| | | |  | | with Mikhail Klimentov | | | | A building shows damage Tuesday after an Israeli attack that targeted Hamas members in Doha, Qatar. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters) | | In only a matter of weeks, Israel has bombed a number of its Middle Eastern neighbors. It killed the prime minister of the Houthi rebel-led government in Yemen and a number of other cabinet ministers in an Aug. 28 strike on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. It keeps pounding targets in nearby Syria and Lebanon, after launching a ground invasion into both countries at various points. With relentless bombardments and raids, it continues to pile the pressure on Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and the West Bank, over which the prospect of unilateral Israeli annexation recently loomed. And earlier this summer, it triggered a 12-day war with Iran, degrading the Islamic Republic’s nuclear capabilities while coaxing the United States into launching major strikes of its own. This was all before the brazen escalation Tuesday, when Israel targeted the senior political leadership of militant group Hamas at residences in Doha, Qatar’s capital. The attack failed to take out Hamas leaders, including Khalil al-Hayya, a central figure in the group, but killed his son and a top aide, Hamas said in a statement. At the time of writing, the reported death toll stood at six; at least one person killed was a member of the Qatari state’s internal security services. Qatar is a close U.S. ally and hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. Since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, Doha has also been a pivotal staging ground for fitful diplomatic efforts to forge a ceasefire in Gaza. Much to the ire of the Israeli political establishment and commentariat, the Qataris have allowed Hamas delegations to maintain a presence in their capital for years, as part of the petro-state’s self-styled role as a global intermediary and peace broker. There was nothing secretive about this accommodation. Qatar gave space to delegations from groups such as Hamas and the Afghan Taliban with implicit American backing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, long encouraged Qatar’s bankrolling of Hamas-run bureaucracies in Gaza as a tacit method to split the Palestinian national movement, which was divided between Hamas in Gaza and the more-recognized Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. On Tuesday, Netanyahu’s allies exulted in claiming yet another extraterritorial scalp. “This is a message to all of the Middle East,” Amir Ohana, the speaker of Knesset, Israel’s parliament, posted on X, alongside footage that seemed to show explosions in Doha. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right ideologue banned by numerous European countries, invoked divine providence in a post on social media that warned “terrorists are not immune from the long arm of Israel anywhere in the world.” Smotrich and other hard-liners in Netanyahu’s coalition have been opposed to any diplomatic process with Hamas. They have called for the conquest of Gaza and encouraged “voluntary migration” of its 2 million Palestinians, while pursuing an aggressive policy of settlement expansion in the West Bank. The war that sprawled after Oct. 7 has seen Israel systematically erode the capabilities of enemy factions throughout the region, showcasing its tactical prowess on numerous occasions. Shielded by the United States on the world stage, it has carried out daily deadly strikes on Palestinian territory and foreign countries, often killing civilians, with seeming impunity. Robert Malley, a former top Middle East official in the Obama and Biden administrations, suggested to my colleagues that the strike on Doha seemed to confirm that the Israeli government’s vision for success against its terrorist foes amounted to “utter devastation and unconditional surrender” when many of its neighbors are trying to find a political path that could end the war, free Israeli hostages, help Palestinians rebuild and also better integrate Israel into the region. “Israel is also sending the message that no Palestinian is safe anywhere, not even in the capital of a close American partner, key intermediary between Israelis and Palestinians, and lucrative financial source for many in the Trump orbit,” Malley said. “What must they be thinking in Egypt or Turkey? Will its officials want to meet with today’s Hamas leaders, who are tomorrow’s potential targets?” Netanyahu, for his part, tried to spin the move forward. “On this day, as in previous days, Israel acted wholly independently … and we take full responsibility for this action,” he said. “This action can open the door to an end of the war.” If that’s the Israeli line after violating Qatar’s sovereignty, few are buying it. Even the Trump administration issued a note of caution. “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, where he added that hitting Hamas was still “a worthy goal.” Across the Middle East, the reaction was far more scathing, with the entire Arab world rallying around Qatar. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which successive U.S. administrations want to see normalize ties with the Jewish state, denounced “the brutal Israeli aggression and the blatant violation” of Qatari sovereignty and “the Israeli occupation’s persistent criminal assaults and its blatant violations of the principles of international law and all international norms.” The United Arab Emirates, which has formal diplomatic relations with Israel and a historic antipathy to Qatar, called the Doha attack “blatant and cowardly” and an “irresponsible escalation.” Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also the emirate’s foreign minister, called the attack “state terrorism” and vowed an unspecified response. He was gloomy about the near-term prospects for diplomacy. “When it comes to the current talks, I don’t think there is something valid right now right after we’ve seen such an attack like this,” he said. Analysts concurred. Israel has “literally blown up any kind of ceasefire negotiations,” Khaled Elgindy, a Palestinian affairs expert and visiting scholar at Georgetown University, told my colleague Claire Parker. “It’s clear the negotiations were just cover for continuing the war, and especially the ethnic cleansing plan and demolishing Gaza City. I think now we know with certainty that there is no ceasefire deal.” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said “the government needs to explain how this action won’t lead to the killing of hostages [in Gaza] and if risk to their lives was taken into account when deciding on this action.” Einav Zangauker, the anti-war activist mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that she was “shaking with fear.” She asked: “Why does the prime minister insist on blowing up any deal that comes close to happening? Why?” | | | (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters) | | Nepal’s prime minister resigned Tuesday after a deadly crackdown on anti-corruption protests, sending young demonstrators into the streets, where they set fire to government buildings and the homes of senior politicians, plunging this small Himalayan nation into chaos. Now-former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal, was a towering figure in Nepali politics. Known for his pro-China leanings, he was elected three times, most recently in 2024. Under his watch, the economy stalled, and corruption scandals piled up — with anger mounting against a political elite viewed as self-serving and out of touch. Forty percent of the population lives in poverty. Unemployment stands at 10 percent; 2 in 10 young men are out of work. “This is not just a Gen Z movement,” said Rasmi Kandel, a 26-year-old protester from Lalitpur, south of the capital. “It’s the voice of every Nepali, standing up together for a better future.” | | | • Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian dual citizen and Princeton University graduate student who was kidnapped in 2023 by a Shiite militia in Iraq, has been released, President Donald Trump said Tuesday. Tsurkov was kidnapped from Karrada, a bustling neighborhood in central Baghdad where she had been conducting interviews, by the Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah. • Russian forces on Tuesday bombed a village in eastern Ukraine as retirees were collecting their pensions, killing at least 24, Ukrainian officials said, the latest deadly strike against civilians and two days after the largest aerial attack of the war to date. Most of the people killed were elderly, Oleksandr Zhuravlyov, head of the nearby village of Lyman, said by telephone. Another 19 people were wounded, the country’s emergency services said. • Of the 38 advanced economies in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany ranks dead last in hours worked annually. According to OECD data, the average Greek worked 1,898 hours last year, the average Portuguese 1,716 and the average Italian 1,709. In Germany, that figure was just 1,331 hours. • French Prime Minister François Bayrou submitted his resignation Tuesday, a day after Parliament voted to oust him, deepening the political instability that has hobbled President Emmanuel Macron ever since he dissolved the National Assembly and called snap elections in June 2024. That move backfired, leaving Macron’s government without a majority and unable to adopt legislation without support from adversaries. | | | | Opinion Joseph Lemoine and Will Mortenson | The Washington Post | | | Opinion Sam Adler-Bell | New York Magazine | | | Opinion David Ignatius | The Washington Post | | | | | | Amra and Shaha, the sister and mother of Hamza al-Amareen, sit inside the family home in Nawa, Syria, with his children. Hamza, a civil defense worker, went missing during a rescue mission in Sweida during the fighting there in July. (Photo by Lorenzo Tugnoli/For The Washington Post) | | One by one, the men of the al-Amareen family vanished into Syria’s darkest places, its dungeons and its graves. Muammar, a 39-year-old engineer, was killed in 2012 during the first embers of Syria’s long civil war. That year, his son Uday, 20, a university student, was arrested by government forces near the border with Lebanon — and never heard from again. Then there was Ammar, 42, a geology professor and Muammar’s brother, who disappeared into Sednaya prison in Damascus after President Bashar al-Assad’s men snatched him at a checkpoint in 2013. Assad’s ouster in December, which ended the dynasty’s decades-long rule, brought no relief to many families. Missing relatives were not waiting for them when the doors flung open to prisons and security branches, when they could visit the morgues and excavate the graves. And people are still disappearing in Syria: during outbreaks of sectarian violence or because of the settling of the civil war’s old scores. In July, the al-Amareen family suffered another loss. Hamza al-Amareen, 34, a leader in Syria’s civil defense corps, was taken by unknown captors in the city of Sweida during a rescue mission. A younger brother of Ammar and Muammar, he had only just been reunited with his mother and other family members. Hamza’s disappearance was among the more ominous, because he was an aid worker and because of the lack of information about his fate. “I hope that Hamza will be okay,” said Amra al-Amareen, a sister of Muammar, Ammar and Hamza, despite all the signs that he was not. “I believe that he is okay.” Human rights groups estimate that more than 100,000 people were forcibly disappeared during Assad’s rule, including the years of civil conflict. A government body tasked with accounting for their fates was established in May, a step hailed by rights organizations but tempered by other concerns, including that the Islamist rebel group leading the government was itself responsible for disappearances during the civil war. — Kareem Fahim and Zakaria Zakaria Read more: In Syria’s new era, like the old, a family watches another son disappear | |  (Ariana Cubillos/AP) By Ana Vanessa Herrero | | | | | |
