Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, asked Qatar on Thursday for help in evacuating Lebanese women and their children held in Rafah since the outbreak of war in Gaza on October 7.

At the end of a meeting with the Qatari ambassador to Lebanon, Sheikh Saoud ben Abdel Rahman ben Fayçal Al-Thani, Bou Habib explained that previous attempts to bring these families to safety had failed.

According to diplomatic sources, 90 Lebanese women married to Palestinians and their children have been stranded at Rafah since the start of the war in Gaza. “It’s Israel that’s blocking their evacuation,” the sources told This is Beirut.

The head of Lebanese diplomacy has therefore appealed to Qatar, in its capacity as mediator in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas, to find a way out of this situation, according to the sources.

Bou Habib also praised the “constructive role played by Qatar in helping Lebanon emerge from its presidential crisis, with the support and sponsorship of Arab countries and the international community.”

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