The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed a deal between Israel and Hamas where medicine and other humanitarian aid will be sent to civilians in Gaza in exchange for delivering medication needed by Israeli captives in Gaza.
According to a statement by the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) in Doha, deliveries of medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians are expected to start arriving in Gaza today, Wednesday, January 17, 2024.
QNA revealed that the deal was mediated by Qatar and France after the humanitarian crisis was marked by the threat of famine and disease, which has led many nations to call for a ceasefire.
Majid Al-Ansari, the Qatari Foreign Ministry, told the news agency that relief would leave Doha for El-Arish (the Egyptian city), heading to the Gaza Strip.
“The drugs will arrive at a hospital in the southern Gaza border town of Rafah on Wednesday; they will be received by the International Committee of the Red Cross, divided into batches, and immediately transferred to the hostages,” Al-Ansari said.
Al-Ansari also stated that the deliveries will go on for three months and that these were provided by the French Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Centre.
“The French Ministry’s crisis centre brought the drugs and sent them to Doha on Saturday by diplomatic pouch led by the centre’s director, Philippe Lalliot,” he reported.
In November, Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s Political Office, managed to mediate a week-long break in the war in Gaza that involved the release of Israeli and foreign hostages; however, the negotiations stalled.
At least 27 Israeli hostages are believed to have been killed of the 250 taken by Hamas militants during the October 7 attacks, according to international news reports.
Israel’s offensive is said to have killed over 25,000, mostly women and children, as stated by the Palestinian Health Ministry.