year-old cellmate who died in front of him. He has plans to visit other imprisoned children’s families soon. More about his case can be read from Jasper on his X account (here) or on his Substack (here)

• Campaign on behalf of Marwan Barghouti: A global campaign to free imprisoned Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti has been launched by his family with civil society support. A huge public art installation in Koba—the imprisoned leader’s hometown in the West Bank—is featured in a video narrated by his son. Murals with the words “Free Marwan” have begun appearing in London and other capitals. The video directs supporters to join the “FreeMarwanNow” campaign via an affiliated website, and can be watched in full here.

U.S. News

• Trump halts all Afghan migration in response to last week’s attack: The United States has frozen all asylum decisions and halted visa issuance for Afghan nationals, after President Donald Trump vowed to “permanently pause” immigration from what he called “Third World Countries”—moves that immigrant advocates say illegally target Afghans who aided the U.S. war effort. The abrupt orders, issued despite a court injunction protecting at least one Afghan applicant, have drawn sharp condemnation from resettlement groups who call the policy a wholesale abandonment of the U.S.’s wartime allies.

• U.S. pauses repatriation flights to Venezuela: The U.S. has halted its weekly Venezuela repatriation flights after President Trump declared Venezuelan airspace “closed in its entirety.” In a statement responding to these changes, Venezuela’s government said the airspace order violates international law, noting that the repatriation program returned nearly 14,000 people on 75 flights. Drop Site contributor José Luis Granados Ceja reports that the country’s leadership has adopted a defensive posture as authorities brace for potential U.S. escalation, which many in the country’s Civic-Military Union see as imminent.

• Navy accused of covering up potential exposure to plutonium: The U.S. Navy detected airborne plutonium rising to two times the federal action threshold at San Francisco’s contaminated Hunters Point shipyard in November 2024, an investigation from The Guardian alleges. Navy officials waited 11 months before informing the city, despite the radioactive material found adjacent to homes and a public park in an area slated for major redevelopment. Public health advocates say the delayed disclosure fits a decades-long pattern of cover-ups at the former nuclear decontamination site—where radioactive waste from Cold War weapons-testing was scattered across the yard—and they accused the Navy of trying to avoid billions in cleanup costs as residents report cancer clusters and attorneys uncover falsified radiation tests. The EPA is now demanding the Navy’s full data in light of skepticism over its claim that a re-test showed “non-detect” reports, while experts warn thousands of tons of unaccounted for radioactive grit may still be buried across the 866-acre superfund site.

• “Kill everybody,” Hegseth says: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave the spoken order to “kill everybody” aboard a suspected drug-smuggling boat tracked off Trinidad, according to a new report from the Washington Post. This led Special Operations forces to fire a missile, watch survivors cling to the burning wreck, and then strike again to finish them off, in what law-of-war experts say amounts to murder. The Sept. 2 attack, the first in a lethal new Pentagon campaign that has now killed more than 80 alleged traffickers, is drawing intense scrutiny from Congress after internal accounts and gaps in the released footage suggest the Pentagon misled lawmakers and carried out unlawful “no-quarter” strikes under the guise of a nonexistent armed conflict.

• College student deported on her way home for Thanksgiving: A 19-year-old Babson College student, Any Lucía López Belloza, was detained at Boston Logan Airport and deported to Honduras within 48 hours—despite a federal court order barring her removal. There is no clear record that Belloza was properly notified of the 2015 deportation order ICE cited. Belloza, who came to the U.S. at age seven and had no idea she was subject to removal, was shackled and transferred through Texas before being flown out of the country.

• Immigrant children labor on California farms: California’s $60 billion farm industry relies on thousands of underage workers, many of them indigenous children from mixed-status families, according to a new report from The American Prospect (TAP). They labor long hours for less than minimum wage in extreme heat, amid unsafe conditions, and in the presence of frequent pesticide exposure. State agencies conduct few inspections, issue small and infrequent fines, and leave most violations unpunished. A companion investigation from TAP into pesticide enforcement shows that oversight is fragmented among county agricultural commissioners; inspections cover less than one percent of spray events; repeat corporate offenders often escape fines; and young workers report headaches, rashes, dizziness, and peeling skin from toxic chemicals that regulators routinely fail to catch or meaningfully deter. Both of these pieces of investigative journalism can be read here (part 1) and here (part 2).

