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It has been three years since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, killing hundreds of thousands of people and destroying huge portions of the country. Now, the Trump administration has signaled that it wants to end the war in Ukraine, but there are significant questions and deep concerns about Trump’s plans for how to end the fighting.The Trump administration has signaled it wants Ukraine to pay back the U.S. for American financial support of the war. But there are fears now that the U.S. will impose a diplomatic agreement onto Ukraine that results in crushing economic debts, damaging the country, while doing little to permanently ending the conflict.Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain is joined by Rajan Menon, an expert on Ukraine and a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

On Thursday morning in Gaza, Palestinian resistance factions handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross the bodies of four Israeli captives. According to Hamas, all four of the Israeli citizens were killed in Israeli airstrikes.As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued his efforts to sabotage the Gaza ceasefire and exchange of captives deal, Hamas has begun putting out substantive public proposals of its own. Hamas says it is prepared to negotiate a comprehensive deal for Phase 2 that would include the return of all Israeli captives held in Gaza “as one package,” rather than the staggered weekly releases that have marked Phase 1 of the deal. In return, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups would require Israel to completely withdraw all of its forces from the Gaza Strip and for international mediators, including the U.S., to certify a permanent truce. Hamas also announced it would release all six living Israeli captives slated for exchange in Phase 1 on Saturday, saying it was evidence of the group’s flexibility and willingness to reach a viable deal.On this episode of Drop Site News’s podcast, Palestinian analyst Abdaljawad Omar, an adjunct professor at Birzeit university and a writer based in Ramallah, joins Jeremy Scahill for a wide-ranging discussion on the state of the ongoing negotiations. They also analyze the recent meetings of a range of Palestinian political parties and factions aimed at creating a national unity committee that could administer the Gaza Strip if the ceasefire holds and reconstruction begins. Omar also discusses President Donald Trump’s threat to attempt to forcibly expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to build a U.S.-owned Middle East “Riviera.” Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

This week, during a press briefing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump floated an idea for the U.S. to take ownership of the Gaza Strip, while expelling the surviving Palestinian population from the territory.While outlandish, Trump’s statement emboldened many on the Israeli right who continue to dream of eliminating the Palestinian population of the land through expulsions, siege, and mass killings.On this new episode of Drop Site News's podcast, Pankaj Mishra joins Murtaza Hussain for a discussion on the genocide in Gaza, how various regions of the world have responded to the genocide, and the broad historical context. Mishra’s latest book, “The World After Gaza: A History,” is out now.Listen above or on the Drop Site channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

The official death toll in Gaza continues to rise every day with Israel engaging in sporadic attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, killing dozens since the “ceasefire” agreement came into effect on January 19. The death toll also climbs every day for two other reasons: bodies retrieved from the rubble, and people who die of their wounds. The health ministry puts the number of confirmed dead at over 47,500 — though it acknowledges this figure as a vast undercount as it only tallies the number of bodies brought to hospitals and morgues in Gaza that are recorded the ministry. The official number of wounded is over 111,000 and people in Gaza continue to die from those wounds every day.The health care system in Gaza came under a severe and systematic attack by the Israeli military, with nearly all of Gaza’s hospitals completely destroyed or barely functioning. The World Health Organization says that an estimated 14,000 Palestinians need to be medically evacuated to receive treatment outside of Gaza, including 2,500 children who are at imminent risk of death.To discuss the real death toll in Gaza, the complications around medical evacuations, the war’s effect on children, and the importance of bearing witness, Drop Site News journalists Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Murtaza Hussein speak with two doctors who traveled to Gaza multiple times on medical missions to provide emergency health care during the war: Dr. Mimi Sayed is an emergency medicine physician based in Olympia, Washington, who has completed two medical missions to Gaza, the last one ending on December 31. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa is a general, trauma, and critical care surgeon based in California. He has provided medical care in conflict zones worldwide, including Palestine, Ukraine, Haiti, and Zimbabwe. He was last in Gaza in April and is returning in March. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

