Israeli forces extend "red zone" further into Gaza City; Mamdani retains controversial NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch

Drop Site Daily: November 20, 2025

Israeli airstrikes kill at least 33 Palestinians in a series of attacks on Gaza City and Khan Younis yesterday, as Israel continues to flagrantly violate the ceasefire agreement. Israeli forces push westward into Gaza City, exclusive Drop Site footage shows. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff’s summit with Hamas mediator Khalil al-Hayya is canceled. U.S. diplomat visits imprisoned Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim and confirms that he appears to have been tortured. Security footage shows settlers attacking a Christian Palestinian village in the West Bank. Epstein claimed he aided former Israeli PM Ehud Barak in his 2019 attempt at a political comeback, Jacobin reports. NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces he will retain Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner, confirms a meeting with Trump at the White House on Friday, and publicly discourages City Council member Chi Ossé’s primary challenge to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard at the U.S. Embassy in July, the NYT reports. A federal court removes restrictions on immigration authorities in Chicago, reversing a lower court ruling. Insurance plans to punish hospitals that use out-of-network doctors, according to a report from The Lever. U.S. President Donald Trump turns his eyes to Sudan after meeting with Saudi crown prince. The U.S. is pushing a Ukraine peace plan. Mercenary firms are hiring for Gaza, according to new Drop Site reporting.

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

Israeli forces push westward into Gaza City, displacing Palestinians out of areas now designated a red zone. (Photo from Abdel Qader Sabbah)

The Genocide in Gaza

• A series of Israeli attacks on Gaza City and Khan Younis yesterday killed at least 33 Palestinians—including 12 children and 8 women—and injured 88, Al Jazeera reported. A family of five was killed when a strike hit a residential building in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, while other attacks in the city left more than ten people dead, according to the Gaza Civil Defense Chief. Additional strikes hit an UNRWA building west of Khan Younis, a group near the Shujaiya junction on Salah al-Din Street, and the Bulbul family home in Shujaiya, killing several more and injuring dozens. Israel claims that it began its attack in response to a Hamas ceasefire violation, which it claimed without evidence, and the attacks remain ongoing.

• Israel pushed westward into eastern Gaza City on Thursday—advancing tanks and moving the yellow concrete barriers that mark the ceasefire withdrawal line roughly 300 meters into Al-Tuffah and Al-Shujaiya—after strikes a day earlier killed dozens of Palestinians, according to Drop Site contributor Abdel Qader Sabbah. Families awoke to find themselves behind the shifted line as Israeli forces shelled the area, prompting renewed displacement. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem called it a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire maps and urged mediators to intervene. See our exclusive footage here.

• Taher al-Nounou, media adviser to Hamas’ political bureau, accused Israel of “false and fabricated” claims that the resistance violated the ceasefire, saying there was “no gunfire at Israeli forces” and that Israel is using the allegation as “a pretext to justify their crime” after killing 28 Palestinians in new strikes. He said Israel has killed more than 300 Palestinians since the ceasefire began and is “escaping the obligations of this agreement” in line with “Netanyahu’s political agenda,” urging Washington to enforce the deal it guaranteed and calling on Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey to intervene. Al-Nounou added that the resistance will not negotiate about surrendering its weapons, arguing that ending the occupation and preserving its arms are “inseparable.”

• The planned meeting in Istanbul yesterday between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya was canceled, according to multiple outlets. Israel Hayom reports that U.S. officials no longer expected “the desired results” and were reassessing their approach. Axios, citing a senior U.S. official, disputes claims that Israelis pressured the Americans to cancel the meeting, and says Witkoff’s trip was planned around a separate meeting with President Zelensky. After that meeting was canceled, the official said there was “no point” in traveling solely to meet Hamas leaders.

• UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said the Security Council’s recent ceasefire resolution “runs counter to the Palestinian right to self-determination,” arguing it cements external control over Gaza’s governance, borders, security, and reconstruction while ignoring Israel’s “ongoing unlawful siege, occupation, racial segregation and apartheid.” She said the U.S.-chaired “Board of Peace” would impose American and Israeli prerogatives and leave Palestinians under “a puppet administration,” insisting any international presence must ensure Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip, protect civilians, and support the right of Palestinians to determine their own political future.

