Iran kills hundreds of protestors, shuts off internet; A gravestone for Refaat Alareer

Drop Site Daily: January 12, 2026

Israel launches weekend attacks in Khan Younis, the Al-Bureij refugee camp, and Gaza City, killing at least two Palestinians on Saturday and seven more on Sunday. Two more children freeze to death in Gaza. Grave and headstone built for renowned Palestinian poet and professor Refaat Alareer ten months after he is laid to rest. Israel released twelve detainees into Gaza on Sunday. Israel is filling Gaza with junk food, while blocking food with nutritious value and medicine. The shooting of the director of police investigations in Khan Younis is under investigation. A Palestinian summit on Gaza’s governance is expected in Cairo this week. The last Bedouin community in the southern Jordan valley is being forcibly displaced, B’Tselem says. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he hopes to “taper” Israel’s reliance on U.S. military aid. The death toll in Iran amid nationwide protests may be as high as 544. Iran’s army pledges to defend the country’s “national interests.” President Donald Trump says Iran’s leaders have reached out to discuss a nuclear deal. U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent says more sanctions on Venezuela might be lifted this week, as Trump signs an E.O. declaring Venezuela’s oil funds “sovereign property.” The Venezuelan government releases at least 18 prisoners, human rights groups say. ICE buys a surveillance system with the capacity to monitor entire neighborhoods. Federal Reserve Chair Powell addresses the threat of criminal charges. U-Haul truck attacks protestors in Los Angeles. Rapid Support Forces seize Jarjira in Darfur, as Sudanese government returns to Khartoum. Pakistan nears an arms deal with the Sudanese Army. An anti-Houthi “Supreme Military Committee” is announced in Yemen. Fighting ceases in Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhoods. Bolivia’s government will restore fuel subsidies after protests. Somalia’s defense minister says Israel wants to move Palestinians to Somaliland.

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

New reporting from Drop Site: New reports over the weekend on the threat of U.S. escalation in Cuba and increasing international pressure on Pakistan.

Ten months after the body of Palestinian poet and professor Refaat Alareer was recovered and laid to rest in the Ibn Marwan cemetery, his loved ones were finally able to build his grave and place the headstone after immense difficulty reaching the site near the yellow line (Source: X)

The Gaza Genocide, West Bank, and Israel

• Casualty counts in the last 24 hours: Over the past 24 hours, the bodies of seven Palestinians, including five recovered from under the rubble, arrived at hospitals in Gaza, while four Palestinians were injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 71,419 killed, with 171,318 injured.

• Total casualty counts since ceasefire: Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 442 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,240, while 697 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health.

• More Palestinian children freeze to death: A one-week-old infant and a four-year-old child froze to death in Gaza over the weekend, bringing the total number of child deaths from the cold since the beginning of winter to six, according to the health ministry. Israel continues to heavily restrict the number of aid trucks to Gaza carrying crucial shelter supplies.

• Israeli quadcopter kills three in Khan Younis: An Israeli quadcopter drone killed three Palestinians in Khan Younis on Monday, according to Al Jazeera. The attacks came after Israeli army forces carried out air strikes and shelling across several parts of the enclave on Monday.

• Attacks on Khan Younis, Al-Bureij, and Gaza City on Saturday: At least two Palestinians were reportedly killed in three separate Israeli attacks on Saturday in Khan Younis and farther north in Gaza City, according to local sources. Israeli aircraft also bombarded the eastern areas of Al-Bureij Refugee Camp, according to local reports.

• Israel kills seven more Palestinians on Sunday: A Palestinian man was killed Sunday by Israeli fire outside the army’s declared deployment areas west of the “yellow line” in the Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, according to Shehab News. Two more Palestinians, Mohammed Iyad Shaker Abu Assi and Anas Fuad Shaker Abu Assi, were killed by Israeli fire and airstrikes in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis. Their bodies have arrived at Nasser Medical Hospital. Seven Palestinians died on Sunday due to Israeli attacks, according to Gaza’s rescue services.

