The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday night that the agreement was reached with the participation of Mossad head David Barnea, who has been in Qatar to discuss “the issue of supplying medicines to the Israeli hostages.” It said that the medicines were purchased in France, according to a list prepared by Israel, and that Qatari representatives will be responsible for the delivery to their “final destination.”
“Israel insists that all the medicines reach their destination,” the statement said, without further explanation.
Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk, said on X, formerly Twitter, that the delivery included 140 types of medicine that would be taken by the Red Cross to four hospitals in the Gaza Strip and then distributed onward, including to hostages.
Among the conditions set forth, he said, is a ban on Israeli inspection of the packages before entering Gaza and a requirement that “for every box of medicine” for hostages, the shipments would include “another thousand for our people.”
He said that France had asked to carry out the delivery but that Hamas refused “due to our lack of confidence in the French government, its position in support of the Israeli occupation, and its hindering of our people’s aspirations for freedom and return.”
Philippe Lalliot, director of the French Foreign Ministry Crisis and Support Center, said in a radio interview Tuesday that France transferred the medicines to Qatar on Saturday in diplomatic suitcases. He said that they would be brought to 45 hostages, none of whom are French nationals.
He added that French authorities were initially approached by families of the hostages months ago and were given a list of 85 hostages in need of medication, including a number who were later released during a temporary cease-fire in late November, or who have since died in captivity.
Lalliot said the mission, under the direction of President Emmanuel Macron, did not involve direct contact between French officials and Hamas.
French media, citing the president’s office, said the medicines would be delivered to Rafah and picked up by the Red Cross and eventually delivered to the hostages. The packages contain enough medicine for three months of treatment, and French authorities hope to facilitate future deliveries, according to the reports.
Israel has demanded for months that medications be delivered to the more than 100 hostages still in Hamas captivity. The hostages include many who were injured in the Oct. 7 assault and others with severe medical conditions.
Hamas released more than 100 hostages in late November, though the way that the militant group carried out the transfer has been sharply criticized by many Israelis after footage and testimonies indicated they were subjected to physical and verbal harassment by locals as the exchange took place.
The deal, which was first announced by the prime minister’s office on Friday, will also include the transfer of medicines to the most vulnerable areas for civilians in Gaza, where 15 hospitals are partially functioning and the health system is quickly collapsing as the fighting continues to rage.
Brett McGurk, President Biden’s coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was in Doha to discuss a possible deal for the release of captives, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday. Six Americans are believed to be among the hostages.
But it was France and Qatar, which has functioned as an intermediary between the world and Hamas, that came out publicly with the agreement.
Qatar brokered the release of two American hostages in October and oversaw a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas in November that led to the release of more than 100 hostages from Gaza in exchange for more than 200 Palestinians serving sentences in Israeli prisons.
The latest deal, if successfully implemented, could provide lifesaving treatment to hostages who have now been held in Gaza for more than 100 days. It is not clear how much aid was intended for civilians in Gaza, where doctors are scrambling to tend to an ongoing stream of severe cases and international health officials have said that parts of the population are already existing in a state of famine.
“Some people have not eaten in days,” Olga Cherevko of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a video from southern Gaza on Tuesday. “The extent of needs is enormous.”
Families of the hostages have been meeting with Israeli, Qatari and international authorities with pleas that all measures possible be taken to secure their relatives’ release amid a sense of urgency over their fate during the ongoing conflict.
On Tuesday, Itay Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi, who had been abducted on Oct. 7 from Beeri kibbutz, were declared dead by their kibbutz.
The news came a day after Hamas released a video purportedly showing the bodies of the two men, saying they had been killed after Israeli airstrikes hit the buildings they were being held in. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari rejected the claim as a “Hamas lie,” adding that the building in which the two men were kept was not considered a target and was not hit by the Israel Defense Forces.
Masih reported from Seoul, Timsit from London. Karen DeYoung and Sammy Westfall in Washington contributed to this report.
