Biden speaks with Qatar's emir

FE Team | Published: January 27, 2024 20:59:14

DOHA, Jan 27 (Reuters/AP): US President Joe Biden on Friday spoke with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani about Gaza and they agreed that efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas were key to securing a longer pause in fighting, the White House said.
"Both leaders affirmed that a hostage deal is central to establishing a prolonged humanitarian pause in the fighting and ensuring additional life-saving humanitarian assistance reaches civilians in need throughout Gaza," the White House said in a statement.
Biden's Middle East adviser Brett McGurk was in Doha this week having discussions about the possibility of another hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday the US would support a longer humanitarian pause in combat in Gaza to ensure hostages could be released and aid brought in. Biden also spoke with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Friday.
They discussed intensifying efforts to further increase the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance into and throughout Gaza and agreed to continue their close coordination on humanitarian assistance, the White House said in a statement.
Airstrikes in
central Gaza
kill 15 overnight
Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat urban refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip overnight killed at least 15 people, including a 5-month-old baby, as health authorities in the besieged territory said the death toll since the start of the war has surpassed 26,000.
In southern Gaza, Israeli forces pushed further into the city of Khan Younis, where the intensity of the fighting has increased in recent days. The Israeli military on Friday ordered residents of three neighborhoods and the Khan Younis refugee camp to evacuate to a coastal area.
The camp, like others in Gaza, was initially settled by Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation and has since been built up into a district of the wider city.
The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, and the commander of the group's military wing, Mohammed Deif, both grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp.