Drop Site Daily: July 2, 2026

From Drop Site:

U.S.-Iran Doha talks conclude; Pakistan says “positive progress” made. Iran’s parliament speaker calls for mass turnout at Khamenei funeral, denies IAEA access to bombed nuclear sites. U.S. reportedly urges Iran to drop shipping toll plans in favor of sanctions relief. NYT: Saudi and U.S. officials repeatedly clashed during Iran War. Israeli army carries out demolitions and strikes across Nabatieh. 1,000 days of genocide in Gaza. Israeli attacks on Gaza continue Wednesday. Eleven Palestinians killed, 866 detained in Jerusalem during first half of 2026. U.S. and Israel sign deal for permanent Jerusalem embassy on contested Palestinian land. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorses Abdul El-Sayed for Michigan Senate seat. Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros says Hakeem Jeffries should not be House Speaker. ICE detains more than 10,000 people in five days. OpenAI reportedly in early talks to give U.S. government 5% equity stake. Presbyterian Church (USA) votes to recognize Gaza genocide, back arms embargo and divestment from Israel. Syrian government says it is open to meeting Hezbollah. Bomb blast at Damascus cafe kills five. Over 900 arrested during South Africa anti-migrant protests. Russian strikes on Kyiv kill at least 21. Germany charges Ukrainian suspect over Nord Stream sabotage. Separatist Papua rebels claim to kill American pilot, burn plane in warning to U.S. and Indonesia. CPJ declines to exclude Palestinian and Lebanese journalists, keeps existing definition of “journalist.”

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A Palestinian child stands on the rubble of a destroyed building near the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on July 1, 2026. Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP via Getty Images.

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Iran and Ceasefire

  • U.S.-Iran Doha talks conclude; Pakistan says “positive progress” made: Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said indirect talks between Iranian and U.S. delegations in Doha concluded with “positive progress” on issues related to the implementation of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding. In a statement on Thursday, the ministry said the parties agreed to continue discussions in the coming period, with the next round of talks to be scheduled “at the earliest possible time” following the funeral processions for the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which are scheduled from July 4 to 9.

  • Iran’s parliament speaker calls for mass turnout at Khamenei funeral: Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf called on Iranians to attend the funeral ceremonies of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in large numbers, urging the public to “write a glorious page in the history of Islamic Iran” through their participation, IRNA reported. In a statement ahead of the ceremonies, Ghalibaf said “the nation’s call for vengeance must ring in the ears of the whole world.” Khamenei, 86, was assassinated in Tehran on February 28, the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The funeral procession will take place across several significant locations, beginning in Tehran, the seat of state institutions, before continuing through Qom, the Iraqi holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, and concluding in Mashhad.

  • Ghalibaf denies IAEA access to bombed nuclear sites: On Wednesday, Ghalibaf called reports that IAEA inspectors would be granted access to Iran’s bombed nuclear sites “false,” citing a law and resolution passed by parliament and the Supreme National Security Council governing inspections. He said IAEA inspectors are currently authorized to access only the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and the Tehran Research Reactor, adding that “under no circumstances will access be granted to sites that have been bombed and damaged.”

  • Trump administration reportedly urges Iran to drop shipping toll plans in favor of sanctions relief: Washington is telling Iran to “think bigger” than shipping tolls, arguing a full sanctions-lifting deal tied to a broader nuclear agreement would be worth “100 times more” to the country, Axios reported on Wednesday.

    • The U.S and Iranian teams met in Doha on Thursday, where the U.S. reportedly agreed to release the first $3 billion tranche for humanitarian purchases, according to Al Arabiya. U.S. officials denied any such deal.

  • Senior Iranian diplomat rejects CENTCOM-led security summit in Bahrain: Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for legal and international affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, rejected a CENTCOM-led security summit in Bahrain on Wednesday, saying “Hormuz is defined under Iran’s command, not CENTCOM,” and arguing that a military summit “cannot establish legal order and security for the Persian Gulf.”

    • Gharibabadi argued that regional security could only come through “the end of interventions and the U.S. withdrawal from the area.”
    • CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper hosted defense officials from 12 nations Wednesday, in what marked the first time Syrian and Lebanese military leaders joined a U.S.-led regional defense conference.

