Patients receive treatment in a field hospital built by the International Medical Corps on January 16, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza.
Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
Qatar and France announced they brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to deliver medicine. Hostages will receive medicine while more aid will be allowed into the besieged Gaza strip, Qatar says. It is unclear how these supplies will be delivered and distributed.
Israel will allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza in exchange for medicine to be delivered to over 40 of the hostages, Qatar and France announced Tuesday.
According to a post on X from the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which helped broker the deal along with France, “medicine along with other humanitarian aid is to be delivered to civilians in the Gaza Strip, in the most affected and vulnerable areas, in exchange for delivering medication needed for Israeli captives in Gaza.”
The medications will be transported from Qatar to Egypt on Wednesday to prepare for transport into the Gaza Strip, per Qatar’s MFA.
Other details about the deal — including how medicine will be distributed — have not been made publicly available, but an official who spoke with CNN said that the medicine will be passed along to 40 hostages that Israel believes are in need.
The official familiar with the negotiations also said Hamas agreed to the deal because of the opportunity to allow more humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
On October 7, an attack in Israel by Hamas killed around 1,200 people, and roughly 240 were taken hostage. Some hostages have been released, while others have been killed (including by IDF forces). So far, the Israeli government estimates that just over a hundred remain alive in captivity by Hamas in Gaza. The families of said hostages have repeatedly demanded that medical aid be provided to their loved ones.
“After 98 days in Hamas tunnels, all hostages face immediate mortal danger and need life-saving medicines,” The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement to Reuters. “In addition to medicines, the hostages require also extensive medical treatment.”
Meanwhile, in Gaza, reports of starvation and lack of medical access grow. Human rights groups and UN experts say that Israel is withholding food and medical aid during the conflict.
More than 24,000 Palestinians have been killed in 100 days of bombardment on the densely populated strip, according to Gaza health officials.
Israel has allowed limited aid — food, water, medicine — into Gaza, according to Axios, after the collapse of the earlier cease-fire, and the UN has warned that famine is quickly approaching in the region. Resources in the enclave were already short, given the blockade imposed by Egypt and Israel since 2007.
It is unclear how the new shipment of aid will be distributed to all the people of Gaza, as the UN estimates that only 21% of planned aid has reached northern Gaza.
The last time Qatar brokered a deal between Israeli officials and Hamas was in November. The deal allowed a four-day cease-fire and the release of 150 Palestinians detained by Israel in exchange for 50 Israelis in Hamas captivity. The cease-fire ultimately lasted six days, and more than 100 hostages, including foreign nationals released through separate deals, were released.