Heavy rains flood tents in Gaza; Hegseth announces Operation Southern Spear to target “narco-terrorists”
Drop Site Daily: November 14, 2025
Heavy rains flood tents of displaced Palestinians in Gaza. Israel returns the bodies of 15 Palestinian captives to Gaza one day after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad return the body of an Israeli captive. The second revision of a U.S. ceasefire draft resolution at the UN Security Council is shut down by Russian and Chinese objections over the “Board of Peace,” and Moscow submits its own draft with a more limited “international stabilization force” and no “supervisory” board. Two Palestinian teenagers fatally shot by Israeli troops in the West Bank. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announces “Operation Southern Spear” aimed at targeting “narco-terrorists” in the Western Hemisphere. New State Department directive could deny foreigners visas to U.S. for certain medical conditions, such as diabetes or obesity, or a lack of economic resources. Starbucks workers go on strike nationwide. Utilities regulators look to cash out after the end of their term. Global carbon emissions are set to hit a record 38.1 billion metric tons this year. Saudi Arabia intends to do business with Lebanon again. Cambodia evacuates hundreds along its border with Thailand. U.S. declares four European anti-fascist groups “international terrorist organizations.”
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The Genocide in Gaza
Israeli attacks on Gaza continued on Friday with a Palestinian woman killed by gunfire in the al-Atara area northwest of Gaza City, according to Wafa. The Israeli military also announced it killed a Palestinian in southern Gaza, claiming they crossed the “yellow line”—the boundary that Israeli troops withdrew to as part of the ceasefire agreement. Israel has killed at least 260 Palestinians in Gaza since the first full day of the ceasefire going into effect on October 11, according to the health ministry.
Heavy rains flooded tents of displaced Palestinians in Gaza on Friday. Officials warn more than 900,000 Palestinians face the risk of flooding as the Palestinian Meteorological Department issued warnings of flash floods across Gaza with strong winds, heavy rain, and thunderstorms expected over the coming days. Israeli attacks on Gaza have left 85 percent of road, water, and sewage networks damaged or destroyed.In an interview with Al Jazeera, Hamas official Ali Baraka said Israel has deliberately blocked aid — allowing in only 5 percent of the 300,000 tents promised and roughly a third of the trucks agreed to under the ceasefire — leaving stockpiles stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing. Tens of thousands of displaced people are living in torn tents, gutted homes, or improvised shelters and now face severe risks of exposure in makeshift structures that cannot withstand the cold.
Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza on Friday, one day after the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad handed over the body of an Israeli captive. The remains of 25 Israeli captives in Gaza have been returned to Israel since the ceasefire went into effect last month, with three more remaining. Under the terms of the agreement, Israel has released the remains of 15 Palestinians in exchange for the remains of each Israeli returned. So far, Israel has returned the bodies of 330 Palestinians. All of them unidentified and many bearing signs of torture, abuse, and field execution. Only 95 have been formally identified, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The United States circulated a second revised draft of its Gaza ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council. The new text explicitly calls for maintaining the ceasefire, adds broad language about a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood and postwar dialogue without firm commitments, and clarifies that the proposed Board of Peace would hold only “transitional” authority. By Thursday evening, Russia and China were pushing to remove the Board of Peace entirely and restrict enforcement powers to a stabilization force reporting directly to the Security Council. Moscow submitted its own competing ceasefire resolution on Friday after formally objecting to the U.S. draft, according to Reuters.
A new report from Defense for Children International documents the treatment of three teenage Palestinian abducted by the Israeli military in Gaza while seeking aid and taken to the Sde Teiman prison. Mohammad Nael Khamis Al-Zoghbi, 17; Faris Ibrahim Faris Abu Jabal, 16; and Mahmoud Hani Mohammad Al-Majayda, 17, said they were bound, blindfolded, and stripped naked upon their capture. Once at the prison, they were beaten, subject to electric shocks, starved, and exposed to extreme cold, they said. Soldiers forced them into stress positions for hours, unleashed dogs on them, and blasted deafening music in the “disco room,” where interrogators slammed their heads into walls and tightened handcuffs until bones cracked. They were also subject to psychological torture, including threats against their families and attempts to recruit them as collaborators. All three were released in the October prisoner exchange as part of the ceasefire agreement.
Local teams are working to restore the Pasha Cultural Palace, an 800-year-old monument in Gaza’s Old City, which sustained heavy damage from Israeli airstrikes. The efforts have attempted to recover fragmented manuscripts, carved stones, and delicate artifacts such as a centuries-old bird sculpture, and moved what they can to protected areas. An article on this effort from TRT can be read here.
