Daily Peace and Crisis Report — Monday

Summary

Middle East

Gaza Strip

The death toll in Gaza has reached 72,939 killed and 172,927 wounded since the war began on 7 October 2023, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health as reported by Al Jazeera on 31 May 2026. In the 24 hours to 31 May, hospitals received one body and eight wounded persons. Since the October 2025 ceasefire took effect, Israeli forces have killed an additional 922 Palestinians and wounded 2,819 others, according to ReliefWeb / OCHA.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 28 May ordered the Israeli military to seize 70% of the Gaza Strip, pushing well beyond the so-called "yellow line" established under the US-brokered October 2025 ceasefire. Israel already controls approximately 11% more of Gaza than it agreed to under the ceasefire deal. Democracy Now! reported that Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz simultaneously reiterated plans for a "voluntary emigration" scheme to remove large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza. Hamas described the order as a "blatant violation" of the ceasefire, according to AFP. Palestinian authorities have documented 3,005 ceasefire violations since the October 2025 agreement entered into force.

The humanitarian situation remains dire. Only half of all aid trucks from Egypt were able to offload at the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem crossing in the first 18 days of May, according to OCHA. Not a single hospital in Gaza is fully operational. An international stabilisation force promised for Gaza has yet to materialise three months after it was announced, with Indonesia's commitment of 8,000 troops placed on indefinite hold, according to AP.

West Bank

Israeli forces and settlers killed five Palestinians in the West Bank in the week of 12–18 May, including one child, while nearly 60 Palestinians were injured, according to OCHA. Since 7 October 2023, UN Human Rights has verified the killing of more than 1,030 Palestinians by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, with over 10,300 injured. On 31 May, a 31-year-old Palestinian man, Amjad Jawad Abdel Fattah Natsheh, was shot and killed by Israeli forces at the Gush Etzion junction south of Bethlehem, according to WAFA.

Settler violence has intensified sharply, with OCHA documenting more than 870 settler attacks against Palestinians across over 220 communities since the start of 2026 — an average of six attacks per day. Arson attacks on mosques, agricultural land, and homes have been documented in Ramallah and Hebron governorates. Hundreds of Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem governorate face forced displacement after the Israeli Finance Minister instructed authorities to rapidly implement demolition orders against the Bedouin community of Khan al Ahmar.

Lebanon

Israel intensified its military operations in Lebanon, bombing Beirut for the first time in three weeks and pushing deeper into southern Lebanon despite the US-brokered ceasefire signed in April 2026. The UN reports that 15 children were among those killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the past week, with 62 children wounded, according to UN Secretary-General's Spokesperson. UNIFIL reported 350 firing incidents attributed to the IDF and 25 to Hezbollah on 28 May alone. A UNIFIL convoy was stopped and delayed for approximately one hour by the IDF. Israeli forces seized the historic Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon on 1 June, according to SAMAA TV. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to announce a new ceasefire deal following political track negotiations in Washington, according to reporting by The Guardian.

Iran–US Diplomatic Situation

US and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement to extend the ceasefire by 60 days and begin a new round of nuclear talks, according to Democracy Now!. The emerging framework would also see Iran gradually reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, with Iran given 30 days to remove sea mines. However, President Trump had not given final approval as of 31 May, and Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported the text of the framework had not been finalised. The White House stated it was not ruling out military action if no deal was reached. The Iran war, which began in late March 2026, has complicated plans for the Gaza International Stabilisation Force, with Indonesia placing its troop commitment on indefinite hold.

Eastern Europe

Russia–Ukraine Conflict

Russia launched a massive overnight barrage of approximately 90 long-range missiles and 600 drones against Ukraine on 23–24 May 2026, killing at least 5 people and injuring more than 100, with the heaviest damage in Kyiv. Diplomatic premises and compound housing UN agencies were also affected by falling debris. UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressed an emergency Security Council session on 28 May, warning that the conflict risked spiralling "out of control" and calling for an "immediate and unconditional ceasefire." He stated: "The current course is not sustainable. This trajectory must change." UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged both sides to "resume negotiations and end the suffering," according to UN News.

The escalation followed Ukraine's strike on an educational complex in the Russian-occupied city of Starobilsk (Luhansk region) on 21–22 May, which Russian authorities said killed 21 people and injured 44 others. Russia's Foreign Ministry warned foreigners to leave Kyiv "as soon as possible" and threatened systematic strikes on defence industry facilities in the capital. RT (Rus) reported that Russian strategic analysts described the strikes as a shift toward "managed escalation," with one expert stating: "The next blow will be more painful." Russia subsequently deployed the Oreshnik missile against targets in Kyiv. Russia's Foreign Ministry stated that Ukraine's "cup of patience has overflowed" and that the Starobilsk strike was intended to "derail negotiations" set to resume under US mediation.

