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The U.S.-Iran Ceasefire, Lebanon in the Crosshairs, and the Assassination of Journalists in Gaza
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- [00:53]
A
Sa.
- [01:25]
B
Foreign. Good morning and welcome to the Drop Site News live stream. On Tuesday night, the United States, Israel and Iran entered into a sweeping ceasefire agreement. Israel did not spend one second honoring it, announcing immediately that they believed that it did not include Lebanon. They carried out a brutal series of massacres throughout, particularly in Beirut, but across southern Lebanon as well, that threatened the ceasefire. We're going to talk about that with my colleagues Murtaza Hussein and Jeremy Scahill in a moment. Later in the program, we'll be joined by my colleague Sharif Abdel Kadus and Lila Yunus, who has been covering, who is based in Beirut and has been covering the ongoing Israeli assault. For Drop Site News in the back half of the program, we're going to join by our colleague Abu Bakr Abed to talk about a new round of Israeli assassinations of journalists in Gaza. Uh, joining us now, uh, Jeremy Scahill and, uh, Murtaza Hussein. Uh, Jeremy and Maz, thank you so much, uh, for being here.
- [02:47]
C
Morning, Ryan.
- [02:48]
B
How you doing? Do we have Maz? We'll bring Maz on as soon as he's ready. So, Jeremy, I wanted to start with this, this tweet from Shabazz Sharif because I think it's very important to kind of underscore just how almost psychedelic this round of news coverage is of this, of this dispute over whether or not Lebanon is included in the ceasefire negotiations. Because here, hold on, Jeremy, I'm gonna mute myself for a second. My dog's going crazy.
- [03:23]
C
Yeah, I, I can, I can pick it up from there. So, I mean, basically what, what has been going on is since the U. S and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28, and mind you, this was, uh, with a round of technical discussions or negotiations scheduled, uh, for two days from that date, as the US and Israel did back in June of 2025, they launched this massive bombing campaign against Iran. And in the opening hours of it, in fact, in the initial strike, they assassinated Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, members of his family and other senior military and political leaders in Iran. And what Iranian sources had told us is that beginning around the third or fourth day of the US Israeli bombings, Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of Donald Trump, began reaching out to the Iranians, trying to test the waters for an initial round of talks on how the quote, unquote, war may wrap up. And the Iranians made very clear, in fact, they said this before the war began on February 28, that they were not going to engage in a sort of limited or short term ceasefire akin to the one that the US and Israel requested that brought the June 2025 so called 12 day war to an end. And the Iraqi Iranians have shown an incredible capacity to fight the United States and Israel both on an asymmetric level and on a symmetric level. And despite the fact that War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump himself have repeatedly talked about how they've obliterated Iran's ballistic missile program and its drone program, the Iranians continued to escalate their strikes across not only the Persian Gulf, but inside Israel itself. And as we've talked about in recent days, the Israeli supply of interceptors, as well as the interceptors available in the GCC countries across the Persian Gulf have been massively depleted. Iran has managed to strike two plus advanced early warning radar detection systems and have caused an unprecedented evacuation of American military facilities in the region. And Trump, through intermediaries, has tried to float the idea of, of some form of a temporary ceasefire. Forty days, you know, a few weeks. And then some days ago, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said that there were negotiations going on that seemed to be making progress toward a two week ceasefire. And he said that it would also include what he called a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Now, the Iranians would say that the Strait of Hormuz has never been closed. It's only been blocked off to the U.S. and other countries that are supporting the U.S. israeli war. And so, you know, that that tweet was posted and as Ryan Grim pointed out at the time, it had been edited and included what appeared to be a sort of instruction for the Pakistani Prime Minister or an approval of what exactly he was going to tweet. And the speculation was that it had been either drafted or needed to be approved by the US and or Israel. But nonetheless, the Pakistani Prime Minister announced this. And you know, I was speaking to Iranian officials in the aftermath of these reports that it was getting close. And what I was told, and this was just an hour or so before Donald Trump posted his Truth, as they call it, his post on his Truth social site was that the assessment in Tehran was that this two week deal or two week proposed ceasefire was very similar to previous attempts by Donald Trump to sort of pause the war. And the Iranian assessment was that Trump was in trouble not only on a military level, but on a political level for a number of reasons. And that the world economy was just getting wrecked by this war and because the US And Israel clearly underestimated Iran's capacity to strike, but also what it would mean if the Iranians effectively retained control of access through the Strait of Hormuz. And so they, what they said to me was, we've sent them, including the Prime Minister of Pakistan, our 10 point outline for how a negotiation could proceed that would result in an ending of this war. And we can talk about the specifics of it later. But what I'm saying now is that literally just prior to Trump eventually saying that there was a quote, unquote, double sided ceasefire, the Iranians were not dismissing what the Pakistani Prime Minister was saying, but by saying it essentially looks the same as these other deals. And what I'm told is that at the 11th hour, Donald Trump finally agreed to reference publicly in his initial comments, his initial post, the Iranian 10 point plan as a reasonable basis for negotiations. And that's what Donald Trump did. And so what I'm told is that that action was what caused the Iranians to say, okay, we're going to see what happens by talking again to the United States. But what's different from the June war is that the Iranians are saying they do not consider, they don't even consider this really to be a ceasefire in any sense. They consider this a pause to see what happens. From their perspective, they have more leverage than they ever have since the genocide in Gaza began because they, they've not been defeated because they've continued to attack. And so that Iranian ten point plan is in great dispute about what it says. The White House is saying it's not the initial Iranian 10 point plan, which included a non aggression pact and wanted the US to withdraw forces from the region and wanted to make sure that the ceasefire applied to Lebanon, Iraq and not just Iran, to all fronts of the axis of resistance and included demands for compensation for the damage that was done by the US And Israel. That's what the Iranians have said. Their sort of bottom line demands are the Trump administration is saying, no, no, no, this is a different 10 point plan. I'm told that the core aspects of what the Iranians submitted has remained consistent throughout. But the bottom line is that the Iranians view themselves as having leverage. They're demanding also a lifting of economic sanctions. The fact that these things are on the table and that Donald Trump said this meant that the Iranians would keep the finger on the trigger, recognize that the war may well not be over. In fact, right now there is a very serious question of whether there's even going to be the start of this so called ceasefire. Because the Israelis, far from saying we respect the fact that the Pakistani Prime Minister announced that Lebanon was supposed to be included in this ceasefire. The Israelis intensified the attacks, carrying out over the past 24 hours or so some of the most heavy bombing. Several hundred Lebanese people were killed in Israeli attacks. The Israelis tried this morning to assassinate the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem. There are reports that some of his family members were killed. The speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Ghaliba, and his senior advisor have basically been warning that if the United States doesn't rein in Israel, if Lebanon is not included in this two week ceasefire, then the deal may well be off, that the Iranians stand poised to restart what they call their defensive strikes in the region. And already there's only a trickle of ships going through the Strait of Hormuz. And the final point I'll make on that is that despite what Donald Trump says, the agreement that they have provides for the Iranian armed forces to continue to control that access through the Strait of Hormuz. So it does seem that, at least on a surface level, Donald Trump blinked first because he needed some sort of either a pause or an off ramp. But the Iranians are very aware of the fact that this may be a trick or an attempted trick, that it might be an opportunity, as Trump hinted at in his most recent social media post, where the US Is going to rest and resupply. And he said that the US Military is eager to engage in its next conflict. So history would indicate that Donald Trump is lying, that he and Netanyahu are preparing to escalate again and that this is a fraudulent deal. And that Trump and one Iranian official said to me, Trump's post and the mentioning of the ten point plan, while that was a trigger for us to say, okay, we'll see what these negotiations yield with the United States, they believe that he did that as a kind of almost meaningless gesture to try to say that he was throwing a bone to the Iranians and they're not stupid.
