MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Egyptian Ambassador to Moscow Nazih el-Nagari have discussed evacuating foreign citizens through Egypt, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"During the conversation, most attention was paid to the sharp escalation of the situation in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. At the same time, it was reaffirmed that there’s a need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the solution of the most severe humanitarian problems in the Gaza Strip, including issues of evacuation of foreign citizens through Egyptian territory," the statement said. "It was also underscored that it’s important to resume in the shortest possible time the peace process aimed at the implementation of the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to establish a sovereign state within the 1967 borders."

When discussing some practical aspects of further strengthening of the multifaceted Russian-Egyptian interaction, "the emphasis was placed on the goal of coordinating foreign policy in the UN and other international platforms," the ministry said.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas regards the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and has started delivering strikes on that area and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.