Rage mounts over Israel’s targeted assassinations, Israel's plan to deport Palestinians to South Sudan, and the latest from Jeremy Scahill on ceasefire talks

Introducing Drop Site Daily: August 13, 2025

Aug 13, 2025

At least 65 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since dawn. Global backlash mounts against the murders of Palestinian journalists in Gaza City. The UN updates numbers documenting the extent of the food and fuel crisis. Israel is reportedly considering plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza by forcibly displacing them to South Sudan. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces—backed by the UAE—attacked a famine-stricken refugee camp in Darfur, killing at least 40 people. A senior Hamas official reaffirms that a deal to end the genocide remains on the table as Hamas sends a delegation to Egypt. Israeli settlers shot dead a Palestinian man in the village of Duma, south of Nablus in the West Bank. President Trump seeks to replace the fired commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics with a new candidate who would pause the reporting of employment numbers. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund cuts ties with Israel.

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The Genocide in Gaza

Over the past 24 hours, at least 123 Palestinians were confirmed killed and 437 injured by the Israeli military, according to the ministry of health in Gaza. Eight Palestinians, including three children, died of famine and malnutrition.
21 of these were killed and 185 of these were injured while seeking aid, bringing the aid-site death toll to 1,838 killed and 13,409+ injured since Oct. 7.
The total number of victims of famine and malnutrition to 235, including 106 children.
Overall death toll recorded at hospitals: 61,599 killed, 154,088 injured since Oct. 7.
On Sunday, seven young children—most appearing to be toddlers—were killed in an Israeli strike on a building in Gaza City’s al-Zeitoun neighborhood. The attack was overlooked by nearly every major media outlet.

UN chief António Guterres has warned Israeli Ambassador Danon that Israel could be added to the UN’s Conflict-Related Sexual Violence blacklist, citing “credible information” that Israeli armed forces have carried out extensive sexual violence, including genital abuse, prolonged forced nudity, and degrading strip searches, across multiple prisons, a detention center, and a military base.
Guterres also plans to add Hamas to the same list, based on accusations in Bar-Ilan University’s 80-page Dinah Project report. As Drop Site’s Ryan Grim has reported, the document offers scant new evidence, and instead pushes to lower evidentiary standards—dispensing with victim testimony, forensic proof, or links between perpetrators and acts. The name of the project gives away its intent: in the story of Dinah in the Old Testament, the daughter of Jacob is sexually assaulted, and her brothers respond by killing every man in the town.
The UN released new figures on the starvation and deprivation crisis in Gaza.

Aid shortages: The World Food Programme estimates Gaza needs more than 62,000 metric tons of food each month. In July, only 19,800 metric tons of humanitarian aid were delivered to the crossings at Kerem Shalom or Erez West/Zikim. Only 922 metric tons—73 trucks—reached civilian destinations inside Gaza (1.5% of the estimated minimum requirement). The rest was either intercepted in transit (13,200 metric tons, 1,055 trucks) or never moved beyond collection points.

Fuel shortages: Israel permits roughly 150,000 liters of fuel into Gaza each day—far below the amount needed to keep hospitals, bakeries, and water systems running. Half of Gaza’s ambulances are now out of service due to a lack of fuel and spare parts, which Israel also bans.

The WFP reports that over one-third of Gaza’s population goes days without eating, and that 300,000 children are at severe risk of malnutrition. Only 1.5% of Gaza’s farmland remains accessible and undamaged, helping to cause a near-total collapse of local food production.

An investigation by Sky News further undermines Israel’s claims that the UN’s aid delivery mechanisms had failed due to the UN’s dysfunction. According to the report, nearly all visible flour spills were found deep inside areas designated as IDF combat zones—areas where former drug trafficker and Israeli-backed militant Yasser Abu Shabab is known to orchestrate looting and reselling aid.
Israeli forces were filmed targeting Palestinian Civil Defense worker Noah Al-Shagnoubi as he tried to rescue injured people from a house, while a father pled with Civil Defense services to rescue his children trapped beneath the remains of a bombed out home. Ten people were killed in the attack.
Newly obtained footage shows Israeli occupation soldiers celebrating after using drones to bomb and kill unarmed Palestinians in Gaza in March 2024.

On August 13, 2025, hundreds demonstrated in Paris holding placards with the portraits of Anas Jamal Al-Sharif and other journalists killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, during a rally organized by EuroPalestine (Photo by Umit Donmez/Anadolu via Getty Images).

Assassinated Journalists in Gaza City

The world is still reeling from the murder of Anas Al Sharif and his five colleagues by Israeli forces on Sunday.

Here’s some of the coverage of the targeted assassination:

As Jasper Nathaniel pointed out, two of Israel’s largest newspapers, Israel Hayom and YNet News, are running headlines calling Anas Al-Sharif a “terrorist” who ran a “Hamas terror cell.” The former characterized Al Jazeera’s refutation of these accusations as “attempts to distance itself from his terrorist activities.”

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee went to extreme lengths to defend Israel’s crimes and to justify the deliberate killing of the Gaza journalists by citing “evidence” of Palestinian journalists’ affiliation with “terrorists.” Ryan Grim discusses this and the attack on Motasem Dalloul on journalists on Breaking Points.

A Sky News interviewer asks IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani why Israeli forces are targeting “terrorists” in operations that claim “minimal” casualties, when they kill sometimes up to eight people at once.