- [12:03]
B
Right. And so, you know, if it is a faint, if it is fraud, Netanyahu is not doing a very good job of going along with the game. And just so we're. Everyone's on the same page, who's watching this? So I found this, the Shabazz Sharif, this Prime Minister of Pakistan, when he announced the terms of the agreement, which we now know was done in an explicit and direct consultation with the United States, he said, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, key, key phrase, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, which is clear now. If it's not clear enough, he adds, including Lebanon and elsewhere, effective immediately. So that is the Pakistani Prime Minister who was in coordination with the United States and asked by the United States to put this, put this out like they're the ones they used to, you know, basically get Trump out of his threat, you know, civilizational annihilation threat. Now, Maz, I want to get your response to an interesting post from Mari Mohati, a golly buff Galiboff advisor. I have it right here. This is the translation. I don't know how good it is. He, he says this is, uh, 8:22am Eastern time this morning. Only a limited number of hours remain without the complete restraint of, of America's dogs in Lebanon. There will be no ceasefire or negotiations and the missiles are ready to fly. The equation of, quote, shared destiny among the components of the res of the axis of resistance, unquote, as part of the new regional order following Iran's victory, must be solidified, if possible, with kind words, otherwise with war. So, and this is neither here nor there, because who knows what you can trust on, on Twitter. But if you look at the replies underneath that, that post from golly bop's advisor, it's, it's just a ton of people angry at the Iranians for not yet having responded to Lebanon and accusing them of having left kind of Lebanon in the lurch and selling them out and, and, and, and kind of caving to Trump. So just a reminder that there are, you know, politics. You know, everyone faces their own domestic and regional political pressures as well. So what, what did you make of that, that post from Mohammadi?
- [14:27]
D
Well, it's a very common sentiment among supporters of the government at the moment, because there's a belief that Hezbollah made a tremendous sacrifice for Iran by involving themselves in the war. Even after they fought a war two years ago in Israel, they took tremendous losses. They're very exposed to Israel being on the border. We saw the savage attacks in Beirut yesterday. That's a very regular reality for Lebanese, including people in Hezbollah. So the belief or the idea that they would be abandoned to Israel while Iran made a deal on its own with the Israelis would be completely a betrayal of the ideological basis of the Islamic Republic. It's based on a sense of solidarity with other members of the axis of resistance and so forth. And for people who were supporters of the government, there's a lot of many calls. Maybe Muhammad is one example, but people are calling for resumption of the war in response to what took place in Beirut with the killing of over 200 Lebanese and the targeting, of, the attempted targeting of the Secretary General of Hezbollah. So, you know, I think that inside Iran there's a tremendous, I think, in fact, from a Western perspective, there's always been a misunderstanding that the Khamenei or people around him represent the most extreme nationalist or extreme right wing, you could say a segment of Iranian society. That's really not the case. I would say the people who are in charge now, people in the irgc, people whose names maybe not have been known very well before but are becoming known now, they were always more ambitious or more hardline, you could say, more pressing on Iran to use its deterrent capacity in years prior. And Khamenei was really a moderate in that sense. He was very restrained in many ways. So Mehdi Muhammad is one figure who I think is emblematic and representative of a much broader tendency to be skeptical of the ceasefire, skeptical of having any talks with the US and absolutely vociferous that Hezbollah and Ansar Allah and the Iraqi PMF and other groups should not be abandoned in any deal that the Iran makes. In their view, out of necessity or out of pragmatism. Many of them would probably not want to make any deal at all. And, but you know, the idea that in this duplicitous way has globally cut out, that's absolutely unacceptable. I think that there would be tremendous instability inside the system if it was perceived that they made a deal without that.
- [16:38]
B
And Jeremy. Yeah. Who is Bhakti Muhammadi? Like what, and what, what's his, what's his relationship to Gali Baf? Or how should we think about this kind of, this pressure in Iranian domestic politics to not, not allow Lebanon to be carved out of the, the green.
