Hundreds of ICE agents leaving Minnesota; Epstein pitched himself to MBS; Iran talks set for Friday
Drop Site Daily: February 5, 2026
Newborn among women, children, and doctors killed in surge of Israeli attacks. Limited numbers of Palestinians cross Rafah in and out of Gaza as Israel throttles passage. Al-Shifa receives dozens of bodies and remains released by Israeli authorities. Israeli forces bulldoze historic war cemetery in eastern Gaza City. Donors hesitate to fund U.S.-backed reconstruction plan. Dozens of organizations urge DOJ to probe Canary Mission under foreign agent law. U.S. returns full $500 million from Venezuelan oil sale to Caracas after holding $200 million in Qatar. Senate talks on extending ACA subsidies collapse as abortion dispute stalls deal. Federal judge blocks warrantless immigration arrests in Oregon enforcement sweeps. Iran talks confirmed for Friday. RSF bombing of Al-Kuweik Hospital kills senior doctor and medical staff in South Kordofan. Emails show Epstein pitching himself as financial power broker to Saudi leadership ahead of Vision 2030. U.S. launched wave of airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria. Israel sprays chemicals in southern Lebanon. Pakistan claims over 200 fighters killed in weeklong counterinsurgency operation in Balochistan. Russia-Ukraine peace talks continue in Abu Dhabi as fighting intensifies. WFP suspends operations in South Sudan after armed attacks and looting of major river aid convoy.
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The Gaza Genocide, West Bank, and Israel
Israeli attacks in Gaza continue on a routine basis: Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man east of Khan Younis on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera.
Casualty counts: At least 27 Palestinians were killed and 18 injured in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The total recorded toll since October 7, 2023 is now 71,851 killed and 171,626 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 574 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,518, while 717 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health.
Newborn among women and children killed in surge of Israeli attacks: Among those killed in Wednesday’s attacks was a four-day-old Palestinian baby who died after she was struck by shrapnel from a bomb dropped by Israeli forces. The strike on the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City also killed her parents, grandmother, and five-month-old cousin.
Limited numbers of Palestinians cross Rafah in and out of Gaza as Israel throttles passage: Twenty-five Palestinians returned to Gaza through the Rafah crossing overnight. The group entered at around 3 a.m. local time, arriving in Khan Younis more than 20 hours after they left El Arish in Egypt, according to Al Jazeera. The crossing was partially reopened earlier this week and returnees describe being harshly interrogated and humiliated by Israeli troops as they pass through security checkpoints. Meanwhile, 13 Palestinians were transferred out of Gaza for urgent medical treatment abroad, according to Al Jazeera, along with their family members. While an agreement had been struck for at least 50 patients being evacuated each day, accompanied by two family members or companions each, only about 30 patients have been evacuated so far all week. Health officials in Gaza have said that some 20,000 patients are in need of medical treatment abroad.
Al-Shifa receives dozens of bodies and remains returned by Israeli authorities: Al-Shifa Medical Complex on Wednesday received the bodies of 54 Palestinians, along with 66 boxes of human remains, returned by Israeli authorities through the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The ministry said medical teams are processing the remains under approved protocols. This brings the total number of bodies returned by Israel since the so-called ceasefire to over 400, nearly all of them unidentified.
Israeli forces bulldoze historic war cemetery in eastern Gaza City: Israeli forces destroyed large sections of the Gaza War Cemetery in eastern Gaza City, flattening grave areas containing the remains of more than 100 British, Australian, Polish, and other Allied soldiers from the first and second world wars, according to The Guardian. Israel said the site was an active combat zone and claimed the destruction was “defensive” while the Commonwealth War Graves Commission confirmed extensive damage to memorials and grave sections, calling it “deeply troubling.” Over the course of the war, Israel has bulldozed multiple Palestinian graveyards in Gaza, most recently, the al-Batsh cemetery in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, which was excavated and desecrated last week by the Israeli military as they worked to recover the remains of the last Israeli captive. Drop Site covered Israel’s bulldozing of a cemetery in Gaza City located opposite the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital here.
Donors hesitate to fund U.S.-backed reconstruction plan amid disarmament dispute and ceasefire fragility: Potential donors have yet to commit funding to Washington’s Gaza reconstruction plan over concerns that disagreements about the disarmament of Hamas could prompt Israel to resume full-scale war, sources told Reuters, leaving rebuilding efforts in limbo despite the limited reopening of the Rafah border crossing. “Countries want to see the funding will go for reconstruction within demilitarized places, and not to throw the money into another war zone,” one of the sources told Reuters.
