News roundup for Monday, May 18, 2026, Day 955 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 attacks over the previous 24-hour period killed at least six Palestinians and wounded 40 as the IDF continues its constant violations of the US-backed ceasefire deal, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Growing bread queues in Gaza as Israel restricts fuel, flour imports: A flour and fuel shortage in recent weeks, brought on by Israeli restrictions on imports into Gaza, means that bakeries cannot produce as much bread as Palestinians in Gaza need. The territory needs about 450 tons of flour per day, but that only 200 tons are coming in. Israel ultimately decides how much will be let through, despite last year’s “ceasefire” with Hamas stipulating that Israel must significantly ease the restrictions.
Gaza’s water crisis: Families survive on less than 10 litres a day amid Israel’s ongoing genocide
Gaza’s health system crippled: Over 76 percent of imaging devices destroyed amid war
DEATH TOLL – GAZA GENOCIDE (tentative):
- At least 877 since ceasefire began Oct. 11, 2025
- 72,769 killed (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls) since October 2023
- More statistics below
In a heartbreaking and tragic scene, my friend’s father was trying to help one of the injured when Israel bombed the area, killing him and everyone else there.
He died trying to save others. pic.twitter.com/gTE3Xd6MaX
— Hasan alrabay (@HasanEssam29636) May 18, 2026
FLOTILLA NEWS & HEADLINES:
Israeli naval forces raided and seized the latest Global Sumud Flotilla* in international waters on 18 May when 54 vessels carrying activists, doctors, journalists, and humanitarian workers were roughly 250 nautical miles from Gaza and began boarding vessels. Israeli forces deliberately destroyed cameras and filming equipment during the raid – reportedly to prevent documentation of the seizure. The Hebrew media outlet Walla reported that occupation forces had seized more than 40 vessels and detained more than 300 of the 426 participants from 40 countries.
*NOTE: Go here to read about the most recent flotilla; go here to read about the history of flotillas to Gaza.
Irish president ‘worried’ about sister on aid flotilla following abduction by Israel: Ireland’s President Catherine Connolly says it is “quite upsetting” that her sister has been abducted by Israeli forces after boats in an aid flotilla to Gaza were intercepted.
🚨SOS – International volunteers onboard #FreedomFlotilla boat #PERSEVERANCE were illegally attacked and abducted by Israeli Occupation Forces@IDF state pirates.
CONTACT THEIR GOVERNMENTS & DEMAND THEIR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: https://t.co/cUjpiV3fLJ
SIGN THE PETITION:… pic.twitter.com/QWB8EhIV9Q— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) May 18, 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.)
Injured Palestinian Succumbs To Serious Wounds: 32‑year‑old Mahmoud Ziad Al‑Emla succumbed to critical injuries after being shot by Israeli forces on Sunday morning while he was near the illegal annexation wall built on Palestinian‑owned land west of the town.
Mahmoud had reportedly gone on Sunday morning with others to cross into the Green Line through the Annexation Wall. There, he was shot by an Israeli soldier, prompting him to run away; Israeli soldiers fired three additional rounds at him.
An Israeli settler* was filmed attacking cats in the occupied West Bank on Monday, days after another settler was filmed brutally beating a dog in the same area. In footage shared online, the settler is seen hurling a concrete block at two cats during an Israeli army raid on the town of Atara, north of Ramallah. Days earlier, a dog belonging to a Palestinian family in the town was also badly beaten by a settler.
*NOTE: More than 700,000 settlers live illegally on Palestinian land in over 500 settlements and settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Some settler groups have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces. Learn more about Israeli settler violence here and here.
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.
Israeli Colonizers Escalate Attacks Across West Bank
Israel Issues Demolition Orders for 15 Homes in Tuqu’
Widespread Israeli Invasions Across the West Bank
WATCH: Israeli settlers run over sheep in occupied 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.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attacked the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday, following reports that the court is considering issuing an international arrest warrant against him and Bezalel Smotrich. Ben-Gvir said: “No order from The Hague will stop me from continuing to lead an aggressive policy against terrorists.” Smotrich declared the imminent arrest warrants a “declaration of war, and vowed to “fight back with a vengeance.” He accused the Palestinian Authority of starting a war by engaging with the ICC to provide evidence. (Original story here; read about Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich here.)
ISRAELI MEDIA: Opinion: Even if You Call Israel a Democracy, It Is Still Apartheid: The Israeli regime has narrowed the boundaries of Israeli imagination and trapped them within a worldview in which separation and the preservation of Jewish supremacy, even as millions of Palestinians are denied rights, can sound like a moral and even “leftist” solution.
*NOTE: Israel’s apartheid framework extends in various forms across Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and inside Israel (where 21% of residents are Palestinian). Multiple human rights organizations have documented and reported that Israel is indeed practicing apartheid, including: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem, and Yesh Din , the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, the International Court of Justice, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), and Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic.
Israel’s U.S. Ambassador Leiter Calls J Street a ‘Cancer Within Jewish Community’: Ambassador Yechiel Leiter accused the liberal pro-Israel group of being ‘duplicitous’ over its calls to phase out U.S. military aid to Israel; J Street’s president said Leiter should engage instead of ‘calling us names.’
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 American people have made clear that they do not want the US embroiled in a war with Iran, but Israel partisans and the Israel lobby use their massive political clout to bring about whatever is beneficial to Israel – including putting the US military in harm’s way. For more background on Israel’s role in American wars, watch IAK’s short film, “The Israeli Hit List.“
Trump said he has agreed to wait two to three days before striking Iran because Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE said they were close to finalising a deal with Tehran.
Iran’s newly formed Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) said any passage through the Strait of Hormuz without its permission “will be considered illegal”.
Trump’s $40bn Hormuz insurance scheme fails to cover a single ship: Report: Two months after US President Donald Trump announced a $40-billion scheme to provide insurance for vessels to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, not a single dollar of coverage has been provided, the Financial Times (FT) reported on 18 May. In March, Trump said the US would provide insurance “at a very reasonable price” to ships seeking to navigate the strategic waterway after it was effectively shut after the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
American consumers have paid more than $40 billion in extra gasoline and diesel costs since the Iran War began, according to the Costs of War project at Brown University.
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.
Although Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon in November 2024, Israel has attacked Lebanon almost every day since, committing over 10,000 air and ground violations – the most violated ceasefire deal in recorded history. (Read about UNIFIL, the UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, here.)
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says seven people were killed by Israeli attacks across Lebanon Monday.
DEATH TOLL – WAR ON LEBANON (tentative):
- At least 380 killed since “ceasefire” began on April 17, 2026 (22 children, 39 women)
- At least 3,020 people have been killed since war began on March 2, 2026
MORE NEWS & HEADLINES:
New poll confirms falling US support for military aid to Israel, war on Iran: A new New York Times/Siena poll shows US support for the Israeli military and the war on Iran are falling: just 30% supported the US war on Iran, while 64% opposed it. Some 57% of respondents opposed providing US military aid to Israel, compared with 37% who supported it.
U.S. Midterms: Will Condemning Netanyahu Be Enough, or Must Democrats Question the ‘Zionist Project’? Aspirational Democratic figures are navigating a seismic vibe shift in which they have to prove their willingness to hold Israel to account rather than stating their pro-Israel bona fides.
Massie race breaks spending record as pro-Israel groups target Trump critic: The race pitting a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump against Congressman Thomas Massie, a rare Republican critic of Israel, has become the most expensive House of Representatives primary contest in the history of the United States. The avalanche of spending, totaling more than $34m by Monday, according to official records.
RELATED: Thomas Massie Wants to End Trump’s Iran War—So Pete Hegseth Wants to End Massie
Who’s Spending in Your Congressional Election? We Tracked the Front Groups Fueling the 2026 Midterms: Murky political spending groups tout innocuous causes like “jobs,” “democracy,” and “electing women.” Here’s a guide to who’s really behind them. SPOILER ALERT: “AIPAC” is all over this.
*NOTE: For years, the pro-Israel lobby has had a tight grip on Congress and Western mainstream media. The most powerful lobbying group is AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, which by law should be registered as a foreign agent. AIPAC is on a mission to keep Congress filled with the best pro-Israel legislators that money can buy. The group “babysits” each Congress member that has accepted AIPAC donations, to make sure they vote for any bill that helps Israel.
Activists demand South Africa stop supplying Israel with coal as a new report outlines complicity in the Gaza genocide: Despite taking the lead in the ICJ case against Israel, South Africa has also been a leading exporter of coal that has fueled Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Activists are demanding that the government halt the shipments, which violate South African law.
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
ICC Prosecutor Seeks Warrants for Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, Other Israeli Officials
Archaeology at the Service of Government Public Relations
Israeli military struggles to throttle endless feed of soldiers posting misdeeds on social media: “They’re not even ashamed of what they’re doing”
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MAY 18, 2026*:
- At least 73,929 Palestinians killed, 184,364 injured – including:
- Gaza: at least 72,769 killed (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls), 172,664 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 18, 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)
- Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian Teacher In Jenin
- Earworm Kars4Kids jingle yanked from California airwaves for false advertising
- Thousands of Colonizers, Soldiers Invade Nablus’s Joseph’s Tomb Area
- Guerillas in grey suits: K2, auditing firm tied to Israel and US, surveils Arab central banks
- Pro-Israel Pressure Campaign Against NYT Crashes and Burns
- Israel to Bari Weiss: ‘Thank You’ for whitewashing our war crimes
- Massie’s primary is the most expensive in history as Israel firsters try to oust him
- Israel becomes world’s most disliked country, global survey finds
- Why we can’t forget the Nakba
- We Analyzed Thousands of News Articles: Here’s the Proof of Pro-Israel Bias in Mainstream Media
- As Evidence Mounts of Dogs Raping Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Prisons, NYT’S Isabel Kershner Revives Unverified October 7 Rape Narrative
- Medicine shortages amid siege leave people in peril
- Gaza’s students face a near impossible test to study abroad
- We Can’t Curb Nuclear Proliferation If We Don’t Acknowledge Israel’s Nukes
