Hamas sets new conditions in hostage medicines deal

A top Hamas official announced new conditions Wednesday for delivering medicines to hostages held by the group in Gaza, insisting trucks carrying the drugs must not be inspected by Israel.

Under a deal thrashed out by mediators Qatar and France on Tuesday, medicines along with humanitarian aid are to be supplied to civilians in Gaza in exchange for delivering drugs needed by hostages held there.

Forty-five hostages are expected to receive medication according to the agreement.

On Wednesday, Musa Abu Marzuk, a senior member of Hamas's political bureau, revealed new conditions for the delivery of medicines to hostages.

"For every box of medicine that goes in for them, 1,000 boxes will go in for residents of Gaza," he said on X, formerly Twitter.

Marzuk said the medicines would be supplied through a country Hamas trusts and not France, and would go to different hospitals.

"The pharmaceutical trucks will enter without Israeli inspection."

But the Israeli military body responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, COGAT, told AFP on Wednesday that five trucks carrying medicines would undergo security inspection at the Kerem Shalom crossing.

All aid deliveries entering the Gaza Strip are subject to Israeli scrutiny.

A security source in Egypt said a Qatari plane carrying medicines had arrived on Wednesday in the Egyptian city of El-Arish near the Rafah border crossing.

France said the drugs would be sent to a hospital in Rafah where they would be handed over to the Red Cross and divided into batches before being transferred to the hostages.

Hamas released dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a November truce mediated by Qatar, which hosts the group's political office.

Some 250 people were taken to Gaza by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israeli communities.

Israeli officials say 132 of them are still being held captive in the territory, including 27 who are believed to have been killed, according to an AFP tally.

The October 7 attack resulted in the death of around 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the latest Israeli figures.

Since then, Israeli has launched a blistering assault in Gaza that has killed at least 24,448 people, more than 70 percent of them women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.