According to mediator Qatar, Israel and the Islamist Hamas have reached an agreement to supply the hostages held in the Gaza Strip with medicine. In return, humanitarian aid should be delivered to the Gaza Strip for the Palestinians, said the Foreign Ministry in Doha on Tuesday evening, according to a report by the state-run Qatari news agency. The Israeli government confirmed the agreement.
“Medicines, along with other humanitarian goods, will be delivered to civilians in the Gaza Strip in return for the delivery of medicines to the Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip,” the Qatari Foreign Ministry said of the deal between Israel and Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said A little later, the medication for the hostages “will be forwarded to their destination in the Gaza Strip by representatives of Qatar.”
Qatar has been mediating between the two sides since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7th. Among other things, the Gulf state brokered a week-long break in fighting in November, during which dozens of hostages were released.
The United States, for its part, expressed optimism on Tuesday that talks currently underway under the mediation of Qatar could soon reach a new agreement between Israel and Hamas on the release of hostages in return for a ceasefire. “I don't want to say too much publicly, but we are optimistic that they are bearing fruit and that they will bear fruit soon,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
Kirby also called it “significant” that Israel announced it would scale down the intensive phase of the war against Hamas. The withdrawal of an Israeli division from the Gaza Strip was “a positive step to have a lower intensity.”
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