Islamic Jihad leader says Israel escalating assassinations and strikes under U.S. cover: Palestinian Islamic Jihad deputy secretary-general Mohammad al-Hindi said Israel has imposed a new reality in Gaza through repeated assassinations and air strikes in an interview with Al Jazeera Wednesday. Al-Hindi said Israel has simply shifted its justifications in phase two without changing its conduct. In the first phase, he said, Israel invoked the issue of missing bodies while continuing attacks; in the second, it shifted to weapons. “With or without excuses, Israel will continue,” he said, adding that Israel’s ceasefire violations are enabled by U.S. backing.
U.S. News
Iran talks confirmed, U.S. and Iran signal priorities: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Washington is “ready to go” for talks with Iran originally scheduled for February 6, though he noted that the location of the summit is still being discussed; Turkey was floated in some earlier reporting. Rubio said any agreement must permanently curb Iran’s nuclear program, address Tehran’s ballistic missile capabilities, halt regional backing of armed groups, and confront the regime’s treatment of its own population. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi also confirmed on Wednesday that “nuclear talks” with the United States are scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Friday in Muscat, Oman. Tehran is reportedly seeking to confine discussions to the nuclear program and sanctions relief, while officials aligned with Israel within President Donald Trump’s administration are pushing to broaden the agenda to include Iran’s ballistic missile program and its regional alliances. A State Department spokesman told Fox News summarized the administration’s priorities ahead of the talks, saying that Trump “has a very clear message for the regime: no nuclear weapons, stop killing protesters.” That’s what Trump is “looking for from the regime,” he said.
700 immigration agents withdrawn from Minnesota: The Trump administration is reducing the number of federal immigration officers in Minnesota by 700—around a quarter of the total deployed to the state, White House border czar announced on Wednesday. The ICE operation in Minnesota led to the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and sparked widespread protests. About 2,000 federal officers will remain in Minnesota after the drawdown, Homan said.
Dozens of organizations urge DOJ to probe Canary Mission under foreign agent law: Seventy religious, civil rights, academic, legal, peace, and human rights groups submitted a formal request to the U.S. Department of Justice National Security Division seeking a Foreign Agents Registration Act investigation into Canary Mission. The filing cited a January report by Drop Site News that showed the group is operated in Israel by a large Israeli team.
U.S. returns full $500 million from Venezuelan oil sale to Caracas after holding $200 million in Qatar: A U.S. official told Reuters that Washington has now transferred the remaining $200 million of $500 million in oil revenue to the Venezuelan government, completing the return of proceeds from the first sale under a deal struck last month. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed during a congressional hearing last week that the funds, which had been temporarily held in a bank account in Qatar to shield them from creditor seizure, would be used to stabilize Venezuela’s economy and support essential services such as teachers, firefighters, and police.
Senate talks on extending ACA subsidies collapse as abortion dispute stalls deal: Negotiations to revive expanded health insurance tax credits under the Affordable Care Act effectively collapsed as of Thursday morning, with senators saying disagreements over abortion funding and program structure derailed a bipartisan proposal led by Republican Sens. Bernie Moreno and Susan Collins. The impasse could leave roughly 20 million Americans facing higher premiums, as the previous subsidies expired last year.
Federal judge in Oregon blocks warrantless immigration arrests: A federal court in Portland ordered the Department of Homeland Security to stop arresting immigrants without warrants unless agents can show a real likelihood of escape. U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai found that the practice violated due process, and issued a preliminary injunction to this effect. His decision follows similar ones in Colorado and Washington, D.C. and came after testimony that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained people in Oregon without proper warrants, including Victor Cruz Gamez, who was held for weeks despite having a valid work permit and pending visa application.
Bill would divert TBI care from VA to billionaire-backed private networks: Reps. Jack Bergman and Sarah Elfreth have introduced the BEACON Act, which would steer $60 million in grants for traumatic brain injury treatment and research away from the Department of Veterans Affairs toward private entities, despite the VA operating what clinicians widely consider the world’s most advanced TBI care system. The push mirrors broader VA privatization efforts backed by billionaires (including Steve Cohen). The VA itself has warned the bill would drain funds from evidence-based care and research with uncertain benefit. Read more about the privatization of veterans’ healthcare from The American Prospect.
Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts told Drop Site News’s Julian Andreone that he stands behind the legality of Tyson’s decision to close its Lexington, Nebraska beef-processing plant, despite the Packers and Stockyards Act barring plant closures aimed at price manipulation. The plant employed 3,200 Nebraskans in a town of 10,000 people before it shuttered on January 20. “They are not violating the Stockers Packyards [sic],” Ricketts told Drop Site’s Julian Andreone. Ricketts had previously told reporters he was “taking a look at” whether Tyson violated the law after his independent opponent, Dan Osborn, alleged. Watch the video here.
