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On July 17, an Israeli drone strike killed at least one person and injured two others in Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh governorate, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The missile struck a civilian vehicle—part of the Israeli military’s ongoing aerial campaign in southern Lebanon, carried out in defiance of the declared ceasefire. In the past two weeks alone, at least 11 Israeli attacks have targeted towns and villages across the area.

Since a ceasefire with Lebanon was declared last November, Israel has violated it over 3,000 times. As part of that agreement, Israeli forces withdrew from Aita al‑Shaab—a southern border village in Nabatiyeh governorate, just 1,000 meters from multiple Israeli military outposts. But before it did, Israel systematically detonated nearly every home and building in the town. Since the withdrawal, a de facto “no‑rebuild” policy has taken hold: residents attempting to repair roofs or clear rubble are targeted. Drone surveillance, sniper fire, artillery shelling, and air‑to‑ground missile strikes have all been used to enforce this policy. Today, the town is littered with Hezbollah flags and posters of fighters killed while attempting to defend it.

Aita al‑Shaab is one of dozens of villages across the south that have faced near-total destruction at the hands of Israeli forces. Last month, journalist Jeremy Loffredo traveled to Aita al-Shaab for Drop Site News, documenting the ongoing destruction and the atmosphere of terror imposed by Israeli troops who remain stationed on five mountaintop positions inside Lebanese territory, surveilling and targeting civilian communities.

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Amid the fourth Israeli ground incursion into the Jabaliya refugee camp In Gaza which is beset by mass starvation and malnourishment, after broken promises of the Trump administration in its strained negotiations between Hamas and Israel, and with Israel providing itself symbolic cover to finish the genocide, Ryan and Jeremy discuss the broader state of war in this week’s Drop Site Live installment.

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Amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment, famine conditions, and the near-total collapse of humanitarian assistance in Gaza, on Monday, May 12, the Israeli military assassinated renowned Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslayeh in an airstrike on Nasser Hospital, where he was receiving treatment.

The next day, Israeli forces killed 12-year-old Mohammed Bardawil, an eyewitness who had testified to the Israeli military’s execution of fifteen paramedics, rescue workers, and UN staff in Rafah in March 2024. Mohammed had told investigators that some of the paramedics were shot at point-blank range—“from one meter away.”

After his administration met directly with Hamas to negotiate the release of U.S.-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, Trump arrived in Riyadh on May 13, kicking off a four-day Middle East tour. Following his stop in Saudi Arabia, Trump is expected to visit Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He has claimed the trip will secure “$1 trillion” in investment for the U.S.

Meanwhile, calls to end U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid and genocide continue, as campus protests spread and escalate nationwide. On May 7, pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied the main library at Columbia University. Around eighty people were arrested, and some students have been suspended.

This week also saw a dramatic military escalation between India and Pakistan—the most intense in decades—marked by drone and missile exchanges. The hostilities have now paused under a fragile ceasefire.

Tune in to hear Drop Site’s journalists and correspondents break down these developments and more—and check back every Tuesday to stay informed.

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Note: This report is a collaboration with our colleagues at Democracy Now!, an independent, daily radio and TV show. Sharif produced this report with journalist Lama Al-Arian.

Lebanon’s political landscape is at a turning point in the wake of the war with Israel. Hezbollah, the most powerful force in the county, suffered heavy losses in the conflict, including the killing its leader of more than 30 years, Hassan Nasrallah, as well as many of the group’s top commanders and much of its rank and file.

Israel’s aerial assault and ground invasion in Lebanon destroyed large swathes of the country—mostly in the south—and killed over 4,000 people and forced 1.2 million to flee their homes.

Hezbollah has long been one of the key groups in the Axis of Resistance—the loose coalition of both nation-states and non-state actors in the Middle East who pledged to jointly oppose Israel. In the wake of the war, Hezbollah’s opponents inside Lebanon and internationally are now seeking to further weaken and marginalize the group.

Drop Site’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous traveled to Lebanon last week to report from the ground in southern Lebanon and to cover Nasrallah’s funeral, one of the biggest in the region in decades. We are honored to team up with our colleagues at Democracy Now! to bring you this comprehensive video report. Sharif reported this story with independent journalist Lama al-Arian. Special thanks to Malek Hosny, Tariq Qiblawi, and Ibrahim Ali for their work on this story.

The video report includes excerpts of an interview with senior Hezbollah politician and member of parliament, Dr. Ibrahim al-Moussawi. On Friday, Drop Site will publish the full interview with Moussawi discussing the future role of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Trump administration’s demand that Hezbollah be barred from the newly formed government, the state of the Axis of Resistance, and more. Make sure to subscribe to Drop Site News’s podcast feed on your favorite platforms to hear the interview and all of our audio programming.

