Israel Rejects Hamas’s 135-Day Cease-Fire Counterproposal

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a rejected cease-fire proposal for the Israel-Hamas war, a U.S. drone strike on a senior Kataib Hezbollah commander, and twin bombings in Pakistan.

“Total Victory”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas’s cease-fire counterproposal on Wednesday, calling the group’s demands “delusional” and vowing to pursue “total victory.” Hamas made its 135-day truce counteroffer on Tuesday in response to a proposal made late last month by the United States, Israel, Egypt, and Qatar that stipulated a six-week (or 42-day) cease-fire.

Hamas’s offer would have taken place over three 45-day phases. During the first phase, all women, men under age 19, older adults, and sick people who were still being held hostage in Gaza would have been released in exchange for Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli jails. Increased deliveries of humanitarian aid from international actors would have helped kick-start reconstruction efforts in the enclave, and Israel would have had to begin withdrawing its troops.

In phase two, Hamas would have released its remaining male hostages, and Israel would have had to fully evacuate all of its troops from Gaza. To proceed to phase three, the militant group said it would require Israel to agree on a framework for a “complete truce.” Phase three would have concluded with Hamas returning the remains of all killed hostages currently in the group’s possession. An internal Israeli report released Tuesday estimates that more than one-fifth of the Israeli captives in Gaza are dead.

As part of its proposal, Hamas said it wanted influence over protocols allowing Jewish entry into the Temple Mount complex, a contested holy site in Jerusalem that includes Al-Aqsa mosque, an official familiar with the deal told Haaretz. Hamas also demanded guarantees from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Russia, and the United Nations that Israel would not renege on its cease-fire promises once all of the captives were freed. Hamas did not include the United States as a guarantor despite Washington being a key part of ongoing negotiation efforts. The counterproposal was the first time that Hamas has said a permanent cease-fire was not a precondition for a truce.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Netanyahu on Wednesday to discuss the counterproposal. He also pushed for the establishment of a Palestinian state during his hourlong conversation, with the State Department adding that it remains “the best way to ensure lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike and greater integration for the region.” Netanyahu, however, remains opposed to the prospect, and shortly after his meeting with Blinken ended, the Israeli leader held a news conference to announce his rejection of the Hamas offer.

“By giving in to Hamas demands, we will only invite another massacre,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel would carry on with its military operations in southern Gaza. “Continued military pressure is essential for the hostages’ release.”

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What We’re Following

U.S. seeks retribution. U.S. forces killed at least one senior leader of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Iraqi militant group, in a drone strike in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday. According to U.S. Central Command, the target, Abu Baqir al-Saadi, was “responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region.”

The strike was part of a larger U.S. operation targeting Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria linked to a drone strike on Jan. 28 that killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan. On Jan. 30, Kataib Hezbollah announced it was suspending its operations against U.S. troops in the Middle East.

Bombings in Pakistan. Twin bombings killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens of others in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday, a day before Islamabad holds parliamentary elections. The first explosion targeted a campaign office for an independent candidate in Pishin. Less than an hour later, a second blast struck near an election office for the far-right Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party in Killa Saifullah. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Pakistan’s caretaker government deployed tens of thousands of police officers and paramilitary forces across Pakistan ahead of the election, but recent violence may delay the results in some constituencies, Pakistan’s election commission said. The region has long been a hub for Baluch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban, which have both carried out attacks in the region in recent months, as has the Islamic State. However, the Pakistani Taliban said last month that they would not attack election rallies.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose brother Shehbaz Sharif led Pakistan’s most recent government coalition, remains the front-runner for the Feb. 8 election. Popular opposition leader Imran Khan is barred from running due to convictions related to corruption and selling state gifts.

Landslide victory. Initial exit results on Wednesday predicted that incumbent Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will win more than 90 percent of the vote in the country’s snap election, securing a fifth consecutive term. Rights groups criticized Wednesday’s election as being neither free nor fair, with at least 13 independent journalists arrested and numerous opposition leaders jailed ahead of the vote. Freedom House ranked Azerbaijan as “not free” in its 2023 report.

A presidential election was initially scheduled for 2025. But Baku’s successful “anti-terrorist” offensive in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region against ethnic Armenians last September bolstered Aliyev to call for an early vote. In 2003, Aliyev succeeded his father, Heydar Aliyev, who took office in 1993 shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Stockholm’s Nord Stream case. Sweden dropped its investigation into the September 2022 Nord Stream explosions on Wednesday, citing lack of jurisdiction. Stockholm’s probe centered on “whether the sabotage targeted Sweden and thereby threatened the security of Sweden,” which it determined was not the case. The Nord Stream pipelines, built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany, were located in international waters but within Sweden’s and Denmark’s economic zones.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which occurred just seven months after Russia invaded Ukraine. Swedish authorities handed all evidence to Berlin upon closing the case. Both Germany and Denmark will continue investigating the explosions.

Odds and Ends

French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal may have to watch out for flying tomatoes the next time that she steps on stage. The former environment minister sparked a culinary row on Monday when she called Spanish tomatoes “inedible,” adding that “Spanish fruits and vegetables do not meet French standards and should not be on [supermarket] shelves.” Rather than go after French produce, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez invited Royal to Spain to try the “unbeatable” Spanish tomato for herself. Next on the debate docket: Are tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable?