Kinyarwanda
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US, Qatar top diplomat discuss how to get critically wounded, hostages out of Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, where several Hamas political leaders are based [ on Saturday] to discuss efforts to evacuate critically wounded people from Gaza, increase humanitarian aid into the territory, and ensure hostages are released, a US spokesperson said on this Sunday, November 12.
This happened after that on Friday between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed intensified efforts to achieve a ceasefire.
Qatar and Egypt are demanding guarantees for the return of displaced civilians to northern Gaza as a condition for any deal they helped to mediate, Egyptian sources told Reuters news agency.
On Thursday, the CIA and Mossad chiefs met with the Qatari prime minister in Doha where they discussed the parameters of a deal for hostage releases and a pause in Hamas-Israel fighting in the Gaza Strip, a source briefed on the meeting told Reuters, but the outcome of the talks was unclear.
Qatar has been leading mediation between the Palestinian militant group and Israeli officials for the release of more than 240 hostages taken by Hamas militants on October 7, in an attack in which Israel said 1,400 people were killed.
Since then, Israel has launched an unrelenting bombardment and an armored invasion of Hamas-ruled Gaza, where over 11,000 people have been killed, according to Palestinian officials.
On Thursday, The United States said that Israel had agreed to daily four-hour pauses in the north of Gaza and the operation of corridors for civilians to move south, though there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting.
@ With Reuters, Aljazeera, Alarabiya news.
