U.S. imposes new Cuba sanctions; Progressive wins California special election; Congo Ebola outbreak “growing exponentially”

Residents carry containers while queuing for potable water from a tanker, amid recurring shortages and power outages, in Matanzas, Cuba, on August 6, 2026. Photo by AFP via Getty Images. Friday, August 21, 2026 – Fifteen-year-old boy dies after being shot in the head by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. Israeli forces and settlers kill two Palestinians, wound several others in occupied West Bank attacks. Drop Site reports on detained Palestinian journalist. Hamas is “fully committed” to Board of Peace roadmap, official says. Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza. European leaders condemn Israeli settlement expansion. Turkey seeks Interpol red notice for Netanyahu over Global Sumud Flotilla attack. Three Palestinian parties in Israel revive Joint List ahead of October Knesset election. U.S. threatens countries trading with Iran with “economic oblivion.” China registers opposition to U.S. economic campaign against Iran. Oil traffic through Hormuz remains constrained. Iranian crude oil offers to Chinese buyers decline. Israeli army continues attacks in Lebanon despite “ceasefire” agreement. Explosions heard over Tyre as Prime Minister Nawaf Salam tells army its deployment restores state “sovereignty, authority and prestige.” U.S. issues sanctions on Hezbollah. Progressive Aisha Wahab wins California special election, dealing blow to AIPAC-backed opponent. Emails reveal ICE quietly coordinated with Iran on deportation flights. Transgender migrants in ICE detention losing rights, medical care, New York Times finds. Department of Homeland Security spied on at least five Midwest churches amid anti-ICE activist probe, court records show. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott targets Muslim washing stations at airports. Missouri judge allows Trump-backed congressional map for November election. Research finds over 150 Polymarket wallets likely traded on inside U.S. military information. Private prison giant GEO Group donated $1.4 million to pro-Trump PAC after landing major ICE contracts. Ebola virus outbreak in DRC “growing exponentially.” U.S. imposes new Cuba sanctions, detains Americans returning from island. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan sent back to prison hours after hospital visit. Hundreds protest against Tunisian President Kais Saied. Human Rights Watch: Russian paramilitaries “summarily killed” nine Mali civilians, including four children. Ukraine hits Russian oil and power sites in overnight drone barrage, blacking out much of Crimea. RSF attacks kill six, displace over 1,000 in Sudan’s North Kordofan. U.S. deportees arrive in Liberia. Syria weighs joining security pact with Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia. Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil organizers convicted under national security law. Judge rules Palestine Action did not violate UK terrorism laws. This is Drop Site Daily, our free news recap We send it Monday – Friday Subscribe Palestine 15-year-old boy dies after being shot in the head by Israel in Gaza: A 15-year-old Palestinian boy died on Thursday after being shot by Israeli troops in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. Footage appears to show him shot in the head. Israeli forces and settlers kill two Palestinians, wound several others in occupied West Bank attacks: Hebron: A 17-year-old Palestinian boy was killed after being shot in the chest by armed Israeli settlers during an attack on homes in Khirbet Hamroush, northeast of Hebron, WAFA reported. A 70-year-old man was also shot and wounded, and settlers burned down a home. In southern Hebron, settlers attacked homes near Al-Dhahiriya and Al-Samu, injuring five Palestinians, stealing sheep and attacking a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance, preventing it from reaching the wounded. Israeli forces later arrested four Palestinians in Shaab Al-Butum, including a father and son, and three others during a raid on Beit Ummar. Jenin: Israeli forces shot and killed Fathi Hazem, a 58-year-old retired police colonel in the Palestinian National Security Forces, during a raid on his home in central Jenin and withheld his body. An eyewitness told AFP, “They shot him seven times in front of his 10-year-old son. They dragged him down the stairs and took him with them.” Two of Hazem’s other sons were killed by the Israeli military in 2022. In Zababdeh, south of Jenin, Israeli forces shot a 14-year-old boy in the chest and back during a raid. Israeli forces also hung Israeli flags along several points of the Jenin–Nablus road. Nablus: Israeli settlers attacked the Bula Al-Hawa area, east of Nablus, beating a Palestinian. Drop Site reports on detained Palestinian journalist: After more than two years in Israeli detention, the first photo of Palestinian journalist Mohammed Arab emerged on Monday. Israeli forces seized Arab from Gaza’s Al-Shifa Medical Complex on March 18, 2024. “They are calling on us using the quadcopters. Pray for me, and take care of the children,” Arab told his wife Wafaa Abu Al-Laban in their final conversation. “Mohammed’s health is very, very poor,” Abu Al-Laban told Drop Site’s Abdel Qader Sabbah. Arab was subjected to severe abuse at Sde Teiman and forced to remain on his knees for prolonged periods, causing a slipped disc and serious back problems. His eyesight also deteriorated after his glasses were taken away, his lawyer said. After more than two years in detention, Arab told his lawyer that seeing his own face had become a dream. “I just want to know what I look like,” he said. A petition had to be filed to obtain underwear and a mirror for him. Watch Abdel Qader Sabbah’s video report on Mohamed Arab for Drop Site here . Hamas is “fully committed” to Board of Peace roadmap, official says: Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told CNN on Thursday that the group remains fully committed to the “agreed version” of the “Board of Peace” roadmap for Gaza, noting that the group believes that the roadmap satisfactorily handles the decommissioning of its weapons, the future of its tunnels, and implementation timelines. President Donald Trump’s envoy Nickolay Mladenov had pledged to secure Israel’s approval for the deal, Naim said, but Israel has since rejected the deal and carried out massacres in Gaza in a deliberate attempt to derail it. Naim also told CNN that Board of Peace mediators and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are asking Hamas to be “sensitive” to Benjamin Netanyahu’s political position ahead of Israel’s upcoming election over the already-agreed Gaza roadmap. “As a Palestinian, I am not in a position to pay the price from the bodies and blood and the lives of our people in order to secure the victory of Netanyahu’s election,” Naim noted to CNN in response. Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza: Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey “strongly condemned ” recent Israeli attacks on Gaza that have killed civilians, including women and children, in a joint statement Wednesday. The statement said the intensification of Israeli attacks “undermines regional and international efforts at a critical juncture,” as work continues to implement the plan to end the war, including the Board of Peace’s meeting with Israeli officials. They stressed that Israel must “fully comply with all its obligations under the ceasefire agreement” and refrain from actions that could escalate tensions. European leaders condemn Israeli settlement expansion: The leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada condemned Israel’s decision to issue construction tenders for the E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank in a joint statement on Thursday. The statement urges Israel to “retract these plans immediately” and halt settlement expansion. It also warns businesses not to bid on the tenders, citing possible “legal and reputational consequences” and the risk of involvement in “serious breaches of international law.” Turkey seeks Interpol red notice for Netanyahu over Global Sumud Flotilla attack: Turkey asked Interpol to issue a red notice for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Israeli attack on activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, Justice Minister Akin Gürlek said Friday via Anadolu Agency. Gürlek said proceedings are continuing before an Istanbul court against 35 defendants over the attack in international waters and the detention of activists. Arrest warrants were issued for Netanyahu and Israeli official Afek Moskovitch on July 14 on charges including genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, aggravated deprivation of liberty and hijacking, prompting the Justice Ministry to request Interpol red notices. Three Palestinian parties in Israel revive Joint List ahead of October Knesset election : Three Palestinian parties in Israel, Hadash, Balad, and Ta’al, announced a reconstituted Joint List on Wednesday ahead of the October 27 Knesset election. The list will be led by Hadash’s Yousef Jabareen, followed by Ta’al’s Ahmad Tibi and Balad’s Sami Abu Shehadeh, with the parties targeting at least 10 seats and competing against the United Arab List led by Mansour Abbas. Balad deputy secretary-general Yousef Tatur said the party made concessions to reach the agreement given “the gravity of the current moment,” citing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, West Bank displacement, and attacks in Jerusalem, and called on Palestinian voters with Israeli citizenship who are eligible to vote to help “turn unity into a real force on the ground.” Iran U.S. threatens countries trading with Iran with “economic oblivion” : U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that Washington would impose the “toughest sanctions in history” on Iran following Trump’s declaration of “economic warfare.” “The economic pressure means that we are going to all of our allies, and this is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world,” Bessent told CNBC, noting that all countries will now be judged as “either with us or against” the U.S. based on their economic relationship with Iran. “If you insist on doing business with them, either transferring money or buying their oil, they are doing seaborne ship transfers, then the US Treasury and the U.S. government, they will put its full might and force toward enforcing against you,” Bessent told CNBC. Separately, Bessent noted his confusion at rising oil prices, saying that the U.S. had “asymmetric information” and he was “not sure why oil has popped up on this.” Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the war with Iran had entered “a new phase where the most effective tool we have is the economic pressure we can impose on them.” “It will be a delicate dance,” he added, because Iran “will try to put economic pressure on us.” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf called for a plan to overcome what he described as “cruel sanctions” following the U.S. Treasury announcement. Speaking during a visit to Iraq, Ghalibaf said Iran and other Muslim countries possess significant resources and raw materials that their “enemies are coming to plunder,” and urged Baghdad to cooperate with Tehran in confronting the sanctions. China registers opposition to U.S. economic campaign against Iran: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Friday that the newest round of U.S. economic pressure would “not help to resolve” the conflict in the Middle East. Lin called on all sides to address tensions through political and diplomatic means. China has repeatedly rejected unilateral U.S. sanctions, arguing that measures not authorized by the UN Security Council lack standing in international law. Oil traffic through Hormuz remains constrained: Kpler recorded 10.73 million barrels of west-to-east liquid tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz from August 14–20, an average of just 1.53 million barrels per day, a sharp contrast from the 10 million barrels per day figure that two U.S. officials gave Axios. Only 14 outbound tankers were observed during the entire week, with no recorded traffic on August 14 or 17, according to the maritime tracking firm. Kpler cautions that its figures may change as more vessel-position data becomes available, including from ships traveling with their tracking systems switched off. But the currently observed traffic is nowhere near the scale Washington described. Iranian crude oil offers to Chinese buyers decline: Offers of Iranian crude to Chinese buyers have fallen this week, Reuters reported on Friday, while prices have jumped. The number of planned deliveries for September and October declined from July and August, and barrels shipped earlier have already been sold. Crude oil, which is usually sold at a lower price, is now being sold at premiums, Reuters reported. Lebanon Israeli army continues attacks in Lebanon despite “ceasefire” agreement: Israeli forces set off a “massive explosion,” conducted in two