Three journalists among 11 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza; Netanyahu joins Trump’s “Board of Peace”; DOJ subpoenas top Minnesota Democrats for obstructing ICE

At least 11 Palestinians are killed in Gaza, including journalists and children, in a surge of Israeli attacks. Israeli forcesimposesweeping lockdown across southern Hebron. President Donald Trumpsayshis “Board of Peace” could replace the UN, as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahujoins. Winter stormsdevastateGaza shelters amid aid restrictions. B’TselemsaysIsrael runs a “network of torture camps” for Palestinians. U.S. forces seize seventh sanctioned oil tanker. Venezuelareceives$300 million from the first $500 million U.S. oil sale. Mexicoexpels37 alleged cartel figures to the United States. President Trumppressesaides for “decisive” military options against Iran, as Treasury Secretary Bessenttoutsthe role of U.S. sanctions in Iran’s economic collapse. Iran’s foreign ministerwarnsagainst U.S. escalation. Carney says U.S.-led “rules-based international order” isfinished. “Sell America” tradeacceleratesamid the U.S.–Europe standoff over Greenland. DOJ reveals the DOGE team hadcontactswith an advocacy group that sought to overturn election results. UN rights chiefconfrontsRSF over Darfur atrocities. Gunmenkillat least 31 in western Niger village attack. Six security personnel arekilledin an ambush in northwest Nigeria. Somaliasignsdefense cooperation deal with Qatar after cutting ties with UAE. Uganda army chiefthreatensopposition figures online. Former Burkinabè leader is accused of assasination plot andexpelledfrom Togo to Burkina Faso. New Reporting from Drop Site:Satellite analysis from Forensic ArchitecturesuggestsIsrael is militarily seizing land in Rafah with aims to corral Palestinians, as documents leaked to Drop Siteshowthe “planned community” in the area would force Palestinians into an Israeli panopticon. Ceasefire talkscollapseas hostilities escalate between Syria’s central government based in Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Argentinacentralizesintelligence and its security apparatus under a new decree from President Javier Milei. This is Drop Site Daily, our new, free daily news recap.We send it Monday through Friday. At least 11 Palestinians killed in surge of Israeli attacks across Gaza:The bodies of 11 Palestinians arrived at hospitals in Gaza between this morning and 4:00pm local time, while six Palestinians were injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The Health ministry has not updated the total death toll recorded since October 7, 2023, which on Tuesday stood at 71,551 killed, with 171,372 injured. Three journalists among those killed in Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday: Three Palestinian journalists—Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Samir Shaath, and Anas Ghanem—were killed in Israeli attacks on Wednesday. The journalists were targeted in a strike on their car, while filming for an Egyptian government humanitarian initiative in the central town of Zahraa. Footage of the aftermath of the strike showed the targeted vehicle clearly marked with the Egyptian Committee’s logo. Over 260 journalists have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza. In separate Israeli attacks on Wednesday, a man and his 13-year-old son were killed in an Israeli drone strike, along with a 22-year-old man, while collecting firewood on the east side of Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to the Associated Press. Another 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by the Israeli military in Bani Suhaila, eastern Khan Younis. More Israeli strikes and shelling on Gaza:On Tuesday, Israeli forces carried outairstrikeseast of Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, and Bureij camp, alongside artillery fire east of Gaza City, demolitions near Beit Lahiya, naval fire toward fishing boats off Shati camp, and renewed shelling in western Rafah, according to Palestine Online. Additional reports described intense shelling and the demolition of residential buildings east of Jabalia camp in northern Gaza. Israeli forces impose sweeping lockdown across southern Hebron:Israeli forcescarriedout a second consecutive day of military operations in southern Hebron, sealing neighborhoods, storming homes, and imposing curfews in the area, according to Ultra Palestine. The neighborhood saw heavy troop deployments, road closures, and shop shutdowns, which have dramatically altered the course of life for Hebron’s Palestinian residents. An officer from the IDF’s “Civil Administration” unit reportedly told local clan leaders that Israel is demanding the surrender of all weapons and would close the area for a full year if Palestinians do not comply. “No significant increase” in Gaza aid under ceasefire plan:There has been no meaningful rise in humanitarian supplies entering Gaza, eight diplomatstoldReuters. European governments are reassessing their involvement in the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, with one Western diplomat calling the body “directionless,” while another said, “Everybody thinks it’s a disaster, but there is no alternative.” Trump says “Board of Peace” could replace the United Nations, as Netanyahu reportedly joins:President Donald Trumpsaidhis proposed Board of Peace “might” replace the United Nations, though he added he would like the UN to continue its work for now, ahead of the board’s charter signing Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Netanyahu joins “Board of Peace”:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted a position on President Trump’s “Board of Peace” which will oversee Gaza. Netanyahu has overseen Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for his arrest over war crimes in Gaza. Other countries also accepted invitations to join the Board of Peace including: Egypt, Bahrain, Kosovo, and Azerbaijan. They join the United Arab Emirates, Armenia, Morocco, Vietnam, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Argentina. Meanwhile, Norway and Sweden said Wednesday they won’t accept their invitations, following France which also declined. Winter storms devastate Gaza shelters amid aid restrictions:Sheltersfor at least 4,000 displaced families across 80 displacement sites in Gaza were damaged or destroyed by winter storms last week, according to the UN, as humanitarian agencies said Israeli restrictions continue to slow and limit shelter aid. Hundreds of thousands of people remain “exposed to winter conditions without adequate shelter,” the UN said, while adding that aid operations are continuing “despite daily impediments” that affect both the speed and scale of assistance. Read Drop Site’s feature coveragehere. UN outlines education, shelter, and healthcare updates in Gaza:The UNsaidnearly 450 temporary learning spaces are operating across Gaza, reaching about 40 percent of children, while aid partners distributed more than 1,300 tents, 7,000 tarpaulins, and thousands of mattresses, blankets, and winter clothing over the past week. The UN reiterated the need for “sustainable shelter solutions,” including repairing damaged homes, clearing rubble, and restoring water and sanitation systems. 