Medicines for Israeli hostages and Palestinians have arrived in the Gaza Strip, Qatar said on Wednesday.
Under an agreement brokered by Qatar on Tuesday, medical supplies will be delivered to Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for medicines and humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr. Majed Al-Ansari wrote on X:
Over the past few hours, medicine & aid entered the Gaza Strip, in implementation of the agreement announced yesterday for the benefit of civilians in the Strip, including hostages. Qatar, along with its regional and international partners, continues mediation efforts at the political and humanitarian levels.
On Wednesday, a humanitarian shipment of medical supplies left Doha for Egypt before being transported to Gaza.
Osama Hamdan, a Hamas spokesman in Lebanon, said the agreement depended on whether there were enough medical supplies for Palestinians in Gaza in addition to the Israeli hostages.
Hamas had stipulated that for every box of medicine given to the hostages, Palestinians in Gaza should receive 1,000 boxes. The deal was struck after relatives of more than 100 hostages believed to be alive in Gaza requested that the medicine be delivered to their loved ones.
More than three months passed since Hamas militants had attacked Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 others hostage. Israel believes 132 hostages are still being held in the strip.
The medicine coming into Gaza as part of the deal is for more than 40 hostages Israel believes need it, an official familiar with the discussions told CNN.
At a press conference Wednesday, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military would work with Qatar to ensure the medicines are delivered to the captives. He noted:
What is important is that this effort happens, and currently the trucks are being checked. They will finish the checks, they will get in (to Gaza) and we need to do everything we can to ensure that the medications will indeed reach where they need to go.
Since the end of the week-long truce in November, Israel has stepped up military operations in the besieged enclave, where more than 24,400 people, mostly women and children, have been killed, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said this week that Israel’s war on Gaza has led to famine in the coastal enclave “at such an incredible rate” and that the “vast majority” of the 400,000 Gazans threatened with starvation by UN agencies are “actually starving, not just at risk of starvation”.
According to the UN, nearly 90 per cent of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.2 million has been displaced.
