Qatar and France have successfully mediated an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to facilitate the delivery of urgent medication to 45 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. In exchange, humanitarian and medical aid will be provided to vulnerable civilians in Gaza.
The aid is scheduled to depart from Qatar and head to Egypt on Wednesday before crossing the Rafah border. Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for the Qatari foreign ministry, said that the deal involves delivering medicine and other humanitarian assistance to the most affected and vulnerable areas of the Gaza Strip in return for providing the necessary medication for the Israeli captives.
The specific details of the aid, including the amount and type, destined for civilians were not disclosed by al-Ansari. According to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, two Qatari Air Force planes carrying medicines purchased in France, based on an Israeli-provided list, are expected to land in Egypt on Wednesday.
Negotiations for the agreement had been ongoing for weeks, with the initial proposal originating from the families of some Israeli hostages. Philippe Lalliot, the head of France’s foreign ministry crisis centre overseeing aid efforts, said that specially curated medical packages for several months, assembled in France, would be delivered to each of the 45 hostages. The International Committee of the Red Cross is set to coordinate the ground operations.
Lalliot said that while France still has three nationals held in Gaza, none of them are currently in urgent need of medication.
(Inputs from Reuters)