Satellite images show RSF burning and burying thousands of bodies to hide mass killings in El-Fasher; Trump orders naval blockade of Venezuela

Drop Site Daily: December 17, 2025

Up to 17 Palestinians have died in Gaza since winter storms hit the enclave. Israel and the U.S. plan to divide up Rafah and to build a “new city.” President Donald Trump expands his “Muslim Ban,” applying travel restrictions primarily to Muslim-majority African and Asian countries. U.S. unemployment rises to its highest level in four years. Miriam Adelson discusses the legality of a third Trump term with attorney Alan Dershowitz. U.S. moves Cuban migrants to Guantánamo detention site. Hegseth says he will withhold the video of a second strike on a Venezuelan boat from September. A plurality of GOP voters oppose new military aid to Israel. Trump ends Biden-era student loan repayment program. Israeli strikes continue in Lebanon, killing two. Trump’s Venezuela campaign centers on control of its oil. Trump claims Venezuela is encircled by the ‘largest armada’ in South American history, as Venezuela plans to denounce the U.S. at the UN. Bondi Beach shooting suspect charged. Honduras’s former president Juan Orlando Hernández pushes back on coup claims amid Honduras’ election standoff. A Pakistani official says Imran Khan must remain imprisoned on national security grounds. Militants carry out coordinated bank robberies in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. UAE condemns RSF drone attack on UN base in Kadugli. Sudan’s army is targeting non-Arab farming communities. Zelenskyy says peace talks could yield a deal within days. M23 says it will withdraw from Uvira after U.S. pressure. Thailand says Cambodia must take the lead on a ceasefire.

New from Drop Site: A new report documents systematic killings in Sudan’s El Fasher. Nearly a million tons of waste have accumulated across Gaza. We discuss Sudan, the UAE, and more on our weekly livestream.

New petition from Drop Site, “Stand Against Governors’ Unconstitutional Attacks on Religious Freedom”: Following Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s nearly identical attack in November, Governor Ron DeSantis has become the second governor to issue an unconstitutional proclamation falsely declaring CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, a “foreign terrorist organization.” Drop Site has created a petition to stand up for religious freedom, reject anti-Muslim bigotry, and protect constitutional rights for all.

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

Activity observed by the Yale Humanitarian Lab within greater El-Fasher, Darfur, between October 27 and November 28, 2025 (Source: Yale Humanitarian Lab).

The Genocide in Gaza

• Casualty counts in the last 24 hours: Over the past 24 hours, the body of one Palestinian arrived at a hospital, while one Palestinian was injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 70,668 killed, with 171,152 injured.

• Total casualty counts since ceasefire: Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 394 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,075, while 634 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health.

• Death toll from winter storm: At least 12 Palestinians have died as a result of the winter storms, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, including 11 killed in building collapses and a two-week-old baby who died due to extreme cold. Estimates by Gaza’s Civil Defense put the death toll at 17, including four children who died of extreme cold.

• Buildings collapsing and shelters flooding in Gaza: At least 17 residential buildings have completely collapsed and 90 partially collapsed across Gaza since winter storms hit the enclave this season, Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said in a statement. He added that some 90% of all shelters in the Gaza Strip have been completely flooded and that Civil Defense teams have received more than 5,000 calls for help.

• Israel and the U.S. plan to divide Rafah into numbered zones: After extensive discussions, Israeli and U.S. officials have agreed to divide Rafah into numbered geographic zones inside what Israel calls a “new city,” according to the Hebrew outlet Walla. Coordination has been ongoing between the Israeli military, intelligence services, and U.S. officials in Kiryat Gat on a master plan for restructuring Rafah. Israeli Southern Command sources described the move as a “significant advance,” saying engineering activity is expected to start once approvals are finalized.

• Hamas official warns that ceasefire is nearing collapse: Hamas says Israeli violations are pushing the Gaza ceasefire toward collapse, with senior negotiator Ghazi Hamad warning the agreement is now “hanging in the balance.” Hamad said Hamas has documented more than 813 Israeli breaches of the ceasefire—averaging about 25 per day—including killings, airstrikes, ground incursions, aid restrictions, and violations of agreed-upon buffer lines. Israel has killed around 400 Palestinians since the ceasefire began, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, with more than 95% of them civilians.

