Qatar said it sought a small window of opportunity for a hostage deal as the trucks of medicine headed to Gaza on Wednesday night with drugs for the captives held in the enclave renewed hope for a second agreement to secure additional releases.
Qatar and France brokered the deal to deliver urgent medication to some 45 Israelis out of the 132 held by the group in Gaza in return for humanitarian and medical aid for the most vulnerable civilians.
It’s the first delivery of medicines to the hostages since they were seized during a Hamas-led attack against southern Israel on October 7.
Qatar: We have not stopped negotiating between Israel, Hamas
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari told Sky News that “we have not stopped negotiating and mediating between both parties even in the darkest moments and most difficult movements with the escalation on the ground.
“We have maintained the mediation track. We have maintained contact with both sides, exchanging ideas and hoping we can get to the point where we can advance a further agreement,” he said.
“This agreement is a small caveat within the mediation process, it’s a small win, but we want to build upon it. We want to see how it helps with the wider situation. Obviously, any escalation on the ground in Gaza and Palestinian territories as a whole has its own impact on what is happening,” Ansari explained.
“We are hopeful that by maintaining the mediation track and maintaining contact with both sides that we will be able to find a window of opportunity so we can push forward for another agreement,” he said.
Qatari and Egyptian mediated efforts for a deal are largely believed to be at an impasse, with Hamas demanding a permanent ceasefire and Israel insisting that it won’t halt its military campaign in Gaza until it has destroyed the terror group that forcibly rules that enclave.
A French Embassy spokesperson said: “Our hope is that this medicine deal will pave the way for a replica of this type of deal and for the release of hostages.” He noted, however, that efforts toward a larger hostage release were being “dealt with in separate channels.”
French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X that he welcomed the operation to deliver medicine, which he said was initiated by David Sprecher and Hagai Levine of the families campaign for the release of those missing and held hostage.
The push for such a deal began in October when it became clear that the hostages were not receiving medicine or visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The family’s campaign called on the major players involved in negotiations for the release of the captives, to use the deal to strike a larger one, noting that it proved that diplomacy yielded results.
It demanded that the “cabinet immediately initiate an international meeting under the auspices of the United States together with [mediators] Egypt and Qatar and formulate an agreement for the immediate release of all the captives.”
The families also called to be given proof that the captives had received the medicines once they were delivered.
Government spokesperson Eylon Levy said, “We are demanding that all the medicines reach their intended addresses.
“One-third of the hostages trapped in Gaza have chronic medical conditions on to of those who were wounded,” Levy said, adding that in addition, they suffered from psychological, physical, and sexual abuse.
“The fact that it took so long to get medicine into Gaza is a reminder of how sick, twisted, and utterly demented Hamas’s strategy has been,” he said.
According to Hamas, under the deal, Palestinians in Gaza were to receive a thousand boxes of medicine for every box that went to a captive.
A senior Hamas official, Musa Abu Marzouk, sparked a political debate in Israel when he claimed in a post on his X account on Wednesday that the deal included a condition that the trucks with medicine would not be inspected.
The Prime Minister’s Office added to the problem when instead of immediately denying Marzouk’s statement, it said that the IDF was dealing with the issue.
“The prime minister ordered to pass medicine to the hostages, but was not involved in the arrangement of their examination, which are set by the IDF and security forces,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) later put out a statement that “in accordance with the political echelon’s directive, five trucks carrying medicine will undergo security inspection at the Kerem Shalom crossing. At the end of the inspection, the trucks will enter the Gaza Strip.”
Opponents of Netanyahu criticized his initial dodging of responsibility for what appeared at first to be a serious mishap.
“Inserting the medicine to our hostages is a significant and important move that we worked hard to achieve,” Minister-without-Portfolio and war cabinet member MK Benny Gantz countered. “The responsibility for the decision, as well as its realization, is on the political echelon – and only on it,” Gantz said.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman wrote on X, “Bibi (Netanyahu), enough with the bull****. “It is time to start taking responsibility instead of passing it on everywhere, and stop making decisions only based on political considerations.”
National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir joined in the criticism.
“Mr. Prime Minister, stop being dragged after Gantz and stop the wisecracking. Perhaps the technical examination procedure is the responsibility of the IDF and the security forces, but the responsibility for ensuring that the trucks that are supposed to carry medicine to the hostages do not include ammunition and equipment for Hamas - is yours, and the small (war) cabinets’ responsibility,” Ben-Gvir wrote.
“If the trucks have not yet entered, simply direct the IDF and security forces not to allow them to enter without an inspection. This is your responsibility and authority. Medicine for hostages – of course. Oxygen for Hamas for the continuation of the war – insanity,” the national security minister concluded.
In his post on X, Marzouk wrote that “the Red Cross submitted a request to provide medicine to Hamas prisoners of war, and there were 140 types of such medicine, so we set several conditions.”
Marzouk then detailed the conditions: In exchange for each package of medicine, a thousand packages must be provided for Gazans; The medicine must be provided by a trusted country; The Red Cross will distribute the medicines in four hospitals covering all areas in the Gaza Strip, including medicine for the hostages; Food and aid for the Gaza Strip must be increased; and the Israeli army must be prevented from inspecting the drug shipments.”
Hamas and other terror groups had initially seized some 250 hostages when it attacked Israel on October 7, of which 110 have been freed and some 132 are believed to be held in Gaza, of which 27 are presumed dead. The IDF has also retrieved the bodies of 11 captives.