- [16:55]
C
Yeah, I mean this is, this is not like if you have a Republican strategist on CNN and they're sort of, you know, talking to people and then speaking. There's a highly coordinated messaging that, that, that occurs. And you know, there are some independent analysts in Iran, professors and others who have access to some of the key players and they have a little bit more of a free hand. They're not representing the state, so they're allowed to appear on drop site or on Al Jazeera or on other news outlets. But when, when you're talking about people that are advisors in a more formal role, these are people who are expressing, I wouldn't say that it's state policy, but they are expressing the formal position of some very significant decision makers in Iran. None of it is by accident. He's not just sitting around like one of us on X and saying what he thinks this is representing probably a very serious option that is being considered right now by the Iranians. I would take it very seriously what they're saying. Look, the Iranians in the statement from the Supreme National Security Council, that was Iran's first official response to this. That's the highest decision making body when it comes to national security issues. And it operates directly under Moshe Bah Khamenei, the new supreme Leader of Iran. You can take that to the bank in terms of it being the policy of the state. And what they said was that they do not trust the Americans at all. That their assumption is that the US Will not abide by anything that it publicly states that it agrees in. And the Iranians for many, many weeks have been telling us that any deal must apply to all fronts of resistance. And they also mentioned Palestine as well. And we'll be talking later to Abu Bakr Abit. But the Israelis are continuing to carry out sporadic but heavy and lethal attacks inside of Gaza. One thing, you know, this is related in a sense, but we understand that this interim governing committee that is supposed to be entering Gaza is being blocked by the representative in charge of the implementation of this from Trump's so called Board of Peace. So, you know, the Iranians represent the most significant military force within the axis of resistance. What Maz said I think is 100% right. I've heard a lot of frustration expressed by Iranians that there hasn't already been a swift response to the fact that Netanyahu just killed several hundred Lebanese, most of them civilians, including small children. And I think that the Iranians are being very, very serious when they say that this entire deal may be blown up. Now it's also possible if you study the track record of Trump and Netanyahu and so called ceasefires, it's possible that the Trump administration has let loose some leash on this for Netanyahu, have given him a certain amount of time where they feel like he can push it so far, get his last kind of massive attacks in before they have to take a two week break and try to see, you know, if they can get more interceptors to the region. They still, I think, are deluding themselves into believing that the Iranians are going to capitulate in some format from the Iranian perspective. Again, they feel even though they've endured this massive bombing, that they have greater leverage right now and an ability to call for a lifting of sanctions in a way that never was possible prior to the start of these wars. And they're not going to just simply abandon that. You know, on this issue of Trump saying that he was going to bomb their civilization and he was going to hit their energy plants, etc. It's very interesting because many thousands of Iranians, including some prominent people who are known for being critical at times of the Iranian government, vowed to create human chains around Iranian infrastructure. And they went out and they did this. And I think there's been a real unifying force that has set in as a result of this US Israeli bombing. Trump recently said out loud that the US Gave a tremendous amount of weapons to people inside of Iran who tried to engage in some sort of an uprising or rebellion in January. People who were saying, who were pointing this out at time and saying that Iran is not lying when they talk about there being foreign influence. You know, they were derided as regime apologists and, you know, massacre denialists. And the fact is that now the President of the United States has openly stated what Mike Pompeo implied at the time, what prominent Israelis close to Netanyahu implied at the time, that the entire thing was that Netanyahu sold Trump on the idea that there was some kind of going to be some kind of color revolution and you just needed to light the spark. And the reality is the opposite has, has set in. And if the US had done this to Iran, if they had started to attack major power facilities, I believe that the Iranians would have made good on their promise to just absolutely light up the, the Persian Gulf, to hit infrastructure in an unprecedented way across that region. You would have Ansar Allah then close the Bab El Mandab strait. The US economy, the world economy would have gone into a total free fall. And, and there would have been utter panic among the Gulf allies that have been cultivated as business partners by Trump and his son in law, Jared Kushner.
- [22:16]
B
Yeah, and I know you have to go in a moment, so I wanted to ask you about this. Another comment that I saw, I think it was from MD as well, but basically he was saying, you know, there's a possibility here that you could see a situation develop where we reach an, we reach a, an agreement with the United States for a ceasefire, but Israel refuses to recognize it and that we continue our conflict directly with Israel. He described that as sort of a kind of best case scenario. Now, from Israel's perspective, that would, I would imagine, be somewhere in the ranks of worst case scenarios. But, and this, this is what I, I want to ask, like, is, is that, is that something that's being discussed. Is that a potential, you know, strategic outcome for the Iranians out of this? And from the Israeli perspective, like, what are they thinking? Because that possibility seems, you know, pretty, you know, like a pretty awful outcome for them. Is it related to the fact that this, this current outcome is devastating for Netanyahu? Like, I think if it stops at
- [23:24]
C
this point, I mean, I think there's a couple levels on which we need to think about this. First, I, I get the sense, and I think this is borne out in the public statements of Iranians for many, many years, that Iran believes that it is going to remain in a perpetual state of war against the Zionist entity, against Israel, and that nothing that happens right now is going to fundamentally change that. I think that primarily the Iranians are looking for a non aggression pact with the United States. Remember in the ceasefire that was signed between Ansar Allah and, and the Trump administration, Ansar Allah, often referred to as the Houthis in Yemen, it was a bilateral agreement with the United States. But Ansar Allah did not agree to stop attacking Israel as a result of its ceasefire with the United States. And so I think that the Iranians and actually the late leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, would frequently talk about this in his speeches on who's actually controlling the levers of power. Is it the United States or is it Israel? And I think that what the Iranians recognize is that they've sent a very serious message about the endurance capacity of the US Military presence in the Persian Gulf region in the Middle East. I think many people across the Arab and Islamic world believe that Israel has set in motion events that ultimately could lead to the total destruction of the Zionist project. And so I wouldn't assume that Iran is calculating that if a deal is reached to end this war, even in a long term sense with the United States, that it means that the war with Israel is going to come to, is going to come to an end. Israel may think that it's winning and running the deck right now, but you know, history has a long arc and I think some, you know, some years from now we will look back and recognize that when Netanyahu and Israel decided to wage the genocidal war against Gaza, they set into motion events that, that then spiral beyond their control and potentially will cause the entire collapse of the Leaning Tower of Zionism.
- [25:38]
B
So, Jeremy, I know you got to run in a minute. So, you know, thanks for, thanks for being here. We also have Sharif Abdel Kadus joining us. Let me see if I can add him to the Stage here. Sharif is, and Lila is here as well. And so bring Lila, Eunice in here in a moment. So, yes, Sharif, I wanted to get your, I know you, if you were able to listen. And I just want to get your reaction to this as well. What, what, what are, what are, what is the, what is your analysis of, you know, how Hezbollah is responding to this? It seems like they have announced that they're kind of restarting attacks. They had, they had agreed to the ceasefire. What is, what is the latest?
