Israel to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza City, Putin courts Trump, Bolivia’s right-wing gains, U.S. stops medical treatment for Gaza’s children

Drop Site Daily: August 18, 2025

Since dawn, Israeli forces have killed at least 17 people in Gaza, with the Ministry of Health reporting five more deaths from starvation. Israel announces plans to forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza southwards as part of its Gaza City invasion. Half a million Israelis protest for an end to the war in Tel Aviv. Far-right activist Laura Loomer prompts Trump administration to stop Palestinian children from receiving medical care in the United States. Las Vegas police release a senior Israeli official accused of attempting sexual contact with a child. Yemen and Israel exchange fire. Bolivia’s right wing wins in the first round of its presidential elections. U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Friday with no concrete resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war, set to meet with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy today.

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The Genocide in Gaza

• Israeli forces killed at least 17 people across Gaza since dawn, eight of whom were seeking aid, according to Al Jazeera. The Ministry of Health recorded 60 people killed over the past 24 hours, including 27 while seeking aid. Five more people died due to starvation, including two children. In total, Israel has killed 62,004 people and injured 156,230 since October 7, 2023, according to the Ministry of Health.

• Israel announced plans to forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians toward southern Gaza as part of its operation to seize Gaza City. The army has already targeted the city’s Al-Zaytoun neighborhood with fighter jets, artillery, and explosive robots, systematically destroying hundreds of homes. Journalist Abdel Qader (@AbdSabbah91) is reporting the latest developments from the ground.

• Israel said it will allow some tents and shelter supplies into Gaza via the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing starting Sunday, UN and aid groups confirmed. No shelter materials have been allowed to enter since March 2, despite dire need. Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain and Meghnad Bose visualized the drop in food aid based on Israel’s internal COGAT data:

  

• Some 500,000 Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Sunday, calling for an end to its war on Gaza and a sweeping captive-exchange deal. Demonstrations and strike actions also erupted in Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba, and more than 300 other locations nationwide in one of the largest protests in Israel since the beginning of the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted the pressure, insisting there will be no ceasefire unless Hamas is “defeated.”

• Newly circulating footage shows an Israeli airstrike killing a young girl carrying a water container. The child has been identified by Mosab Abu Toha as Amna al-Mufti, who was killed in December 2024 in Jabalia.

• A severely malnourished Palestinian woman, Marah Abu Zuhri, who had been evacuated from Gaza to Italy for urgent treatment, died Friday at Pisa University Hospital. She arrived in a “profound state of organic wasting” and suffered a sudden respiratory crisis and cardiac arrest after initial treatment. She was 20 years old. In a new report, Amnesty International accuses Israel of “carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation in the occupied Gaza Strip, systematically destroying the health, well-being and social fabric of Palestinian life.”

• An Israeli strike hit Al-Ahli Arab Hospital’s courtyard yesterday, killing seven. Also known as Baptist Hospital, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital is in Gaza City’s Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, which has faced heavy Israeli bombardment over the past week. Dr. Hussam Hammouda, who has been working there after being displaced from northern Gaza, said the shelling has been constant: “We are living on the edge of death. Please pray for us.”

• The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine has condemned Israel for what it calls a “systematic policy” to eliminate Christian presence and undermine historic religious institutions across historic Palestine. The Committee highlighted Israel’s August 6, 2025, decision to freeze the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate’s bank accounts in Jerusalem and impose new taxes on its properties, while blocking salaries for clergy, teachers, and staff. Head of the Committee Ramzi Khouri warned that these measures, along with settlement expansion near the Monastery of Saint Gerasimus, threaten the Church’s ability to provide services and constitute a violation of international law.

• Former Israeli Military Intelligence chief Major General Aharon Haliva, who served until August 2024, stated in a recent clip: “As I said before the war.…For each one [killed on October 7th], 50 Palestinians should die.” He added, “It doesn't matter whether [they are] children.…They need to [experience] a Nakba every now and then to feel the price.”

• Israel announced it would revoke diplomatic status for Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority after Australia agreed to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

• From UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese: “For those who [say] ‘It can't be genocide as the Palestinian population is growing.' Gaza has had the largest drop in life expectancy of any place on earth in modern history.” The life expectancy in Gaza dropped over 30 years in the first 12 months of the war, according to a study in the Lancet earlier this year.

Gaza City, Gaza on August 14, 2025. Photo by Mahmoud Issa/Anadolu via Getty Images.

Laura Loomer and the War on Palestinian Children

• The U.S. State Department suspended all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza after far-right influencer Laura Loomer said she “obtained video footage” of a few severely injured Palestinian children arriving in the U.S. for life-saving medical care. The department said no more children will be allowed entry “while it conducts a full and thorough review” of the temporary medical-humanitarian visa process.

• Loomer had specifically criticized HEAL Palestine, a U.S. nonprofit that arranges critical treatment for children from Gaza who cannot be treated locally. “Why should Palestinians be treated in American hospitals for free while US Veterans are homeless on the street unable to get healthcare?” Loomer posted. “This is why everyone hates them.” The number of Palestinians from Gaza who are granted entry to the U.S. is very small: there were just 31 in the first year of the war, according to the State Department, under the Biden administration. Ryan Grim on this.

• Key medical evacuation figures from Gaza (October 2023–July 2025):

  • Total patients evacuated: 7,507, including 5,201 children.

  • Top referral destinations (UN/WHO data, July 2025):

    • Egypt: 3,995 patients

    • UAE: 1,387 patients

    • Qatar: 970 patients

    • Turkey: 437 patients

    • EU countries: 244 patients

    • Current need: More than 14,800 patients on Gaza Ministry of Health list awaiting evacuation.

  • U.S. (approximate totals, outside UN data):

    • HEAL Palestine: 148 people, including 63 children

    • PCRF: Over 20 children

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the suspension of temporary humanitarian visas, citing alleged “evidence” that the organizations assisting the children have “strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas.”

• HEAL Palestine responded, emphasizing that its program provides critically needed medical care unavailable in Gaza. The group clarified, “This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program,” and highlighted that the care is not funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars.

Diplomatic Negotiations

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed he would reject any partial “ceasefire” deal with Hamas, demanding that all remaining Israeli captives be released at once and that Netanyahu’s sweeping conditions for ending Israel’s war against Gaza be fully met. His terms include Hamas’s disarmament, Gaza demilitarization, Israeli control of the entire perimeter of the enclave, and installation of a non-Hamas, non-Palestinian Authority governance. A senior Hamas official, Basem Naim, told Drop Site last week Hamas was open to either a phased or comprehensive deal.

• Palestinian factions, meeting in Cairo, called for an immediate ceasefire, lifting of the siege, and unhindered humanitarian access. Egypt presented a revised version of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff's 60-day plan based on the existing 13-point framework. Hamas is expected to offer its response tonight. More than 3 weeks ago, Hamas presented a handful of amendments to the proposal and Israel never offered a formal reply, instead withdrawing its negotiating team. While Hamas has said it is open to any proposals to end the genocide, officials told Drop Site that Hamas will not capitulate to Netanyahu’s demands, which the group says would be tantamount to surrendering the Palestinian liberation struggle.

• Palestinian Authority PM Mohammad Mustafa met with Egyptian PM Mostafa Madbouly to discuss halting Israel’s war, increasing delivery of food, medicine and other life essentials, and preparing an International Conference on Gaza Reconstruction in the event a ceasefire is achieved. Mustafa said the PA wants a 15-member “Community Support Committee” to administer Gaza temporarily after a ceasefire, alongside ongoing training of up to 5,000 Palestinian security personnel in Egypt. Hamas has said repeatedly it supports a 15 member technocratic committee comprised of Palestinians and that it will relinquish governing authority in Gaza upon signing a deal. Israel and the US have repeatedly removed Hamas’s offer to step down from the ceasefire framework and then subsequently accused Hamas of insisting on remaining in power.

U.S. News

• Las Vegas police arrested Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, a 38-year-old senior official in Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, during a sting targeting online child predators. He faces felony charges of attempting to lure a child with a computer but was released and has returned to Israel. Israeli officials confirmed he has been placed on leave but downplayed the case: it carries “no political implications.”

• The Trump administration is pushing the U.S. immigrant detention system to unprecedented levels, with plans to expand capacity from about 50,000 beds to more than 107,000 by January, according to internal ICE planning documents obtained by the Washington Post. The strategy includes opening or enlarging 125 facilities, relying heavily on private prison contractors, military bases, and makeshift “soft-sided” tent structures. “This is the Trump administration’s endgame,” said Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, warning that the scale of expansion could overwhelm oversight and protections for migrants.