International News

• Israel kills 13 in Syria: Israeli forces raided the Syrian village of Beit Jin before dawn on Friday and opened fire when confronted by residents, killing at least 13 people—including women and children—in what Syrian officials called a “horrific massacre” and the deadliest Israeli attack since its military seized a swath of southern Syria last year. Israel says it was targeting Jamaa Islamiya militants planning cross-border attacks and brought in air support after its troops came under fire, but local officials told AP the dead were civilians and described troops shooting at anyone who moved, even cars transporting the wounded.

• On his visit to Lebanon, Pope Leo continues the Vatican’s support for a Palestinian state: Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed the Vatican’s long-standing position that a Palestinian state is “the only solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, telling reporters on his flight from Turkey to Lebanon that this remains the only path to a just and lasting peace. He added that “Israel still does not accept that solution.” Hezbollah issued an open letter welcoming Pope Leo to the country, urging him to call for humanitarian action in Lebanon and Gaza and to condemn Israeli aggression.

• State of Russia-Ukraine negotiations: U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators said their four-hour meeting in Hallandale Beach, Florida on a potential war-ending deal with Russia was “productive,” according to the WSJ, and covered possible election timelines, land swaps, and future security guarantees. Former Senior Advisor to the U.S. President Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are set to fly to Moscow for the next round of talks. The negotiations took place as Ukraine’s former Minister of Defence Rustem Umerov replaced the recently resigned former Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak—who stepped down amid a major corruption scandal—deepening the political pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky, while Russia escalates nationwide bombardments and the Trump administration pushes for a more rapid resolution to the conflict.

• Chlorine gas reportedly used in Sudan: Chlorine barrels dropped from the air on September 5 and 13, 2024 and were used as chemical weapons in Sudan’s civil war, as a part of strikes in the Sudanese army’s broader effort to retake a key refinery from the Rapid Support Forces, a France 24 investigation has reportedly verified through open-source intelligence analysis and five independent experts. The army is allegedly the only actor with the aerial capability to carry out such attacks. The team traced the chlorine to imports from India’s Chemtrade International, ostensibly brought into the country for water purification to the Sudanese firm Ports Engineering, which commercial data links both to military procurement and to an Emirati supplier for Sudanese intelligence. The incident raised serious questions about how no less than 125 imported chlorine cylinders were diverted in a country where 17.3 million people lack access to safe drinking water, and in which a single misused barrel could have met months of humanitarian needs.

• Coup in Guinea-Bissau: General Horta Inta-A was sworn in on Thursday to lead a one-year transitional government after the military arrested President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, seized power, and suspended state institutions amid a disputed election in which both main candidates had declared victory. Coup leaders claim they acted to stop attempts to “manipulate electoral results,” but opposition parties and civil society groups say the intervention was aimed at blocking the release of results widely expected to favor challenger Fernando Dias. The takeover—the latest in a region battered by repeated military coups—has drawn swift condemnation from the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union. The coup plunged Guinea-Bissau into another period of deep political uncertainty.

• Congo-Rwanda peace treaty to be signed this week: Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame will travel to Washington on December 4 to sign a U.S.-brokered peace deal and meet President Donald Trump, Reuters reports. Washington has pushed to halt the war in eastern Congo—between the DRC and M23 militants—and to secure Western mining interests in the region. The visit is expected to ratify earlier U.S.-mediated agreements on security and economic integration, though little progress has reportedly been made on the ground, with Congo demanding a full withdrawal of Rwandan troops and UN experts continuing to link Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, to M23’s command structure.

• Breakdown in Turkish-Kurdish negotiations: The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will take no further steps in the peace process until Turkey advances negotiations and frees imprisoned founder Abdullah Ocalan, a senior PKK commander told AFP, adding that meaningful progress requires both Ocalan’s release and constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people in Turkey. While the PKK has renounced armed struggle, withdrawn fighters, and pledged not to use weapons against the state, its leaders insist the movement will continue to resist through other means until those core demands are met.

• Iranian navy seizes another tanker: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) say they have seized an Eswatini-flagged vessel carrying 350,000 litres of “smuggled fuel” in the Strait of Hormuz. They added that the IRGC detained 13 crew members from India and a neighbouring country, while they towed the ship to Bushehr. Eswatini’s government denied any connection to the vessel, saying no ships are authorized to fly its flag.

• 13 arrested for role in Hong Kong fire that killed over 150: Hong Kong police have arrested 13 people for suspected manslaughter, Reuters reported, after investigators found that substandard renovation materials—including non-compliant scaffolding mesh and foam insulation—turbocharged the city’s deadliest fire in more than 75 years. The blaze killed at least 151 people, with more than 40 still missing. Rescue teams continue to recover bodies from stairwells and rooftops of the Wang Fuk Court estate—where residents had long warned that the renovation posed fire hazards, and where fire alarms failed during the disaster.

