Live/ The United States says it is “working hard” to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas

The conclusion of an agreement on the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the attack on Israel on October 7 is now based on “minor” practical issues, the Qatari prime minister declared today, without indicating a timetable.

“The challenges that remain in the negotiations are much smaller (…) They are more logistical, they are more practical,” declared Mohammed ben Abdelrahmane Al-Thani at a press conference in Doha, together with the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell. .

Negotiations toward an agreement have seen “ups and downs in recent weeks,” he said. “I think now I have more confidence that we are close enough to reach an agreement that will allow these people (the hostages) to return home safely,” she added.

Qatar, which hosts a Hamas political office, participated in the mediation that led to the release of four hostages in October: an American woman and her daughter and two Israeli women.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that there can be no ceasefire until all hostages are freed.

Six journalists and media professionals have died in the last 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, according to information collected by the Palestinian press watchdog MADA, the Palestinian Press Union and videos verified by Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera had previously reported on the deaths of two reporters in the Bureij refugee camp: Sari Mansour and Hassouneh Salim, both Quds News journalists. They now report the death of Mustafa al-Sawaf, journalist, Musab Ashour, photojournalist, Amr Abu Hayya, engineer at Al-Aqsa TV and Abd Alhalim Awad, administrator of Al-Aqsa TV.

The Gaza Health Ministry announced that 30 premature babies were removed from Al Shifa hospital and will be transferred to hospitals in Egypt.

Medhat Abbas, a spokesman for the Hamas-controlled ministry, said the babies were released from the hospital on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

A World Health Organization team that visited Al-Shifa hospital on Saturday said there were 32 babies among the many critical patients held at the hospital, where Israeli forces have been operating since last week.

15 Palestinians died this Sunday during Israeli bombings against the south and center of the Gaza Strip, according to The Guardian newspaper, citing the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

A United Nations team said today that 291 patients, including 32 babies in critical condition, remained in Al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, after Israeli troops ordered the evacuation of the site.

Among those who remained, in addition to the 32 babies in extremely critical condition, were trauma patients with severely infected wounds and others with spinal injuries who could not move.

The team was able to visit Al Shifa hospital for an hour, following the evacuation on Saturday of some 2,500 people, mobile patients and medical staff, reported the World Health Organization, which led the mission. According to the WHO, 25 health professionals remained at the scene, along with the patients.

More teams will try to reach Al Shifa in the coming days to try to evacuate patients to southern Gaza, where hospitals are also overwhelmed.

Israel has long alleged that Hamas maintains a vast command post inside and below Al Shifa hospital. The hospital is seen as a key target for Israel to end militant rule in Gaza, following the widespread attack in southern Israel six weeks ago that sparked the war. Hamas and the hospital staff deny the accusations.

Israel described Saturday’s mass departure as voluntary, but the WHO said the military had issued evacuation orders and some of those who left described it as a forced exodus.

The leader of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) called on the president of the United States to intervene “immediately” and “stop the current Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people”, which has already caused tens of thousands of civilian victims.

Mahmoud Abbas urged Joe Biden, given his international position and his important influence over Israel, to intervene immediately to stop “Israeli aggression”, in a speech broadcast on television and reported by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, on Saturday.

Abbas, who is also chairman of the West Bank’s ruling Fatah party but was expelled from Gaza in 2007, also urged Biden to push for “much-needed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, to stop the continued attacks by the forces of Israeli occupation. “and end settler terrorism against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Jerusalem,”

The Palestinian leader stated that these events “foreshadow an imminent explosion of the situation.”

Abbas stressed that the Palestinian people “deserve to live in their homeland with freedom and dignity” and promised to remain “firm in their land until they achieve the legitimate rights to independence and statehood, with Jerusalem as their capital.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it had carried out a mission to the Al Shifa hospital, the target of attacks by the Israeli army, and is promoting a plan to evacuate the establishment that it described as a “death zone.”

“WHO and its partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of remaining patients, staff and their families,” the organization said in a statement released Saturday night, adding that 291 patients and 25 staff remained. at the hospital.

The Gaza Strip has been under a complete siege by Israel since October 9, with the population deprived of water, electricity, food and medicine.

A part of this population took refuge in the south, near the border with Egypt, but hundreds of thousands remain in the midst of the fighting, in the north of the enclave. According to several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the situation is disastrous for the population.

The US administration said it was continuing to “work hard” to reach an agreement between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas to free the hostages and mark a pause in the fighting.

“We have not yet reached an agreement, but we continue to work hard to achieve it,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson wrote this Saturday in the social network (formerly Twitter).

We have not reached an agreement yet, but we continue to work hard to reach an agreement. https://t.co/rbSqcqfaKo

—Adrienne Watson (@NSC_Spox) November 19, 2023

The spokesman’s reaction came after the Washington Post newspaper reported that an agreement had been reached between the warring parties that provided for the release of hostages in exchange for a five-day pause in the fighting.