• Three Republican-led states—West Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio—will send National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., adding to the 800 already deployed under President Trump’s “public safety emergency.”

International News

• Trump greeted Putin in Alaska with full pomp: a red carpet, military flyover, and handshake beneath an “Alaska 2025” banner. Despite Putin being under U.S. sanctions and ICC indictment for war crimes, the two rode together in “The Beast” limo, chatting without an interpreter before their private talks. The display drew criticism for its highly ceremonial treatment of a sanctioned and wanted leader.

• Following this, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Trump and Putin agreed to “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine during their summit in Alaska last week. He told Fox News Sunday that Washington is prepared to offer Article 5–style protections “directly from the United States and other European countries,” though Ukraine is not a NATO member. The proposal will be discussed further Monday at the White House, where Trump is set to host Zelenskyy and top European leaders.

  • University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer told Ryan Grim on Breaking Points that Putin “did a brilliant job” at the summit, rejecting a ceasefire and demanding a “peace agreement” on Moscow’s terms. He warned Ukraine risks losing “half the country” if it continues fighting, calling a negotiated settlement the “least bad alternative” while accusing the West of draining arms stockpiles and ignoring China.

  • Hillary Clinton praised Trump’s foreign policy, especially on NATO.

• Israel struck a power station near Sana’a in Yemen on Sunday in response to recent Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel. No casualties were reported, though the bombing damaged the facility and the full extent of the destruction is still unclear.

• Bolivia’s presidential race is headed to a historic runoff on October 19, ending two decades of left-wing dominance after centrist Rodrigo Paz Pereira unexpectedly led the first round with 32.8% of the vote. Paz Pereira will face right-wing ex-President Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, who placed second with 26.4%, while the ruling MAS party collapsed to single digits amid economic turmoil and infighting.

• A paramilitary force in Sudan’s Darfur region shelled the Abu Shouk displacement camp outside el-Fasher on Saturday, killing at least 31 people—including seven children and a pregnant woman—and wounding 13 others, according to the Sudan Doctors Network. This marks the second attack on the camp in under a week, as the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attempt to seize el-Fasher, the military’s last stronghold in North Darfur. The ongoing conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between the RSF and Sudan’s military, has displaced roughly 14 million people, driven famine in parts of the country, and prompted ICC investigations into atrocities including mass killings and sexual violence.

• Trump said Thursday he would do “everything I can” to help free Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, detained under China’s national security law for more than 1,500 days. Beijing’s embassy in Washington blasted Lai as a key “destabilizing” figure and warned against foreign interference. Trump indicated he plans to raise Lai’s case in upcoming trade talks with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, adding new friction to fragile U.S.-China negotiations.

• France’s foreign ministry said Saturday it is pressing for the “immediate release” of a French embassy worker in Bamako, after Mali’s junta accused him of collaborating with foreign intelligence to destabilize the country. Paris rejected the charges as “unjustified” and a violation of the Vienna Convention on consular relations. The arrest comes amid heightened tensions, as Mali’s ruling junta—increasingly aligned with Russia—claims to have foiled a coup plot involving dozens of soldiers and foreign backing.

• As Israel expands its operations across the region, Israeli forces announced plans to recruit roughly 600-700 additional soldiers each year from Jewish communities abroad, particularly from the U.S. and France.

More from Drop Site

• Palestinian solidarity activists are confronting Israeli tourists to the Greek islands this summer, with the Israeli cruise ship Crown Iris repeatedly facing protests over the ongoing Gaza genocide. The escalating clash of tourism and activism have blended dramatic street actions, port blockades, and viral confrontations. Read more on Drop Site from Alexis Daloumis.

• Columbia Journalism Review spoke to Drop Site’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous about what journalists and media workers can do to defend press freedom in Gaza. “Mass resignations by journalists and media workers in protest of the killing of their colleagues and the relative silence of their newsrooms on the subject of Israel’s genocide would go a long way toward not only highlighting the devastation, but also bringing down a media system that can no longer be reformed, but that needs to be dismantled and replaced,” Abdel Kouddous said.