West Bank and Israel

• Israeli raids detain at least 40 across the West Bank: Israeli forces have conducted raids across the occupied West Bank and detained at least 40 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

• Israel moves to further undermine UNRWA: Israel’s Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has unanimously advanced a bill to cut water and electricity to properties registered to UNRWA, moving it to second and third readings and bringing it close to becoming law, International Middle East Media Center reported. The legislation would force providers to withhold or disconnect services from any facility listed under UNRWA’s name and would allow the state to seize UNRWA properties in Jerusalem without normal legal proceedings. The move comes on the heels of an Israeli raid on UNRWA’s Jerusalem headquarters and is widely seen as part of a broader push to dismantle the agency’s presence and erase the Palestinian refugee issue from political negotiations.

• 2025 sees largest settlement expansion in West Bank since 2017: UN Deputy Special Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov reported that Israel’s cabinet approved or “regularized” 19 settlements on December 11 and advanced more than 6,300 settlement housing units during the latest UN reporting period, pushing 2025 to the highest level of settlement expansion since UN tracking began in 2017.

U.S. News

• Trump expands U.S. travel restrictions: President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Tuesday sharply expanding U.S. travel restrictions, reviving and widening the framework of his “Muslim Ban.” The revision upholds prohibitions on travel for nationals from 12 previously announced countries, and adds new restrictions on migrants from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria. The order also targets individuals holding Palestinian Authority–issued passports for the first time. Partial limits on travel apply to individuals from the remainder of the 39 countries addressed in the order, all of which are in the global South, and exemptions that were carved out in a previous order were narrowed, such as those for adoptees, immediate family members of U.S. citizens, and Afghan special immigrant visa holders.

• U.S. levels of unemployment reach a four-year high: The U.S. economy lost 105,000 jobs in October and added just 64,000 in November, pushing unemployment to a four-year high of 4.6% and putting the labor market on track for its weakest year of job growth since the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the report, monthly job growth has slowed to about 55,000 through November, and the economy has shed jobs in three of the past six months.

• Adelson consults Dershowitz about a third Trump term: Billionaire Trump donor Miriam Adelson said she spoke with attorney Alan Dershowitz in Israel about the legality of President Donald Trump serving a third four-year term. “We can do it… think about it. I will give you another $250 million,” Adelson said to an audience at the White House.

• U.S. transfers Cuban migrants to Guantánamo Bay: The United States transferred 22 Cuban migrants to the Guantánamo Bay naval base this week, repopulating the detention site for the first time in two months, according to a new report from the New York Times. The transfer was the first since a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration lacked authority to detain migrants designated for deportation at the base.

• Hegseth refuses to release video of the second strike on a Venezuelan boat: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the Pentagon will not publicly release video of a deadly second U.S. strike on an alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela on September 2, despite mounting calls from lawmakers for its release. Hegseth said that the footage is “top-secret,” and that, as a result, it will be shown privately to congressional armed services committees. Democrats and legal experts have described the strike—carried out roughly 30 minutes after the first, when two survivors were clinging to the overturned boat—as a potential war crime, a charge the administration denies.

• AOC is not satisfied with a classified briefing on Venezuela: Asked by Pablo Manriquez of Migrant Insider whether she was satisfied with a classified briefing on Venezuela, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she was not. “Oh, hell no. It was a joke,” Ocasio-Cortez said, adding that it was “not a serious intelligence briefing” but “the communication of an opinion.”

• New poll finds that a plurality of Republicans oppose additional military aid to Israel: A plurality of Republicans oppose extending a $38 billion U.S. military aid agreement with Israel, with 42% saying the deal should lapse and just 35% supporting renewal, according to a new YouGov poll conducted with the IMEU Policy Project. Opposition to aid is strongest among Republicans aged 18 to 44. The survey found broad GOP support for independently investigating the killing of U.S. civilians by Israeli forces.