West Bank and Israel
Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian teenagers Thursday near the village of Beit Ummar, near Hebron, according to Wafa: Bahaa Ali Sabarna, 16, and Mohammad Mahmoud Mohammad Abu Ayash, 15. The Israeli military seized the boys’ bodies after killing them, took them to an undisclosed location, and declared the area where the shooting happened to be a closed military zone.
Israel is pressing for a new, 20-year military aid agreement with the U.S., according to Axios. This package would be double the length of the current $38 billion deal, which is set to expire in 2028. Anticipating resistance from the “America First” wing of the Trump base, Israeli officials have crafted a change that allows part of the funding to go to joint U.S.-Israeli research and development initiatives in defense technology, missile production, and AI.
U.S. News
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced a new U.S. military operation called “Southern Spear,” aimed at targeting “narco-terrorists” in the Western Hemisphere through the U.S. military Southern Command. Hegseth announced the operation in a social media post. Hegseth’s announcement came as top military officials presented Trump with options for escalation in Venezuela during a meeting at the White House, including direct land strikes, according to a new report from CBS News. The assembly included Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine (and contributions from the offices of Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Director of National Intelligence, who were not present because they were traveling). These deliberations take place in the wake of the arrival of the USS Ford carrier strike group in the Caribbean and after the American military has conducted 20+ lethal strikes in the region in recent months, and a day after Maduro announced that his military was preparing for guerrilla warfare as a fallback defense if the U.S. invades.
The Trump administration has issued new visa restrictions for foreigners seeking to visit or live in the United States, according to the Washington Post. Under the directive visa, officers should consider certain health conditions as reasons to deny foreigners visas. The directive was issued in a November 6th cable from Secretary of State Marco Rubio to U.S. consulates and embassies around the world. “Certain medical conditions—including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, cancers, diabetes, metabolic diseases, neurological diseases, and mental health conditions—can require hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of care,” the cable said. “The State Department’s guidance also directs visa officers to consider applicants ineligible to enter the U.S. for several new reasons, including whether they are past retirement age, how many dependents— children or elderly parents—they have, and whether any dependents have ‘special needs’ or disabilities,” the Washington Post reported.
Former FTC Chair Lina Khan—now co-chair of mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team—is developing proposals to tackle New York City’s affordability crisis by expanding the city’s authority to enforce fair-pricing laws, according to a new report from Semafor. By making use of an existing “unconscionable pricing” rule, and by setting out new algorithmic pricing standards, Khan might be able to replicate the strategy she successfully employed at the FTC and reduce the costs of goods for New Yorkers.
Florida Republican congresswoman María Elvira Salazar defended her decision to vote to release the Epstein files, telling CNN, “I’m sure the President has nothing to fear. We do need to know everything about Epstein.”
Starbucks workers launched a nationwide strike on Thursday, with more than 1,000 union baristas walking out of 65 unionized stores. Organized by Starbucks Workers United (SWU), the action targets the company’s high-traffic “Red Cup Day” to pressure Starbucks to expand its union presence, raise wages, and give employees greater control over scheduling. It marks one of the largest coordinated actions by SWU since its formation in 2021.
Utility regulators gathered this week at the corporate-funded “Let There Be Light” conference, which featured closed-door sessions on securing lucrative post-commission jobs (“How to Obtain GREAT Post Commission Employment,” the breakout was called) and presentations from Amazon and Costco outlining how regulators can help large power users meet their business needs. This type of corruption is both frequent and costly, according to the report, with 2024 analysis by the climate watchdog Floodlight identifying a “generational resurgence of fraud and corruption in the utility sector” costing electricity consumers at least $6.6 billion over the past five years. Read the full report from The Lever here.
The BBC apologized to President Donald Trump for an edited “Panorama” documentary that spliced together two sections of his January 6 speech more than 50 minutes apart, acknowledging it created the false impression of a single and continuous call to action. The broadcaster rejected Trump’s demand for compensation and said the edit does not meet the legal threshold for defamation. The apology followed the resignation of two senior BBC leaders and renewed scrutiny of a separate 2022 “Newsnight” segment, as Trump’s legal team alleges a broader pattern of deceptive editing at the network.
The Trump Organization has requested a record 184 foreign workers for 2025 across Mar-a-Lago, two golf clubs, and Trump Vineyard Estates, as part of a steady rise from 121 requests in 2021 and totaling 566 foreign labor petitions during President Donald Trump’s tenure, according to reporting from The Hill. This spike has occurred while his administration has moved to hike H-1B visa fees to $100,000 to push companies toward hiring U.S. workers.