- [26:26]
E
They did agree to the ceasefire. And on Wednesday we did see a halt on attacks, both rocket attacks into northern Israel and attacks on Israeli soldiers on Lebanese territory for several hours. And then of course, Israel launched this massive, an almost unprecedented bombardment. Hezbollah in response. We haven't seen major rocket attacks yet on, on Israel. It's unclear what's happening on the ground. They did put out a statement that was a little vague as to whether they were going to respond militarily. They said, they obviously condemned it, said it was an act of cowardice and that it was an act of desperation because they were losing. I think also there hasn't been great reporting on how Hezbollah fighters are resisting on the ground and causing casualties to Israeli ground troops and preventing them from actually gaining territory on the ground. But we can talk about that in a little bit. But really what we saw yesterday with this bombardment by Israel, it was really shocking. Today they've declared the day of mourning. So over 200 people have been killed, over 1,000 were wounded. And this was in a matter of 10 minutes, by Israel's own admission, striking over 100 targets across the country, much of it in Beirut and Beirut's southern suburbs. You know, the Lebanese civil defense put the casualties at over 250 people and over 1100 wounded. But it was by far the heaviest wave of attacks on Lebanon that we've seen over the past five weeks and shocking in speed and scale. Just today, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who's, you know, wanted for war crimes for the genocide in Gaza, reiterated again that they'll continue striking Lebanon whenever they want. You know, claiming that until they restore, restore security to the, to Israel's residents in northern Israel, that essentially means forever war. And they also killed, they announced that they killed the aid to Hezbollah leader Naim Qasem. They also bombed today a village in Abbasia in southern Lebanon and killed seven people. So the attacks are continuing. But, and also there was something to the, the way the Israeli military announced this massive wave yesterday. They kept kind of bragging about it. And it was of. Extremely provocative in a way. They. They posted photos of what they called their operations room with their army chief of staff supposedly overseeing the strikes. They posted photos of the war planes that apparently took part in the strikes. They posted a map showing all. Where all the strikes were.
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B
And that's not totally unprecedented, but it's unusual.
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E
No, no, it's unprecedented, but it was. It was exactly. It was just. Yeah, and I think. Yeah, it's a good time. We should. We should bring in Leila Yunus, who is a, you know, drop site contributor for us from Beirutai Layla. And, you know, as this was happening, Leila was messaging me. And the nature of the messages really was shocking because she said, this is insane. This is insane. It's everywhere. And Leila, why don't you, if you can describe to us for people what it was like in those 10 minutes or however long it was, and also what the scene looks like in Beirut. You've been out today at different parts of the city.
- [30:25]
A
Yeah. So, I mean, I think it's one thing that I'll say is that, you know, we all went to sleep the night before last, kind of thinking that, okay, you know, it sounds like there's a ceasefire. It sounds like, you know, Lebanon may or may not be included. We're hearing kind of contradictory information. The Iranians are saying that as part of their kind of 10 points to Trump. Then obviously the Israelis come out. Netanyahu says, no, Lebanon is not included. So that's kind of where we're all dream now.
- [30:54]
B
Like the Pakistanis said, ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere, effective immediately. Iran, as you say, Israelis immediately were like, well, no, exactly.
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A
And so then, you know, we're all just kind of going about our day, not really knowing there's tension in the city, but no one's really sure what's happening. And then really just like out of nowhere at. It was a quarter past two, just massive bombardment everywhere. And if you went up on any roof in Beirut, you would see plumes of smoke rising from really all over the city. And what was so shocking about the bombardment was, you know, how it. The bombs just sort of rained down. There were so many all at once in so many different places. And then, of course, immediately you start hearing ambulances and people yelling and this thing, the streets are kind of full with emergency vehicles trying to get through. And then while they're digging people out of the rubble, and of course, people. I'm saying people, civilians. They bombed civilian residential buildings. Full of people, huge residential buildings just Flattened on top of people's heads. Then they strike again in Tallat Al Khayyat. Several hours later, all hear another large explosion and another building toppled, Many people killed and trapped under the rubble. Just as emergency crews are at capacity, hospitals are also at capacity and kind of like putting out these petitions for people to come and donate blood. I went to a hospital in Beirut to donate blood and.
- [32:34]
E
Leila, I think we may have lost you for a moment. Okay. I think we just lost Layla. Internet and electricity, of course, in Beirut is quite spotty, but I'll just, you know, just to give you a sense. Also, Leila, yesterday in the piece she filed, said in Beirut the speed and scale of the bombardment stunned a population that has experienced successive wars, but rarely like this. Strikes landing almost simultaneously in broad daylight while the streets were crowded. So, you know, it's unclear if this level of attack is going to continue. Obviously, we've seen the White House, Trump, J.D. vance, Vice President try, and the press secretary all claim that Lebanon was not part of the deal, in clear contravention to what was stated openly. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is basically claiming that Israel has the right to continue attacking. But, yeah, I think it is a very. It does threaten the entire deal because, as Jeremy was saying, it puts Iran in a situation where it either has to abandon, essentially abandon its ally that stood by it as part of the axis of resistance that fired rockets the day after the war started on Iran and engaged with Israel in solidarity,
- [34:09]
C
or
- [34:09]
E
it would let this pass. And, you know, that's. I think this, this does kind of like, hinge on a very fragile moment.
- [34:21]
B
I want to, I want to play a little bit of JD Vance yesterday speaking on a tarmac, getting asked about reporters. J.D. vance's role in this administration is to take Trump's kind of genocidal rants and turn them into grammatical paragraphs that like an educated person can absorb and say, oh, well, that sounds, that sounds reasonable. His attempt to do that in, in this case, I thought, fell a little bit flat. But I want to get your reaction to, to J.D. vance here. Let me, let me get, Let me play this here.
- [34:57]
F
I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't. We never made that promise. We never indicated that was going to be the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran and the ceasefire would be focused on America's allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states. Fundamentally, we're on the right track. We got a Lot more to do. We got a lot more that the Iranians are going to have to accept as part of this negotiation. But I think we've got a strong hand and we're going to play it well.
- [35:29]
B
So, I mean, a misunderstanding, Sharif.