• Trump is targeting Venezuela’s oil, NYT says: Venezuela’s vast oil reserves sit at the center of President Donald Trump’s campaign against Nicolás Maduro, the New York Times reported. U.S. military actions, tanker seizures, and sanctions have unfolded amid behind-the-scenes efforts to seize control of the world’s largest oil reserves. Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has openly pitched U.S. access to Venezuela’s energy wealth, saying, “I am talking about a $1.7 trillion opportunity.” Read the full report here.

• Trump cuts Biden student loan program: Borrowers enrolled in President Joe Biden’s “SAVE” student loan repayment program face sharply higher payments after the Trump administration announced it will end the plan, forcing nearly eight million people into new repayment schemes that advocates warn will deepen financial strain and delinquency. “This is a policy choice by the Trump administration to make it worse for everybody,” said Mike Pierce of Protect Borrowers. A full report on the death of the program at The American Prospect is available here.

International News

• Israel kills two in strikes on Lebanon: Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed two people on Tuesday, with one strike occurring near Beirut, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel says the strikes targeted Hezbollah operatives, but did not provide further details; it has killed about 340 people since the ceasefire took effect.

• Trump says Venezuela is surrounded by “largest armada” in South America’s history: President Donald Trump said Venezuela is “completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the history of South America,” warning it will grow until Caracas returns “all of the oil, land, and other assets” he claimed were taken from the U.S. Trump said he is ordering “a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers” entering or leaving Venezuela.

• Venezuela will denounce the U.S. at the UN: The Venezuelan government said that it will denounce President Donald Trump’s blockade as illegal before the United Nations. Venezuela previously raised the issue of the U.S.’s recent campaign of extrajudicial executions at the UN, but the body took no substantive action.

• Suspect charged in Bondi Beach killing: The surviving suspect in the mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach was charged Wednesday with murder, terrorism, and causing grievous bodily harm, Australian police said. Authorities said the father-and-son gunmen acted on behalf of the terrorist group Islamic State. Australian authorities have used the shooting as a justification for curbing mass demonstrations, linking the militants to the country’s peaceful pro-Palestinian protest movement. Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, proposed legislation that would enable police to reject an application for a protest, because it might “stretch resources.”

• Former Honduran president denies plot to destabilize post-election process: Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández rejected President Xiomara Castro’s claim that he is planning to return to Honduras to destabilize the post-election process, calling the allegation “completely false.” Castro had warned of a possible coup attempt, alleging Hernández—recently pardoned in the United States on drug trafficking charges—was preparing to undermine the constitutional order. The dispute between Castro and Hernández comes against a backdrop of growing criticism of the country’s election council, which has yet to produce a credible final result and continues to resist calls for a full recount.

• Pakistan pressed to contribute to Gaza’s “stabilization force”: Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir is facing a major political test, with Washington expected to press Islamabad to contribute troops to a U.S.-backed Gaza “stabilization force” under President Donald Trump’s plan, Reuters reported. Munir is due to visit Washington for talks with Trump as U.S.–Pakistan ties warm after years of mistrust, but analysts warn refusal could anger Trump and jeopardize U.S. investment and security aid, while deployment would risk fierce domestic backlash in a strongly pro-Palestinian country. Now wielding unprecedented power after being appointed overall defense chief and granted constitutionally protected lifetime immunity, Munir has consulted with Muslim-majority states also weighing participation, though Reuters says a Gaza deployment could trigger protests by Islamist groups and opposition supporters, potentially destabilizing Pakistan.

• Pakistani government representative says Khan must remain imprisoned for “national security” reasons: Prime Minister spokesperson Mosharraf Zaidi acknowledged in a Tuesday interview with Sky News that he once criticized Imran Khan’s arrest and Pakistan’s “rigged system,” but said heightened tensions with India, Afghanistan, and Iran mean Khan now poses a “national security risk” and must remain imprisoned.

