JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has made an arrangement with Qatar that will allow the delivery of medicines to hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Friday.
The medications would be given to the hostages “in the next few days,” the office said in a statement.
More than 100 hostages remain in Gaza after an Oct. 7 rampage by militants from Hamas who killed 1,200 people and took 240 people hostage, according to Israel’s tally. Israel has since laid waste to the Palestinian enclave in a campaign to eliminate Hamas.
In a deal brokered by Qatar and the United States that allowed for a brief truce in November, Hamas freed almost half the hostages in return for the release by Israel of scores of Palestinian detainees, as well as an increase in humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza.
Families of the hostages, many of whom are elderly and have chronic illnesses that require daily medications, have petitioned the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit their relatives in order to deliver medicine and inspect their conditions. The Red Cross has said access has been denied by Hamas.
(Reporting by Emily Rose; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Frances Kerry)
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