- [35:32]
E
Yeah, but if this is just a blatant lie, I think we can just, we can just call it that. You just, you can, as you showed, you can just go back to the Pakistani Prime Minister, his, his, his text. It's there, he posted it. And it says in very clear terms that an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon. It specifically says Lebanon, Even though there's 10 countries where there's attacks happening. And it says including Lebanon, effective immediately. So the claim that this is not the case, it's preposterous and it's part of a pattern by the administration. There was some reporting by Axios, Barack Ravid saying that, you know, Israel pressed for, to get the green light from Washington to continue bombing and they did so right away as soon as they, they were allowed. So, you know, the fact that there was a discussion about it meant that they understood that this was part of the deal, right? Yeah, right.
- [36:42]
B
They have, they have access to Twitter also, like, they read Shabazz Sharif's post. And as, as we discussed earlier, Shabazz Sharif, this is, this is a, this is an ally of the United States. He is in power at the pleasure of the President of the United States who has supported, you know, the, both, you know, the Biden administration, the Trump administration have made sure that Imran Khan, you know, is not coming back into power. The military backed government in Pakistan only serves at the pleasure of the United States. And then they accidentally, as we talked about earlier, posted a draft of a tweet that kind of revealed that the US was, you know, basically sending them what to post. And then the New York Times today confirmed that the US has been, you know, directly in coordination with Pakistan about what they've been posting. So I, I, I think it's frankly believable that Israel asked the United States for the green light to hit Lebanon before doing it. And, and that Trump green lit it. Trump also, you know, you know, shared the Pakistani Prime Minister's post. So like, you know, Trump acknowledged that this was the deal. So clearly Israel has a, an, an interest in ending this ceasefire. Where do you think that comes from? Like, is it, is this, is, is this an Israeli agenda item at this point? Like, would, is Israel better off if the war continues or are we back into a place where Netanyahu for his own political Survival needs, the thing that he's needed forever, which is the war. Can 8 some war, any war continuing another week and another week, another week, so he can live politically to fight another day. My sense is that the, you know, Israelis finally, after many decades, got what they wanted, which was the, you know, an all out full spectrum war on Iran. And if it ends now, they are emerging from it with Iran a much strengthened regional power in control of the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions effectively lifted and the threat of that war now also being lifted, like that's a huge component as well. Like, it's very difficult to imagine now, I think that Trump might, may restart this, this particular war, but it's very difficult to imagine one or two or three years an American president saying, let's try that again, because I think the American political consciousness will absorb fully that this was an absolutely catastrophic mistake for the US So how does Israel, you know, so, so what, what is, what is Israel's play here continuing the war? Doesn't seem, I don't, I don't understand how they're going to get a better outcome a month or two down the road. When they started this, they had a full arsenal, missile stocks full, not completely full because they had to expend a lot in June 2025, but a pretty full arsenal of ballistic missile defense. Two carrier groups, they're down now, down to one, enormous amounts of munitions from the United States. The US has now had to cannibalize munitions from around the world and is, and is significantly depleted. And so it's difficult for me to see how they, another couple months of this accomplishes what they couldn't accomplish yet. So, or are they just getting like last licks in, killing several hundred civilians and, and trying to go for this like another decapitation?
- [40:24]
E
I mean, I think you've hit it on the head. I don't think this is about anything personal to do with Netanyahu. This is about broader Israeli strategy. You know, since the genocide began in Gaza in October 2023, they've moved to what they call redraw the map of the Middle east, although I hate that term. But, you know, they, they, they took out the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and, and, you know, hit Hezbollah quite hard with attacking, you know, killing a lot of the rank and file. Although Hezbollah did fight back quite strongly. They've ravaged Gaza, they are ravaging the West Bank. Once Bashar Al Assad was ousted from power, they completely destroyed Syria's military capability in massive airstrikes across the country attacking all of its bases and military equipment. Iran was kind of the last holdout really of the axis of resistance that it hadn't attacked. And that had been, you know, the main focus of particularly Netanyahu, but of Israel for so many years. And it finally got its chance. It finally convinced Washington with an administration that was frankly stupid enough to go ahead with it. And this was their moment. It's been catastrophic for the United States, been catastrophic for the region. And I think that, you know, they ultimately had two goals. One was to either create regime change and have a compliance government there, or to cause state collapse and have complete disrupt, you know, just a failed state essentially with infighting and civil war. And that could pose really no threat to it. But as you said, after six weeks of this war, the US has been weakened, Gulf countries have been weakened,
- [42:38]
C
Iran
- [42:38]
E
certainly has been weakened, but it's emerging politically stronger out of this. And so for it to stop now I think would be disaster. Israel viewed as disaster. So, no, I think they're definitely trying to provoke the war to continue. I think they see this as only a two week ceasefire and they are rearming and hoping to restart it again. And yeah, their vision of forever war is, I think that's the only. War is the only solution to any problem right now for Israel. That's the only way that this colonial entity can exist. And as we mentioned, we're going to be speaking in a moment with our colleague Abu Bakr Abed, that while the world's attention has turned to Iran, to Lebanon, the genocide in Gaza is continuing. There are attacks nearly every single day. We saw a horrific attack which we reported on just a couple of days ago with an Israel backed militia raiding an area, a refugee camp. Refugee camp in central Gaza.
- [43:50]
C
Yeah.
- [43:50]
B
Can you talk about that for a moment? Because I think that because of the attention on the, on the regional war, I think that that got. And actually I'll bring Abu Bakr in if he's ready.
- [44:03]
C
Let me see.
- [44:03]
B
Yeah, yeah. So, Abu Bakr, thanks.
- [44:07]
G
Good to.
- [44:07]
C
Great.
- [44:07]
B
How you doing?
- [44:08]
G
Thank you so much.
- [44:10]
E
It's very good to have you on with us. And, and thank you for joining us.
- [44:14]
G
Appreciate it. Sorry, you rushed me a lot.
- [44:20]
E
Yes, yes.
- [44:23]
B
Hurry up, hurry up.
- [44:24]
C
So the reason.
