The shipment of medicine to Gaza opens the door to a new agreement to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners

Two Qatari military planes landed this Wednesday at the Egyptian airport of Al Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula. They transport medicines to be delivered immediately in the Gaza Strip both to the hostages captured in Israel on October 7 and to the civilian population of the Palestinian enclave. The understanding reached between Israel and Hamas so that those kidnapped with chronic diseases (a third of the more than a hundred captives in the hands of the Islamic militia) receive the drugs they need represents a humanitarian gesture that presages a new agreement like the one made two months allowed the exchange of kidnapped people for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. “Serious and intense negotiations are underway in Qatar [con este objetivo]”, said John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, on Tuesday night, who was optimistic about the prompt achievement of a new release of hostages.

The internal cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu limited itself to reporting Qatar's humanitarian mediation on Tuesday night, without giving more details. A senior Hamas official, Musa Abu Marzuk, specified this Wednesday that the agreement reached involves providing medicine to the hostages in exchange for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gazan civilian population. In statements to the Qatari network Al Jazeera cited by Efe, Abu Marzuk explained that for each box of medicines sent to the hostages, 1,000 boxes will be supplied to the inhabitants of the Strip.

The drugs, a total of 140 specific ones, will be delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross to hospitals in the Strip, without Israel being able to inspect the shipments. Netanyahu has dismissed the lack of registration by Israeli forces of the aid sent, claiming that it was an “army decision.” Of the 240 kidnapped on October 7 near the Gaza border, some 130 are still captive in the enclave, presumably hidden in Hamas militia tunnels, although more than twenty of them are feared to have perished.

Hamas has excluded France's mediation in the agreement to deliver the medicines, as initially planned, due to “the lack of trust in the French Government due to its position of support for the Israeli occupation,” Abu Marzuk pointed out. He also assured that, in parallel with the agreement, the entry of humanitarian aid and food into the coastal enclave would increase.

Netanyahu's reluctance

Qatar's mediation, with support from Egypt, has received support from Washington. The Israeli prime minister, however, appears to be reluctant to engage in a new exchange with Hamas, as it would imply suspending, at least temporarily, the military campaign to completely defeat the Islamic resistance movement militia. The White House envoy for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, is in Doha, the Qatari capital, to participate in the negotiations. McGurk already intervened in the pact for the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners that took place between November and December.

The Israeli security cabinet leading the war in the Gaza Strip last week rejected a proposal by Qatar to release all hostages in exchange for the cessation of hostilities and the departure of Hamas leaders into exile. Israel scrapped the plan for imposing the “unacceptable condition” of withdrawing troops and ending the fighting. The director of Mossad (foreign espionage), David Barnea, was the one who presented the proposal received from Doha, an initiative behind which Israeli political analysts believed they saw pressure from the United States.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army's attacks have intensified in recent hours in southern Gaza, where dozens of Palestinians have lost their lives. This Wednesday, Israeli military spokesmen reported operations in several points in the central area and the south of the Strip, a territory that remains subject to almost total telephone and internet communications cuts for the sixth consecutive day. The death toll in Gaza since the start of the war now exceeds the mark of 24,448, although Gazan authorities estimate that more than 7,000 bodies are still found under the rubble.

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