Andie Parry, Annika Ganzeveld, Kitaneh Fitzpatrick, Kathryn Tyson, Kelly Campa, and Brian Carter



Information Cutoff: 2:00pm ET

Israeli and Egyptian forces exchanged small arms fire at the Rafah border crossing on May 27. A spokesperson for Egypt’s military said that a “shooting incident” killed one Egyptian soldier. Unspecified Egyptian and Israeli officials have blamed the opposing side for opening firing first. CTP-ISW cannot verify what prompted the clash. Senior Egyptian and Israeli officials are conducting a joint investigation into the incident. Egypt–Israel relations have been strained over the last several weeks after the IDF began clearing operations in Rafah and seized the Rafah border crossing.

The IDF Air Force struck over 75 targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day, including military buildings and warehouses, rocket launch positions, observation posts, and Palestinian fighter cells.

Key Takeaways:

• Iranian Elections: The Iranian supreme leader reportedly appointed his policy adviser, Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani, in March 2024 to leader nuclear negotiations with the United States. The publication of this information now may be meant to boost Shamkhani’s political position ahead of Iran’s presidential election.

• Iranian Presidential Candidates: Prominent Iranian hardliner Saeed Jalili announced his candidacy for the Iranian presidential elections in June 2024. Iranian journalists reported that several other prominent political figures are planning to run.

• Iranian-backed Militias in Iraq: Several Iranian-backed Iraqi militias are reportedly considering resuming attacks on US forces days after a meeting between Iranian-backed militia leaders from throughout the region and the IRGC in Tehran.

• Northern Gaza Strip: The IDF is fighting three Hamas battalions that are defending Jabalia camp. Two of the battalions were previously “dismantled,” which underscores the requirement for a sustainable political and military end state in the Gaza Strip.

• Israeli Strike in Rafah: An IDF airstrike killed two Hamas officials in Rafah on May 26, but the strike also caused a fire that killed 35 Palestinian civilians.

• Rafah Border Crossing: Israeli and Egyptian forces exchanged small arms fire at the Rafah border crossing.

• Lebanon: A Likud minister said that Israel will conduct a military operation targeting Hezbollah to return displaced residents from northern Israeli if political efforts to stop Hezbollah attacks into northern Israel fail. This statement echoes previous Israeli statements about the possibility of operations into Lebanon.

Click here to read the full update.

ISW–CTP has launched an interactive map of Israeli ground operations to accompany our daily campaign assessments of the Israel–Hamas war. This product complements the daily static maps that ISW-CTP produces with high-fidelity and, where possible, street-level assessments of the war in Israel.

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