- [44:26]
E
Yeah, I just, I mean, we can get right to it. The reason we, in particular, we want us to talk to Abu Bakr is because yesterday the Israeli military assassinated yet another journalist in Gaza, the correspondent for Jazeera, Mubashir Muhammad. He was hit in an airstrike on his car near The Nabulsi roundabout west of Gaza City. You know, we, we retreat. Got footage of the strike. The car was, it was a direct hit. The car's completely on fire. And the Israeli military today bragged about his killing, you know, saying it had successfully, quote, eliminated Bashar. They called him Hamas terrorist. And this is obviously part of a pattern that we've seen where they brag about the killing of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, as they did with Hossam Shabet, our colleague, as they did with Anas Al Sharif, as they did with Hassan as, and so many more. But you were messaging with me yesterday, Abu Bakr, after Mohammad Basheh was killed. He was quite close to you. You knew him very well. Very sorry for your loss. Can you talk a little bit about his work, who he was, and also about his assassination?
- [45:50]
G
It's absolutely another unbearable loss. And you're really right. And Mohammed is a very, was a very renowned journalist for a lot of people in Gaza, for the entire Gaza Strip. He had started working with Al Jazeera Mubashir, which is the main media outlet or TV channel that people follow and watch in the Gaza Strip since 2014. He had started his career in 2006. He didn't even study journalism. He studied laboratory medicine, sciences. And then he changed his, his whole major and he started working in journalism since 2006. And on that year he joined Alexa channel and it was a very simple channel. And he started working with them in 2014. He went to work with TRT Arabic, which is the main Turkish state media outlet. So Muhammad, since we knew him since the October, October 7, since these attacks have really risked his life. He put his life on the line. And before that he has been relentlessly covering every unprovoked war Israel launched in Gaza Strip. He lives in Albert Camp in central Gaza. And because he really, because the campaigns against him start leaving way before October 7th and he was really worried about his life. So he, he moved out of his house since the early days of the genocide. And he kept sleeping night in and night out in a, in a very dilapidated tent in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Hospital. And if. And in every hospital he worked at or reported on the genocide at. So Muhammad, I remember very well when the, when this new media campaign started against him. They started in February 2024 and Afghan, the official Arabic spokesperson of the Israeli military, initiated these mere media campaigns. And they essentially used the photo for him holding an rpg. And I remember from where they took this screenshot and it was from one of the military training campaigns or, or just camps that the Armed Resistance has held in Gaza before October 2023. And he was reporting as a reporter, as a neutral, objective reporter on these military training campaigns and camps that the Armed Resistance held in Gaza. And during that time, he was, he just showed a photo like that. But he was never spotted in a military, in a military gear at all. He never participated in any military activities at all. We all saw him, we were all next to him. And when this meme media campaign started against him, he stopped. So he asked Al Jazeer Mubasha to stop. And then they brought another journalist to help him or to take his shaft. And when he resumed his reporting and I saw him and asked, I remember asking him about that. He told him, why are you not wearing the press list? He said, because I would definitely be a target. So he started putting off his gear, his like press fist at that time because he said, I don't want to be noticed. I don't want these radius to see me or to, you know, pay attention to my presence. He barely at that time, I think it's mid February, late, late, sorry, it's mid 2024, late 2024, he began taking off the press fist and just appearing very, very, you know, limited live streams or live reports that he did with Al Jazeera bash. I said, I always felt, and to be honest, he always thought he was a danger to everyone around him. And to be honest with you, I was one of them because I know that would have ended with a, with assassination. And I've been all the time worried about him and I've told him, like, please stop. He said, like, I really have no option at all. But he's been really nice, such a really brilliant example to everyone. And he always helped the reporters around him. He connected the reporters with local news sources because his work experience is so incredibly unbelievable. So he was such a beautiful soul. His children now four are fatherless, four are orphaned. He has four children. So it's a massive tragedy. Everyone is like, everyone is mourning his death and even just finally he was attacked when, when he was going back home. That's my understanding. And he was directly hit. And as you said, Sharif, the Israeli military deliberately targeted him. Pretty surprised that it has taken so long because every time they smear the smeared journalists in Gaza, this, this is what exactly has happened and that's what they do. I mean, but the, as I said, the screenshot they used was an RPG he held during his reportage on the Armed Resistance military training campaigns inside the Gaza Strip. It was specifically on the eastern outskirts of Dar El Bala in one of the military sites for the Armed Resistance. He was reporting that he was doing his reporting as a journalist and he used that photo to murder him and to assassinate him. But there is no actual proof. He was always with us 24, 7, 24 hours a day in front of us, sitting with us, eating with us in the same tent. You wouldn't see him going somewhere that nobody knows or nobody, sorry, nobody knew, nobody. So no, everything was very, very salient. So his assassination was not definitely deliberate and they admitted it, but there is no actual proof at all.
- [51:46]
B
Yeah, and Abu Bakr here in the United States, we are awash in firearms. And our journalists, you know, will go and cover military, U.S. military bases. They'll go, they'll go embed with U.S. forces and oftentimes just because, just for the novelty of it, they will take pictures of themselves, you know, sitting on tanks or holding weapons or, you know, at a fire, at a fire shooting range and they'll post it on their social media. And, and I think our, all of our American colleagues, if somebody tried to grab one of those off of Instagram or Facebook to say, look, this is a, this is a militant, would say, no, that's, that's preposterous. Of course they're not a militant. And in fact would make the point that you made, which is that, that we saw them doing their work every day. Like they're, they're here reporting, like, when, when is this, when is this secret life happening? Like they're living, living their lives, streaming the news directly to, to audiences. But I'm curious if you, if you don't mind sharing, like, how did you meet Muhammad?
- [52:55]
G
He was working. Because, you know, when we work in Gaza, we work in a very close knit community. It's just a few tents that we were taking as shelter. We're taking his workplaces. So we would have, we would simply share the same workplace in the same tent to work at. So that's how I basically met him and I knew him before October 2023, but it was really very supportive of me all the time, was really kind. He was always asking me if I need any help because I never worked in this, you know, war reporting industry at all before. And he was always keen, I would just be careful all the time, be careful with the language that they use because they're going to your target, especially if you are in support of the armed resistance. Because he really was, he really was in the support of the armed resistance. And if you look, it's very important to tell the audience and I think Sharif would agree with me on that because he's been following that, that any journalist who has confessed, who has, sorry, professed support for the armed resistance during the past two years and a half, he was deliberately targeted especially, especially from the Arabic speaking reporters in Gaza. So you can't see a single journalist, most of them have been prominent, have been showing support for the armed resistance, which is an internationally enshrined right for the oppressed nations in the whole world. They have been deliberately targeted. But to legitimize targeting them, the Israeli military made up false claims about them saying that they belong to the military as the one that was about some Shabbat, that he was a sniper when he was 14 or 16 years old. That is utterly preposterous. And another point, Ryan, because you've mentioned that there's really. CNN appointed a journalist a few months ago when she was literally spotted in the military gear and she participated in this really military, she's Israeli. There has been a pushback against.