Israeli prime minister and international fugitive Benjamin Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to be hosted in Washington, D.C., by President Donald Trump. They are meeting in the wake of a barrage of chaotic and conflicting messages by Trump on what he believes should happen in Gaza and the West Bank.Without a doubt, Trump wants to preside over a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, though the Saudis have said they will not enter into such a deal without a credible process to create an independent Palestinian state. Israeli officials have made clear Netanyahu wants to push Trump to fully embrace his position that Hamas should be wiped out completely and there are indications the Israeli leader does not want the so-called ceasefire to move to the second phase—which envisions a withdrawal of Israeli forces, further exchange of captives and discussions on a large reconstruction plan for Gaza—or toward an actual rebuilding of Gaza.
All of this happens as Palestinians continue to return to an apocalyptic scene in the north of the Gaza Strip and Israel continues to intensify its attacks against the West Bank. Mouin Rabbani and Dr. Annelle Sheline join Jeremy Scahill to discuss. Mouin Rabbani is the co-editor of Jadaliyya and non-resident fellow at both DAWN and Middle East Council on Global Affairs, and a former UN official who worked as a special adviser on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group. Dr. Annelle Sheline is a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute. She served as a foreign affairs officer at the U.S. Department of State until resigning in March 2024 over the Biden administration's Gaza policy. To support Drop Site News, become a paid subscriber or consider making a one-time or recurring 501c3 tax deductible donation. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

In a wide-ranging interview, Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, speaks with Drop Site News journalists Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous about the latest developments in the Gaza “ceasefire” deal, Israel’s large-scale military operation in the West Bank, national unity talks between Palestinian political factions, President Trump’s plans to persuade Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel, and much more. Barghouti is a former presidential candidate who was elected to parliament in 2006 and has been a leading Palestinian political figure for over two decades. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

Sina Toossi, a Senior nonresident fellow at the Center for International Policy and an expert on Iran, discusses the fraught U.S.-Iran relationship shaped by Trump's nuclear deal withdrawal. He highlights Iran's accelerated nuclear capabilities and internal debates on weaponization. Toossi emphasizes the challenges of potential military action against Iran and calls for urgent diplomatic efforts amidst rising tensions and regional alliances. He also touches on Iran's shifting political landscape, especially concerning future leadership dynamics.

In this special breaking news episode, senior Hamas official Basem Naim speaks to Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill about the Gaza “ceasefire” that went into effect Sunday. Naim said that Hamas intends to uphold its side of the deal—despite claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he received assurances from both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump that Israel can resume its war against Gaza after the first phase of the agreement. “What kind of side deals they have done, this is their business,” he says. “But what I can say here: the American administration led by Biden, we consider complicit—directly complicit—in the genocide.” Naim discusses why Hamas considers the agreement an achievement for the armed resistance in Gaza, discusses the role of Trump in the negotiations, and talks about how Israel sabotaged previous negotiations over the exact deal that was signed this week. Drop Site also asked Naim whether Hamas still stands by its decision to launch the October 7 attacks, given the horrifying death toll inflicted on the Palestinians of Gaza. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

An agreement on a deal that will halt — at least temporarily — Israel’s 15-month long genocidal assault on Gaza was announced on Wednesday to scenes of celebration by Palestinians in Gaza. At the time of writing, Israel has not yet officially announced it has agreed to the deal. The terms of the agreement being negotiated are nearly identical to what was on the table last May when outgoing President Joe Biden first announced it. Much of the last minute negotiations this month were around specific details, including sensitive topics such as the extent of withdrawal of Israeli forces, a buffer zone, control of the Rafah border crossing, and whether displaced Palestinians would be able to return to their homes in northern Gaza.Sami Al-Arian, director the Center for Islam and Global Affairs, Zaim University, and Muhammad Shehada, journalist and analyst from Gaza, joined Jeremy Scahill to discuss the breakthrough in the deal and the potential loopholes for Israel. While Trump’s interventions have been “monumental” in making the ceasefire deal possible, Shehada said, there is a likely “gift bag” in the deal for Israelis. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

After his victory in the 2024 election, Donald Trump made clear that he wants a deal to release Israeli and international captives held in Gaza prior to his inauguration on January 20. Trump’s public posture has added urgency to what had become a diplomatic process surviving on the weakest of life support systems. The president-elect’s position on the Gaza war is largely in sync with that of Biden’s; Trump’s nominees for key national security positions and U.S. ambassador to Israel are a kettle of pro-Israel hawks, some of whom have openly declared there is no such thing as a Palestinian and no such place as the West Bank. At the same time, Trump clearly wants to proclaim a victory by securing the release of hostages as he resumes office in Washington, D.C. In a new Drop Site News podcast episode, Jeremy Scahill speaks to Muhammad Shehada, a Palestinian writer and journalist from Gaza who has been doing in-depth reporting on the negotiations for a ceasefire and exchange of captives. His most recent piece for the Center for International Policy is titled “The Biden Administration’s False History of Ceasefire Negotiations.” They discuss the details of what is being negotiated, Benjamin Netanyahu’s history of sabotaging a ceasefire and how the Biden administration enabled it, as well as the prospects for a deal before Trump’s inauguration.Our continued work depends on reader support. Your tax-deductible donation will fuel the hard-hitting investigations you won't find anywhere else.Subscribe to get Drop Site's free newsletter at dropsitenews.com. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe