The Gaza Genocide, West Bank, and Israel
Casualty counts: Over the past 24 hours, nine Palestinian bodies arrived at hospitals—three killed in new Israeli attacks and six recovered from under the rubble—and at least six Palestinians were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 72,082 killed, with 171,761 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 618 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,663, while 732 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israel strikes southern Gaza, two Palestinians killed: A Palestinian was killed and several others were injured after an Israeli strike in Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera. Israeli aircraft carried out three strikes in the south of the Strip in Rafah and Khan Younis, with artillery shelling areas east of Gaza City. Two Palestinians were also injured by Israeli gunfire in the Shujaiya neighborhood. An Israeli strike targeted the Ard al-Laymoun area south of Khan Younis on Tuesday evening, killing at least one Palestinian, according to Civil Defense officials.
Israel expands administrative detention to the highest levels in decades: Israeli authorities have sharply increased the use of administrative detention, issuing more than 1,400 new or renewed orders without formal charges in the first two months of 2026, according to the Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies. Administrative detention allows Israeli authorities to detain Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial. The number of administrative detainees held by Israel has risen from about 1,300 before October 7, 2023 to more than 3,500 in February 2026, with the group saying activists, students, journalists, lawmakers, women, and children are being increasingly targeted.
U.S. embassy to offer passport services inside West Bank settlement for first time: The United States Embassy in Jerusalem announced on Tuesday that American consular officers will provide on-site passport services this week in Efrat, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, according to Reuters. This marks the first time such services have been offered inside an Israeli settlement. The U.S. embassy also announced that similar services are planned for the Palestinian city of Ramallah and Beitar Illit, another illegal Israeli settlement near Bethlehem. Hamas called the move a “dangerous precedent” and a “blatant alignment” with Israeli settlement and annexation policies, adding that it exposes a “stark contradiction” in Washington’s stance of opposing West Bank annexation while taking steps that reinforce it.
Israel detains 18 Palestinians as settler and military attacks continue across the West Bank: Israeli forces arrested 18 Palestinians, including several minors, during raids across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to the Prisoners’ Media Office. Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, stormed the village of al-Mughayyir northeast of Ramallah, while soldiers fired tear gas inside the community, WAFA reported. In Nahalin, west of Bethlehem, Israeli authorities issued demolition notices for 23 inhabited homes. For the second consecutive day, Israeli troops raided areas south of Nablus, storming and damaging dozens of homes and conducting field interrogations. Meanwhile, armed settlers, also under army protection, attacked the home of detainee Khalil al-Manasra in Masafer Bani Naim east of Hebron, stealing and killing livestock and vandalizing property.
Aid groups petition Israeli court to allow them to keep working: A group of leading international aid organizations have petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to allow them to keep working in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Israel is set to ban 37 aid groups by March 1 for refusing to comply with new rules announced last year that require aid groups to register the names and contact information of employees and to provide details about their funding and operations. In a joint statement on Tuesday, the groups said: “The demand to transfer personal data raises acute security and legal risks. It exposes national staff to potential retaliation and undermines established data protection and confidentiality safeguards.” The groups, which include prominent NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, and Medical Aid for Palestinians, have appealed for an urgent interim order that would halt the process until a final ruling.
Israel responsible for 2/3 of all press killings worldwide in 2024 and 2025, according to CPJ report: The killings of journalists and media workers reached an all-time high in 2025, according to a special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), with Israel responsible for two-thirds of all press killings. “This marks back-to-back record years for press fatalities due to Israel’s continued and unprecedented targeting of journalists and media workers. More than 60% of the 86 members of the press killed by Israeli fire in 2025 were Palestinians reporting from Gaza, where human rights groups and U.N. experts agree a genocide is taking place,” CPJ said. This is the second consecutive year-on-year record for press deaths since CPJ began collecting data more than three decades ago. The Israeli military has committed more targeted killings of journalists than any other government’s military since CPJ began documentation in 1992. The report also noted that drone killings of press members are on the rise, from two in 2023 to 39 in 2025. The report highlighted specific cases of Palestinian journalists killed, including Hossam Shabat, a 23-year-old correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher and a contributor to Drop Site, who was assassinated on March 24, 2025 in an Israeli strike on his car in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza. You can read Hossam Shabat’s last article here.
Indian PM Modi arrives in Israel for official visit: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Israel Wednesday as part of a two-day visit to the country. Modi is scheduled to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, address the Knesset, and visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center. Netanyahu’s office said that the two leaders would sign a number of economic, security, and political cooperation agreements. India and Israel have deepened ties under Modi, a Hindu nationalist who became the first Indian prime minister to travel to Israel in 2017. India historically supported Palestinians and did not establish full diplomatic ties with Israel until 1992.
Drop Site Daily: February 25, 2026 - DROP SITE NEWS