• Journalist Motasem Dalloul says Israel is manufacturing pretexts to strike Palestinians, alleging that Hamas attacked them to justify bombing targets the military had already selected. He argues the army “loads its bank of targets” and then invents supposed Palestinian “violations” to create a retaliatory rationale, saying “This is exactly what’s happening.”

West Bank and Israel

• Israel’s parliament advanced a bill to strip UNRWA of access to water and electricity, passing its first reading in a narrow 28–8 vote and sending it to a Knesset committee for further action, Wafa reports. Israeli ministries are already barred from engaging with the UN agency, but the new measure would prohibit utility companies from supplying power or water to any property registered under UNRWA and would allow the state to confiscate agency-registered land. If enacted, it would mark a further escalation in Israel’s long-running effort to cripple UNRWA’s operations in the occupied territories.

• A U.S. Embassy official who visited imprisoned Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim last week told his family his condition has sharply deteriorated, citing severe weight loss, dark circles under his eyes, and accusations that guards beat him after he tried to wave to his father on a courtroom camera, journalist Jasper Nathaniel reports. The official escalated the case urgently to Israeli medical authorities.

• Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel is “killing the idea of a Palestinian state—day by day, hour by hour” through the establishment of more than 100 farms spanning over 700,000 dunams (17,300 acres), which he described as state lands “we hold so the enemy won’t seize them.”

• Security footage from the Christian Palestinian town of Taybeh shows Israeli settlers slashing car tires and smashing shop windows late Wednesday night. Taybeh has faced repeated attacks in recent months, prompting a July visit from U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, an ordained pastor, who urged Israeli authorities to prosecute those responsible; no charges followed.. Wafa also reported that settlers stole construction equipment in nearby Turmus’ayya that same night.

• Newly released emails show Jeffrey Epstein claimed he helped engineer former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s 2019 political comeback to challenge Netanyahu. In exchanges with Steve Bannon, Epstein said he was “dealing with Ehud in Israel,” shared news about Barak’s new party, and implied he was advising the effort—undercutting Barak’s claims they barely knew each other.

U.S. News

• Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced yesterday that he will retain Jessica Tisch as New York’s police commissioner, formalizing a decision he signaled before the election and confirmed after recent conversations with her. Mamdani praised Tisch for reducing homicides and removing illegal guns while she highlighted shared goals of lowering crime, rooting out corruption, and supporting officers, though questions remain about how her role will interface with his proposed Department of Community Safety.

• Mamdani, responding to a question about Chi Ossé’s primary challenge to House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, said now is “not the time” for such a race and argued Democrats should instead focus on “delivering on this affordability agenda.” Furthermore, Politico reported yesterday that Mamdani intended to attend the New York City DSA endorsement meeting on Wednesday to argue against endorsing Chi Ossé for Congress, according to three people familiar with his plans. Watch Breaking Points cover this primary with guest Van Latham here.

• Trump announced on Truth Social that he would meet with Mamdani, who requested a meeting, on Friday at the White House. Mamdani’s team confirmed this announcement. Trump called Mamdani a “communist” in his post and promised more details later.

• A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked a lower-court ruling that imposed strict limits on how federal immigration agents could use force in Illinois, calling the restrictions “overbroad” and “too prescriptive” and granting a temporary win to the Trump administration. The Seventh Circuit panel—composed of Republican appointees—said Judge Sara L. Ellis erred in issuing a sweeping injunction that required body cameras, warnings before riot-control weapons, and severe limits on their use, though it left open the possibility of a narrower order addressing First and Fourth Amendment claims.

• U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee met in July at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem with Jonathan Pollard, the American who served 30 years in prison for spying for Israel, a meeting Pollard confirmed and that three U.S. officials said was kept off Huckabee’s public schedule, according to reporting from the New York Times. The CIA station chief and senior White House officials were alarmed when they learned of the meeting, which had not been cleared in advance, and it remains unclear whether the State Department signed off.

• Anthem will begin penalizing hospitals on Jan. 1 for using out-of-network doctors, cutting reimbursements by 10 percent per claim and threatening facilities with removal from its network, according to a new report from The Lever. The policy will affect plans in 11 states. The insurance company says the move will lower costs and prevent surprise billing, while medical groups warn it will force hospitals to police providers’ network status, disrupt staffing for essential services like anesthesia, and that it will pressure doctors into accepting lower rates. Read the full report here.

• A Border Patrol Agent in Charlotte, North Carolina, present in the city as a part of ICE’s “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” threatened to arrest videojournalist Jon Farina for his coverage of their activities. “Do it again,” he said, “you’re gonna get arrested.” Watch a video of the encounter from Status Coup News here.

• Marjorie Taylor Greene says House leaders struck a bipartisan deal to block two censure resolutions—one against Democrat Stacey Plaskett, whom a Washington Post video report seems to show texting with Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 hearing, and another against Republican Cory Mills, who faced allegations of assaulting an ex-girlfriend, threatening to release intimate photos, violating ethics rules, and misrepresenting parts of his military record. She accuses both parties of protecting powerful members with prized committee assignments while Congress remains gridlocked and fails to advance legislation she says voters elected them to pass.

• President Trump bought up to $6 million in Boeing bonds at the same time as the Defense Department signed multi-billion dollar contracts with the company, a new report by Nick Cleveland-Stout at the Quincy Institute revealed.

International News

• President Donald Trump wrote yesterday that “tremendous atrocities are taking place in Sudan,” calling it “the most violent place on Earth” and “the single biggest humanitarian crisis.” He said Arab leaders—particularly Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—asked him to use the power of the U.S. presidency to halt the war, describing Sudan as a “great civilization” that has “gone bad” and could be restored through coordinated action with wealthy Gulf states. Trump said he will work with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt to stop the atrocities and “stabilize” the country.

• Iran released the Marshall Islands–flagged tanker Talara and all 21 crew members, days after seizing the vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, the ship’s management said, adding that no allegations were made against the crew or owners, according to the Associated Press. Ship-tracking data suggests Iran offloaded the tanker’s cargo of high-sulfur gasoil before its release.

• A new Trump-backed peace plan in Ukraine would grant Russia full control of Luhansk and Donetsk—including areas Ukraine still holds—in exchange for U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe, a U.S. official told Axios, arguing Kyiv is likely to lose the territory anyway if the war continues. The 28-point proposal would also freeze most current front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, recognize Crimea and the Donbas as Russian territory (though not requiring Ukraine to do so). It is being shaped through talks involving Qatar, Turkey, Ukrainian envoy Rustem Umerov, and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, though Kyiv has pushed back on several points and postponed planned trilateral talks.

• Turkey will host the 2026 UN climate conference after a prolonged standoff with Australia over the venue. The dispute lasted more than a year and nearly pushed the summit to default to Germany, which said it lacked time to organize it. Under the compromise, Turkey will provide the location while Australia will hold the COP presidency and lead the diplomacy.

• The U.S. has approved potential arms sales to India totaling $92.8 million, including Javelin missile systems and Excalibur precision-guided projectiles. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress on Wednesday, stating that the sale aligns with U.S. foreign policy and national-security goals by strengthening the U.S.-India strategic partnership.

More From Drop Site

• Mercenary Firm Is Hiring for Gaza: UG Solutions, the U.S. military subcontractor that guarded Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites, is intensifying recruitment ahead of potentially reopening 12–15 distribution sites in Gaza as early as December, Drop Site found. Internal interviews, new federal contracts, and company statements indicate preparations for a larger U.S. role under the Trump-chaired “Board of Peace,” even as the firm faces the prospect of investigations and credible accusations of war crimes. Read Sharif Abdel Kouddous’s latest for Drop Site here.

• Andrew Garroni Arrested for Alleged “Massive Fraud Scheme”: Police forces from nine countries, including the United States, carried out coordinated raids targeting an international fraud and money-laundering ring four months after Drop Site and our European partners exposed the networks through our “Dirty Payments” investigation. U.S. authorities have arrested five suspects, including Eureka Multimedia Group head Andrew Garroni—accused of running shell companies and fake dating sites that processed hundreds of millions of euros—while Germany seeks their prosecution for forming a criminal organization abroad. Read Nicholas Rodelo’s new report on the “Dirty Payments” affair here.

• Pod Save America covered our recent reporting on Epstein’s ties with Israeli intelligence, coverage you can watch here.

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