DOHA, Jan 17, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A deal to allow the delivery of medicines to
hostages in Gaza and aid into the territory has been agreed following
mediation by Doha and Paris, Qatar and Israel announced on Tuesday.

In a statement to the official Qatar News Agency (QNA), Doha announced the
deal "between Israel and (Hamas), where medicine along with other
humanitarian aid is to be delivered to civilians in Gaza... in exchange for
delivering medication needed for Israeli captives in Gaza".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed the deal and
said: "The medicines will be forwarded by Qatari representatives in the Gaza
Strip to their final destination."

The drugs are intended for 45 hostages, according to the French presidency,
which said 83 were initially identified as needing medication in November,
but 38 have since been released or killed.

After the medicines arrive at a hospital in the southern Gaza border town of
Rafah on Wednesday, they will be received by the International Committee of
the Red Cross, divided into batches and immediately transferred to the
hostages.

The deliveries will go on for three months, and were coordinated by the
French foreign ministry's crisis centre, which purchased the drugs and sent
them to Doha on Saturday by diplomatic pouch, said the centre's director,
Philippe Lalliot.

Qatar, which hosts Hamas's political office, has led negotiations between
Israel and the Palestinian militant group, having mediated a week-long break
in the war in Gaza in November that included the release of scores of Israeli
and foreign hostages.

The conflict followed an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that
resulted in the death of around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them
civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also dragged about 250 hostages back to Gaza, 132 of whom Israel
says remain there, including at least 27 believed to have been killed.

At least 24,285 Palestinians, more than 70 percent of them women and
children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in Israeli bombardments and a
ground offensive since October 7, according to the territory's health
ministry.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majid Al-Ansari told QNA "the medications
and aid will leave Doha tomorrow to the city of Al-Arish in the sisterly Arab
Republic of Egypt, on board two Qatari Armed Forces aircrafts, in preparation
for their transport into the Gaza Strip".

A diplomat briefed on the talks told AFP the deal followed a visit by the
families of hostages to Qatar and a meeting with the Gulf nation's prime
minister.

"Qatar has fast tracked engagement with Hamas and Israel on the need to get
medicine in to the hostages and to civilian Palestinians in Gaza. Both have
shown willingness," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of talks.

The diplomat said mediators were working to finalise details and discussing
with international organisations logistics for delivery, while stressing that
the talks are separate from wider efforts towards a ceasefire.