Hamas Skips Cease-Fire, Hostage Release Talks in Qatar (2024)

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the empty seat at Gaza cease-fire talks, Ukraine’s possible involvement in the Nord Stream explosions, and the World Health Organization declaring a public health emergency for mpox

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Absence Noted

U.S., Qatari, and Egyptian mediators renewed Israel-Hamas cease-fire and hostage release talks in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday. Israel sent Mossad chief David Barnea, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, and Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon to participate in the negotiations. Noticeably absent, however, was a Hamas delegation. Instead, the group informed mediators that it would only meet after the Thursday session if there were new developments or a serious response from Israel on how to move forward.

Hamas has accused Israel of adding new conditions to a previous proposal that had international support and that both Israel and Hamas had agreed to in principle. Under that three-phase plan, which U.S. President Joe Biden announced on May 31, Hamas-held hostages would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners, Israeli forces would fully withdraw from Gaza, displaced Palestinians would be allowed to return home, and both sides would implement a permanent cease-fire and begin a multiyear reconstruction plan for the enclave. The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution following that same framework in June.

But Hamas maintains that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is adding demands to try to prolong the war, an allegation that the Israeli leader denies. These conditions include indefinite Israeli control of the Rafah border crossing and Philadelphi Corridor—in what Israel claims is an effort to prevent weapons smuggling—and creating a line bisecting Gaza where Israeli forces would search Palestinians returning to their homes in the north to root out possible militants.

“Hamas believes the Israeli occupation is trying to buy time with more negotiations,” Ibrahim al-Madhoun, an Istanbul-based analyst close to Hamas, told the New York Times, particularly as Netanyahu continues to vow “total victory” over Hamas. In turn, Israel has accused the group of trying to delay the return of hostages—all while Netanyahu’s own far-right allies condemn the proposal, warning that his governing coalition could splinter if he agrees to a truce with Hamas.

The United States, Qatar, and Egypt framed Thursday’s talks as a “final” bid to end the war, with many experts believing that a truce is the best way to prevent a wider conflict in the Middle East. Thursday also saw the first substantive negotiations since Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran last month. Iranian officials have said a cease-fire deal is the only thing that could stop Tehran and its Iranian-backed allies, such as Hezbollah, from directly attacking Israel, which is widely believed to be responsible for Haniyeh’s death.

“An attack could come with little or no warning and certainly could come in the coming days,” U.S. national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, senior U.S. officials told the New York Times on Wednesday that Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza. That concession comes as the Gaza Health Ministry announced on Thursday that the enclave’s death toll has surpassed 40,000 people, with the majority of those killed being women and children.

Today’s Most Read

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• Inside Putin’s Kremlin by Robbie Gramer

What We’re Following

Nord Stream suspect. German authorities issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for a Ukrainian man believed to be responsible for the September 2022 explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines, which transport Russian gas into Europe. According to German media, the suspect, along with at least two other Ukrainian nationals, was part of a six-person crew that dove into the Baltic Sea and attached explosive devices to the pipelines. Polish officials confirmed that the Ukrainian national’s last known address was in Poland.

The Wall Street Journal reported that top Ukrainian officials were involved in the operation. “The whole thing was born out of a night of heavy boozing and the iron determination of a handful of people who had the guts to risk their lives for their country,” an officer involved in the plot said. According to another officer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky originally approved the plan—only to backtrack when the CIA urged him to reverse course. Zelensky’s commander in chief, however, went ahead with the operation anyway.

Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak denied Kyiv’s involvement on Thursday and instead placed the blame on Russia. Moscow has repeatedly accused Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom of orchestrating the attack. All three nations deny any involvement.

12 years in prison. A Russian court found dual Russian-American citizen Ksenia Karelina guilty of treason on Thursday and sentenced her to 12 years in prison for donating $51.80 to Razom for Ukraine, a New York-based charity that provides humanitarian aid to Ukrainian children and older adults. The court claimed that Karelina’s money, donated the same day that Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, was used to purchase “tactical medicine items, equipment, means of defeat, and ammunition” for Ukraine. The organization denies providing Kyiv with military support.

Karelina was born in Russia and received dual U.S. citizenship in 2021. She had been living in Los Angeles and was arrested after flying to Russia to visit her family in Yekaterinburg at the start of this year, and she pleaded guilty to her charges last week. Her case was heard by the same court and judge that convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage in July. Unlike Gershkovich, though, Karelina was not included in the massive prisoner swap between the United States and Russia on Aug. 1.

Karelina’s lawyer said he is working to include her in a future exchange. “We will certainly perform legally significant actions to start the exchange procedure and finalize it as soon as possible,” lawyer Mikhail Mushailov said, adding that Karelina plans to appeal the ruling.

Public health emergency. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox a public health emergency on Wednesday. This is the second time that the viral infection has received the WHO’s highest form of alert in two years, following a similar warning by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this week.

The last major outbreak, in July 2022, affected nearly 100,000 people (primarily gay and bisexual men) across 116 countries, killing around 200 people. This year, though, the threat is far deadlier. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone, more than 1,100 deaths have been recorded since January 2023, largely among children. The outbreak has spread across 13 African countries, and a second strain has been detected that can be transmitted sexually.

In 2022, the WHO appealed for $34 million to fight the virus. But a lack of outside funding and no mpox vaccine access in Africa hampered efforts to fight the disease. Congo hasn’t received any of the 4 million mpox vaccine doses that it has requested thus far.

Odds and Ends

Among the world’s unsolved mysteries, few have grabbed the attention of scientists, historians, and conspiracy theorists like England’s Stonehenge. On Wednesday, researchers revealed new evidence into the megalithic structure’s past: The 6-ton “Altar Stone” at the center of Stonehenge’s circle originated from Scotland—meaning that someone (or something) schlepped a giant slab of sandstone weighing as much as a full-grown African elephant more than 500 miles at a time before the wheel was invented. That’s some commitment.