News roundup for Wednesday, May 27, 2026, Day 964 since Israel began its 2023 genocide on the Palestinian people.
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM GAZA:
For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.
Israeli warplanes killed at least 18 Palestinians in multiple attacks across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including children and women, and injuring more than two dozen others, as strikes targeted densely populated neighborhoods, residential buildings, and areas crowded with displaced families.
Without bodies, without goodbyes: Gaza’s disappeared leave behind endless grief: Israel’s genocide in Gaza has left thousands of families trapped in suspended grief, with no bodies to bury and no graves to visit as mothers and siblings continue searching for loved ones they never had the chance to say goodbye to.
The Israeli plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian population, framed by Israel as “voluntary emigration,” will be implemented at the “right time,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday:
We committed to eliminating everyone who led the October 7 massacre, and so it shall be: they are all sentenced to death, wherever they may be.
We committed that Hamas will not rule Gaza civilly or militarily, and so it shall be, and also the voluntary emigration plan from Gaza will be implemented—everything at the right timing and in the right manner.
*NOTE: Israelis (and Americans) bent on taking over Gaza and/or making it part of Israel do not take into account the humanity of the 2 million people already living there, or their right to self-determination. Israeli leaders have been actively seeking ways to relocate the people of Gaza since the beginning of the war, without any input from the people themselves. Notably, the vast majority of Israelis support the forced relocation of all Gazans.
Forced population transfer is a crime against humanity, and a form of ethnic cleansing. If world leaders truly want to offer Gazans a good life outside Gaza, the just solution would be to return them to their homes in historic Palestine.
Trump-backed Board of Peace* representatives preparing for 1st visit to Gaza: Israeli broadcaster: Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza submitted request to Israeli army seeking entry into enclave, says Israeli public broadcaster.
*NOTE: The so-called Board of Peace is a pay-to-play group of wealthy and powerful Israel supporters, dictators, and authoritarians, as well as Israeli prime minister and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and two Israeli real estate tycoons – but no Palestinians. In fact, the organization’s charter makes no reference to Gaza.
The lower-tier technocratic committee, made up of Palestinians, will do the grunt work in Gaza – if and when Israel allows the group to enter the Strip.
DEATH TOLL – GAZA GENOCIDE (tentative):
- At least 906 since ceasefire began Oct. 11, 2025
- 72,797 killed (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls) since October 2023
- More statistics below
🚨 7 Palestinians were killed and 18 injured in an Israeli airstrike that targeted an apartment in a residential building in Gaza https://t.co/uNm8c3qGCU pic.twitter.com/E5RDa0FeV9
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) May 28, 2026
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM:
Every day, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem endure dozens of incidents like the ones below, at the hands of Israeli soldiers and/or settlers. For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)
‘They stole our sheep, killed my son’: Israeli settlers, soldiers attack and loot West Bank villages: Yousef Kaabneh, 16, was shot dead as settlers, backed by soldiers, stormed three villages north of Ramallah and forcibly took 900 sheep.
ISRAELI MEDIA: A young Israeli settler was filmed on Wednesday repeatedly striking a dog during a raid on a Palestinian village in the southern West Bank — the second such incident in less than two weeks. A separate clip shows the same settler entering the cave where one of the village’s families lives and shoving a woman and toddler to the ground. No arrests have been made* in the incident, though Palestinians say the settler is known to residents in the area for regularly harassing them.
*NOTE: Israeli settlers are an armed civilian population living illegally on Palestinian land, and pose a serious threat to Palestinians. Settlers enjoy impunity – even support and assistance from the Israeli government and military – as they attack Palestinians on a daily basis. Meanwhile Palestinians are not allowed to own weapons.
In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements.
In first since Oslo, Israel seizing land for army base inside West Bank city: The seizure order, near Jenin refugee camp, is the latest move aimed at expanding military and settler presence in the north of the occupied territory.
Poland warns of response after Israeli demolition plans threaten Polish-funded aid projects in West Bank: Poland warned Wednesday that it will respond “together with other countries” after Israeli authorities moved closer to demolishing a Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, where a Polish NGO has spent years running humanitarian projects funded partly by Warsaw.
