Israel “blatantly” violating ceasefire, Iranian president says; 34 new settlements approved in occupied West Bank; China brokers deal in Afghanistan-Pakistan war
Drop Site Daily: April 9, 2026
President Donald Trump says U.S. warships will remain in the Middle East. Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf to lead Iran’s delegation in Pakistan. Lebanese inclusion in the ceasefire remains a sticking point. UAE says no attacks from Iran. Drone strikes Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline hours after U.S.-Iran ceasefire announcement. Vice President JD Vance says U.S. is “impatient” to reach a nuclear deal. Only three vessels have crossed Strait of Hormuz since ceasefire. Day of mourning in Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists Israel will continue attacking Lebanon. Israeli strikes kill two Lebanese journalists. Israeli drone strike kills Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza. Israel approves record 34 new West Bank settlements. U.N. envoy Mladenov accused of blocking Gaza committee on Netanyahu’s behalf. Army veteran charged with leaking classified Delta Force tactics to journalist. U.S. to automatically register eligible men into draft pool by December. Federal judge blocks Trump’s termination of temporary protected status for Ethiopians. China brokers Afghanistan-Pakistan agreement to halt escalation in fighting. Ecuador recalls ambassador from Bogotá. Four migrants drown attempting Channel crossing off Calais. Haiti postpones voter registration for first presidential election in a decade. Global financial institutions warn Iran war is fueling global food insecurity.
NEW from Drop Site: Lylla Younes writes a dispatch from a bombarded Lebanon. Nir Rosen reports on the new U.S. war on Iraq.
Drop Site is now live on WhatsApp. Get our latest reporting, podcasts, and breaking news, delivered directly. Join the channel here.
This is Drop Site Daily, our free daily news recap. We send it Monday through Friday. Today’s edition is being sent to more than 750,000 subscribers. Help us grow that number by forwarding and recommending this newsletter.
Ceasefire updates
Trump says U.S. warships to remain in the Middle East: President Donald Trump on Wednesday insisted that the U.S. warships and troops deployed to the Middle East for the war on Iran will remain in the region. Trump posted on Truth Social: “All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before.” Trump added, “In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!”
Ghalibaf to lead Iran’s delegation in Pakistan: Iran’s speaker of parliament Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf will join Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in leading talks in Islamabad, Pakistani officials told Reuters on Thursday. Pakistan previously urged Washington not to target either official and to allow negotiations to proceed. Ghalibaf on Thursday reiterated that “Lebanon and the entire Resistance Axis, as Iran’s allies, form an inseparable part of the ceasefire,” he wrote in a post on X. He added that the Pakistani prime minister “publicly and clearly stressed the Lebanon issue; there is no room for denial and backtracking,” and that “Ceasefire violations carry explicit costs and STRONG responses. Extinguish the fire immediately.”
Lebanese inclusion in the ceasefire remains a sticking point: The central dispute of the day was whether Tuesday night’s ceasefire agreement covered Israel’s ongoing war on Lebanon.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the terms of the ceasefire are “clear and explicit,” and told the U.S. directly that it “must choose—ceasefire, or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both.” Iranian President Masoud Pezeskhian also said in a post on X Thursday that Israeli bombardment of Lebanon “blatantly violates the initial ceasefire,” adding that Iranian hands “remain on the trigger,” and will “never forsake its Lebanese brothers and sisters.” Iran’s government reportedly signalled to mediators that its participation in the Islamabad talks is conditional on a ceasefire in Lebanon, and warned that it could reverse plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if this condition is not met, according to The Wall Street Journal.
President Donald Trump claimed in response to questions from PBS that Lebanon was “not included in the deal,” calling it a “separate skirmish.” Vice President JD Vance commented on the situation as well, saying that it “comes from a legitimate misunderstanding” on the part of the Iranians. They “thought the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t. We never made that promise; we never indicated that was going to be the case.”
On the negotiating process, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Wednesday press conference that Iran’s original 10-point proposal was “fundamentally unserious, unacceptable, and completely discarded,” and that it was “literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump and his negotiating team.” At the same press conference, Leavitt repeated the administration’s line that Lebanon is not covered by the ceasefire agreement. “Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire,” she claimed, and that position “has been relayed to all parties involved.”