• Palestinian summit expected in Cairo this week: Palestinian factions are expected to meet in Cairo later this week to discuss Gaza governance and the second phase of the ceasefire, after the talks were postponed twice without a final date, Ultra Palestine reported. The meeting will center on the proposal to transfer administration of Gaza to a temporary technocratic committee made up of independent figures—a step mediators see as key to unlocking phase two of the agreement

• Bahbah says that a “Gaza Peace Council” will precede this week’s talks: Palestinian-American academic Bishara Bahbah, who has served as an informal mediator between Hamas and U.S. officials, reported that a Gaza Peace Council is expected to be announced next week ahead of talks in Cairo. He expects that the 12-member technocratic committee to govern Gaza will be named in full, and that it will launch its reconstruction bodies within 30 days. He also reported that Israel is pushing to transfer humanitarian aid responsibilities to private firms, adding that the Rafah crossing should reopen after the final Israeli body is handed over.

• Grave and headstone built for Refaat Alareer: Ten months after the body of Palestinian poet and professor Refaat Alareer was recovered and laid to rest in the Ibn Marwan cemetery, his loved ones were finally able to build his grave and place the headstone after immense difficulty reaching the site near the yellow line. ​​Alareer was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in December 2023.

• Israel releases Palestinian 12 detainees on Sunday: Israeli occupation forces released 12 detainees from the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, with those freed transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, according to the Asra Media Office. Around 9,500 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons and detention centers known for torture, starvation, and medical neglect.

• Shooting in Al-Mawasi under investigation, may be tied to Israel-backed militias: Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and National Security said its officials are investigating a shooting in the Al-Mawasi area that killed the director of police investigations in Khan Younis, without providing further details. The killing comes as Israel-backed militias, including those connected to the now-deceased leader Yasser Abu Shabbab, have strengthened their position.

• MOH head says Israel is filling the strip with junk food while blocking food with nutritious value and medicine: The director-general of the Gaza Health Ministry, Dr. Mounis Al-Boursh, said Israel is allowing trucks loaded with “soda, chips, and chocolate” into Gaza while blocking real food, medicine, vitamins, and infant formula, accusing Israel of “orchestrating a genocide with cold calculation—through a sinister engineering of slow death.” He warned the impact is falling hardest on children, citing soaring malnutrition and anemia, rising miscarriages and premature births, and an unprecedented increase in congenital anomalies, “as if even the womb has become a battlefield.”

• Last Bedouin community in the southern Jordan valley is being removed, B’Tselem says: The last Bedouin community in the southern Jordan Valley is being emptied out, with more than 120 Palestinians forcibly displaced from the hamlet of Ras Ein al-Auja by organized settler groups operating in coordination with, and backed by, the Israeli military and the police, according to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. The group said the displacement—intensified after a new Israeli outpost was established just 200 meters away—is part of a broader campaign to clear Palestinians from Area C in the West Bank.

• Netanyahu says he hopes to “taper” Israel’s reliance on the U.S. military aid: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hopes to taper Israel’s reliance on U.S. military aid, aiming to bring it to “zero” within the next decade, while saying that Israel has “come of age” militarily in an interview with the Economist. The Obama administration signed a 2016 memorandum of understanding with Israel to provide U.S. aid through September 2028, allotting $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment, and $5 billion for missile defense systems.

• Palestinian journalist arrested south of Hebron: Israeli forces arrested Palestinian journalist Yasser Jaradat while he was reporting in the town of Al-Zahira, south of Hebron, according to Shehab News. Jaradat was previously detained by Israeli forces in late September 2025 during a raid on the town of Sa’ir.

Iran

• Death toll in Iran’s protests may be as high as 544: The death toll from Iran’s nationwide protest crackdown has risen to at least 544 people, including 496 protestors and 48 security force members, with more than 10,600 detained, according to the U.S.-based group Human Rights Activists in Iran, which warned the figures are likely to rise. The Associated Press said it cannot independently verify the toll with the internet shut down and phone lines cut off. Iranian state media reports at least 109 security officials have been killed but has released no comprehensive casualty figures.

• Unrest “under total control,” says Iranian foreign minister: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted on Monday that the situation has “come under total control,” though the claim could not be verified with an internet and telecommunications blackout still in place. Araghchi made the comments to foreign diplomats in Tehran. He also claimed that western powers had turned peaceful protests “violent and bloody to give an excuse” for military intervention. President Donald Trump had previously suggested that the U.S. might intervene militarily if protestors in the country were killed. Iranian state TV broadcast footage on Monday of tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators after the country’s president called for a “national resistance march.” Araghchi said earlier today that internet services will be restored in coordination with security authorities.

