The Islamist group Hamas stated this Wednesday that for every thousand boxes of medicines that enter the Gaza Strip, one will be allocated to the hostages, under an agreement reached with Israel, with the mediation of Qatar and France.
“For every box of medicine for the prisoners, a thousand for our people,” Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas political bureau official who lives in Lebanon, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) about the conditions of the announced agreement. last night for Qatar, which also includes the delivery of food and humanitarian aid.
The Hamas leader added that 140 different types of medicines were included in the shipment.
The medicines will be delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross, both those intended for the hostages and those intended for the Gazan population, which will be distributed in four hospitals spread throughout the Strip, indicated the Hamas leader.
Until now, the Red Cross has not had access to the hostages to check their health and conditions of captivity, something that has been highly criticized by the families and the Israeli government; although the organization alleges that the security conditions for this are not guaranteed.
This is the first agreement reached between the warring parties since a week-long truce in November, which allowed the release of 105 hostages for 240 Palestinian prisoners, an exchange assisted by the Red Cross.
It is estimated that 136 hostages remain inside the Strip – 27 of them dead – and that 75% of them need medical treatment.either because they suffer from chronic illnesses or because they are injured.
Qatar announced last night “the success of a Qatari mediation in cooperation with France” for an agreement between Israel and Hamas by which medicines and other humanitarian aid will be delivered to civilians in the Gaza Strip, “in the most affected and vulnerable areas” , in exchange for part of the medicines reaching the hostages.
The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed the agreement, thanked “everyone who has helped in the task” and specified that the drugs were purchased by France, “according to a list drawn up in Israel in accordance with the medical needs of the patients.” hostages.”
Abu Marzouk assured that, on this occasion, the Israeli authorities will not inspect the shipments, as it has been doing until now with all the aid trucks that have entered the Strip, amid fears that Hamas could use them to smuggle weapons.
“Netanyahu lies again and deceives his people once again: it is we who determine the quantity, the mediator, the distribution mechanism and the delivery of the medicine to northern Gaza despite the ban and Israeli rejection for one hundred days” Marzouk said.
More than 100 days of war in the Strip have left more than 24,400 dead and 61,000 injured, who can barely be treated in collapsed hospitals and many of them out of service, due to the lack of medicines, anesthesia and fuel.
Humanitarian aid convoy bound for the Gaza Strip, parked in front of the Rafah border gate.
Critical humanitarian situation
The UN reiterated today that its humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza continue to be delayed or blocked by Israel, Therefore, only 7 of the 29 organized since the beginning of the year have been completed, while the Palestinian strip has been without telecommunications for four consecutive days.
The daily report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted that the percentage of completed missions, 24%, contrasts with the figures from October to December, when 86% of planned missions to northern Gaza could be carried out. out despite the hostilities.
He also indicated that internet and telephone services have not worked for four days in a row in Gaza, which deprives the population of vital access to information and also makes humanitarian response difficult.
According to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), a total of 150 of its employees have died in the more than 100 days of hostilities, the highest number of victims suffered by a United Nations organization since its founding in 1945.
Almost 1.4 million of the 1.9 million Palestinians displaced inside Gaza are housed in UNRWA facilities, especially in Rafah, where more than a million people are crowded into shelters due to the flight of many Palestinians from the neighboring Khan Yunis and Deir al Balah due to the resurgence of hostilities.
EFE
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