Leaders from France and England both commented on the continued Israeli assault on Lebanon. President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that he had spoken with both President Trump and President Pezeshkian and had urged them to apply the ceasefire agreement to “all areas of confrontation,” including Lebanon. Macron told the leaders that a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon is “a necessary condition for the ceasefire to be credible and lasting.” Macron also reportedly spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and condemned the ongoing Israeli campaign against the country, reiterating “the need to preserve Lebanon’s territorial integrity and France’s determination to support the efforts of the Lebanese authorities to uphold the country’s sovereignty and implement the Hezbollah disarmament plan.”
Similarly, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Times Radio on Thursday that Israel’s attacks on Lebanon are “deeply damaging” and risk destabilising the day-old ceasefire. “We want to see Lebanon included in the ceasefire,” Cooper said. “We want it extended to cover Lebanon, because otherwise that will destabilise the whole region.”
Drop Site’s Ryan Grim discusses the Lebanese angle to the ceasefire, and its potential to erode the ceasefire entirely, here.
UAE says no attacks from Iran: The United Arab Emirates said its airspace has been free of any aerial threats on Thursday. “The Ministry of Defence announced that on 9th April 2026, UAE air defence systems did not detect any ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, or UAVs launched from Iran,” the UAE’s Defense Ministry posted on X.
Drone strikes Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline hours after U.S.-Iran ceasefire announcement: A drone struck a pumping station along Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline on Wednesday at approximately 1 p.m. local time, with damage still being assessed, the Financial Times and Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Saudi Aramco declined to comment. The 1,200-kilometer pipeline carries crude oil from the Gulf across the Arabian Peninsula to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz entirely—a route that has become Saudi Arabia’s primary oil export artery since the effective closure of Hormuz.
Vance says U.S. is “impatient” to reach a nuclear deal: U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who is set to head the American delegation in Islamabad, said on Wednesday that President Trump is “impatient” to reach a long-term deal dismantling Iran’s nuclear program.
Only seven vessels have crossed Strait of Hormuz since ceasefire: Just seven ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz since the ceasefire was announced, including six bulk carriers using Iran’s coastal route and a Chinese-owned chemical tanker whose tracking signal disappeared mid-transit, ABC News Australia reports. No oil or gas tankers crossed the Strait of Hormuz today per Kepler. Pre-war traffic exceeded 130 vessels overall per day.
Lebanon
Day of mourning in Lebanon: Lebanon has declared a day of mourning after a massive wave of Israeli bombardment killed more than 200 people and injured more than 1,000 in a single day on Wednesday, the highest single day death toll since March 2.
Netanyahu insists Israel will continue attacking Lebanon: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said Israel will continue bombing Lebanon, posting on X, “We will continue to strike Hezbollah wherever required, until we restore full security to the residents of the north.” Netanyahu said among those killed in Wednesday strikes was Ali Yusuf Harshi, an aide to Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem. Lebanese Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine on Thursday said at least 203 people were killed and over 1,000 wounded in the strikes. Lebanon’s Civil Defense had put the toll at over 250 killed and more than 1,100 wounded.
Continuing Israeli attacks:
At least seven people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the village of Abbasiyeh in southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to the National News Agency.
The Lebanese Army announced the deaths of four soldiers who were killed on Wednesday as a result of Israeli strikes: Staff Sergeant Hussein Yassin, First Sergeant Mohammad Shheitli, recruit Ali Qassem, and trainee officer Ali Nassereddine.
Israeli strikes kill two Lebanese journalists: An Israeli airstrike killed Suzanne Khalil, a journalist with Al-Manar TV, in Keyfoun in the Aley district southeast of Beirut on Wednesday, the outlet reported. A separate strike on an apartment building in Tyre killed Ghada Dayekh, a presenter with Sawt Al-Farah radio who had been on air for 37 years, according to the station’s director. Six journalists have been killed in Lebanon during the current escalation, and eight total have been killed since the onset of the war on Iran.
At least six Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon since Monday: At least six Israeli soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon since Monday, Kan News reported, including a Golani Brigade fighter killed in a close-range clash in Al-Taybeh near the border where five others were wounded, four reconnaissance soldiers killed in an earlier battle that left six more wounded, and one soldier killed in a separate friendly fire incident that also seriously wounded an officer. The Israeli military said 12 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon in total since the start of its Iran campaign.