  • U.S. official claims Hormuz oil flows have surpassed 10 million barrels daily: A U.S. official claimed to Bloomberg on Wednesday that oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz have surpassed 10 million barrels per day. The official credited the increase to U.S. military “support” for shipping in the region, and argued Tehran’s ability to disrupt shipping is now limited to targeting individual vessels

    • Marine traffic monitors have counted roughly 30 to 40 transits this week. Goldman Sachs in a research note estimates oil exports from the Persian Gulf, accounting for all bypass routes, have recovered to a 7-day moving average of 18.2 million barrels per day by late June.
    • Also on Thursday, Bloomberg energy analyst Javier Blas reported that the UAE has become the first Gulf oil producer to restore exports to roughly pre-war levels. June exports from the country climbed to more than 95% of pre-war volumes, with some tanker trackers indicating they have already exceeded pre-war levels. UAE crude is also increasingly being shipped to Europe and the U.S., beyond its traditional Asian markets.

  • NYT: Saudi and U.S. officials repeatedly clashed during Iran War: The long-standing alliance between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia was strained during the war, according to a Wednesday report from the New York Times. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman initially pushed President Donald Trump to take a harder line against Iran during the conflict, the report said, but shifted to urging a ceasefire after Iran demonstrated it could disrupt the Strait of Hormuz and threaten Gulf states.

    • A key flashpoint came when Saudi Arabia refused to let the U.S. use its airspace for “Project Freedom,” a mission to escort commercial shipping through the strait, forcing Washington to abandon the operation within 48 hours.
    • Bin Salman also declined a G7 invitation as a result of the war, the report claimed, as Riyadh has increasingly pursued its own diplomacy with Iran, China, and Pakistan.

Lebanon

  • Killed and wounded: At least 4,298 people have been killed, and 12,196 wounded, in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, as the death toll continues to rise due to recovery efforts and deaths resulting from wounds sustained in earlier Israeli attacks.

  • Israeli army carries out demolitions and strikes across Nabatieh: Israeli forces carried out a series of demolitions across southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate over the past two days, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency, despite a ceasefire in place. On Thursday, the Israeli army detonated several homes in the town of Haddatha, triggering powerful explosions that reverberated across neighboring towns in the Bint Jbeil district. An Israeli drone strike targeted Nabatieh Al-Fawqa, a municipality in the Nabatieh Governorate. Israeli forces also carried out major demolition operations near the town of Rshaf and in Beit Yahoun on Wednesday.

    • The mayor of Nabatieh al-Fawqa urged Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to intervene over Israel’s “daily attacks” on the town since the ceasefire. In a letter released on Thursday, the mayor said Nabatieh al-Fawqa has been subjected to airstrikes and drone attacks, while more than 10 civilians have been killed. He stressed that the town lies outside the so-called “yellow line,” is not occupied, and was not included in any framework reports. He called on the Lebanese leadership to issue a clear official position on the town’s legal and security status, halt the repeated attacks, and ensure residents can return “safely and with dignity.”

  • Israel continues attacks in Lebanon despite ceasefire: Israeli forces carried out demolitions, arson, and shelling across parts of southern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to journalist Hadi Hoteit.

    • Hoteit reported demolitions and fires in the border villages of Markaba, Beit Yahoun, Tiri, and Haddatha, all in the Bint Jbeil district near the Israeli border.
    • An Israeli drone strike also hit a parked car in the Al-Deir neighborhood of Nabatieh, about 12 miles north of the border, after quadcopters reportedly dropped grenades in the area.

Palestine

  • 1,000 days of genocide in Gaza: According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, the following figures mark 1,000 days since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza:

    • Human toll

      • 73,066 Palestinians killed and 173,514 wounded.
      • 55% of those killed were children, women or elderly people.
      • 262 journalists and 556 aid workers were killed.
      • 58,800 children have been orphaned, with only one parent or none left; more than 2,700 families were erased from the civil registry.

    • Healthcare

      • 1,700 medical workers killed, 38 hospitals damaged, destroyed, or put out of service, and 197 ambulances targeted.
      • More than 2.1 million cases of infectious diseases have been recorded, and over 22,000 patients need treatment abroad but are unable to leave Gaza due to Israeli restrictions.