Israeli Colonizers Torch Palestinian Car Near Jenin
West Bank Invasions, Abductions; Woman, Journalist Abducted in Al‑Aqsa
Colonizers Assault Woman and Child, Attack Families In West Bank
Army Demolishes Commercial Structures and Farmland in Ethna
Soldiers Continue Invasions and Violations Across the West Bank
DEATH TOLL – WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM (tentative):
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM ISRAEL:
Israel is a tiny country, about the size of New Jersey, with a population smaller than the US state of Georgia – about 10 million (of which about 20 percent are Palestinians), yet it is in the news constantly. As has been demonstrated again and again, however, mainstream media rarely covers Israel news accurately. IAK gets the facts – sometimes from Israeli media sites, where we can get a glimpse inside this country that is rife with turmoil and contradictions, and that receives $63 million a day from America.
ISRAELI MEDIA: UN Adds Israel to Blacklist of Perpetrators of Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, Ambassador Says: UN Secretary General António Guterres put Israel on notice that it might be included on the list in the 2026 annual report if it doesn’t take a series of steps:
I urge the Government of Israel to release Palestinians who were arbitrarily detained, ensure that Palestinian prisoners are released in a dignified way, investigate and prosecute all allegations of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees, ensure humane treatment for all those held and implement prevention measures, including granting unhindered humanitarian access to detention facilities.
“Anyone who is able to include Israel on the same list as Hamas terrorists* and rapists** has no sense of morality,” said Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon.
*NOTE: The use of the word “terrorist” for groups – like Hamas – that resist occupation and oppression is a political, not fact-based choice. In reality, international law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, the UN extending that right to the point of armed resistance. Calling Hamas “terrorist” is an attempt to delegitimize the struggle of a people seeking freedom, justice, and self-determination.
On October 7th, Hamas was exercising – albeit imperfectly – its internationally recognized right to resist the oppressor and occupier of its people. Hamas fighters attacked Israel after years of oppression and many nonviolent attempts to call attention to the injustice. The UN has passed hundreds of resolutions demanding justice – to no avail.
**NOTE: While rape crisis centers in Israel have not yet found a single credible report of rape by Hamas members on October 7th, 2023. The accusation of systematic mass rape is only one of the myths that have been thoroughly debunked.
On the other hand, credible testimonies abound (including at least one video) of Palestinians being sexually abused at the hands of Israeli soldiers – some of whom have become folk heroes. (American mainstream media have failed to cover this issue in any meaningful way – with one exception.)
The Israeli Knesset just voted to dissolve itself, but this won’t end the Gaza genocide: Even if Netanyahu and his right-wing allies are ousted from government, Israel’s genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and the wars against Lebanon and Iran enjoy broad support across the Israeli political spectrum.
ISRAELI MEDIA: More Jail Time for Worshippers Than Rapists: Israeli MKs Mull an Evil and Absurd Bill
ISRAELI MEDIA: Smotrich’s Bid for Political Survival Relies on Bribing Israeli Settlers: The finance minister is pushing tailor-made tax breaks for West Bank settlers as his party hovers near the electoral threshold.
What’s behind Israel’s new targeting of Hamas leaders in Gaza? With few war goals achieved in Gaza, targeted killings change little strategically but send a political message to the Israeli public ahead of elections.
ISRAEL-US WAR/CEASEFIRE ON IRAN – NEWS & HEADLINES:
It can not be overemphasized that Israel is the impetus behind US policies and actions vis-a-vis Iran. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing the US to attack Iran for decades, using lies and deception. Under President Trump, he got his wish.
The US has conducted new airstrikes targeting a military site in southern Iran, according to a US media report Wednesday citing an American official. The strikes hit a location believed to pose a threat to US forces and commercial maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the official told ABC News.
DEATH TOLL – WAR ON IRAN (tentative):
- United States: 13 (or more)
- Iran: at least 3,636 (1,701 civilians, 254 children)
- Israel: about 40 (19 Israeli soldiers, and 1 friendly fire – including both Iran and Lebanon-related deaths; another count shows 20 Israeli civilian deaths)
- Arab states (including Palestine, excluding Lebanon), at least 154
ISRAEL’S WAR/CEASEFIRE ON LEBANON – NEWS & HEADLINES:
Israel has invaded Lebanon seven times in the last half century. Between 1978 and 2000, Israel maintained an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon — Hezbollah was formed to fight that occupation.
Hezbollah’s cheap, easy-to-get drones have Israeli soldiers diving for cover: On the battlefields of southern Lebanon, the world’s most advanced air defence network is being bested by small drones that can be bought online, duct-taped with explosives and flown directly into Israeli military vehicles. “This is like a poor man’s air force and therefore … a wake-up call for everybody, the whole of the West. This threat is very, very accessible,” said Israel-based military analyst Yaakov Lappin.
