Senate Democrats cave on health care to end 40-day U.S. government shutdown; Pakistan senators drive another nail into the coffin of their democracy
Drop Site Daily: November 10, 2025
Israel kills at least two Palestinians in Gaza as attacks continue across the enclave. Israel returns the bodies of 15 Palestinian captives to Gaza one day after Hamas returns the remains of an Israeli captive. An unexploded ordnance kills a child in Gaza. Former Israeli military advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi attempts suicide in custody. U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Over a dozen people, including Reuters and Al Jazeera journalists, are injured by a mob of settlers near the West Bank village of Beita. Israeli PR officials plot a “geofencing” campaign in the U.S. Israel strikes southern Lebanon through the weekend, killing two more in strikes on Sunday alone. A deal is reached to reopen the U.S. government after a group of eight Senate Democrats voted with Republicans to advance a plan to end the 40-day shutdown. Pakistan’s legislature is voting on the explicit military takeover of its government by Field Marshal Asim Munir. Sudanese doctors accuse the RSF of burning bodies and depositing them in mass graves to hide its “genocide.” Iran is running out of water. A former Israeli soldier attacks protesting students in Toronto.
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The Genocide in Gaza
Israeli forces killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza on Monday, according to the Israeli military, which said without evidence they had crossed the “yellow line” and approached soldiers operating in southern Gaza. One of the two killed was a child according to Al Jazeera.
The bodies of three Palestinians arrived at hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, including one killed in new Israeli attacks, one who died from previous injuries, and one recovered from under the rubble. At least three Palestinians were wounded. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 69,179 killed, with 170,693 injured.
Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 242 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 622, while 529 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health.
Israeli forces on Monday continued attacks on Gaza, blowing up residential buildings in central Gaza, demolishing homes in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, carrying out heavy air raids in northern and eastern Khan Younis, and firing artillery shells at the al-Zanna area in southern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.
Nasser Hospital confirmed on Saturday that Hamza al-Astal, a Palestinian child, was killed when an unexploded Israeli bomb detonated in Khan Younis. Nearly 70,000 tons of unexploded ordnance in Gaza pose a deadly risk to civilians, according to Palestinian Civil Defense. Read more here.
Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinian captives to Gaza on Monday, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The handover came one day after Hamas returned the remains of Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin, who was killed during Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza. The handover brings the number of Palestinian bodies returned by Israel to Gaza to 315. All of them were unidentified and many bore signs of torture, abuse, and summary execution. Only 91 have been identified so far. The health ministry said 38 of the unidentified bodies were buried today, bringing the total number of unidentified bodies received from Israel that have been buried to 182. With the latest exchange, only four bodies of Israeli captives remain in Gaza. Under the terms of the agreement, Israel hands over 15 Palestinian bodies for every Israeli body.
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday as ceasefire talks continue. Kushner was helping to lead negotiations to resolve a standoff involving trapped Hamas fighters in Rafah, with a plan that involved the disarmament of the fighters and a “safe exit” to a third country. In a statement on Sunday, the Al-Qassam Brigades said Israel “bears full responsibility for the eruption of clashes with our mujahideen (fighters) in Rafah, who are defending themselves in an area under its control. Let the enemy know that the term ‘surrender’ doesn’t exist in the dictionary of the Al-Qassam Brigades,” adding mediators “must find a solution to ensure the continuation of the ceasefire and prevent the enemy from using flimsy pretexts to violate it and exploit such situation to target innocent civilians in Gaza.” Meanwhile, Hamas Political Bureau Member Muhammad Nazzal confirmed that the group is involved in political efforts to secure the release of the fighters, according to Al Jazeera Mubasher. He dismissed the notion of sending the fighters into exile as part of a “safe exit plan.”
The World Bank endorsed the U.S. draft of a plan involving a transitional “Board of Peace” in Gaza, Reuters reported Sunday. The Bank signaled its readiness to act on “day one” to help with rebuilding Gaza, which has been estimated to cost $70 Billion.
Egyptian FM Badr Abdelatty and Qatari PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani spoke by phone on Sunday to discuss the state of the ceasefire in Gaza, as reported by Al-Qahera news and others. During the call, they reaffirmed their support for an “international stabilization force” in Gaza, though one far more limited in scope than the one proposed by the Americans. They also agreed that any future political arrangement must include a single Palestinian government linking Gaza and the West Bank, while also discussing the situation in Sudan.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad official Mohammed al-Hindi stated his group’s objection to the present plan for a “Board of Peace” and an “international stabilization force” in Gaza, framing both as diversions from the “national rights” Palestinian leadership has claimed. Al-Hindi said “This is not about supervision — the Americans want to impose their vision and strip the resistance of its weapons” in his interview with Al Jazeera.
British-Palestinian surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta described the evidence for systematic organ theft from the bodies of Palestinians recently returned from Israeli custody in an interview with Al Jazeera. He says that hearts, lungs, kidneys, and corneas were surgically removed, and noted surgical cuts and evidence of stitching to this effect, as well as skin with burn marks consistent with the use of preservation chemicals.