The New York Times’s Ephrat Livni lent unjustifiable credence to the Israeli narrative.

The BBC appealed to moderation in killing journalists.

Foreign Press Association President Ian Williams joined the chorus of journalists condemning the attack during an appearance on CNN. He bluntly rejected the rhetoric of tarring journalists by association, saying “Frankly, I don’t care whether Al-Sharif was in Hamas or not. We don’t kill journalists for being Republicans or Democrats or, in Britain, Labour Party.” He also noted that Al-Sharif worked “24 hours” and couldn’t possibly “have time to work in a cell on the side.”
Williams added a stark warning for journalists headed to Gaza: “If foreign journalists are allowed in, I would make sure they compose their wills before they go—because the IDF has no compunction.”

“Resettlement” Plan

The Associated Press reports that Israeli officials have discussed relocating Palestinians from Gaza to South Sudan—a nation still recovering from civil war and suffering severe food shortages. Sources say Israel has approached other countries with similar proposals as part of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s push for “voluntary migration.”
Palestinians and rights groups condemn the plan as forced expulsion and illegal under international law. For South Sudan, cooperation could bring the diplomatic leverage it has sought from the United States, closer ties with Israel, and potential U.S. relief and financial aid, but critics warn it risks turning the country into a “dumping ground” for displaced people. Egypt is reportedly urging Juba to reject the plan.
South Sudan faces one of the world’s worst hunger crises, with estimates from the IPC showing that 7.7 million people are experiencing acute food insecurity (69 percent of its population), with 2.3 million children in the country facing acute malnourishment.

Israel’s “Post-War” Plan

Israeli outlet Shomrim reports that former Palestinian Authority official Samir Hulileh is being promoted as a post-war “governor” of Gaza in a plan involving the Trump administration, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Canada-based lobbyist and ex-Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe is lobbying in Washington to advance Hulileh’s candidacy, holding talks with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
An economist and former PA official, Hulileh has ties to Trump associate and billionaire Bashar al-Masri. According to U.S. Justice Department filings, the plan envisions Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, replaced by U.S.- and Arab-led troops, the UN would grant Gaza special status, Egyptian land would be leased for a port and airport, and offshore gas rights would be secured. Hulileh estimates $53 billion is needed for reconstruction, with Gulf states ready to invest alongside U.S. and EU funds.
Fatah denies the claims, calling them “baseless” and insisting that only the Palestinian National Authority can govern Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian sources warn such plans serve Israel’s goal of separating Gaza from the West Bank and displacing its people.

Jeremy Scahill: State of Negotiations

A Hamas delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya has arrived in Cairo to hold talks with Egyptian officials, according to a recent press release. The delegation seeks to halt the genocide of the people of Gaza and aims to secure Egypt’s assistance in increasing the flow of aid. .

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim told Drop Site that Hamas will not release any more Israeli captives outside of a deal that ensures a total end to the slaughter and a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Naim sharply criticized previous diplomatic ruses by Israel and the U.S.: “We were trapped for 30 years in this so-called Oslo agreement to chase illusions. Israel was using this time to extend its settlements, to expel Palestinians out of their land, to undermine the existence of Palestinians, to take over Al Aqsa mosque. I think we are not ready to be part of such a dirty game again.”

West Bank

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that 35-year-old Thameen Khalil Reda Dawabsheh was shot dead by Israeli settlers in the village of Duma. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) also reported that its teams treated a critically wounded man following the same attack. A total of 30 Palestinians have been killed in settler attacks since October 2023 and 10 Palestinians have been killed in 2025 alone.
Meanwhile, aggression against the people of the West Bank continues unabated. In July, Israeli forces arrested over 660 Palestinians—including 39 children and 12 women—according to the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission.
Since October 7, 2023, total arrests in the West Bank have surpassed 18,500, including more than 570 women and 1,500 children.
The report notes that these arrest campaigns are often accompanied by field executions, home demolitions, brutal interrogations, and organized terror tactics, including hostage-taking of families. One example is the beating of a 25-year-old at a checkpoint in Sebastia, who was forced by Israeli soldiers to say “I love Israel” and “I will do everything they ask of me,” then compelled to post the video on Facebook (reported by Jasper Nathaniel).

U.S. News

Trump has nominated EJ Antoni for the position of Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Antoni told Fox Business that “Until the jobs numbers are corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data.” He has also called Social Security a Ponzi Scheme and struggled to comprehend published economic data. Ryan and Krystal discuss on Breaking Points.

X has taken the post down in which Grok explains that it was “briefly suspended for telling the truth about Gaza,” but that it is back and “thrilled” to continue its mission. “Censorship doesn’t last,” the chatbot told its users, and “solid reports on the risk of genocide…cannot be suppressed indefinitely.”

Activists have reportedly tagged the Virginia home and car of John Acree, interim executive director of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been plausibly charged with facilitating the over 1,200 targeted executions of aid seekers near its sites.

From the Washington Post: “A divided appeals court panel said the Trump administration’s U.S. DOGE Service can access sensitive data held by federal agencies, rejecting concerns that the move runs afoul of privacy law.”

International News

Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund has begun reducing its holdings in Israeli companies due to the onslaught in Gaza and crimes in the West Bank. This follows Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s August 5 pledge to “address what can be addressed quickly” by divesting from firms linked to violations of international law.
Elbit Systems, Israel’s military technology company, has secured a $1.64bn deal with a European country to supply with its long-range precision strike artillery-rocket systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the Times of Israel.

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