The workplace of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Tuesday evening that the settlement was reached with the participation of Mossad head David Barnea, who has been in Qatar to debate “the problem of supplying medicines to the Israeli hostages.” It stated that the medicines have been bought in France, in accordance with a listing ready by Israel, and that Qatari representatives shall be accountable for the supply to their “remaining vacation spot.”
“Israel insists that every one the medicines attain their vacation spot,” the assertion stated, with out additional clarification.
Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk, stated on X, previously Twitter, that the supply included 140 forms of drugs and they might be delivered by the Crimson Cross to 4 hospitals within the Gaza Strip after which distributed onward, together with to hostages.
Among the many situations set forth is the ban on Israeli inspection of the packages earlier than getting into Gaza, and that “for each field of medication [for hostages], one other thousand for our individuals.”
He stated that France had requested to hold out the supply, however that Hamas refused “because of our insecurity within the French authorities, its place in help of the Israeli occupation, and its hindering of our individuals’s aspirations for freedom and return.”
Philippe Lalliot, director of the French International Ministry Disaster and Assist Middle, stated in a radio interview on Tuesday that France, on Saturday, had transferred the medicines to Qatar in diplomatic suitcases. He stated that they’d be delivered to 45 hostages, none of whom have been French nationals.
He added that French authorities have been initially approached by households of the hostages months in the past and got a lists of 85 hostages in want of treatment, together with a quantity who have been later launched throughout a short lived cease-fire in late November, or since died in captivity.
Lalliot stated that the mission, beneath the path of President Emmanuel Macron, didn’t contain direct contact between French officers and Hamas.
French media, citing the president’s workplace, stated the medicines can be delivered to Rafah and picked up by the Crimson Cross and finally delivered to the hostages. The packages comprise sufficient drugs for 3 months of remedy, and that French authorities hope to facilitate future deliveries, in accordance with the experiences.
Israel has for months demanded that medicines be delivered to the greater than 100 hostages nonetheless in Hamas captivity. The hostages embody many who have been injured within the Oct. 7 assault and others with extreme medical situations.
Hamas launched greater than 100 hostages in late November, although the best way that they carried out the switch has been sharply criticized by many Israelis after footage and testimonies indicated they have been subjected to bodily and verbal harassment by locals because the trade came about.
The deal, which was first introduced by the prime minister’s workplace on Friday, may even embody the switch of medicines to probably the most weak areas for civilians in Gaza, the place 15 hospitals are partially functioning and the well being system is rapidly collapsing because the combating continues to rage.
Brett McGurk, President Biden’s coordinator for the Center East and North Africa, was in Doha to debate a doable deal for the discharge of captives, U.S. Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby stated Tuesday. Six Individuals are believed to be among the many hostages.
However it was France and Qatar, which has functioned as an middleman between the world and Hamas, who got here out publicly with the settlement.
Qatar brokered the discharge of two American hostages in October and oversaw a pause in combating between Israel and Hamas in November that led to the discharge of greater than 100 hostages from Gaza in trade for greater than 200 Palestinians serving sentences in Israeli prisons.
The newest deal, if efficiently applied, might present lifesaving remedy to hostages who’ve now been held in Gaza for greater than 100 days. It isn’t clear how a lot assist was meant for civilians in Gaza, the place docs are scrambling to are inclined to an ongoing stream of extreme instances and worldwide well being officers have stated that elements of the inhabitants are already current in a state of famine.
“Some individuals haven’t eaten in days,” Olga Cherevko of United Nations Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in a video from southern Gaza on Tuesday. “The extent of wants is gigantic.”
Households of the hostages have been assembly with Israeli, Qatari and worldwide authorities with pleas that every one measures doable be taken to safe their kinfolk’ launch amid a way of urgency over their destiny through the ongoing battle.
On Tuesday, Itay Svirski and Yossi Sharabi, who had been kidnapped on Oct. 7 from Beeri kibbutz, have been declared useless by their kibbutz.
The information got here a day after Hamas launched a video purportedly exhibiting the our bodies of the 2 males, saying that they had been killed after Israeli airstrikes hit the buildings they have been being held in. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari rejected the declare as a “Hamas lie,” including that the constructing during which the 2 males have been stored was not thought-about a goal and was not hit by IDF forces.
Masih reported from Seoul, Timsit from London. Karen DeYoung and Sammy Westfall in Washington contributed to this report.