Sudan
Drone strike hits hospital in Kadugli, clashes spread in Blue Nile State: The Sudan Doctors Network said a Rapid Support Forces drone strike on a hospital in Kadugli, South Kordofan, killed one person and injured eight others. Separately, fighting was reported south of Alkurmuk in Blue Nile State between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (al-Hilu faction) alongside the RSF.
RSF bombing of Al-Kuweik Hospital kills senior doctor and medical staff in South Kordofan: At least 22 people were killed—including the medical director and three other medical staff—and eight health workers injured after the Rapid Support Forces bombed Al-Kuweik Military Hospital in South Kordofan, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.
UN reports deadly drone strikes in Kadugli amid collapsing health services and aid blockade: United Nations officials said drone strikes on residential neighborhoods in Kadugli, in South Kordofan, killed at least 15 civilians, including seven children, and hit a health center while patients were inside. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that repeated attacks have left more than half the city’s health services non-functional. The UN also said famine conditions are emerging in the region, where food prices are surging, and humanitarian access remains blocked. Officials noted that billions of dollars are required this year to address the crisis.
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein pitched himself as financial power broker to Saudi leadership ahead of Vision 2030: In late 2016, Epstein sent messages intended for Mohammed bin Salman proposing that he become a top financial advisor to the Saudi court and a key architect of Vision 2030, months before bin Salman formally consolidated power in the country. In the exchange, Epstein pitched personal control over the country’s financial planning, influence over the selection of its ministers and consultants, direct access to the prince, and oversight of the Public Investment Fund, and offered to work without pay for the first year.
Emails link Epstein to film studio proposal in Somaliland: Newly released show convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein being copied on a 2012 proposal to build “Somaliwood Studios” as a hub to professionalize African filmmaking, promote religiously restricted content, and develop advanced CGI capabilities. Years later, Epstein was also looped into political correspondence when Emirati port magnate Sultan bin Sulayem—chairman of DP World—sent him a briefing on Somaliland’s international recognition efforts, which we reported on at Drop Site News (full report available here).
Epstein purportedly shipped sacred Kaaba cloth to his private island compound: The recent batch of emails also show that Epstein arranging for pieces of the Kiswah—the sacred black cloth that covers the Kaaba inside the Grand Mosque in Mecca in Mecca—to be shipped to his compound in the U.S. Virgin Islands, with a senior Emirati official included on the correspondence. In 2017 exchanges with Epstein associate Daphne Wallace, individuals identified as Abdullah Al Maari and Aziza Alahmadi stressed the cloth’s religious significance—touched by millions of pilgrims—while discussing customs concerns and delivery to what was described as Epstein’s “mosque.”
Other International News
U.S. launched wave of airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria: The United States Central Command said American aircraft carried out five separate strikes across Syria between January 27 and February 2, hitting what it described as Islamic State communications, logistics, and weapons facilities while continuing to transfer high-risk detainees to Iraq. U.S. officials said recent operations have increasingly been coordinated with Syria’s central government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, marking a pivot away from partnership with the Kurdish-led SDF. CENTCOM said more than 50 ISIS fighters have been killed or captured in recent weeks, including senior figure Bilal Hasan al-Jasim in Idlib.
Israel sprays chemicals over south Lebanon: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel on Wednesday of committing an environmental crime after Israeli forces sprayed an unknown substance over towns in southern Lebanon. “These dangerous practices that target agricultural lands and the livelihoods of citizens and threaten their health and environment require the international community and relevant United Nations organisations to assume their responsibilities to stop these attacks,” Aoun said, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon said they were informed on Monday by the Israeli military that it would spray a “non-toxic chemical substance” over areas near the border. Lebanon’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday it has started documenting Israel’s spraying of “toxic materials and pesticides” over farmland and orchards in multiple Lebanese villages.
Israeli drones intimidate civilians and violate ceasefire near Kfar Kila: Video shows an Israeli military drone harassing a Lebanese family inside a cemetery in Kfar Kila, part of what residents describe as daily drone surveillance in southern Lebanon. Similarly, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon described two Israeli drones threatening them on a routine patrol on Monday, with one dropping a stun grenade about 50 meters from peacekeepers. Lebanon’s National News Agency also reported that a quadcopter released a stun explosive near a gathering of locals the same day.
Pakistan claims over 200 fighters killed in weeklong counterinsurgency operation in Balochistan: Pakistan’s armed forces said they killed 216 fighters across Balochistan, following reported attacks by the Balochistan Liberation Army on schools, markets, banks, and security installations late last month. The military said the operation dismantled militant networks and recovered weapons caches, while acknowledging that 36 civilians and 22 security personnel were also killed. Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti vowed more offensives against the separatist group.
Russia-Ukraine peace talks continue in Abu Dhabi as fighting intensifies: Ukrainian and Russian officials concluded the first day of United States-mediated negotiations in Abu Dhabi, with Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov calling the discussions “substantive and productive” as the sides prepare to reconvene Thursday. The talks proceeded amid fresh Russian strikes that killed civilians and further damaged energy infrastructure in Kyiv.
Colombian military kills ELN fighters as Gustavo Petro and Trump launch joint crackdown on narco leaders: Colombian forces killed seven members of the National Liberation Army on Wednesday, according to the AFP. The attacks follow an agreement struck by President Gustavo Petro and President Donald Trump at the White House earlier this week, which will reportedly lead to the coordination of military and intelligence actions against major drug figures in the country, including dissident rebel leader Iván Mordisco and Gulf Clan commander Chiquito Malo. The announced agreement prompted the Gulf Clan to temporarily withdraw from peace talks with the government in Qatar.
Worshippers abducted in Kurmin Wali church attack released in Nigeria: All 166 people kidnapped during last month’s assault on a village and churches in Kurmin Wali in northern Kaduna State have been freed, the Christian Association of Nigeria said, according to Reuters. Reverend John Hayab and Kaduna CAN leader Reverend Caleb Maaji confirmed the releases, though officials have not said whether a ransom was paid, after gunmen abducted 177 villagers in January—11 of whom escaped—during raids on homes and churches.
MSF hospital hit by government air strike in Jonglei amid renewed fighting: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said one of its hospitals in Lankien, in the Jonglei region of South Sudan, was struck by a government air attack Tuesday, marking the tenth assault on an MSF-run medical facility in the country in the past year. MSF said the hospital had been evacuated hours earlier, upon warnings of a possible strike, but noted that its main warehouse was destroyed and a staff member was injured. A separate MSF facility in Pieri, also in Jonglei, was looted on Tuesday.
WFP suspends operations in South Sudan after armed attacks and looting of major river aid convoy: The World Food Programme said a 12-boat river convoy carrying more than 1,500 metric tonnes of food aid was repeatedly attacked by armed youth in the Upper Nile State of South Sudan, before its supplies were looted, prompting the agency to suspend all activities in the area until staff safety is guaranteed and stolen aid is recovered. The WFP warned that growing insecurity is now threatening assistance to more than 4.2 million vulnerable people and has already forced a halt to plans to pre-position 12,000 metric tonnes of food in Jonglei ahead of the rainy season, raising fears of worsening shortages in coming months.
U.S. threatens oil revenue access to block al-Maliki’s return as prime minister: The United States is pressuring Iraqi political leaders to prevent Nouri al-Maliki from securing a third term as prime minister, warning it could restrict Iraq’s access to vital oil revenues, Bloomberg reported. President Donald Trump echoed the threat, posting that the U.S. would “no longer help Iraq” if al-Maliki is chosen. U.S. officials conveyed a similar message during talks with Iraq’s central bank governor in Turkey, citing Washington’s view that al-Maliki is too closely aligned with Iran. Al-Maliki has denounced the warnings as “blatant American interference,” but signaled in a February 3 interview that he would accept being replaced as the bloc’s nominee if leaders ultimately chose another candidate.
More from Drop Site
Israeli strikes kill dozens as bodies flood Al-Shifa and ceasefire violations intensify: Over 20 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli attacks across Gaza City on Wednesday, with bodies arriving in quick succession at Al-Shifa Medical Complex after strikes hit residential buildings in the Tuffah neighborhood and killed multiple members of the Haboush family.. A doctor with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and a paramedic with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society were also among the dead, as officials said Israeli forces have killed at least 566 Palestinians since the so-called ceasefire took effect on October 10. “They said there was a truce, a ceasefire—this is not a ceasefire. This is extermination, genocide,” Abu Mohammed Haboush told Drop Site outside Al-Shifa. Gaza’s Government Media Office said Israel has violated the agreement more than 1,500 times even as President Donald Trump declared in October that the war was over. Read Abdel Qader Sabbah’s latest for Drop Site here.
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There is no ambiguity left. What’s happening in Gaza is not a “conflict,” a “ceasefire violation,” or a tragedy in the abstract—it’s the routine, bureaucratized killing of civilians, infants included, with hospitals, graveyards, and entire families treated as expendable. Calling this a ceasefire is a lie meant to manage headlines, not reality. At the same time, the U.S. is carrying out lethal immigration raids at home, pulling agents only after citizens are killed, while protecting blacklisting operations like Canary Mission and pretending Jeffrey Epstein was some rogue aberration rather than a man embedded in elite power networks. This isn’t policy failure—it’s moral collapse. Drop Site is one of the few outlets that refuses to launder this violence into palatable language, and that refusal matters when so many institutions have chosen complicity over truth.
And the mainstream media keeps talking of this as a ceasefire.