Hamas Accepts U.N. Resolution for Gaza Cease-Fire With Conditions

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at negotiations surrounding an Israel-Hamas cease-fire proposal, Malawi’s deadly plane crash, and the United States lifting bans on Ukraine’s Azov Brigade.

‘A Basis for the Negotiations’

Hamas accepted a United Nations Security Council resolution backing a proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza on Tuesday and said it is ready to negotiate the details, senior Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said. The three-phase proposal would swap Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, require Israel to remove its forces from the enclave, and have both sides adhere to a temporary cease-fire until all captives are freed. The deal aims to create a permanent truce.

“We have accepted the resolution as a basis for the negotiations,” Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told FP’s Amy Mackinnon. However, he suggested that Hamas may demand an earlier timeline for Israel to withdraw all of its troops—something that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly refused to do until the militant group is completely destroyed.

Egyptian and Qatari mediators have received Hamas’s formal response to the proposal, though they have not said what that response is; they have yet to receive a formal response from Israel. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Monday that once both sides agree to the resolution, Washington will guarantee that Israel upholds the resolution’s obligations while Qatar and Egypt do the same for Hamas.

A cease-fire deal would “turn things on their head” with regards to getting humanitarian aid into Gaza, Arnaud Quemin, the Middle East and North Africa regional director for Mercy Corps, told Mackinnon, adding that trucks are pre-positioned at the border in the event that the deal is approved.

This is “a hopeful sign,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday during his eighth trip to the region since the conflict began. Blinken kicked off this latest round of shuttle diplomacy in Cairo on Monday, meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi before traveling to Israel to speak with Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. On Tuesday, Blinken continued talks with centrist Benny Gantz, who resigned from Netanyahu’s war cabinet on Sunday over Netanyahu’s failure to outline a postwar plan for Gaza.

Israel’s U.N. ambassador said on Monday that the country would continue its military operations in Gaza, saying after the U.N. Security Council vote that it won’t engage in “meaningless” negotiations with Hamas. However, Blinken said on Tuesday that during his meeting with Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister “reaffirmed his commitment” to the cease-fire proposal and said he would accept it if Hamas also agreed to its terms.

More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed since last October, the Gaza Health Ministry reported on Tuesday, and international law violations have been leveled at both sides. U.N. human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence accused Hamas and Israel of “war crimes” on Tuesday following a deadly weekend raid near Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp that freed four Israeli hostages and killed at least 274 Palestinians. “It was catastrophic, the way that this was carried out in that civilians—again—were caught smack bang in the middle of this,” Laurence said. He called on Hamas to immediately release all Israeli captives.

Israel’s U.N. mission in Geneva accused Hamas of deliberately trying to maximize “civilian harm.” Hamas has not responded to the U.N. human rights office’s accusations. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar told the group’s leadership in Qatar that “we have the Israelis right where we want them,” suggesting that Sinwar is pressing for the war to continue. It is unclear when Sinwar made this statement.

Today’s Most Read

• Don’t Bet Against the Dollar by Jared Cohen
• The Forgotten World War III Scare of 1980 by James M. Acton and Nicole Grajewski
• Inside Israel, the Gaza War Looks Very Different by Amy Mackinnon

What We’re Following

Deadly flight. A plane crash killed Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine others in the Chikangawa Forest on Monday, local officials confirmed on Tuesday. Chilima, 51, was en route to attend the funeral of former Malawi Attorney General Ralph Kasambara less than an hour away when bad weather obstructed the aircraft’s visibility. After a daylong search, rescue teams found the wreckage. “Words cannot describe how heartbreaking this is,” Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera said, going on to declare Tuesday to be a national day of mourning.

Numerous senior leaders have died in aircraft crashes in recent months. In May, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were found dead in northern Iran’s mountains, forcing Tehran to call for early elections. And in February, former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera died following a helicopter crash in the nation’s southern region.

Lifting bans. The United States removed restrictions on transfers of U.S. weapons to and the training of Ukraine’s Azov Brigade, a battalion with neo-Nazi roots, the U.S. State Department announced on Tuesday. The brigade is one of Kyiv’s most effective units and has since been absorbed into the country’s national guard. But Russia has repeatedly pointed to its antisemitic origins as a reason for Moscow’s invasion.

The Azov Brigade, now known as the 12th Special Forces Brigade, has rejected these accusations and denied any far-right ties. Washington found “no evidence” of the unit committing human rights violations. “Obtaining Western weapons and training from the United States will not only increase the combat ability of Azov, but most importantly, contribute to the preservation of the lives and the health of personnel,” the brigade wrote.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces hit missile launch positions in Russia on Tuesday to hinder Moscow’s ability to target the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. “We will finish this war, in the interests of all of us, of all Europe. We will finish this war according to our conditions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday while in Berlin. Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-largest city and has come under heavy fire in recent weeks due to its proximity to the Russian border.

Stabbing attack. Local police arrested a suspect in Jilin, China, on Tuesday for a public park stabbing the day before that targeted three U.S. teachers, a Chinese educator from their partner institution, and a Chinese tourist who attempted to intervene, according to the U.S. ambassador to China. None of those injured on Monday faced life-threatening conditions, China’s Foreign Ministry said.

Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian called the attack “an isolated incident” and said police were further investigating the assault. State media quickly censored online content discussing the stabbings. Chinese commentator Hu Xijin said Tuesday that he hoped the attack would not “negatively impact the exchange of personnel between China and other countries” as Washington and Beijing navigate tense bilateral ties.

Odds and Ends

Former Rio de Janeiro Mayor Cesar Maia was caught with his pants down last Wednesday during a city council video call. The current city councilor dialed in while on the toilet, forcing the session’s president to ask Maia to “turn off the camera, please!” Smells like an HR violation.