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Qatar has mediated an agreement between Israel and Hamas to fly two military plane loads of medicine and other humanitarian aid into Gaza as part of a deal to provide drugs to Israeli hostages held in the besieged strip.
The initiative was raised after Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met some of the families of the more than 130 hostages still being held captive in the coastal strip this month.
Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s political office, has mediated indirect talks between the Palestinian militant group and Israel in a bid to secure the release of the hostages, along with the US and Egypt.
The agreement to allow medicine and additional aid into Gaza was brokered with France and was separate to the hostage negotiations, a person briefed on the talks said.
The person said it was a positive step that showed Israel and Hamas were still willing to do deals. But they added that “it’s also difficult for Israel not to allow medicine in for the hostages”.
The hostage negotiations have made slow progress since an initial deal collapsed on December 2. Under that deal, the two sides agreed to a temporary truce, during which Hamas released 86 Israeli women and children, as well as 24 foreigners, mostly Thai workers kidnapped from farms near the Gaza border.
In return, Israel allowed more aid into Gaza and freed 240 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons.
Both sides blamed each other for the collapse and Israel then expanded its offensive in Gaza to the strip’s south.
Securing a new deal to release hostages became more complicated because the remaining hostages include Israeli soldiers and military reservists, who Hamas considers combatants, as well as elderly civilians. The militant group, which had controlled Gaza since 2007, is also insisting that any new deal lead to a permanent ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his security chiefs insist that only sustained military pressure and the continuation of the war will be able to secure the hostages’ return.
There are also questions about what price Israel would be willing to pay in any new hostage-prisoner-swap deal, with Hamas expected to want to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners jailed for crimes such as murder.
But public pressure is mounting on Netanyahu to do more to secure the release of the hostages. Over the weekend, relatives of 136 remaining hostages held a 24-hour rally in Tel Aviv to mark “100 days in hell” for their loved ones.
Qatar, along with the US and Egypt, has been attempting to negotiate a “multiphase” agreement between Israel and Hamas that would include a longer truce, the release of all the hostages, and increased humanitarian aid into the devastated Gaza Strip.
The aim would be to use the truce to negotiate a permanent ceasefire, which Hamas was insisting on as part of any deal, according to the person familiar with the talks.
The militant group had agreed to a multi-month temporary truce, but Israel was demanding a shorter timeframe, the person said.
“It’s a back and forth between the parties,” the person said.
Hamas and other militant groups seized about 240 hostages during the October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war. Israel responded by launching a ferocious air and land offensive against Hamas in Gaza and laid siege to the strip.
The assault on Gaza has killed more than 24,000 people according to Palestinian officials, and forced more than 85 per cent of the 2.3mn population from their homes.
Only limited amounts of aid have reached the strip and its health system has been pushed into a state of collapse. The UN has warned of the risk of disease and famine in Gaza, with the entire population in “crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity”.
The Qatari foreign ministry said the medicine and aid would be flown to Egypt on Wednesday from where it would be delivered to Gaza.