The U.S. is replacing Israel as the overseer of humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to the Washington Post. Operations have reportedly been taken over by the U.S.-run Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) and are no longer directly in the hands of Israel, though they have asserted their right to monitor and supervise aid operations. Since the ceasefire went into effect, the amount of aid allowed into Gaza has been far below the minimum number of trucks needed to sustain basic needs as agreed in the “ceasefire” deal.
West Bank and Israel
Attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers are continuing across the occupied West Bank. Setters attacked Palestinian shepherds south of Nablus on Monday, according to the Wafa news agency. In the nearby village of Majdal Bani Fadil, settlers set fire to dozens of olive trees belonging to Palestinians. Israeli forces also blocked Palestinian teachers in the Jordan Valley, preventing them from reaching their schools to teach classes.
On Saturday, over a dozen people, including two Reuters journalists and an Al Jazeera journalist, were injured when Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians at an olive harvest near the West Bank village of Beita. The settlers wielded clubs and hurled large rocks, according to the Reuters report.
The Israeli military started a large-scale three-day exercise “to enhance operational readiness” across the West Bank, it announced on Monday. “Over the course of the exercise days, enemy simulations, drones, various combat vehicles, and other means will be employed, and active movement of security forces and aerial assets will be observed in the area,” a military spokesperson said in a post on X.
442 Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank in October, including 33 children and 3 women, according to the Prisoners’ Commission, Adameer, and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society. According to the report, Bethlehem experienced the greatest number of arrests, and as of November 2025, 9,250 detainees total remain in Israeli prisons.
The Prisoners’ Media Office released a report based on the testimony of freed prisoner Yousef al-Zhour, who spoke to the scale of abuses suffered by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons since the war broke out on October 7, 2023. Included among the details are the deliberate contamination of food, meal rationing that “did not even feed a quarter of the prisoners,” and the use of stun grenades inside the prison, including an incident in which guards deployed these grenades on Eid al-Fitr described as “celebrating the holiday our way.”
An Israeli man, alleged to have beaten 53-year-old Palestinian woman Afaf Abu Alia in Turmus’ayyah, was arrested by Israeli police on Sunday. The man is accused of using a club studded with nails, and has been detained until at least November 16th. His arrest follows international outrage at the images and also occasioned a visit from a delegation of French MEPs, which called upon the European Union to act in response to the wave of settler violence in the West Bank.
Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the former Israeli military prosecutor who leaked footage of Israeli soldiers raping a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman prison, attempted suicide early Sunday, an Israeli police commissioner confirmed to the Times of Israel. She said she acted to expose crimes committed under her office’s watch, after the video’s release ignited national outrage, global condemnation, and criminal charges against the soldiers involved.
U.S. News
A deal was reached to end the government shutdown on Sunday evening. The deal entails a commitment to hold a future vote on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies—not a commitment to the subsidies themselves—and was reached after eight Senate Democrats cleaved from Sen. Chuck Schumer. Sen. Bernie Sanders, among others, advocated against the agreement, warning that it fails to guarantee the spending needed for critical programs, while giving up a significant amount of the Democrats’ leverage in the process.
After failing to secure a reduction in healthcare premiums that motivated the government shutdown, Sen. Chuck Schumer is facing criticism from members of his own party. Rep. Ro Khanna called him “no longer effective” and urged him to resign, while this MSNBC panel issued some pointed criticism: “How do you lose that negotiation after you just won an election?”
Israeli public relations officials considered developing a “geofencing campaign” alongside an evangelical consulting company called “Show Faith by Works,” according to reporting from Haaretz. The project would map every major church and Christian college in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado, track worshippers’ mobile devices during services, and later target them with ads portraying Palestinians as terrorists and Hamas sympathizers. Filings describe it as “the largest geofencing campaign in U.S. history,” seeking to reach 8 million churchgoers and 4 million Christian students.
Palestinian-American Sam Rasoul, the Virginia Democratic assemblyman who is currently the longest-serving Muslim lawmaker in the country, described his victory in Tuesday’s election, saying “A 70% victory in the Bible belt of Virginia for a Palestinian Muslim is really a validation, beyond just Democrats winning, that you can be bold on the Gaza genocide and still be victorious.” The Guardian published a recent profile of Rasoul and can be read here.
More than 700 runners in the New York Marathon wore “Drop TCS” bibs, demanding that the marathon’s organizers cut ties with title sponsor Tata Consultancy Services, which has provided financial services and technological support to the Israeli government.
