Israel reaches agreement to allow medicine delivery for Gaza hostages

Israel has made an arrangement with Qatar that will allow the delivery of medications to hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.

A statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said medications would be given to the hostages “in the next few days”.

An estimated 120 hostages remain captive by the militant group, while 110 have been released since being kidnapped on 7 October in an incursion that killed 1,200.

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.

International groups have criticised Hamas for not allowing the hostages to be seen by Red Cross doctors, with Israel claiming that several of those have pre-existing medical conditions.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it has found evidence that hostages were present in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, which has become the focus of their ground offensive.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the army’s chief spokesman, said:“Hostages were held here in this tunnel system”, before adding that they had been kept in “difficult conditions”.

The tunnel was found in an area that had been badly bombed, with Khan Younis coming under heavy bombardment as part of Israel’s retaliatory offensive which has already killed more than 23, 000 Palestinians.

Several hostages freed in a cease-fire deal in late November described being held inside tunnels, which Hamas has laid throughout the Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, relatives of rhose being held captive stood by the Gaza fence, taking turns to shout messages of love and support into a microphone in the hope that their loved ones would hear them.

“Omer, can you hear us? It’s Ima and Aba,” shouted Orna Neutra, mother of 22-year-old hostage Omer Neutra, using the Hebrew words for Mum and Dad.

“We’re here. We’re really close to you. We’re fighting for you every single day,” she shouted, her voice breaking with emotion while holding a placard with a picture of her son.

One woman at the fence addressed the leader of the terror group in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, calling on him to free 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, whose wife Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was released in October after two weeks of captivity.

The couple are peace activists and before the war they helped sick Palestinians in Gaza get to hospitals in Israel for treatment.

“Sinwar, Oded Lifshitz is a true friend of the Palestinian people. Sinwar, bring Oded Lifshitz home now,” shouted the woman, holding up a picture of the elderly hostage.

Another woman called out the names of multiple members of kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the worst-hit by the October rampage.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has responded with a relentless bombardment and invasion of the enclave, which has displaced almost the entire population of 2.3 million and caused a humanitarian catastrophe.

Their latest attacks have killed at least 151 people, including 11 in a single house, Palestinian health officials said on Friday, while the U.N. humanitarian office accused Israel of blocking its efforts to send aid to the north.

This comes after a second day of hearings was heard at the International Court of Justice in a case brought by South Africa in which it accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, which Israel has rejected as “baseless”.

The UN humanitarian office said Israeli authorities were blocking its efforts to help people who had stayed in the north for fear the militants would seize supplies.

“We have systematic refusal from the Israeli side of our effort to get there,” said Andrea De Domenico, Head of Office for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

“In particular, they have been very systematic to not allowing us to support hospitals, which is something that is reaching a level of inhumanity that, for me, is beyond comprehension,” he said.

Israel says it does not block aid and blames holdups on what it says are poor logistics by the U.N. and other aid agencies. Aid officials say Gazans are on the verge of starvation and suffering from diseases brought on by a lack of fresh water and sanitation due to widespread bombing.