If you want to see more on-the-ground reporting from Drop Site News, please consider making a 501(c)(3) tax deductible donation to support our work. This report, and all of our journalism, is only possible because of the generous support of our readers. We do not put any of our content behind a paywall and your voluntary paid subscription will help ensure we never do.

NEW PAID SUBSCRIBER BONUS: Drop Site News has partnered with Jolt Films to offer our paid subscribers free access to The Bibi Files, a 2024 documentary from filmmaker, Alexis Bloom and producer, Alex Gibney.

Using never-seen-before interrogation footage, this investigation of Benjamin Netanyahu and his inner circle provides an unflinching gaze into the private world behind the headlines. Petty vanity and a sense of entitlement leads to corruption, and the unwillingness of the Netanyahus to give up power. The extreme right senses opportunity in Bibi’s weakness, and the dominos fall.

Access to this film is a benefit offered to our paid subscribers. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, click the link below to become one today and we’ll send you a link to the film.

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Following a call from imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan to take to the streets in protest over the suppression of democracy in the country, thousands of supporters of his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, or PTI, have congregated in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad this week. The mass rally, which has drawn participants from across the country, comes despite warnings from the military-backed government that it will respond with force to any sign of dissent – a promise that it now appears to be keeping in grisly fashion.

On Tuesday night, reports emerged of live gunfire by Pakistani soldiers targeting protestors. While the numbers of dead and wounded are still being tabulated, harrowing images have already begun circulating on social media of bloodied corpses of PTI activists and protestors, along with countless injured individuals suffering gunshot wounds and other violence. Eyewitnesses from the scene have alleged that snipers opened fire on the crowd under cover of darkness, while clear footage has shown police and paramilitary troops brutalizing protestors throughout the day.

Just before the violence escalated, Pakistani journalist Javed Rana filed a video dispatch for Drop Site News, interviewing protestors and laying out the reasons for the demonstration. The dispatch shows a country on the precipice of major unrest, with popular anger over the rigging of elections and imprisonment of Khan reaching a boiling point, and no off-ramp in site.

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The Palestine Laboratory premieres October 10 on all podcast platforms and DropSiteNews.com. Paid subscribers get exclusive early access to all episodes on October 10. Others can listen weekly, with new episodes every Thursday. Become a paid subscriber now at DropSiteNews.com/PalestineLab and enjoy 20% off your subscription. Subscribe today to get full access and support our work.

This is Drop Site's most significant investment yet in a single investigation. If you want us to do more of this sort of project, please upgrade your subscription or make a one-time contribution.

Take a moment to subscribe to Drop Site’s new podcast channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your favorite podcast platforms to get The Palestine Laboratory Podcast delivered straight to your feed.

Below is investigative journalist and Palestine Laboratory Podcast host Antony Loewenstein’s introduction to the series.— Jeremy and Ryan

Israel’s brutal onslaught in Gaza since October 7, 2023 has been apocalyptic for Palestinians. But for Israeli weapons makers, it’s been an unprecedented time of financial success and a unique opportunity to show off their latest tech.

In December last year, the CEO of Israeli defense company, Smart Shooter, told the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, how proud she was of assisting Israeli forces in Gaza because her product had allowed them to eliminate a swarm of seven attack drones. 

Gaza was the first time Smart Shooter’s SMASH had been used in active war and the company was receiving orders from militaries across the globe including the US and Britain. Business was booming.

CEO Michal Mor was asked about her “vision” for the future and she proudly explained how “the ultimate goal is to make our technology a standard on every rifle in all armies, and to continue developing features for non-combat purposes as well, such as dispersing demonstrations; when you don't want to kill but deter, the system will know how to hit, for example, only below [the] knee.”

During the Great March of Return in 2018 and 2019, when thousands of Palestinians marched in Gaza to the “security fence” with Israel, Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing hundreds and injuring tens of thousands. Some Israeli snipers proudly recounted how many Palestinians knees they’d hit, making them disabled for life.

I’ve spent more than a decade investigating the Israeli arms industry, regularly reporting from Israel and Palestine since 2005 and living in East Jerusalem between 2016 and 2020. I’m an Australian, German Jewish independent journalist and film-maker, my work and life was recently featured in a film broadcast by Al Jazeera English, and my latest book is the global bestselling The Palestine Laboratory.

Understanding the Israeli weapons trade, an industry that’s worked with some of the most repressive nations on the planet since the Jewish state’s birth in 1948, is vital to decode a key rationale behind the Israeli military mindset; endless occupation and war is so profitable that it’s seen as literally insane to even think about stopping them. War in Gaza and the West Bank and exploding pagers in Lebanon are a unique opportunity to teach, sell, and inspire other states who want to repress their own minorities, unwanted populations, or dissidents. Israel will show them how.

This four-part podcast series will take listeners on a global journey into the Palestine laboratory, how it developed, how it works, why it’s so attractive for many nations, how it’s fueled by anti-Palestinian racism and been deployed on a massive scale since October 7, 2023.

