Israel-backed gang leader killed in Gaza; Israel strikes Lebanon amid talks; ICE in New Orleans
Drop Site Daily: December 4, 2025
Israeli attacks kill six people across Gaza, with 16 others injured, in the past 24 hours. Yasser Abu Shabab, leader of Israel-backed gang, is killed. Israeli tanks roll into Gaza City. Israel and Hamas trade casualties in Rafah. Israeli forces used bulldozers to hide the bodies of Palestinians killed while seeking aid at Zikim. President Donald Trump says the ceasefire is “moving along.” Israel strikes four towns in southern Lebanon in a new military operation announced Thursday. Lebanon and Israel hold first direct talks in 40 years. Israeli raids near Tubas in the West Bank. Israel is building a fence through the Jordan Valley, on the model of its West Bank wall. DHS launches another raid in a major American city, this time in New Orleans. Trump pardons Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar on his bribery case, primarily because he shares his right-wing immigration views. Legal experts warn Microsoft about its complicity in the Gaza genocide. Changes in medical record-keeping at the Department of Veterans Affairs portend disaster. Romanian navy intercepts a Ukrainian-manufactured drone. Indian police kill 12 Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh. A bomb in northwestern Pakistan kills three police officers, while Afghanistan-Pakistan talks stall. Fighting intensifies in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Drop Site publishes a report on the seizure of land in Syria from Hoda Matar, and a piece on the astroturf campaign against opposition media overseen by a key figure in UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s orbit.
This is Drop Site Daily, our new, free daily news recap. We send it Monday through Friday.
The Genocide in Gaza
New Israeli attacks: At least six Palestinians have been killed and 16 others injured in new Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Casualty counts in last 24 hours: The bodies of eight Palestinians, including six killed and two recovered from the rubble, arrived at hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 70,125 killed, with 171,015 injured.
Total casualty counts since ceasefire: Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 366 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 922, while 619 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health.
Yasser Abu Shabab, leader of Israel-backed armed group, reportedly killed: Yasser Abu Shabab—leader of a criminal gang in Gaza accused of looting humanitarian aid convoys—was reportedly killed in an “internal clash” on Thursday, according to Israeli sources. Before the war, Abu Shabab was jailed in Gaza on drug trafficking charges, and during the war, Israeli officials said they were cooperating with armed groups in Gaza, including the so-called “Popular Forces” led by Abu Shabab. It is unclear who is responsible for killing Abu Shabab.
Israeli and Palestinian resistance soldiers exchange casualties in Rafah, which Israel tries to frame as a ceasefire violation: The Israeli military says five soldiers were wounded in eastern Rafah on Wednesday, after troops encountered several resistance fighters emerging from a tunnel, according to the Times of Israel. Two resistance fighters were killed in an initial exchange, and a third fighter placed an explosive on an Israeli armored vehicle and escaped. The IDF reported that one of the soldiers, part of the Golani Brigade, was seriously wounded, while three others were moderately injured and the fifth was lightly hurt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting and tried to seize the opportunity afforded by the casualties to frame Hamas as violating the ceasefire. In a statement, the PM’s office wrote that the “Hamas terrorist organization” violated the ceasefire in Rafah, where soldiers have been known to be trapped for weeks. Israel is refusing to let resistance fighters cross west under any negotiated terms, and Israeli forces have been systematically hunting and killing these fighters—at least 42 since the ceasefire began. When those fighters attempt to defend themselves, Israel uses it as a pretext to bomb and kill across Gaza, not just Rafah, mostly murdering civilians.
Victims of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis: At least six people, including two children, were killed when Israeli drones struck tents sheltering displaced families in Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, on Wednesday, Al Jazeera Arabic reports. The victims were taken to Kuwait Hospital following the attack.
Israeli tanks push into Gaza City beyond the “yellow line”: Israeli tanks pushed into Gaza City on Tuesday, reaching the Shujaiya roundabout roughly 700 meters west of the agreed-upon “yellow line,” according to Euro-Med Monitor’s Maha Hussaini, who says Israel has been quietly shifting the line on an almost daily basis and forcing hundreds of families from their homes.
Israeli forces used bulldozers to bury the bodies of Palestinians killed while seeking aid at Zikim: The IDF used bulldozers to bury Palestinians killed while trying to reach food aid near the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza, a new CNN report shows, with some bodies pushed into shallow, unmarked graves and others left exposed to decompose or be scavenged by animals. The investigation found that corpses were often left for days and then buried without identification or record, including what one veteran described as “nine bodies of unarmed Palestinians” pushed together and covered by a bulldozer. The full report can be watched here.
Israel confirms reception, identity of the remains handed over on Wednesday morning: Israel confirmed on Wednesday that the remains of Thai captive Sudthisak Rinthalak were recovered in Gaza. With his body returned, Israeli Ran Gvili is now the last captive whose remains have yet to be returned, while more than 9,000 Palestinian bodies remain unaccounted for in Gaza.
