MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said that he had held a meeting with the political leadership of the Palestinian Hamas movement in Qatar, the sides discussed the fate of the hostages being held captive.

"Of course we met with the political leadership," he said when asked by reporters about holding a meeting with Hamas representatives and discussing the fate of hostages.

According to the latest data, Hamas supporters are holding at least 220 hostages in Gaza. According to the Russian embassy in Israel, at least two of them are Russian citizens who also hold Israeli citizenship. On Monday, Israeli authorities confirmed the release of two hostages - Israeli women who were kidnapped from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz on the Gaza border on October 7.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank of the Jordan River as well.