Israel intensifies attack on Gaza City, Rubio hints at U.S. approval for West Bank annexation, Judge overturns Trump administration's Harvard funding freeze

Drop Site Daily: September 4, 2025

At least 54 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military across Gaza since dawn today. Israel has killed 84 Palestinians and injured 338 in the past 24 hours. Three more Palestinians have died from famine; this brings the total of famine deaths to 370, including 131 children. The Israeli military warns that it will impose direct martial rule over the entire Gaza Strip. Marco Rubio signals an assent to further West Bank annexations. A federal judge reverses Trump’s defunding of Harvard research, calling it an “unconstitutional retaliation.” Israel strikes a construction equipment repair warehouse in southern Lebanon, again violating the ceasefire. Rubio met with Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and defended the recent U.S. missile strike on a Venezuelan vessel. Iraqi officials claim to have busted a global Islamic State “financing network.”

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Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich displays a map of an area near the settlement of Maale Adumim, a land corridor known as E1, outside Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, on August 14, 2025. Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images.

The Genocide in Gaza

• At least 54 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military across Gaza since dawn today, including 31 in Gaza City, as Israel intensifies its attack on the city, according to Al Jazeera. Eleven aid seekers were among those killed in attacks in the central and southern parts of Gaza.

• In the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported an additional 84 killed and 338 injured arriving at hospitals. At least 17 aid seekers were killed and 174 Injured. Over the past 24 hours, three more people were starved to death by Israel. This brings the total of famine deaths to 370, including 131 children and the recorded death toll from the Israeli genocide in Gaza to 64,231 and 161,583 injuries.

• Overnight in Gaza City, Israeli bombardment devastated multiple areas with multiple strikes within the span of 30 minutes, leaving dozens dead and wounded. The strikes hit homes, tents sheltering displaced families, and the area around Al-Quds Hospital, with children among the victims.

• Channel 12 reports that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir is preparing to warn Netanyahu’s government that proceeding with the assault to seize Gaza City could force Israel to impose direct military rule over the entire Strip starting in November. Zamir has reportedly told the Security Cabinet that the current plan leaves no alternative for the post-war period and has urged acceptance of a ceasefire tied to the release of captives. While he says he would carry out orders if given, he cautions that the operation could have severe military and diplomatic consequences.

• A joint investigation by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and The Guardian found that Israel is holding roughly 4,500 Palestinians from Gaza under the “Unlawful Combatants Law,” with only one in four registered as military operatives. Most detainees—elderly patients, doctors, children, and other civilians—are being held indefinitely without charge or trial, often subjected to abuse, torture, and overcrowded conditions. Israeli courts largely approve these detentions based on secret evidence, while testimonies describe mass arrests directly from hospitals, schools, and checkpoints. Cases include an 82-year-old Alzheimer’s patient and a mother of three detained due to mistaken identity, highlighting the arbitrary nature of the detentions.

• The UN reported today that it cannot confirm any shelter supplies have reached Gaza since March 2, despite Israel’s pledge to allow aid amid orders to forcibly displace nearly a million Palestinians from Gaza City. According to a spokesperson, there has been no change since last week’s report, which also recorded zero deliveries. Even before this latest displacement wave, 1.4 million Palestinians were in urgent need of shelter assistance.

• Between August 14–31, over 82,000 people in Gaza were newly displaced, including 30,000 from the north to the south, facing overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. UN-coordinated humanitarian missions faced significant obstacles, with nearly half delayed or unsuccessful.

• Jordanian officials report that all humanitarian airdrops over Gaza have been suspended, with the last delivery occurring on August 26. Hussein Al-Shebli, head of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, told AFP the suspension was recent, while a government source cited unspecified “Israeli obstacles.” An AP report last week noted an Israeli official confirmed plans to halt airdrops and block aid trucks to northern Gaza, part of a strategy to forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians south.

• Israeli troops blew up Fourqan Elementary school along with other homes in Zeitoun Neighborhood

• Hamas’s Qassam Brigades announced a new campaign, “Moses’ Staff,” launched in response to Israel’s “Gideon’s Chariots 2” offensive on Gaza City. The group released footage of fighters attacking Israeli armored vehicles in Jabalia and Zeitoun, warning that the campaign will deliver major blows to Israeli forces and vowing to resist the planned occupation.

Ceasefire Negotiations and Israeli News

• Hamas stated it is still waiting for a response from Israel to the mediators’ proposal presented on August 18, which it and other Palestinian factions have agreed to. The movement reiterated its readiness for a comprehensive deal: all Israeli captives held by Hamas would be released in exchange for an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners, alongside the end of the war, withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, reopening of crossings, and the start of reconstruction. Hamas also reaffirmed its support for establishing an independent technocratic administration to immediately manage all affairs in the Gaza Strip.

• Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office dismissed Hamas’s latest statement, which reiterated the group’s willingness to agree to a comprehensive deal for the release of all Israeli captives, calling it “spin” with nothing new. Netanyahu’s office reiterated that the war could only end under conditions set by the Cabinet: the release of all captives, Hamas’s disarmament, demilitarization of Gaza, Israeli security control, and the establishment of an alternative civilian administration. Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Hamas must choose between complying with these demands or facing “devastating military consequences.”

• A suspected attack by Yemen's Ansarallah targeted a ship in the Red Sea on Thursday off the coast of Hodeida, according to British military officials. This comes a day after Israel reported intercepting a missile launched from Yemen on Wednesday, triggering alarms across central and southern regions. The Air Force shot down one missile, while Yemeni media said two ballistic missiles—a Palestine-2 with a cluster warhead and a Zolfaghar—targeted “sensitive Israeli sites” near Jaffa (Tel Aviv), briefly suspending operations at Ben Gurion Airport. Ansarallah’s media chief warned the strikes, launched in support for Gaza and retaliation for Israeli actions in Yemen, will continue and intensify.

U.S. News

• According to Axios’s Barak Ravid, citing two Israeli officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has privately indicated he does not oppose West Bank annexations and that the Trump administration “won’t stand in the way.” This follows U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee reiterating his longstanding rejection of Palestinian statehood and previous support for annexation, including comments suggesting Palestinians could be “relocated” elsewhere. On Wednesday, far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich revealed plans to annex 82% of the West Bank—a move the UAE said would constitute a “red line” and end Israel’s regional integration.

• In a letter to the State Department and USAID, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Peter Welch, demanded clarity on the decision to award $30 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). “Starving civilians should not be shot at while desperately trying to reach food supplies,” wrote the senators. “The State Department should immediately cease funding GHF and transfer or restore funding to experienced aid organizations given the strong and growing evidence that GHF is failing to accomplish its humanitarian mission.”

• A federal judge in Boston ruled that the Trump administration illegally froze and canceled $2.2 billion in federal research grants to Harvard University, calling it unconstitutional retaliation that violated First Amendment and Title VI protections. The decision restores the funding, even as the administration continues broader efforts to review Harvard’s grants, threaten its tax-exempt status, and restrict foreign student enrollment.

• The Department of Homeland Security has requested that the Pentagon allow ICE to use Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois to expand detention and deportation operations in the Chicago metropolitan area, according to a memo obtained by Ken Klippenstein. The August 27 memo highlights the base’s infrastructure—highway access, fuel, and logistical support—as critical for processing detainees. The request cites Trump’s January 2025 executive orders on border security and is part of the administration’s push to expand ICE operations inland using military facilities.

• The “Free Press,” reportedly on the verge of being acquired by Paramount, released a video labeling Palestinian Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza as “an arm of Hamas” and justifying their targeted killings by Israeli forces. Paramount is set to buy Bari Weiss’s Free Press for $100–$200 million, with Weiss slated to help guide editorial direction at CBS News, according to Puck’s Dylan Byers.

• Survivors of abuse by Jeffrey Epstein are creating their own “client list” of alleged abusers using emails, flight logs, and other documentation, after the DOJ confirmed no official list exists. The survivor-led effort seeks to identify powerful individuals and pursue accountability.

• Trump advisers have reportedly suggested offering New York City Mayor Eric Adams a position in the administration if he drops out of the mayoral race, in a bid to consolidate opposition to frontrunner Zohran Mamdani. Andrew Cuomo has hinted Adams might step aside to avoid being a “spoiler,” while GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa has dismissed talk of withdrawing and mocked the idea his supporters would back Cuomo. Adams, however, has blamed Cuomo for the election’s chaos and insists he will remain in the race.