UN calls for investigation into the deaths of brothers Fadi and Goma Abu Assi: The UN is demanding an investigation after Israeli forces killed two Gaza children—brothers Fadi and Goma Abu Assi, ages 8 and 10—in a targeted drone strike when they were collecting firewood. Israel acknowledged carrying out the attack, claiming the boys were “two terrorists” crossing the yellow line who posed an “imminent threat.” A UN spokesperson responded to the incident saying, “It’s hard to see how two boys, eight and 10, can be considered a threat. There needs to be an investigation and accountability.”
West Bank and Israel
Four Palestinians detained in Dura: Israeli forces detained four Palestinians in the town of Dura, southwest of Hebron, and armed settlers attacked several residents in the Masafer Yatta area. Soldiers fired stun grenades and tear gas toward residents during the raid, before detaining four unidentified young men, according to the The Wafa news agency. Separately, Israeli settlers reportedly held several members of the al-Adra family in the Rujum Ali area of Masafer Yatta by force.
Netanyahu looks forward to deals with “Palestinians fighting Hamas”: At Wednesday’s NYT DealBook Summit, Netanyahu told Andrew Ross Sorkin he could “do peace accords… with many countries, including Islamic countries outside the region” without committing to a Palestinian state, even though key states like Saudi Arabia say normalization depends on one. He added that he can only pursue diplomatic expansion once he’s “free” of his corruption trials, for which he has recently requested a pardon. In the same appearance, he attacked the Palestinian Authority as “very corrupt,” described worldwide condemnation of the Israeli government as “medieval antisemitism,” and signalled his interest in working with “Palestinians fighting Hamas”—a reference to Israeli-backed gangs in Gaza, who have, among other things, been credibly accused of looting aid and trafficking drugs into the enclave. Addressing NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, he said he intended to “come to New York,” despite Mamdani’s campaign promise to enforce an ICC warrant for his arrest. “Yes, of course I will [come]… Why don’t you wait and see?”
Israeli raids near Tubas: Israeli forces stormed Al-Fara’a camp south of Tubas on Wednesday evening, arriving with several military vehicles and infantry units that fanned out through the camp’s neighborhoods, according to Al Araby.
IDF’s fence through the Jordan Valley: Israel is building a new separation barrier deep inside the Jordan Valley—at least 12 kilometers west of the Jordanian border—according to Haaretz. The 22-kilometer, 50-meter-wide northern segment now underway requires the demolition of homes, greenhouses, water systems, and grazing infrastructure. The project intends to cut Palestinian farming and herding communities off from their land and from one another, similar to the fragmentation caused by the West Bank separation wall.
U.S. News
DHS launches another “immigration enforcement” campaign in New Orleans: The Department of Homeland Security launched “Operation Catahoula Crunch” in New Orleans, a sweeping “immigration enforcement” campaign that officials say will target “criminal illegal aliens,” though similar operations in other cities have led to thousands of arrests of people with no criminal record and have sparked widespread protests. The crackdown—unfolding amid new state laws compelling cooperation with ICE and a recent legal challenge from the ACLU—has left immigrant communities on edge, with residents reporting arrests across the city on its first day and advocates warning the operation will extend far beyond violent offenders.
Trump pardons former Congressman Cuellar and his wife: On Wednesday, President Donald Trump pardoned Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife, halting their pending trial on charges that they accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexican bank. Trump dismissed the case as a politically motivated prosecution. “He was treated very badly because he said that people should not be allowed to pour into our country,” Trump said. According to the indictment, Rep. Cuellar promised to use his position to influence American policy in a way that would favor the government of Azerbaijan and to support policies that might help the Mexican bank; his wife was also accused of accepting fraudulent consulting contracts from these companies.
Palantir’s Alex Karp’s Dealbook appearance: Alex Karp—whose company Palantir built the AI “kill chain” presently being employed in Gaza—used his DealBook appearance to lecture fellow CEOs about “accountability.” Karp remarked that “the only people who pay the price for being wrong in this culture in complete fashion are poor people,” while elites—he added, gesturing to the executives in the room—“outsource all the times we’re wrong and stupid to the whole society.”
Legal groups admonish Microsoft for its support of the IDF: A coalition of international legal groups warned Microsoft that its support for the Israeli military could expose the company and its executives to criminal and civil liability for aiding and abetting atrocity crimes in Gaza. In a letter sent ahead of Microsoft’s December 5 shareholder meeting, the organizations detail the company’s deep integration with Israeli targeting systems and its expansion of cloud and AI services during the assault, claiming that this technology helped generate “kill targets” and leaves Microsoft open to significant legal action.
VA tech overhaul promises problems, experts say: The Department of Veterans Affairs launched a multibillion-dollar electronic health records overhaul, one slated for rapid expansion, but the project has already begun to suffer serious technical failures at some sites where it has been rolled out, according to a new report from The Washington Post. With disappearing patient notes and wrong prescription doses, outages and glitches, the change has been linked to six deaths. Though the VA and contractor Oracle insist the system is improving, watchdogs and staff warn of the project’s safety risks, productivity declines, and potentially disastrous rollout. Read the full report from the Washington Post here.
International News
Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon: Israeli warplanes carried out air strikes on the towns of Mahrouna, Jbaa, al-Majadel, and Braashit in southern Lebanon, shortly after issuing a series of warnings on Thursday, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives hold first talks in decades: Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades on Wednesday in the Lebanese city of Naqura, under conditions set by the UN-backed ceasefire. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stressed the discussions were limited to implementing last year’s truce and “not yet” peace negotiations. Israel has continued its strikes in southern Lebanon and maintains troops there in violation of the ceasefire.
Romanian navy destroys Ukrainian-manufactured drone: Romania’s military says it destroyed a Ukrainian-developed Sea Baby maritime drone found drifting 36 nautical miles east of Constanta. This is not the first time that Romania has been drawn into the rapidly escalating maritime war between Russia and Ukraine, with Romania noting that roughly 150 drifting mines have been neutralized in the Black Sea since 2022.
Indian police raid kills 12 Maoist rebels: Indian security forces killed at least 12 Maoist rebels in a Chhattisgarh raid on Wednesday that also left three Indian officers dead, according to reporting from the AFP. The clash follows the killing of top Maoist leader Madvi Hidma two weeks ago and comes within a period of weeks in which nearly 300 rebels have surrendered, underscoring the decline of the Naxalite movement that once controlled nearly a third of the country.
Roadside bomb kills three police officers in northern Pakistan: A roadside bomb killed at least three police officers and wounded two others in northern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported. The device was likely planted by the Pakistani Taliban, whose faction claimed responsibility for killing a local official in the province the day before. Last weekend’s resumption of Afghanistan-Pakistan peace talks in Saudi Arabia “failed to produce a breakthrough,” while both parties agreed to hold their present ceasefire and signalled their openness to future talks, Reuters reported.
Fighting in eastern DRC: Heavy fighting erupted on Wednesday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo between Rwanda-backed M23 forces and the Congolese army, supported by militias and Burundian troops, clashing along several points on the frontline in the South Kivu province. The latest round of fighting saw bombardments, civilian deaths, and a major M23 deployment, according to AFP and local officials. The U.S. invited Kenyan leader, William Ruto, and Burundi leader, Evariste Ndayishimiye, to Washington to witness the signing of a peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, with the two countries to serve as guarantors of the peace deal.
Mabsut, Sudan recaptured by Sudanese Army: The Sudanese army recaptured the town of Mabsut in South Kordofan state in the country’s south on Tuesday, after battles with forces allied with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The Sudanese army said that its forces established control over western part of Al-Abbasiya Tagali, after clashes with forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North.
More From Drop Site
“A Second West Bank”: Israeli forces have established nine military posts in southern Syria over the past year, and Israel has illegally seized between 600 and 800 square kilometers of southern Syrian territory through more than 200 incursions, according to local officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said “What we expect Syria to do is, of course, to establish a demilitarised buffer zone from Damascus to the buffer area.” Read more about Israel’s gradual theft of Syrian land in a new piece from Hoda Matar here.
Starmer associate led a media crackdown in the UK: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s current chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, ran an organization called “Labour Together” that oversaw a project called “Stop Funding Fake News,” which sought to demonetize the U.S. conservative publication Breitbart and to kneecap any publication perceived to support Jeremy Corbyn’s wing of the Labour Party. To get a fuller picture of the dynamics at play, read an excerpted piece from Paul Holden’s new book at Drop Site here. Ryan Grim also discussed the piece on Breaking Points today, in a clip here.
Freedom of the Press hosted a panel featuring Drop Site editor Alex Colston and Drop Site contributors Noa Avishag Schnall and Emily Wilder, during which they discussed their experiences participating in Gaza aid flotillas. Watch the panel in full here.
Drop Site co-founder Ryan Grim explains why the U.S. approach to the Caribbean—bombing boats of perceived drug traffickers—is destined to fail on Breaking Points. “You can’t bomb your way out,” he says. Watch the clip here.
Drop site contributor Jessica Burbank joined The Majority Report to discuss her Drop Site report on how Flock Safety secured a $2.1 million contract in Scarsdale, N.Y., in merely 35 seconds without soliciting the public’s input. The company is part of a wider network of surveillance companies working to track, monitor, and punish Americans, and doing so with municipal contracts like this one. Watch her appearance here, and read her piece here.
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It is all too horrible. What can I ( a refugee from Nazi Germany) say about the distortion and insanity occurring in Israel and US. It seems like a nightmare from which one does not wake up.
Another day, another layer peeled back on how wide this crisis has spread. Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria — every front is being pushed while world leaders pretend the ceasefire still has meaning. The fact that Israel is coordinating with criminal gangs in Gaza, striking Lebanon during ‘talks,’ and literally burying civilian bodies with bulldozers says everything about the impunity at work. Meanwhile, the U.S. doubles down with ICE raids at home and corporate tech giants fueling the machinery abroad. None of this is ‘security’ — it’s a system running on lawlessness.