A shipment of medicine and other aid has entered the besieged Gaza Strip following an agreement between the Hamas resistance movement and Israel, mediated by Qatar.
This is the first agreement between the two parties since the last temporary truce, which ended on December 1. Doha has said that it did so in cooperation with France.
The deal includes the entry of medicine and a shipment of humanitarian aid to Palestinians, especially in the most affected and damaged areas, in exchange for delivering medicine for Israeli captives being held in Gaza.
Over the past few hours, medicine & aid entered the Gaza Strip, in implementation of the agreement announced yesterday for the benefit of civilians in the Strip, including hostages.
Qatar, along with its regional and international partners, continues mediation efforts at the… https://t.co/b6HlpHMUgQ
— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) January 17, 2024
“Over the past few hours, medicine & aid entered the Gaza Strip, in implementation of the agreement announced yesterday for the benefit of civilians in the Strip, including hostages,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Majed al-Ansari, posted on Wednesday on X.
“Qatar, along with its regional and international partners, continues mediation efforts at the political and humanitarian levels,” Al-Ansari added.
Israel was reportedly the first to announce the agreement, without specifying that the shipments also include medicine for Palestinians.
Planting Spyware?
The Middle East Monitor quoted former Qatari intelligence officer, Fahd al-Maliki, as warning Hamas that Israel might plant spyware and special tracking devices in the medicines sent to Israeli prisoners of war in Gaza.
Al-Maliki warned that Israel might exploit the agreement to plant spying and tracking devices in the medicines to locate the captives.
“Caution is necessary,” he posted on his X account. “Using the prisoners’ medications, the enemy may be able to reach the prisoners’ location by placing sensor dyes on the capsules”.
An important warning to the #Hamas movement after agreeing to deliver medicines to #Israeli hostages.
Former #Qatari intelligence officer Fahd al-Maliki warned the Hamas movement of the possibility that the medicines that will be sent to Israeli prisoners in #Gaza will be… pic.twitter.com/fvHX25RMyW
— Zainul-labuddin (@amreal1zain) January 17, 2024
Agreement Conditions Set by Hamas
A top Hamas official, Mousa Abu Marzouq, explained via his account on X what had taken place regarding the medicine deal mediated by Qatar.
“The Red Cross submitted a request to provide medicines to Hamas prisoners of war, and there were 140 types of medicine, so we set several conditions,” he wrote.
The conditions, according to Abu Marzouq’s post, included the following: For every box of medicine, a thousand for our people; providing medicine through a country we trust; the Red Cross places medicine in four hospitals covering all areas of the Gaza Strip, including medicine for prisoners; introducing more aid and food; and preventing the inspection of medicine shipments by the enemy Israeli army.
It was Hamas, Not Israel that Managed Gaza Medicine Agreement – Top Official Explains
Abu Marzouq added that Hamas had refused a French request to provide the medicine, “due to our lack of confidence in the French government, its position in support of the Israeli occupation, and its standing in the face of our people’s aspirations for freedom and return.”
The Qatar News Agency (QNA), citing al-Ansari, said on Tuesday that the medicine and aid will be sent to the Egyptian city of Al-Arish, in Sinai. Thereafter, it was to be transferred on board two planes belonging to the Qatari armed forces, before the containers made their way to Gaza.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 24,448 Palestinians have been killed, and 61,504 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Palestine Chronicle