    • Destruction and displacement

      • More than 90% of Gaza has been destroyed, with 223,000 tonnes of explosives dropped.
      • 410,000 homes and buildings have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.
      • Around 2 million people were forcibly displaced, with 350,000 families needing shelter.

    • Economic losses

      • Direct losses across 15 sectors are estimated at $80 billion.

  • Killed and wounded: Over the last 24 hours, two Palestinians were killed and 12 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. Two bodies were also recovered from under the rubble.

    • Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,059 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 3,429, while 788 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.

  • Israeli attacks on Gaza continue Wednesday: Israeli strikes killed three Palestinians and wounded others across Gaza on Wednesday, as Israeli forces continued their violations of the ceasefire with home demolitions, attacks on displacement tents, and indiscriminate shelling, Palestine Online reported.

    • Among these attacks, Israeli aircraft struck a group of people in the Sheikh Radhwan neighborhood of Gaza City, killing two and wounding several others.
    • The Palestinian Red Crescent said its crews evacuated two wounded people, one in critical condition, after an Israeli strike hit a group of civilians on Omar al-Mukhtar Street in central Gaza City.
    • In the south, Israeli vehicles fired directly at displacement tents and homes in the Qizan Rashwan area south of Khan Younis. A Rafah resident also died of wounds he had sustained a year earlier.

  • Gaza officials say famine has returned: Only 25% of the food needs of Gaza’s population are entering the Strip through crossings, Gaza’s Social Development Ministry said Wednesday.

    • Deputy Minister Riyad al-Bitar attributed the crisis to severe aid restrictions, economic collapse, and Israeli control over commercial trucks; he said Israel allows just 120 to 150 aid and commercial trucks daily against the 600 agreed upon under the October ceasefire. .

  • Israeli army kills Palestinian footballer, Football Association reports: Israeli forces shot Saleem Al-Ashqar, 32, a goalkeeper for Khadamat Khan Younis who also played for Al-Aqsa and Al-Musaddar clubs, on Monday in Al-Qarara, northeast of Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Football Association, which said he was recently married and awaiting his first child.

    • The association put the total number of Palestinian sports figures killed since the genocide began at 1,009, including 567 from football, and said it has filed a complaint with FIFA seeking Israel’s expulsion.

  • 11 Palestinians killed, 866 detained in Jerusalem during first half of 2026: At least 11 Palestinians were killed in occupied East Jerusalem during the first half of 2026, including eight shot by Israeli forces and three killed by Israeli settlers, the Jerusalem Governorate reported on Thursday. The governorate said Israeli authorities imposed a near-total closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest place for Muslims, from February 28 through the reporting period, preventing worshippers from entering amid an escalation of settler incursions. It also recorded 269 Israeli settler attacks, 866 Palestinian arrests, 288 demolitions and land-leveling operations—including 66 forced self-demolitions—and 89 settlement-related plans and projects, which it said were part of a systematic policy aimed at expanding settlements and forcibly displacing Palestinians from Jerusalem.

  • U.S. and Israel sign deal for permanent Jerusalem embassy on contested Palestinian land: The United States and Israel signed an agreement to build a permanent U.S. Embassy compound on the 13-acre Allenby Barracks site in southern Jerusalem under a 99-year lease at $1 per year, despite ownership claims by Palestinian families holding pre-1948 land deeds, Ahram Online reported. Speaking at the signing ceremony, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee said Washington would “plant our flag” in Jerusalem, which he called the “eternal, indigenous, and forever capital of the Jewish people.” The move consolidates the embassy relocation ordered by President Donald Trump in 2017, which contravenes the Oslo framework, as well as UN resolutions rejecting unilateral changes to the city’s status, including Security Council Resolution 478, which declared Israel’s claim to a “complete and united” Jerusalem “null and void” and urged states to withdraw diplomatic missions from the city.

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorses Abdul El-Sayed for Michigan Senate seat: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Dr. Abdul El-Sayed for Senate in Michigan in an interview with The New York Times, marking her first contested Senate primary endorsement of 2026 and putting her at odds with Senator Chuck Schumer, who backs the more moderate Representative Haley Stevens.