140 surgical and rehabilitation beds have been added at Nasser Medical Complex, along with five neonatal intensive care beds at Awda Hospital. UN chief condemns Israel’s demolition of UNRWA compound in Sheikh Jarrah:UN Secretary-General António Guterressaidhe “condemns in the strongest terms” Israeli authorities’ demolition of the UNRWA compound in Sheikh Jarrah, stressing that the site “remains United Nations premises, and is inviolable and immune from any form of interference,” citing a January 8, 2026 letter Gueterres sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He described the actions as “wholly unacceptable” and in violation of Israel’s obligations under international law, including the UN Charter and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. He urged Israel to “immediately cease the demolition” and “return and restore the compound and other UNRWA premises to the United Nations without delay.” Gaza authorities cite 1,300 Israeli ceasefire violations after 100 days:Israeli violations since the October 10 “ceasefire” have resulted in 1,820 people killed, wounded, or detained, including 483 killed, with over 96 percent struck inside residential areas far from the “Yellow Line,” according toGaza’s Government Information Office. The office reported 1,287 injuries and 50 civilian arrests, and said Israel allowed in just 43 percent of agreed-upon aid trucks and 13 percent of required fuel while blocking heavy equipment, shelter materials, medical supplies, and supplies necessary for power plant operations. Gaza officials warned the pattern amounts to deliberate starvation and coercion, urging the U.S., the UN, and ceasefire guarantors to enforce full compliance and allow immediate humanitarian access. B’Tselem says Israel runs a “network of torture camps” for Palestinians:Israeli Center for Human Rights B’Tselemsaidin its new report that Israel maintains a “systemic, institutionalized policy of torture and abuse” against Palestinian prisoners, charging that “the entire Israeli regime is complicit” and that the international community bears responsibility for “enabling the systemic torture” by failing to intervene. The report documents at least 84 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody since October 2023, alongside accounts of beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, starvation, medical neglect, and extreme overcrowding. B’Tselem said the scale of abuses obliges international actors to press for accountability and ensure those responsible are brought to justice. Football leaders intervene to halt West Bank pitch demolition:FIFA president Gianni Infantino and UEFA League Chief Aleksandr Ceferin have reportedlystepped into stop Israel’s planned demolition of a football pitch in the Aida refugee camp, used weekly by around 250 children, after the Israeli military said it was “illegally constructed” near Israel’s separation barrier, according to the New York Times. Following weeks of international pressure and talks involving Swiss officials, the demolition has been suspended pending a final Israeli government decision. U.S. forces seize seventh sanctioned oil tanker:U.S. military forces boarded and commandeered aseventhoil tanker, allegedly connected with Venezuela, on Tuesday. U.S. Southern Command posted on social media that U.S. forces apprehended the vessel Sagitta, claiming that the tanker was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s “established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to take control of Venezuela’s oil. Federal subpoenas served to Minnesota Democrats amid unrest:Federal grand jury subpoenas wereservedon Tuesday to six offices of state and local Democrats, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Governor Tim Walz, and Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Justice Department official toldReuters. Trump administration officials have accused Walz and Frey of deliberately stoking interference with ICE operations in “collusion” with anti-government agitators, with one of the subpoenas ordering the custodian of records for Mayor Frey to produce documents dating from the beginning of 2025 related to “cooperation or lack of cooperation with federal immigration authorities.” Medical groups sue the CDC:The American Academy of Pediatrics and a coalition of other medical groups on Mondaymovedto expand a lawsuit filed last year against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after a decision earlier this month narrowed the list of vaccines recommended for children. The policies adopted under U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will lower vaccination rates, the medical organizations said, adding that the decisions by the CDC are unlawful and “egregious, reckless, and dangerous.” Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders rally with striking nurses:New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Senator Bernie Sandersralliedwith striking nurses in Manhattan on Tuesday, as the strike entered its ninth day, one of the largest and longest strikes in the city’s history. The strike began on January 12, and the nurses union says it has held one bargaining session with each of the three hospital systems disrupted: Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and NewYork-Presbyterian. DOJ reveals DOGE team collaborated with a group that worked on overturning election results:Newly disclosed court filings show two members of DOGE working inside the Social Security Administration (SSA) were secretly in touch with an advocacy group seeking to “overturn election results in certain states,” with one signing a possible voter-data agreement involving Social Security records, according toPolitico. A senior U.S. Department of Justice official said the employees were referred for potential violations of the Hatch Act and disclosed that DOGE members shared data on unapproved third-party servers and may have accessed restricted personal information. The filing also said a senior Elon Musk advisor, Steve Davis, was copied on an email containing sensitive SSA data. “Sell America” trade accelerates amid Trump–Europe standoff over Greenland:Global marketssawa massive selling of U.S. bonds and securities. U.S. bond yields rose sharply, pushing the dollar down nearly 1 percent, and lifting the euro, while gold and silver surged to fresh highs. U.S. equities plunged, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 800 points and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropping over 2 percent, as investors reassessed U.S. assets amid fears Washington is becoming an unreliable trading partner. Much of this movement was motivated by Trump’s renewed threats against Greenland and the vocal opposition of ostensible allies to the Trump administration’s recent actions. Trump reverses position on UK–Mauritius Chagos deal:President Donald Trumpattackeda UK agreement transferring sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius after previously endorsing it in talks with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump cited the deal to justify