• Floods kill hundreds in Indonesia: The death toll from Indonesia’s catastrophic floods and landslides has climbed to 604, according to Al Jazeera, with another 402 people still missing. Desperate residents on the most affected island of Sumatra scoured wrecked neighborhoods for food, water and medicine, and two cities—Sibolga and Central Tapanuli—remain cut off, forcing authorities to deploy warships to deliver aid as heavy rains, damaged roads, and a lack of equipment severely hinder rescue operations. The regional crisis has now killed more than 1,100 people across Southeast Asia, and monsoon rains have been intensified by climate-change-driven weather patterns, including a tropical storm, unleashed landslides, and flash floods amid widespread devastation in the region.

• Field Marshal Asmin Munir’s elevation:The Pakistani government was expected to issue a notification on November 28th elevating the current army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, to the newly created position of Chief of Defence Forces—an unprecedented position that makes the Army Chief the head of all three forces (navy, army, and air force) and the nuclear arsenal. The deadline passed without the notification, signaling a significant deadlock between the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government and the military leadership.

• Suicide bombers in Pakistan: In Kurram district, around three dozen insurgents stormed a police check post, killing at least two officers and wounding six others in a gun battle that also left four attackers dead, while a separate bomb attack on a security convoy, along the Bannu-Miranshah road, left two soldiers dead and an officer injured. In another attack, a suicide bomber struck a police van in Lakki Marwat, killing at least one and injuring two others. The last 24 hours also saw a woman suicide bomber in front of the headquarters of the Frontier Corps in Naukundi, Balochistan province

• Cyclone ravages Sri Lanka: Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the country is confronting “the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history,” as the death toll from Cyclone Ditwah climbed to 366 people, with 367 people still missing and more than a million affected by catastrophic flooding and landslides. Rescue teams—aided by Indian personnel and aircraft—are still struggling to reach submerged towns, with at least 15,000 homes destroyed while more than 200 major roads and 10 bridges were rendered impassable.

• Trafficking bust in Nigeria: Nigerian authorities say that they rescued roughly 40 trafficked individuals—33 men and 7 women—during a raid over the weekend on a bungalow in Nasarawa State. A senior gang member allegedly involved in their trafficking was also detained in the operation. Most of the victims are from Mali, with one from Ivory Coast, and the group was reportedly lured into Nigeria with false promises of jobs in Europe before being held against their will. The arrest comes as the Nigerian government faces increasing international pressure to halt migration flows and trafficked persons bound for Europe.

• Park renaming fight in Dublin: Dublin’s Herzog Park in Rathgar—named for Irish-born former Israeli President Chaim Herzog—is now at the center of a heated political debate as councillors prepare to vote on removing his name amid Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza on Monday. “People Before Profit” and local activists want the park renamed after six-year-old Hind Rajab or designated “Free Palestine,” arguing it would repudiate Irish complicity in colonial violence, while the government warns the move risks erasing “Jewish” heritage. A final decision was expected today, but was cast into doubt by a ruling on the part of the City Council’s chief executive, who said the proposal is missing certain statutory and legal requirements necessary for a vote.

More From Drop Site

• Drop Site’s coverage of the Honduran election: President Donald Trump heavily intervened in Honduras’ razor-tight presidential race over the course of the last week: he not only endorsed conservative Nasry “Tito” Asfura, he threatened to cut U.S. aid if the election result was unfavorable, and he also pardoned convicted narcotrafficker and former president Juan Orlando Hernández. Trump’s interference, according to our reporting, was reportedly engineered by right-wing strategist Fernando Cerimedo, a veteran of the Milei and Bolsonaro campaigns. Trump’s preferred candidate held a narrow lead according to Preliminary Results released Sunday night, and the left-wing candidate Rixi Moncada, whose party is presently in power and has drastically reduced poverty in the country, is in a distant third. For additional background on the country’s elections, read the full article from Drop Site contributor José Luis Granados Ceja here.

• Drop Site report from West Papua: In the remote mountains of West Papua, Indonesian forces are using French and Chinese weapons systems to bomb subsistence-farming communities as part of a long frontier war between West Papua separatists and the Indonesian government. A new Drop Site dispatch from Kristo Langker on this campaign features rare on-the-ground footage and interviews with guerrillas fighting drones and aircraft with bows and arrows. Read one of the most visually striking and important stories we’ve published this year in full here.

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