Jordana Cutler, Meta’s Head of Public Policy for Israel, admitted that the company censored Palestinian content in her address to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Annual Leadership Summit, as seen in a video published by Sahat. She describes how Meta strikes down posts critical of Zionism or with explicitly pro-Palestine content under policies designed “for the safety of the Jewish community.” This confirms Drop Site’s April reporting on Meta’s suppression of pro-Palestine content, which can be read here.
International News
Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels are projected to hit a record 38.1 billion metric tons this year, with increases accelerating in the U.S. and EU but slowing sharply in China and India, according to a new Global Carbon Budget report. At this pace, the world is roughly four years from breaching the 1.5°C warming threshold, even as weakening natural carbon sinks and continued fossil-fuel demand outstrip gains in renewable energy.
Saudi Arabia plans to reopen commercial channels with Lebanon after concluding that Lebanese authorities have effectively curbed drug smuggling in recent months, Reuters reported. A Saudi delegation will travel to Lebanon to negotiate the removal of import restrictions first imposed in 2021 over Captagon trafficking, with Riyadh signaling that further improvements in ties will depend on continued progress by President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to limit Hezbollah’s security role.
Cambodia evacuated roughly 250 families from Prey Chan village in the Banteay Meanchey province after a civilian was killed and three others injured in a shootout with Thai soldiers, according to Al Jazeera. The incident came as Thailand accused Cambodia of laying new landmines and suspended a ceasefire instated in October—a deal signed by President Donald Trump and regional leaders. The hostilities sparked fears of the re-emergence of open conflict between the two countries.
The U.S. designated four left-wing groups in Germany, Italy, and Greece—including Germany’s “Antifa Ost”—as Specially Designated Global Terrorists on Thursday, Reuters reported. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he intends to list them as Foreign Terrorist Organizations on November 20 as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign against what he calls Antifa-linked political violence. The State Department cited “attacks” in Germany and Hungary between 2018 and 2023 as rationale for this decision, and noted that Washington may target additional groups worldwide as investigations continue.
A wave of drone and missile attacks by Russia struck the city of Kyiv overnight, including one attack that hit an apartment block. The attack in the Lisovyi district killed six people, injured dozens, and caused multiple floors of a building to collapse. Additional strikes hit a market in Chornomorsk, killing two people. Ukraine also continued its own campaign against Russian oil infrastructure, launching drones and long-range Neptune missiles at refining facilities in Novorossiysk, where fires broke out at the Sheskharis refinery and oil exports were suspended after the attack.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) reportedly intercepted the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Talara. The IRGC directed it into Iranian waters after the vessel, carrying oil from Sharjah to Singapore, lost contact with its managers off the UAE coast near Khor Fakkan. The incident follows a pattern of periodic IRGC detentions of commercial vessels over alleged maritime violations of Iranian waters.
Argentina, Belarus, North Korea, Burkina Faso, Nicaragua, Niger, Paraguay, Russia, Israel, and the United States all voted against approving the UN’s annual report on the International Criminal Court.
Authorities in South Africa have come under criticism after they held more than 150 Palestinians from Gaza on a plane for 12 hours due to complications with their travel documents. The Palestinians landed on a charter plane in Johannesburg on Thursday morning after a stopover in Nairobi, Kenya, according to the AP. The Palestinian passengers did not have exit stamps from Israeli authorities. A rights worker told AP it was the second plane carrying Palestinians to land in South Africa in the last two weeks and that the passengers themselves said they did not know where they were going. “It was not immediately clear how the charter plane was organized, where exactly it came from and why the passengers were able to leave Israel without the proper documentation,” the AP reported.
More From Drop Site
Murtaza Hussain joins Briahna Joy Gray on “Bad Faith”: Hussain made an appearance on Gray’s podcast to discuss Drop Site’s reporting on Epstein’s connections to Israeli intelligence, an especially relevant topic given Congressional interest (and infighting) over the release of the Epstein files. Watch their discussion in full here.
Drop Site contributor Rhana Natour won an Arab & Middle East Journalists Association award for her short documentary for Al Jazeera, All That Remains. She discusses the importance of the Drop Site work during a panel at the awards ceremony, which can be watched here.
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"President" Trump is a mass murderer, he's killing fishermen in the ocean calling them drug traffickers, they're not. To travel from Venezuela to the US in a little boat you would have to re-fuel 20 times as the trip is a 1500 mile trip, Trump is lying, he wants their oil and minerals.
You guys need to investigate Israel for this human trafficking scheme and nobody should be blaming South Africa. This is disgusting in all aspects because there are sick Palestinians waiting to be transferred out of Gaza and they’re denied exit by the Nazis!