This project has been a collaborative effort since late 2023 with a team of experienced producers, researchers, artists, musicians and sound designers. We’re honored to feature voices from Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and across the globe.

The first episode of The Palestine Laboratory premieres October 10 across all podcast platforms and on DropSiteNews.com. As a thank you gift to paid subscribers to Drop Site News, we are making all episodes in this series available right away on October 10. For everyone else, episodes will be released every Thursday. You can become a paid subscriber today by heading to DropSitenews.com/PalestineLab for a 20% discount on your subscription.

Don't miss out. Subscribe to Drop Site News on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your favorite podcast platforms to get The Palestine Laboratory Podcast delivered straight to your feed every Thursday.

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Kabul Drone Strike Survivors Give First Interview in the U.S.

By Armin Ghassim

Romal Ahmadi’s voice trembles when he recalls the day of the drone strike. “All my three children ran out of the house to welcome my older brother as he returned from work. I was sitting in the living room. They ran in the courtyard and the next thing I heard was a loud explosion.” 

His children were Arwin, 7, Benyamin, 6, and Aayat, 2. All of them were killed on August 29, 2021 when an American hellfire missile struck the car in their courtyard. In total, seven children and three adults were killed.

The target of the U.S. strike was the oldest Ahmadi brother, Zemarai. The U.S. military tracked him for several hours that day via a drone after they observed him filling some containers. Ahmadi was employed with an American aid organization, distributing food in Afghanistan. Every now and then he brought containers to his office to fill them up with potable water and bring them home. Then he made his way from his office back home, which was in the same direction as the Kabul Airport. When he reached his home, the drone operator fired the missile. 

Emal Ahmadi was at the Bazar when the U.S. military struck his home. “I heard a very terrible sound, I saw that the sky is black, the smoke, and I thought that maybe it’s an accident at the airport. But unfortunately my wife called me and told me where are you? Come home, everyone is killed… My brother, my daughter, my nieces, everyone was killed, I didn’t see them again.”

Three days earlier, ISIS-K had carried out a suicide bombing at the airport killing 182 people, including 13 American soldiers. It was one of the final days of the American withdrawal after twenty years of warfare in the country, and thousands of Afghans gathered at the airport, trying to get on American evacuation planes. 

After this attack, the military said it had gathered information on another imminent ISIS-K attack. When they observed Zemarai Ahmadi filling containers and driving towards the airport in a white Toyota Corolla (a model fitting with the description they had on the possible ISIS-K attack), they reached the conclusion that Ahmadi was on his way to carry out a suicide bombing at the airport. 

In the days after the strike, General Mark Milley defended the attack despite the number of civilians it had killed: “The procedures were correctly followed and it was a righteous strike.” Weeks later it became more and more evident that the U.S. mistook an aid worker for an ISIS-K fighter , with a New York Times investigation proving that Zemarai Ahmadi was not an ISIS-K combatant. The Pentagon then admitted the “tragic mistake” three weeks after the attack.

In fact, his brother Emal Ahmadi had worked directly with the U.S. military and applied for evacuation to the U.S. during the Taliban takeover. 

After the Pentagon admitted its mistake, it promised the family would be relocated to the U.S.,. This took more than a year, but today, several family members live in the U.S., among them Romal and Emal Ahmadi, their wives as well as one surviving child and two newborn children. 

However, the U.S. government also promised what’s called a “condolence payment” to the family. Such payments are explicitly not meant as formal reparation, legal compensation, or an admission of fault, but only as an expression of condolence out of good will.  To an inquiry by Drop Site News the Pentagon responded that it “continues to take steps to respond to the August 29, 2021, airstrike in Kabul.” 

The pro bono lawyers working with the Ahmadi family told Drop Site News that their team “continues to engage in constructive and confidential discussions with the U.S. government regarding our clients." 

But until today the family has not received any payment and is receiving food stamps. They told Drop Site News that they are tired of waiting. “We had to move from California to Kansas City because here it’s cheaper,” Email Ahmadi explains. “We forgive America because nothing can bring back our family now. But we expect that the U.S. government will pave a good way for us.”

Brian Finucane,  a former adviser at the U.S. Department of State, and now senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, an NGO working on international conflict and its implication, told Drop Site News that “the military is insulated from domestic jurisdiction. It is very difficult to sue the government for any harm in conflict.” 

Congress authorizes the Department of Defense for $3 million dollars per year of so-called condolence payments to the victims of American military operations. However, the Pentagon told Drop Site News that since 2020 only one such payment, related to a strike in Afghanistan in January 2021, has been made by the DoD. The Pentagon did not respond to a question about why so few payments have been made.

Armin Ghassim is an investigative reporter and documentary filmmaker based in Germany. His work has been awarded some of Europe's most important journalism prizes, such as the European Parliament's Prize for Journalism and the Grimme Award. Armin mainly reports on international conflict, migration, and human rights abuses.

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