• Two U.S. military veterans, Josephine Guilbeau and Anthony Aguilar, were removed from a Senate hearing Wednesday after they accused committee members of complicity in genocide in Gaza. Aguilar had worked as a security contractor for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and has since become a whistleblower calling out the deadly effects of the U.S.- and Israel-backed “humanitarian” organization.

International News

• The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health reported that four people were killed yesterday, including three children, during a series of Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon. In Aytaroun, Israeli forces invaded, detonated a farm on the outskirts, and then withdrew, while artillery fire in Shebaa struck and killed a man standing on his balcony. Drone strikes hit both Yatar and Al-Taybeh, and warplanes fired two missiles near Al-Zrariyeh. Between Adloun and Ansariyeh, some 15 Israeli airstrikes destroyed a hangar storing construction equipment, setting off massive fires that engulfed the area, while sound bombs were dropped in Houla and Tair Harfa, and another airstrike struck Al-Dhairah.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the U.S. strike on a boat departing Venezuela that killed all 11 people onboard, claiming the vessel posed an “imminent threat” to the United States. Speaking in Mexico City alongside Mexican Foreign Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Rubio argued that boats carrying cocaine or fentanyl headed for the U.S. constitute an immediate danger. He emphasized that the administration has the authority to act against such threats and said Washington will continue targeting suspected drug vessels with lethal force rather than attempting interdiction.

• After Secretary Rubio’s visit, the U.S. and Mexico reaffirmed security cooperation grounded in “sovereignty and mutual trust,” pledging to combat cartels, fentanyl and arms trafficking, and illegal migration. A new implementation group will regularly coordinate follow-up on these commitments, from increasing border militarization and shutting down tunnels to targeting illicit financial flows, fuel theft, and prosecutions tied to drugs and weapons.

• La Vuelta a España, cycling’s third Grand Tour, faced disruption on Wednesday in Bilbao after protests targeted the Israel-Premier Tech team, leading organizers to neutralize the stage. La Vuelta’s technical director, Kiko García, said the “only solution” is for the team to leave to ensure the safety of others. Israel-Premier Tech refused to withdraw, warning that doing so would set a “dangerous precedent.”

• Earlier this week, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service announced that it had dismantled an Islamic State “financing network” accused of smuggling militants to different parts of the world. The operation reportedly led to arrests of alleged Islamic State (IS) members in several West African countries, some of whom were reportedly plotting attacks on “Iraqi interests,” though details remain unclear. As Al-Monitor points out, the announcement is notable for its geographic reach, while Iraqi intelligence has previously targeted IS abroad, such efforts were typically confined to the region, mainly Syria, rather than as far afield as West Africa.

• Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney announced new measures to distance the nation from Israel, declaring to MSPs that “a genocide is unfolding in Gaza as a result of Israel’s actions.” The package includes a freeze on public funding for defense companies tied to Israel, calls for London to withdraw from the UK–Israel Free Trade Agreement, and a £1 million humanitarian aid pledge to support Gaza, including a field hospital and UN relief funds. Swinney also ordered the Palestinian flag raised over St Andrew’s House as a symbol of Scotland’s solidarity with the Palestinian people.

• In London, former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has convened a two-day Gaza tribunal examining British complicity in Israel's assault on Gaza. The tribunal features testimony from witnesses, journalists, former diplomats and academics, including Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory and Drop Site contributor Abubaker Abed.

• At the Venice Film Festival, The Voice of Hind Rajab received a 22-minute standing ovation—the longest of the event—amid tears, Palestinian flags, and chants of “Free Palestine,” Variety reports. Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, the film recounts the true story of 5-year-old Hind Rajab, killed by Israeli forces alongside her family in Gaza in January 2024. Executive producers Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara attended the red carpet, and critics are calling it a frontrunner for the Golden Lion.

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DROP SITE PODCAST: Murtaza Hussain is joined by Chris Houston. Houston is an expert on humanitarian aid efforts who has worked in crisis zones in Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Yemen, and Ethiopia—and he explains the challenge of providing food and medical supplies to Palestinians amid Israel's attack on Gaza. Listen here or wherever you download podcasts.

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