Eleven Israeli soldiers have been killed since the U.S.-sponsored ceasefire was agreed to on April 16, and of those CBC News has found references to four deaths that were the result of drones.
The Israeli army is turning to the US for additional systems and technologies to counter Hezbollah drones after several unmanned aircraft struck military sites in northern Israel on Wednesday, according to Israel’s public broadcaster. Senior army officials quoted by KAN without identification said there were “no budget restrictions” on efforts to confront the attacks.
The Israeli military has designated all areas south of Lebanon’s Zahrani River as combat zones, threatening residents to flee their homes immediately as it prepares to deploy “extreme force” against Hezbollah targets.
Israel orders forced evacuation of Lebanon’s Tyre ahead of new carpet bombing campaign: The forced displacement orders for tens of thousands of Lebanese residents and Palestinian refugees come amid an intensifying air campaign that has left dozens dead over the past 48 hours.
DEATH TOLL – WAR ON LEBANON (tentative):
- At least 380 killed since “ceasefire” began on April 17, 2026 (22 children, 39 women)
- At least 3,213 people have been killed since war began on March 2, 2026
MORE NEWS & HEADLINES:
President Donald Trump issued a stark threat to Oman on Wednesday: “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that. They’ll be fine,” the president said during a Cabinet meeting. It is unclear what prompted Trump to make the charge. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The US Treasury Department has again sanctioned UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, reversing her temporary removal from the sanctions list, which came after a federal judge ruling that the measures violated her free speech rights.
Justice Department’s appeals board moves Mahmoud Khalil closer to deportation: The DOJ’s Board of Immigration Appeals rejected the Columbia University pro-Palestinian rights protest leader’s attempt to dismiss his deportation case. (Read about Mahmoud Khalil here.)
Ireland to ban imports from Israeli settlements by mid-July
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
Trump’s Board of Peace fund ‘is empty’: report
Israeli Forces Kill a Palestinian in Jenin Refugee Camp
Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Region Will No Longer Be a ‘Safe Haven’ for US Military Bases
Israel reportedly killed at least 31 in Lebanon Tuesday
US-Israel war on Iran driving historic levels of global hunger, UN says
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MAY 27, 2026*:
- At least 73,963 Palestinians killed, 184,521 injured – including:
- Gaza: at least 72,797 killed (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls), 172,821 injured
- West Bank/East Jerusalem: at least 1,166 killed (~244 children), 11,700 injured
*NOTE: Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 8,000 more are still buried under rubble (some sources put the number of missing as high as 14,000); 3,000 more are reportedly missing. Only the dead who are brought to hospitals are included in the official fatality count. Additionally, the numbers of injured are very conservative estimates.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – May 27, 2026: ~1,661 – including ~1,139** on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 472 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, about 52 military and civilians (by one count, there have been 59 victims) in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel (these numbers do not include deaths from the conflicts with Lebanon or Iran).
By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 282 Palestinian journalists and media workers (most recent March 9, 2026; other groups have tallied between 215 and 356 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used). Palestinians have killed 4 Israeli journalists (all on October 7, 2023).
**NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Deported flotilla activists allege ‘sadistic’ sexual abuse and torture in Israeli captivity
- The San Diego Mosque Hate Crime and the Political Leaders Who Lit the Fuse
- How Israel’s Resettlement Demands Shifted Toward Europe
- Israel Has Physically Divided Gaza With Over 25 Kilometers of Earthen Barriers
- “The Occupation’s Conditions”: Trump’s Board of Peace Demands that Hamas Surrender to Netanyahu’s Gaza Agenda
- Israel Is on a Killing Spree of Paramedics and Rescue Workers in Lebanon
- Israel still abusing noted pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya
- Defining Dissent: How the Federal Crackdown on Anti-Semitism Redefines the Boundaries of Speech
- Netanyahu Stresses The Need For More Propaganda As Israel’s Hasbara Budget Soars
- As Israel Heads to Elections, Netanyahu Needs War
- How AIPAC channels millions through shell PACs ahead of US midterms
- Israel’s long record of using banned incendiary weapons on civilians
- How Jeffrey Goldberg weaponized Jewish trauma to pave the way for war with Iran
- They Were Children During the Nakba. This Is What They Remember 78 Years Later
