A high-ranking Hamas official unveiled, on Wednesday, updated requirements for the delivery of medication to hostages held by the group in Gaza. The official insisted that Israel should refrain from inspecting the trucks transporting the drugs.
A top Hamas official announced new conditions Wednesday for delivering medicine to hostages held by the group in Gaza, insisting trucks carrying the drugs must not be inspected by Israel.
Under a deal thrashed out by mediators Qatar and France on Tuesday, medicine along with humanitarian aid are to be supplied to civilians in Gaza in exchange for delivering drugs needed by hostages held there.
Forty-five hostages are expected to receive medication according to the agreement.
On Wednesday, Musa Abu Marzuk, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, revealed new conditions for the delivery of medicine to hostages.
“For every box of medicine that goes in for them, 1,000 boxes will go in for residents of Gaza,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.
Marzuk emphasized the medicine would be supplied through a country Hamas trusts and not France.
“The medicine will be supplied to different hospitals,” he said.
“The pharmaceutical trucks will enter without Israeli inspection,” Marzuk added.
All aid deliveries which enter the Gaza Strip are subjected to Israeli scrutiny.
When asked about this by AFP during an online briefing, Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy did not comment on the latest Hamas conditions.
A security source in Egypt said a Qatari plane carrying medicine had arrived on Wednesday in the Egyptian city of el-Arish near the Rafah border crossing.
France said the drugs would be sent to a hospital in Rafah where they would be handed over to the Red Cross and divided into batches before being transferred to the hostages.
Hamas released dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a November truce mediated by Qatar, which hosts the group’s political office.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