- [54:52]
E
Photographed sitting on a tank.
- [54:54]
G
Exactly. But they did see and despite pushback that happened at that time, a lot of people have showed, you know, have raised a lot of concerns about her DCN and didn't bother and she continues to report to dcnn. So how can the CNN, by its ethical standards, whatever journalistic standards, how could they really assign a reporter like that who has been spotted with Israeli military with the not reporting, but she was sitting on the tank as Sharif said. So you can see the double standard here. Unfortunately, there has not been a single time that the Israeli army or spokespeople have given actual evidence that those people belonged to, you know, to a, an armed resistance group or to a political wing. I mean, they don't have time for it. So it's absolutely, as you said, preposterous.
- [55:44]
E
So yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean Mohammad like oh my God, he's a militant, we have to target him. There is a clear pattern that they are targeting prominent journalists who do adversarial coverage. And what I mean by that is yes, they can do coverage that is supportive of the armed resistance. Prominent journalists most of the time covering parts of Gaza that are otherwise not covered and they target them secondly, it doesn't matter. It actually doesn't matter if even if they were part of the armed resistance before which none of them have been proven to be. Even if they were and they're practicing their work as journalists, you're not allowed to assassinate them.
- [56:30]
G
Exactly.
- [56:31]
E
That would make every single Israeli journalist a legitimate target. They've all served in the Israeli military. That means all of them can be a legitimate target while they're reporting.
- [56:41]
C
This is
- [56:45]
E
double standard, is insane and we should not take this seriously at all. These claims, this is assassination of journalists. It is unprecedented killing of journalists. The government media office in Gaza now puts a number after rusha's assassination at 262. Nothing comes close to that in any other context in recent history.
- [57:11]
G
And to be honest, I just want to add a quick point on that. I mean, how can people, to be honest with you, just at least be logical about it. How can people expect journalists in Gaza to be neutral and objective in the face of people dropping palms on them every single hour of the day? I mean, if I'm not going to support armed resistance of my people, what would you expect me to do? To tell the Israeli soldiers come and destroy my homeland and kill my entire family? And I would thank you. That's how people would expect us to do or to act in the West. But if you look at the mainstream media in the west, like for example, Fox News, CNN and all these media channels they are propagating, they are doing propaganda for their channels, the state media propaganda.
- [57:51]
E
And they openly support military.
- [57:54]
G
Exactly, that's what I'm saying. So why are, why are they so objective and neutral and very worthy of awards. But if you look at Gaza, the Gaza reporters are not expected to show support for the armed resistance. I mean it's an internationally shri. Right. It's not something that they should be ashamed of at all. So it's absolutely insane.
- [58:14]
E
And I just want to say there's, there's a vigil right now as we're speaking in Gaza for Muhammad that is taking place. And as Abu Bakr said, he was very well known, well loved. Our other contributor in Gaza, Abdul Qadr Sabah also, you know, messaged me as soon as he was killed and said he had spent a lot of time with him, he had been displaced with him. And also some footage of his, his body arriving in the hospital. But. Go ahead, Ryan.
- [58:45]
B
Oh no, I was just gonna underline Abu Bakr's point. You know, you would be far too young to remember this, but when I was younger, the United States launched it's an invasion of Iraq and the subsequent occupation. I was in my early 20s at that point and I remember the Phrase in the United States is, and to this day is called it's support our troops. And the most devastating thing certainly at that time and right after 9, 11 too, that somebody could say to somebody else would be, do you not support our troops? In fact, the entire 2004 presidential campaign was kind of organized around, you know, who supported. It's not about the war, it's do you support our troops? The, the idea that an American journalist would say anything other than that they supported our troops is at that time was just so far outside the bounds of civil discourse that it would be inconceivable. And so it is another reflection of not even a double standard, but a complete and total dehumanization and refusal to understand the, the situation. Because what I'm talking about with the American context are troops who got on planes and ships and went across the world to invade and occupy another country. What you're talking about is the opposite. In their own, in their own land who are fending off an invasion.
- [60:20]
G
Exactly.
- [60:21]
B
And a genocide and so completely toxic. It's not even just double standard, it's like a, a quadruple or six double layer of double standards. That's, that's the only point I wanted to add to that.
- [60:33]
E
Yeah, I think we'll wrap up soon. I just wanted to say briefly about what we were going to talk about earlier and maybe Abu Bakr can type in as well about this attack earlier this week on Albaghazi refugee camp. This was started by an Israeli backed militia known as the Abu Nasira Nasira militia led by this guy Shawi Abu Nasira, who. This militia is kind of like a armed and backed by Israel. It is an offshoot of the Yasser Abu Shabab militia, you know that who became his militia became very well known for looting aid convoys. He was killed in December in what seemed to be an internal dispute. But essentially what happened was they raided the eastern part of Al Makhazi refugee camp, which is just maybe 50 to 70 meters from the so called yellow line, where you know, Israeli troops withdrew to in October. And it's unclear what exactly the aim of this was. Some people said they were trying to kidnap or arrest a few people, but residents fought back and they came under fire. And so then the Israeli military came in heavy with airstrikes and drones and bombed the place and killed 10 people, wounded many others. We spoke to eyewitnesses, they all corroborate this. And the militia that day put out a video and they are decked out in full like military gear. With helmets and uniforms and assault rifles and saying that they attacked and killed the Hamas pigs and admitting to this essentially. And this was the attack that happened and it kind of went unnoticed because of everything happening in Iran, of everything happening in Lebanon. But yeah, Abu Bakr, I wonder if you could maybe just comment on what this gang, this militia is and how they operate and why do you think this happened?