At least 20 arrests of protesters charged for their alleged violence in anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles have resulted in dismissals or acquittals, according to a report from NBC News. Former federal prosecutors say the discrepancy between what the administration described and the evidence presented in court has created skepticism among judges and juries, with one prosecutor saying “We are not supposed to bring a case you cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt. But they are filing cases they know they cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The Los Angeles Tenants’ Union organized for the enforcement of the city’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance and secured the first-ever TAHO-based fines and criminal charges against a Highland Park landlord. Of the 21,402 complaints the city had received under the measure, only 35 cases have been referred to the city attorney in the four years since the Ordinance passed.
International News
The Israeli military announced that it killed at least three Lebanese citizens in separate attacks on southern Lebanon on Monday. The attacks come a day after Israeli drone strikes killed two Lebanese citizens on Sunday, according to L’Orient Today and the Lebanese Health Ministry. Lebanon’s Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine said 28 citizens were killed last month as a result of Israeli attacks.. Of those killings, 15 have occurred in the last week.
Pakistan’s Senate voted to pass a constitutional amendment that critics say would convert the government into a de facto military dictatorship. Under the amendment, Gen. Asim Munir would make permanent his promotion to field marshal. The position of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff would also be abolished and replaced with a more powerful chief of defense forces, while legal immunities and protections from removal would be extended to these military officers. A senator from former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party cast a key to pass the amendment and then immediately resigned. The constitutional amendments come after two years of brutal suppression of political dissent in Pakistan, mostly targeting supporters of imprisoned Khan.
A barrage of drones and missiles launched by Russia over the weekend on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions killed 7 people, while damaging nuclear power substations, according to Reuters. The drone attacks also hit an apartment building and other facilities in Dnipro, leaving thousands without water and power. Ukrainian officials stated that emergency repairs had stabilized some parts of the energy grid by Saturday morning.
Druze fighters attacked a security unit in southern Syria’s Suwayda province on Saturday, killing one Syrian Army officer and wounding three others, according to a report from The New Arab. The attackers were allegedly part of the “National Guard” group, which aligns itself with Druze community leader Hikmat al-Hijri. Suwayda has seen multiple clashes between Druze militants and government forces since Thursday, despite a ceasefire between the groups.
A Sudanese doctors’ organization accused the Rapid Support Forces of concealing evidence of genocide by burning bodies and burying them in mass graves, according to Al Jazeera. The Sudan Doctors Network said that the paramilitary group collected hundreds of bodies from the recently captured city of El-Fasher. Other reports have documented that the dominant ethnic group of the region, the Zaghawa, has been subjected to insults, humiliation, and physical and psychological abuse because of its alliance with the army during the war.
Iran’s city of Mashhad is experiencing water difficulties similar to Tehran, with an AFP report on Sunday claiming the city’s reservoirs have dropped below 3 percent of capacity. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has considered evacuating Tehran in light of its water problems, saying, “If it does not rain in Tehran by December, we should ration water; if it still does not rain, we must empty Tehran.”
Australia passed a new law that prohibits anyone under 16 from creating accounts on major social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. The law goes into effect December 10, 2025 and legislates that companies must verify users’ ages and block minors from use—or face fines up to $49.5 million. Messaging and education apps may get exemptions, though the law has faced criticism for the precedent it sets regarding government involvement in the digital life of citizens.
An Israeli soldier attacked students peacefully protesting a pro-Israel “Combat on Campus” event featuring Israeli veterans, a video from Middle East Eye showed. The soldier can be seen shoving students through glass doors, yelling, and grabbing protesters in an attempt to remove them from the venue. Following the event, five of the protesters—and not their assailant—were arrested by the Toronto Police Service.
Italian journalist Gabriele Nunziati was fired by his outlet, Agenzia Nova, after asking the European Commission whether Israel should pay to rebuild Gaza, just as the EU says Russia should pay to rebuild Ukraine. Another Italian journalist, Vicenzo Genovese, asked the European Commission to comment on the dismissal on Sunday, and its press representative evaded the question about reconstruction, while expressing a commitment to “freedom of the press” and redirecting the question about his removal to his former employer.
More From Drop Site
Ryan Grim joined UK journalist Sulaiman Ahmed to discuss the lawsuit the BBC’s Raffi Berg filed against Owen Jones, as well as Drop Site’s efforts on Jones’s behalf. The full interview can be watched here, and you can donate to our legal fund here.
“Jeffrey Epstein Helped Israel Sell a Surveillance State to Côte d’Ivoire”: Jeffrey Epstein and former Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak were specialists in war profiteering. Drop Site’s latest in an ongoing series about Epstein’s ties to Israel’s intelligence covers how the two men worked together as a conduit for Israel’s intelligence sector in Côte d’Ivoire, a west African country where Barak was welcomed as a representative of the Israeli government even after leaving public office. Epstein helped Barak deliver a proposal for mass surveillance of Ivorian phone and internet communications, crafted by former Israeli intelligence officials. A decade later, that apparatus is helping keep an authoritarian leader in power.
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Israel not only steals the land of the Palestinians there is evidence that they steal Palestinian body parts off the dead.
Politics and military actions continue while ordinary people suffer. Accountability isn’t optional—it’s urgent