    • Ocasio-Cortez has not yet endorsed Graham Platner in his Maine Senate campaign, nor did she endorse the primary campaigns of Darializa Avila Chevalier, Clare Valdez, or Brad Lander, who, after their recent victories, will join her in New York’s congressional delegation.

  • Melat Kiros says Hakeem Jeffries should not be House Speaker: Melat Kiros, the democratic socialist who unseated 30-year-incumbent Diana DeGette in Colorado, told Politico on Wednesday that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries should not become speaker if Democrats retake the House, arguing the party must “root out the corruption and get money out of our politics” by voting out incumbents who take corporate PAC money.

    • Kiros later told CNN she would not vote for any Democrat for a leadership position who takes corporate PAC money.
    • The candidate, who is presumed to win in November, also insisted to Axios that she would take a hard line on a number of the issues that defined her campaign. “If enough of us share that commitment to Medicare for All, to ending corporate capture, to an arms embargo, we should absolutely say: here are our conditions,” she told the outlet. “If you want our votes on leadership, on appropriations, this is what it costs.” A full embargo, she told Colorado Public Radio, “is the opinion of the vast majority of Democratic voters.”
    • Jeffries publicly congratulated Kiros on her primary win on Wednesday, calling it “hard-fought” and saying House Democrats would “end the culture of corruption in Washington.”

  • Platner criticizes “legalized corruption”: Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner called congressional stock ownership “legalized corruption” on Wednesday, saying lawmakers and their spouses should be barred from owning and trading individual stocks because they can profit from legislation they help pass.

    • Sen. Susan Collins’s household stake in UnitedHealth Group is up 850%, Drop Site contributor Nathan Bernard noted on Wednesday, with the increase coming after Medicaid cuts in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” boosted the insurer’s outlook.

  • ICE detains more than 10,000 people in five days: Federal immigration officials detained over 10,000 people in the last five days, according to documents obtained by The New York Times, after agency leaders ordered top ICE officials to focus more officers on arrests, with three officials saying the White House set a new standard of 2,000 arrests a day.

    • Arrests peaked Saturday at more than 2,400, and the ICE detention population has risen to over 63,000 as of Tuesday.

  • OpenAI reportedly in early talks to give U.S. government 5% equity stake: OpenAI is in early-stage, conceptual talks to give the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, with CEO Sam Altman arguing this is the best way to share AI’s benefits with the public.

    • Altman has suggested that OpenAI and other major AI firms, including Anthropic, Google, and Meta, give 5% equity to a fund modeled on the Alaska Permanent Fund.
    • Any deal could require an act of Congress, and Altman has reportedly discussed public ownership with President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Senator Bernie Sanders, who has proposed a sovereign wealth fund financed by a one-time 50% tax on major AI companies’ stock.

  • Presbyterian Church (USA) votes to recognize Gaza genocide, back arms embargo and divestment from Israel: The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), which represents the U.S.’s largest Presbyterian denomination, voted 454-15 Tuesday to adopt a resolution identifying Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide, lobby Congress for an arms embargo, and encourage members to boycott Israeli products tied to the war, following a separate 447-21 vote affirming the Kairos Palestine II statement calling for intensified boycott, divestment and sanctions efforts.

    • A ranking member of the Church said that the Assembly had spoken “in a unified voice” against genocide and was similarly unified about “measures that will hopefully contribute to the liberation of Palestine.”
    • The votes came after the church on Sunday unanimously voted to divest from Palantir and GE Aerospace, adding to earlier divestments from HP, Motorola, Caterpillar, and Israeli bonds, and after its 2022 declaration that Israel is an apartheid state.

Other International News

  • Syrian government says it is open to meeting Hezbollah: Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said during an official visit to Beirut that Damascus would be open to meeting Hezbollah “if interests require it,” according to Lebanese state media. The visit—Shibani’s first to Lebanon—comes after President Donald Trump suggested that Syria’s new government could help combat Hezbollah, an offer Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has rejected in public statements.