- [62:41]
G
Well, first, this is not the first time, because I've been following up on that since these assassinations have happened, particularly since October 10 when the ceasefire took effect. And every time the armed resistance in a joint operation with the local security forces tried to block or try to repel any attacks from the Israel backed militias, the Israeli military intervened with an airstrike and with its very, you know, intense air force capacity to murder these, you know, who's trying to block the militias anywhere across Gaza, especially in the east, on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City and Khan Yunus where these operations heavily take place. But yes, like this militia was created after. Yes, militia, it was as he said, an offshoot. And basically they have previously kidnapped fighters from the armed resistance in Rafah, including Abu Bakr, his name, Abu Bakr. Sorry, I think and they, they really announced in advance that they really announced one time that he wanted to assassinate him. But then they really retracted their decision. And my understanding, because I followed up on that very closely, that one, one of the people who saw the announcement, assassination announcement of the armed resistance commander, he threatened Sh Ibn, the head of this militia, that I would expose your family. He has like tapes or scandals on his family and that I would do that if you ever think of assassinating the armed commanders. So he tried his decision. So this militia is very terribly notorious in the Gaza Strip. Like Shogi Ab Nasser is someone who has been, who has been in the government's presence for a very long time. He has been with ISIS before and he has also been a drug dealer for a very long time in Gaza. And he's someone who has been always chased by the local security forces. And now all the people who are trying to join him are from also the very notorious tribes in Gaza. And especially unfortunately I say it with regret that most of those who join them are from the between villages, those who live on the like on the border regions with Israel. And they feel like the reason why they joined them, they feel like they've been betrayed or they've been like they've been left alone or abandoned. But immediately every time someone joins this militia or any other militia in Gaza, they, their families Immediately say that we no longer recognize our sons. And, and they like, they give the pass or they give the permission for the armed resistance or for local security forces to, to do what is necessary to stop them. And for a very long time, this militia, just to be clear on one point, for a very long time, this militia has been invading or infiltrating areas in the Gaza Strip, especially in Magazi. When they killed last time, they killed a very senior armed resistance commander. And that was broadcasted on Al Jazeera. They killed him in Gaza. And the reason in Almagazi refugee come in central Gaza. And just to be clear, to give a little bit of information on Mahazi refugee campus, Sharif and Ryan is only one street. That's it. It's only one street. You're talking about less than a 15 square kilometer refugee camp with the hundreds of thousands of families like all houses are dotting the street of Almagazi. It's only one street. Just like one street in your neighborhood. Literally one street in New York that is. I'm not talking about the motorway street, no, just street in a neighborhood. That is what Al Mahazi refugee camp is like. So people don't actually know each other very well, especially with the displacement waves that have taken place in areas like this because of Israel's bombardment and genocide, because most people have been pushed out of their places. So. And even parts of Al Mahazi of the eastern outskirts of Al Makhazi are under the yellow line, so people cannot reach them. So the militias, those militias especially, they live near Al Mahazi refugee camp. And it's the most vulnerable refugee camp. And that is what is making it all the time easily infiltratable. And then what happened was in the previous times, because I know people that I know. Dr. Khaldab Habil, who is a doctor who's been working as an emergency doctor in the Lux Martyrs Hospital. So he says to me, like a lot of times we see people who are armed and we cannot really interact with them at all because we have an expectation that they might be from the militia, they could kill you and that's it. And there is no accountability in the Gaza Strip right now. People are afraid of anyone who holds arms In Gaza. There is no security at all, unfortunately, barely any security. So people are being killed even sometimes there are. There's no, no report. But I'm aware of these reports. And because I'm hearing from people on the ground and I talk to them, some people are being killed on a daily basis from these militias, from gangsters from whatever they call them and from exploitative merchants or from internal fights. And there's no report in them because the main, the, the public order has been dismantled by Israel. And until this moment, if you see Sharifs and since the October 8, the October ceasefire, Israel has been deliberately targeting police members in Gaza. And one of the problems that we have, and I hope you will pay more attention to that, I'm sure, like you're doing it right, but I'm saying among the pro Palestine community, they say, well, Hamas forces have been killed. Well, they're not Hamas forces. These are police members. They have no connection with Hamas at all. And you know, some of them, them, they even, I'm sorry, they even hate Hamas and what it stands for. So they are police members. Right? So they have nothing to do with any political party at all. They're being targeted every single day. Some of them worked under the Palestinian Authority before 2006. So you would see this line regurgitated because that's what the west has brain washed us with, that, well, these are Hamas forces. This is a military parade for Hamas. And you would see some people in American United States, especially from the very notorious Palestinian Americans like Ahmed Al Khadib and others, and I'm sorry I have to mention his name, that we, Hamas is regrouping and rearming. No, that's not true. These are people who, and I know some of them, they are voluntarily doing this. They're not doing even, they're not doing it even for money. They're voluntarily doing it. So they keep, they have kept targeting them for a very long time. So it's a very complicated situation because you have the Israeli military in the air and you have, you know, you have the militias on the ground and when you're trying to maintain the public order, you simply fail. Not because, because you're, you're unable to do it and because there is a lot of. Nobody cares about Gaza anymore. Just a few people around. So these militias, the only way to do it is that Israel has to stop intervening in this. And I'm sure their end will be very it if the end will be near, will be very, very near once the moment comes that Israel stops like intervening in these attacks. And unfortunately, until, until this moment, by the way, Israel has not succeeded in turning Gaza into the thing that it wants, into like a total chaos. But they're trying like the armed resistance is not, is undeterred. The local security forces are undeterred. And as you mentioned, the residents are ready to help because they know that these people are ruining their lives. They know that, that they are controlling everything in Gaza and they know the skyrocket prices are because of them. So everything that is happening is because of them. So hopefully they can get rid of them.
- [71:12]
B
Well, yeah, Abu Bakr, thank you so much for joining us. You know, really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Hope you're doing well, Sharif, thank you as well. That'll do it for us. Thank you so much for joining us as always. If you can support us, you can do that@dropsitenews.com to become a subscriber or you can go donate.dropsitenews.com to support us with a contribution. We also now have these kind of YouTube memberships that you can sign up for. You don't really get anything, just the, just the satisfaction of having supported this kind of journalism. And if you do, you also get our deep appreciation. So on behalf of all of my colleagues here at Dropsite, I'm Ryan Grimm. Thank you so much for joining us today. Sa.