A new flashpoint emerged on 30–31 May when Russia's state nuclear energy company Rosatom claimed a Ukrainian drone struck the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant — Europe's largest nuclear facility. Ukraine denied the accusation, describing it as a "propaganda ploy." The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expressed "serious concern" and sought access to the plant, according to RT (Rus) and UN News. A suspected Russian drone also struck a residential building in Galați, Romania, injuring two people — a NATO member state — prompting NATO to state it "stands ready to defend" its territory.

On the battlefield, Russia recorded a net loss of 100 square miles of Ukrainian territory in the four-week period of 28 April–26 May 2026 — its largest monthly loss this year — according to Russia Matters analysis of ISW data. Russia currently controls approximately 20% of Ukraine's territory. Ukrainian government sources told The Economist that President Zelenskyy has ordered preparations for another two to three years of war.

OHCHR's April 2026 report verified at least 238 civilians killed and 1,404 injured in Ukraine during April — the highest monthly toll since July 2025 and an 18% increase on April 2025. In the first four months of 2026, civilian casualties (815 killed; 4,174 injured) were 21% higher than the same period in 2025. Since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, more than 15,578 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, according to the UN, while Russia's government claims 8,012 "peaceful residents" have been killed by Ukrainian strikes, according to Russia Matters.

Africa

Sudan

RSF-attributed drone strikes killed at least 67 civilians in Sudan's Kordofan region over the Eid al-Adha holiday weekend. In North Kordofan, a tribal leader told AFP that 57 people were killed in a drone attack on Friday on the village of Al-Murra, in an area where the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF are contesting control. In a separate incident, the Emergency Lawyers rights group documented a drone strike in West Kordofan that killed 10 people — eight children and two women — who had fled violence and were sheltering in a displacement site in the village of Kadam. Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned what it described as an "RSF massacre," calling on the UN Security Council and the African Union to take decisive action, according to Sudan Tribune.

The war, now entering its fourth year, has killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced over 11 million, according to multiple humanitarian organisations. Approximately 19.5 million people — two out of every five Sudanese — face acute food insecurity, with around 135,000 people in catastrophic conditions in 14 hotspots in Darfur and South Kordofan, according to the World Food Programme's May 2026 IPC analysis reported by UNFPA/WFP/UNHCR. International aid is only 40% funded for 2026. The UAE's role in deploying Colombian private military contractors to support the RSF was documented in a new Human Rights Watch report released on 25 May.

DRC — Ebola Outbreak

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is battling its 17th Ebola outbreak, with 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths reported as of 29 May, including 134 confirmed cases, according to UN News / WHO. Three Red Cross volunteers have died in the response. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Kinshasa on 28 May to coordinate the response and called on the international community to increase support. The outbreak is compounding an existing humanitarian crisis in which an estimated 26.5 million people in DRC face acute food insecurity.

Asia

Myanmar

At least 46 people, including six children, were killed and more than 70 injured in an explosion at a building storing mining explosives in Namhkam township, northeastern Myanmar, on 31 May 2026, according to rescue workers cited by Arab News. The area is controlled by the Taang National Liberation Army, a resistance group. Rescuers said bodies were collected for cremation, with one source putting the toll as high as 59 killed. The cause of the explosion was under investigation.

Myanmar's junta leader Min Aung Hlaing departed on an official visit to India on 30 May — his first foreign tour since assuming the title of President — where he is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Modi and visit Mumbai for business meetings, according to Reuters. The visit is seen as part of the junta's effort to break Myanmar's international isolation and consolidate its position ahead of a possible return to full ASEAN participation.

Indonesia announced it will host a new round of informal discussions on Myanmar in Jakarta in early June (tentatively 4–8 June), involving separate meetings with representatives of revolutionary forces, domestic political groups, and the military regime, according to The Irrawaddy. However, Myanmar's ethnic armed organisations warned that the regime's expression of readiness for talks was a "PR exercise" and did not reflect a genuine desire for peace. The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar urged ASEAN to deny legitimacy to the regime, citing escalating atrocities against civilians. As of April 2026, an estimated 3.7 million people are internally displaced in Myanmar, according to ACAPS.

The junta also intensified military offensives, deploying jet fighters from three major airbases to strike resistance-held areas in Matupi, Chin State, according to BNI Online. A junta counteroffensive in Karenni State is pushing resistance forces into a new phase of the war, according to Myanmar Now.

Statistics

Table 1 — Casualties (Killed / Wounded)

* OHCHR access is denied to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine; figures for civilians in occupied territory cannot be independently verified. The vast majority (96%) of verified civilian casualties occur in Government-controlled areas.

Table 2 — Numbers (non-casualty figures)