• Militants rob Balochistan banks, steal 150 million rupees: Heavily armed militants looted at least three banks in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Monday, stealing about 150 million Pakistani rupees, before clashing with security forces in Panjgur district, killing one police officer and a civilian, authorities told the AFP. Officials said the attackers were separatists from the Baloch Liberation Army, which has intensified attacks in the resource-rich, but impoverished, province, and has been designated a terrorist organization by Pakistan, the United States, and others.

• New report on systematic killings in El Fasher: The Rapid Support Forces carried out systematic mass killings in El Fasher and then destroyed evidence, according to a report from Yale’s School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab published on Dec.16. Based on satellite imagery, the team assessed with high confidence that RSF forces killed civilians after seizing full control of El Fasher on Oct. 26, 2025, identifying mass body clusters, signs of burning and disturbed earth, and patterns consistent with executions, killings of fleeing civilians, and abuses at detention and military sites.

• UAE condemns RSF drone attack on a UN logistics base in Kadugli: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) condemned a drone attack on a UNISFA logistics base in Kadugli, Sudan, that killed and injured members of the Bangladeshi peacekeeping contingent, an assault Sudanese military officials said was carried out by the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces. While Abu Dhabi acknowledged the strike violated international law and United Nations Security Council Resolution 2802, it continues to deny backing the RSF, despite extensive documentation across UN reports, media and human rights group investigations, and open-source intelligence linking the militia to the UAE.

• Sudan’s army targeted non-Arab farming communities, CNN reports: An investigation by CNN, in collaboration with Lighthouse Reports, documented a coordinated, ethnically targeted killing campaign by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied Islamist militias against non-Arab, Kanabi farming communities in the Al Jazirah state, with at least 39 villages attacked or destroyed from late 2024 into early 2025. Using verified videos, satellite imagery, and witness testimony, the investigation shows SAF forces executing civilians, dumping bodies into irrigation canals, and burying victims in mass graves—after the army retook Wad Madani. Survivors and security sources have described coordination among SAF senior officials and have alleged racial targeting that human rights experts say may amount to ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

• Zelenskyy says a peace deal may materialize within days: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said proposals negotiated with U.S. officials to end its war with Russia could be finalized within days and presented to Moscow. Zelenskyy said roughly 90% of a U.S.-authored peace plan has the support of Ukraine and its European allies, and that the plan includes strong postwar security guarantees, though key disputes remain over occupied territory, which Kyiv refuses to recognize as Russian, despite signals from President Donald Trump that such concessions may be required.

• Fighters kill at least 22 civilians northeast of Kinshasa: Militia fighters killed at least 22 civilians, including women and children, in the village of Nkana in the western Democratic Republic of Congo on November 23, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday. HRW says the recent assault appears to be a retaliatory one, tied to escalating communal violence in the region. Mobondo fighters, associated with the Yaka community, went door to door killing mostly ethnic Teke residents. The conflict has killed hundreds since 2022, and mediation efforts by Congolese authorities have failed to halt the violence.

• M23 says it will withdraw from Uvira after pressure from Washington: Rwanda-backed M23 rebels said they would withdraw from the eastern Congolese town of Uvira at the request of the U.S. administration, after Washington criticized the seizure as undermining mediation efforts tied to the Washington Accords, according to reporting from Reuters. The group undertook the measure, it says, to build trust in the Doha peace process, though residents have reported that M23 fighters remain in the town.

• Suicide bomber attacks Nigerian military installation: A suicide bomber attacked a military position near Pulka in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, killing at least five soldiers, according to security and local defense sources cited by the AFP. The assault comes amid an uptick in terrorist attacks on Nigerian military bases this year, raising concerns about a resurgence of Boko Haram in the country’s north.

• Thailand says Cambodia must take the lead on a ceasefire: Thailand said Cambodia must be the first to declare a ceasefire to end the latest round of fighting between the two neighbors, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson calling Cambodia the aggressor and demanding cooperation on clearing landmines along the border. The clashes, reignited by a skirmish on December 7, have killed at least 32 people and have displaced around 800,000.

