On Friday, US President Joe Biden wrote to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, urging them to put pressure on Hamas to reach an agreement with Israel on hostages. This was reported by the Washington Post , citing a senior administration official, UNN reported.
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President Joe Biden wrote to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar on Friday, urging them to pressure Hamas for a hostage swap deal with Israel, a senior administration official said. This came a day after Biden called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to redouble his efforts to bring about a ceasefire in the six-month-old war in Gaza.
The letters were sent to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Qatar's ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani as Biden sent CIA Director Bill Burns to Cairo for talks on the hostage crisis this weekend.
White House officials argue that negotiating a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas to facilitate the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel is the only way to implement a temporary ceasefire and increase the flow of humanitarian aid to the areas in need.
The official, who spoke about the letters to Egypt and Qatar on condition of anonymity, also said that Biden's national security adviser, John Kirby, will meet on Monday with family members of the approximately 100 hostages believed to still be in Gaza.
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White House national security spokesman John Kirby said earlier on Friday that Biden emphasized the need for a hostage deal during a conversation with Netanyahu on Thursday, which focused largely on Israeli airstrikes that killed seven workers at the World Central Kitchen humanitarian organization.
We're approaching six months - six months that these people have been held hostage. And what we have to take into account is just the terrible conditions in which the hostages are being held. ...They need to be at home with their families.