Drop Site reports on Wednesday’s bombardment of Lebanon: “The Israeli assault came without warning and was by far the heaviest single wave of attacks on Lebanon over the past five weeks. In Beirut, the speed and scale of the bombardment stunned a population that has experienced successive wars, but rarely like this: strikes landing almost simultaneously, in broad daylight, while the streets were crowded. Thick black smoke billowed across the city as the sound of ambulances echoed through the streets,” Beirut-based Drop Site contributor Lylla Younes reports on the massive wave of bombardment by Israel on the capital and across Lebanon yesterday. Read the full report here.
Genocide in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel
Casualty count: Over the last 24 hours, two Palestinians were killed and 21 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,317 killed, with 172,158 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 738 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,036, while 759 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israeli drone strike kills Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza: The Israeli military assassinated Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent Mohammed Samir Washah on Wednesday in an airstrike on his car at the Al-Nabulsi roundabout, west of Gaza City. The Israeli military bragged about the killing, saying it had successfully “eliminated” Washah and calling him a “Hamas terrorist.” Paramedic Mahmoud Muhanna told Drop Site that after Washah’s car was hit, a second strike injured scores of people who gathered at the scene. “The jeep was hit, and the martyr’s body was transported. After that, the location was targeted again. Dozens were injured,” Muhanna said. Gaza’s Government Media Office condemned the killing and said the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israel has risen to 262.
Israel approves record 34 new West Bank settlements: The Israeli cabinet quietly approved the establishment of an unprecedented 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank in a meeting two weeks ago, according to the Times of Israel and i24 News—the largest single approval of settlements by any cabinet to date. The decision brings the total number of new settlements established or retroactively legalized by the current government since it took office in 2022 to 103. By comparison, only six new settlements were formally approved by Israel in the three decades following the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
U.N. envoy Mladenov accused of blocking Gaza committee on Netanyahu’s behalf: A source familiar with meetings between Palestinian factions and Board of Peace High Representative Nickolay Mladenov told Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada that it is Mladenov himself who is preventing the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza from entering the Strip and beginning its work. The committee, tasked under the Trump-brokered ceasefire with replacing Hamas’s civil governance of Gaza, has remained in Cairo since its formation.
Israeli settlers kill Palestinian man in West Bank village attack: Israeli settlers attacked the village of Tayasir in the occupied West Bank, killing Alaa Khaled Sbiah as he attempted to defend himself and his community, journalists Ihab Hassan and Jasper Nathaniel report, bringing the number of Palestinians killed by settlers to nine since the beginning of the year. The settlers who carried out the attack established a new illegal outpost on the village’s land last month and since then have been conducting daily assaults on Palestinians.
U.S. News
By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.
Army veteran charged with leaking classified Delta Force tactics to journalist: Courtney Williams, 40, a former Army veteran who supported Delta Force operations at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, appeared in federal court in Raleigh on Wednesday on a charge of unlawfully transmitting national defense information, accused of disclosing classified “tactics, techniques and procedures” of an unnamed special military unit to journalist Seth Harp, in whose book Williams is cited repeatedly and by name. Harp said Williams had endured years of sexual harassment while providing special operations troops with cover documents, including passports and credit cards for overseas deployments. “Courtney Williams is a veteran, a mother, and a patriotic American. She has committed no crime. Trump’s unhinged DOJ will not even say what ‘classified information’ she allegedly leaked. Her arrest and imprisonment is an outrage,” Harp wrote on X. FBI Director Kash Patel has also commented on the case, praising Williams’ arrest as “outstanding work” on the part of the Bureau and its partners. Williams faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison.
U.S. to automatically register eligible men into draft pool by December: Eligible men will be automatically enrolled in the Selective Service System’s draft registry within 30 days of their 18th birthdays by December, under a proposed rule submitted to federal regulators on March 30, replacing the previous self-registration process. The change was mandated by the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act and is designed to cut costs by drawing on federal data sources rather than relying on individuals to register. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in March that while a draft is “not part of the current plan” in relation to the war in Iran, Trump “wisely keeps his options on the table.” Any reinstatement of the draft would require an act of Congress.
Federal judge blocks Trump’s termination of temporary protected status for Ethiopians: A federal judge in Massachusetts on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration’s effort to end temporary protected status for Ethiopian immigrants, ruling that the administration had terminated the designation “without regard for the process delineated by Congress.” The Department of Homeland Security announced in December that Ethiopia no longer met the conditions for the designation, which had been granted to thousands of Ethiopian immigrants beginning in 2022 under the Biden administration and extended in 2024. The Department of Homeland Security called the ruling the work of a “radical, Biden-appointed” judicial activist, adding that “temporary means temporary” and that conditions in Ethiopia had improved sufficiently to no longer qualify. The ruling is the latest setback for the administration, which has sought to end temporary protected status for immigrants from 13 countries; the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in late April on a related challenge involving Syrian and Venezuelan recipients.
Other International News
China brokers Afghanistan-Pakistan agreement to halt escalation in fighting: Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed on Wednesday not to escalate their conflict and to pursue a comprehensive resolution to their disputes following seven days of peace talks mediated by China in the western city of Urumqi, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry announced. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said all parties acknowledged that “terrorism is the core issue” in the relationship and agreed to continue dialogue, though Islamabad offered no public comment on the outcome.
Ecuador recalls ambassador from Bogotá: Ecuador recalled its ambassador from Bogotá for consultations on Wednesday, after Colombian President Gustavo Petro described former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas as a “political prisoner” and called for his release amid reports of his declining health. Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry rejected Petro’s remarks as a “flagrant violation” of the principle of non-intervention. Glas was seized two years ago in a raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito, where he had been granted asylum, triggering a case before the International Court of Justice. The dispute is the latest between the two countries, which are also embroiled in a trade war over tariffs and energy pricing.
Four migrants drown attempting Channel crossing off Calais coast: Four migrants—two women and two men—died Thursday morning after a group of around 30 people attempted to board an inflatable dinghy off the beaches of Equihen and Ecault near Calais and got into difficulty, local mayor Christian Fourcroy told Reuters. A fifth person was in critical condition. The dinghy continued its journey to Britain. Some 4,776 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, according to U.K. government data, amid a wider pattern of traffickers using inflatable boats to pick up migrants along the northern French and Belgian coastline.
Haiti postpones voter registration for first presidential election in a decade: Haiti’s electoral council said Wednesday it was delaying voter registration that should have begun April 1, and that it would shortly announce new dates to register for the country’s upcoming presidential election. The council had previously scheduled the first round of presidential elections for August 30, with a runoff in December; an official anticipates that if the voter registration issue is resolved, elections could still be held by the end of the year. This would be the country’s first election since 2016.
Global financial institutions warn Iran war is fueling global food insecurity: The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Food Program warned on Wednesday that the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has triggered “one of the largest disruptions to global energy markets in modern history.” In a joint statement issued following a high-level meeting, the three institutions said that, “Sharp increases in oil, gas, and fertilizer prices, together with transport bottlenecks, will inevitably lead to rising food prices and food insecurity. The burden will fall most heavily on the world’s most vulnerable populations, particularly in low‑income, import‑dependent economies.”
More from Drop Site
Ryan Grim and Emily Jashinsky spoke with Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill about the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire and Tehran’s 10-point plan. Scahill explains Donald Trump was “desperate for an off-ramp,” after Tehran used the Strait of Hormuz to show it could cause “absolute global economic havoc.” He said Iran is treating the deal as a pause, with its “finger firmly on the trigger.” The pause now could be cover to “rearm Israel” before new strikes, especially as attacks in Lebanon continue. Both sides claim victory, but the truce is unstable and could unravel quickly, Scahill told Breaking Points.
If you want to continue getting this newsletter, you don’t have to do anything. But if this is too much—we do try to be mindful of your inbox—you can unsubscribe from this newsletter while continuing to get the rest of our reporting. Just go into your account here at this link, scroll down, and toggle the button next to “Drop Site Daily” to the off setting. It looks like this:
Since when has Israel NOT "blatantly" violated any ceasefire... ever!!!
The lies from Trump, Vance, and Leavitt about how the ceasefire did not include Lebanon are one more indication that Israel has made the White House one more of its "Occupied Territories."