    • During the visit, Lebanon and Syria signed an agreement establishing a high-level cooperation committee, while Shibani said Damascus sought to overcome the “painful legacy” of relations between the two countries.

  • Bomb blast at Damascus cafe kills five: A bomb planted inside a cafe in central Damascus killed at least five people and wounded 16, Syrian authorities said. The explosion took place near the Palace of Justice, a key government building, and shut down traffic throughout the center of the city. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

  • Over 900 arrested during South Africa anti-migrant protests: South African police arrested more than 900 people during nationwide anti-migrant demonstrations. In a statement, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged public concerns over illegal immigration, border management, and pressure on services, but warned that “taking the law into one’s own hands is vigilantism.”

    • Police said 120 marches took place across the country, with reports of looting and at least one person shot dead by police during a march in Johannesburg.

  • Russian strikes on Kyiv kill at least 21: A major Russian missile and drone barrage on Kyiv killed at least 21 people and wounded dozens more, Ukrainian officials said, hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cut short a visit to Ireland and warned that Moscow was preparing a “massive” strike.

    • Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said part of an apartment building collapsed after a direct hit, while city officials reported damage across dozens of locations and at least 90 people wounded with many more feared trapped under the rubble.
    • Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that it targeted military and energy facilities around Kyiv and other regions in the overnight attacks which they also described as retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil and gas infrastructure.

  • Germany charges Ukrainian suspect over Nord Stream sabotage: German federal prosecutors indicted a 50-year-old Ukrainian man identified as Serhii K over the 2022 explosions that destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines linking Russia to Europe.

    • Prosecutors allege he helped coordinate a team that used a sailing yacht to plant explosives near Denmark’s Bornholm Island, serving as the operation’s on-board coordinator rather than as a diver or bomb expert.
    • Serhii K, previously identified as Serhii Kuznietsov after his 2025 arrest in Italy and extradition to Germany, has denied involvement and says he was serving in Ukraine’s armed forces at the time, while the Ukrainian government has also continued to deny involvement in the attack which severed a critical export corridor for Russian natural gas.

  • Separatist Papua rebels claim to kill American pilot, burn plane in warning to U.S. and Indonesia: Separatist fighters in Indonesia’s Papua region, who have been waging a long-running insurgency against Jakarta, said they shot dead an American pilot, Nicholas F. Gosselin, and burned his aircraft after it landed in Yahukimo, accusing the civilian plane of repeatedly transporting Indonesian military personnel into rebel-declared “red zones.”

    • A spokesperson for the West Papua National Liberation Army said the attack was a message to Washington and Jakarta to cease working to suppress the separatist movement, which is seeking independence from Indonesia for the resource-rich western half of Papua.
    • Indonesian police-military officials confirmed a burned plane carrying one American pilot and seven Papuan passengers was found at a local airport, though they said they could not yet verify whether rebels attacked it or whether the pilot was killed.

  • CPJ declines to exclude Palestinian and Lebanese journalists, keeps existing definition of “journalist”: The Committee to Protect Journalists’ board said it voted Wednesday to affirm its existing definition of “who is a journalist,” saying it never planned to narrow the definition to exclude Palestinian and Lebanese journalists killed by Israel, despite earlier reports suggesting the organization would consider removing that designation from journalists who work for “state-backed propaganda outlets, militant- and designated terror-affiliated organizations.” The change was reportedly pushed by a right-wing outlet, The Washington Free Beacon.

    • Former board member and Drop Site News publisher Nika Soon-Shiong had demanded a vote in an email to the board before her removal this week. “Reopening the question of ‘who is a journalist’ carries profound implications,” Soon-Shiong said, adding that CPJ’s database “should remain insulated from political pressure to redefine who deserves recognition for their role in history.”

  • War-torn Sudan hit by deadly cholera outbreak: At least 838 suspected cholera cases and 117 deaths have been reported in Sudan’s West Kordofan province, as the country’s civil war continues to cripple healthcare and humanitarian access.

    • World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed the outbreak, citing data from Sudan’s Ministry of Health. He said the conflict has severely disrupted medical services and displaced communities, worsening the spread of the disease.
    • Tedros added that fighting and roadblocks are hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid and preventing medical teams from reaching affected areas.

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