• Iran’s army pledges to defend the country’s “national interests” amid protests: Iran’s army vowed on Saturday to defend the country’s “national interests,” with Iranian officials saying the protests are formally legal, while asserting that security forces are targeting arsonists and saboteurs rather than demonstrators. Authorities accused Israel and “hostile groups” of fueling the unrest, as security forces intensified the crackdown. Iran’s army warned in a statement that anyone suspected of arson could face capital charges as an “[enemy] of God.”

• President calls concerns of the protestors “legitimate,” but denounces “rioters and terrorists”: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged the ongoing protests and said demonstrators have legitimate concerns in a statement on Sunday, while alleging that “rioters” and “terrorists” have killed security forces, emergency workers, and protestors. Iranian state media aired footage it claims shows attacks on police and acts of arson, including a deadly incident at a medical center. State television highlighted funerals held Monday—including that of a three-year-old girl in Kermanshah—while officials called for mass pro-government rallies Tuesday to condemn what they labeled “terrorism.”

• A “very bloody” state clampdown in Iran: Iranian expert and Quincy Institute Vice President Trita Parsi said evidence of a “very bloody” state clampdown in Iran is emerging from people who have connected to the internet via Starlink or left the country with videos, noting that even Iranian state television is now reporting from morgues showing large numbers of body bags. “Perhaps most importantly,” Parsi said, the state TV reporter acknowledged that, while some of the dead may have been violent or armed, “the majority of them are ordinary people, and their families are ordinary people as well.”

• Trump says Iran’s leaders have reached out to discuss a nuclear deal: President Donald Trump said aboard Air Force One that Iran’s leaders have reached out to the U.S.to discuss arranging a meeting for a new “nuclear deal,” while warning Washington could act first amid Iran’s violent protest crackdown. The comments followed Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s return to Tehran on January 9 for talks with Oman’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al-Busaidi. Oman hosted indirect U.S.-Iran nuclear talks that preceded the so-called “12-Day War.”

• Netanyahu is “closely monitoring” the situation: Netanyahu said Israel “strongly condemns the mass slaughter of innocent civilians” in Iran. He said he is “closely monitoring developments in Iran,” and added that he hopes that the “Persian nation will soon be freed.”

Venezuela

• Bessent says more sanctions can be lifted this week: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States could lift additional sanctions on Venezuela as soon as next week to facilitate oil sales and help restart economic investment, adding that nearly $5 billion in Venezuela’s frozen International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) “special drawing rights” could be unlocked to support rebuilding the economy. Bessent also has plans to meet with leaders of the IMF and World Bank to facilitate Venezuela’s international economic engagement, Reuters reported.

• Trump signs an E.O. declaring Venezuela’s oil funds “sovereign property: President Donald Trump signed an executive order blocking U.S. courts and creditors from seizing Venezuela’s oil revenue held in U.S. Treasury accounts, declaring the funds sovereign property to be used inside Venezuela to promote “peace, prosperity, and stability,” Reuters reported. The move comes amid pressure from companies like ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil for the government to recognize its claims to lost property and profits. Trump told ConocoPhillips’s CEO the company would recover “a lot” of its losses but dismissed past nationalizations as their “fault.”

• The Venezuelan government has released at least 18 prisoners, human rights groups say: The number of prisoners released in Venezuela has risen to 18, human rights groups told Reuters. The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela reported that 2,220 people were detained after the 2024 election, with 2,006 later released. More than 200 have been arrested since.

• Protest against U.S. imperialism in Mexico City: Thousands marched through Mexico City to protest U.S. imperialism and foreign intervention, chanting slogans rejecting the Monroe Doctrine and U.S. influence in Latin America, with demonstrators carrying flags and banners defending Venezuelan sovereignty.