• “Squeezing Water from the Rubble in Syria”: A dispatch from Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, follows the work of the Palestinian House: a grassroots initiative working to restore access to water in this community, which has been shattered by war, siege, and state abandonment. “Without water, there is no life,” says surgeon and organizer Khaldoun al-Mallah, who returned from exile to help rebuild the camp, adding that every borehole dug is “a step toward reviving our homes.” Read the full report at Jacobin here.

• Imprisoned hunger strikers in the UK are risking death: Lawyers for several activists linked to the protest group Palestine Action, who are imprisoned in Britain, have warned the UK government they could die as a result of an ongoing hunger strike. In a letter to Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, the lawyers wrote “Given the context of our clients’ rapidly deteriorating health and the increasing likelihood that they might die as a result of this strike, this is highly concerning,” according to the Guardian. The letter added the hunger strikers commitment “means that their death is increasingly more than a mere possibility. It is a likelihood, particularly if the situation remains unresolved.” Of 29 activists affiliated with Palestine Action in prison over their alleged involvement in break-ins at the UK subsidiary of the Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems and a Royal Air Force base, eight are on hunger strike across five prisons, including two who have refused food for 45 days and another who is on day 44. Five have been hospitalized.

More From Drop Site

• Israel is causing a garbage crisis in Gaza: With Israel controlling Gaza’s major landfill areas, roughly 900,000 tons of solid waste have accumulated across Gaza over the past two years, severely exacerbating an acute environmental and public health crisis. “This is my tent and this is the garbage dump I’m living across from,” displaced Gaza City resident Amin Sabri told Drop Site. Read the latest from Drop Site contributor Abdel Qader Sabbah and Sharif Abdel Kouddous here.

• Livestream Highlights

  • “We’re talking about tens of thousands—an enormous number of people have been killed,” Nathaniel Raymond of the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab told Drop Site. “We don’t see an alternative hypothesis,” Raymond said, noting that while roughly 260,000 people were in El-Fasher when it fell to the Rapid Support Forces in late October, only an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 remain in the city.

  • The importance of the UAE to the RSF: Asked how crucial the United Arab Emirates’s backing of the Rapid Support Forces is to Sudan’s war, Raymond said it is “decisive.” “The level of covert support from the UAE to the RSF is the single most decisive assistance operation for a paramilitary force since Operation Cyclone,” Raymond told Drop Site.

  • Biden vs. Trump on Sudan: Raymond also told Drop Site that there is “almost no daylight” between the Biden administration and President Donald Trump’s policy towards Sudan, arguing that both prioritized relations with the United Arab Emirates over stopping mass atrocities. The difference, Raymond said, is that Trump’s approach is unfolding amid what he described as “clear violations of the Emoluments Clause.”

  • Sharif Abdel Kouddous provides a brief outline of the conflict: Sharif Abdel Kouddous traces Sudan’s war from the 2019 uprising that overthrew Omar al-Bashir through the collapse of the civilian transition and to the April 2023 split between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in this video. He illustrates the scale of the catastrophe now unfolding, with more than 33 million people in need of aid, 19 million facing crisis levels of hunger, between 7 and 13 million displaced, and mass killings and sexual violence across Darfur spreading into the central Kordofan region.

  • Our full livestream can be accessed here.

• Pablo Torre highlighted Drop Site News’ work on Epstein and Israel on his podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out.” Torre read from previously unreleased Epstein emails first obtained by Drop Site, and was joined by Brace Belden and Liz Franczak of the podcast TrueAnon. Listen to the full podcast here.

• Our community in action: Our Gaza Journalist Fund raised over $315,000 to support 89 of our Palestinian colleagues on the ground documenting the genocide. You helped us turn Refaat Alareer’s posthumous book “If I Must Die” into a USA Today bestseller, then funded the purchase and hand-delivery of 535 copies—one for every member of Congress. When a top BBC editor filed a lawsuit over our investigation into the BBC’s Gaza coverage, over 4,000 of you responded with more than $250,000 to defend our reporting and support our legal costs.

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