U.S. News

• Powell addresses the threat of criminal charges: U.S. prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over a $2.5 billion renovation of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters. Powell received grand jury subpoenas and a threat of criminal indictment from the justice department on Friday. The indictment’s allegations are related to his testimony before Congress last summer about the renovation. Powell addressed the Trump administration and the public on Sunday, saying the legal actions were based on pretexts and are meant to curtail the Federal Reserve’s independence to set interest rates.“This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings,” Powell said, adding “The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.”

• ICE buys a surveillance system with the capacity to monitor entire neighborhoods: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) purchased access to a powerful neighborhood-wide surveillance system that sweeps up cellphone location data and tracks people over time, according to documents obtained by 404 Media. Built by Penlink, the tools—Webloc and Tangles—enable warrantless geofencing and social-media monitoring. The purchase has drawn criticism from civil-liberties groups, who say that the technology will facilitate dragnet surveillance that will intensify the agency’s increasingly lawless deportation crackdowns.

• U-Haul truck attacks protestors in Los Angeles: A U-Haul truck drove into a crowd at a protest in Westwood, Los Angeles, where demonstrators were rallying in support of protests in Iran. Police and local media report that the vehicle “plowed into” protestors and injured multiple people. The truck displayed slogans against Iran, including “NO SHAH. NO REGIME,” but authorities have not confirmed a motive or announced any arrests.

• Israel worked with Trump’s campaign manager on U.S. propaganda: Foreign agent filings show Israel expanded its contract with Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, through his firm Clock Tower X. The firm is expected to continue creating Israeli propaganda for U.S. audiences using generative artificial intelligence systems. A full investigation of the collaboration is linked here.

• Lobbying may account for revised HHS guidance concerning alcohol consumption, a new report says: The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services dropped long-standing guidance limiting alcohol to one or two drinks per day, a shift welcomed by beverage industry groups that have spent millions lobbying the administration. Mehmet “Dr.” Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, defended the change, saying that alcohol is a “social lubricant” that “allows people an excuse to bond and socialize.” Read more about HHS’ choice from The Lever here.

• Noem continues to defend ICE’s killing of Renee Good, ICE crackdowns: A day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents killed legal observer Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference in New York to highlight an unrelated shooting of a border agent and to threaten an expanded crackdown tied to the “Operation Salvo” crackdown in the city. Dismissing video and eyewitness accounts, Noem called Good’s protest “an act of domestic terrorism,” and declared that the administration remains “on [the] offense” against sanctuary cities. “If you are a criminal illegal alien,” Noem said, “we are coming to get you.” Read more from The American Prospect here.

• Trump says that the U.S. is “talking” to Cuba and claims a forthcoming deal: President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “talking to Cuba” and that details of a potential deal will emerge soon, adding that a priority for his administration is Cubans who were forced out of the country and are now U.S. citizens. Trump dodged a direct answer to a question about whether the U.S. might seize oil tankers headed to Cuba and, instead, pointed to interest from oil companies.

Other International News

• Wave of Israeli strikes kills at least one in Lebanon: Israeli strikes killed a municipal council member in Bint Jbeil, as part of a rapid escalation of hostilities across southern Lebanon on Sunday. In roughly thirty minutes, at least 25 airstrikes hit seven locations across three districts in the country, according to L’Orient Today.

• RSF seizes Jarjira in Darfur: Rapid Support Forces seized the town of Jarjira on Saturday, after a coordinated assault that forced Sudanese army units and allied groups to withdraw north, Darfur 24 reported. The capture further narrows the Army’s foothold in Darfur, with sources warning the RSF may advance next on nearby Al-Tina as it consolidates control over most of the region.

• Sudanese government returns to Khartoum: Sudan’s government has returned to Khartoum after nearly three years operating from Port Sudan, following the army’s recapture of the capital in May 2025 and the gradual reopening of federal ministries, Sudan Tribune reported. Prime Minister Kamil Idris called the move “final and comprehensive” and a step toward peace, as Abdel Fattah al-Burhan pledged imminent victory for the Army. The reality on the ground is more complicated (as evidenced above), and even in the capital, much of the damage done to government facilities by the RSF has yet to be repaired.

• Attacks put hospitals out of service in central Sudan: Three major hospitals in Dilling, central Sudan, have been knocked out of service by shelling and drone strikes, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, with these attacks killing at least four medical personnel. The network blamed the Rapid Support Forces and the allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, warning that as Dilling remains under siege, its communications remain cut, and it is suffering from acute shortages of food and medicine, it is vulnerable to a catastrophe similar to the one suffered by the people of El Fasher.

• Pakistan nears arms deal with the Sudanese Army: Pakistan is in the final stages of negotiations for a roughly $1.5 billion arms deal to supply the Sudanese Armed Forces with aircraft, drones, and air-defense systems, Reuters reported. The deal would significantly bolster the army’s air power, providing it with Karakoram-8 light attack jets, Super Mushshak trainers, and potentially JF-17 fighters. Funding for the deal remains unclear, however, with sources suggesting Saudi Arabia may be financing and brokering the agreement. The Rapid Support Forces have expanded their own drone capabilities with United Arab Emirates support.

• Anti-Houthi “Supreme Military Committee” announced in Yemen: Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council, announced the formation of a “Supreme Military Committee” to unify coalition-aligned armed forces under a single, centralized command. He framed the move as an effort to consolidate military authority and streamline coordination among anti-Houthis factions.

• Fighting ceases in Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhoods: Fighting in Aleppo’s Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh eased Saturday, after an internationally mediated ceasefire was announced following roughly five days of clashes between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters that killed at least 22 people and displaced more than 140,000, according to the Associated Press. Mazloum Abdi, head of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, said the deal secures the evacuation of the dead, wounded, and stranded civilians and fighters to northern and eastern Syria.

• Bolivia’s government will restore fuel subsidies: Bolivia’s government agreed to repeal Decree 5503 and restore fuel subsidies after days of nationwide, union-led blockades, reaching a deal with the Central Obrera Boliviana in El Alto, according to Infobae. President Rodrigo Paz, elected in October 2025 after more than two decades of MAS rule, signed the decree on December 17, with unions agreeing to lift roadblocks. The unions say they remain on alert, however, until formal protections preserving these subsidies are announced.

• Somaliia’s Defense Minister says Israel wants to move Palestinians to Somaliland: Somalia’s Defense Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi accused Israel of planning to forcibly displace Palestinians to Somaliland, calling the alleged plan a serious violation of international law, and urged Israel to withdraw its recognition of the separatist region in an interview with Al Jazeera. Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, denied that Palestinian resettlement was part of any agreement.

More from Drop Site

• Potential U.S. escalation in Cuba: Havana residents are worried over possible U.S. escalation in Cuba, as Cubans speculate that the state’s lack of strategic petroleum reserves may be its only shield from attack after the assault on Venezuela. “Everyone knows it’s about oil,” one resident told Drop Site. “I don’t think they’ll come and bomb Cuba,” she added, expressing hope that scarcity—not sovereignty—may deter Washington. Read Ryan Grim’s new report on Cuba here.

• Commonwealth Secretariat pressure on Pakistan: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan sentenced prominent journalists, commentators, and former military officers—including Moeed Pirzada, Wajahat Saeed Khan, and Adil Raja—to double life sentences in absentia over alleged “terrorism-related” online speech on January 2. The accused were convicted for their support for jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and the 2023 protests triggered by his arrest. The defendants said they were never properly summoned, represented, or given a written judgment to appeal. The Commonwealth of Nations sent a private letter—obtained by Drop Site—to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to criticize the “democratic backsliding of the country.” Read the latest report about Pakistan, from Drop Site’s Ryan Grim, Waqqas Ahmad, and Murtaza Hussain here.

• Drop Site’s José Luis Granados Ceja joins Al Jazeera’s “Listening Post”: Latin America desk editor José Luis Granados Ceja told Al Jazeera’s Listening Post that many major media outlets have been unwilling to describe the U.S. operation in Venezuela in clear terms, arguing that what he calls a “brazen act” by the U.S. should have “rung all of the alarm bells.” He warned that the muted response and lack of forceful condemnation risk “opening the door to a kind of future… that makes everybody less safe.” The full video of his appearance is available here.

• Drop Site’s Ryan Grim spoke at a panel in DC: In Washington DC, Ryan Grim spoke yesterday at an event on the phenomenon of transnational repression in the context of Pakistan and the continued incarceration of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Part of the discussion is available here.

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