After the Qatari Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that an agreement had been reached between Israel and Hamas on the transfer of medicine to the abductees in exchange for additional medicine and aid trucks to the residents of Gaza, a Qatari Air Force plane landed in Al-Arish airport in northern Sinai, carrying medicine and aid, on Wednesday. Another Qatari plane was expected hours later to land in Al-Arish as well. According to the agreement, the drugs will be transferred to Gaza from Sinai.
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Although as of this time, the transfer of the drugs is progressing in accordance with the agreement, Israelis fear the crucial medicine will eventually fail to reach the abductees. Einav Mozes, the daughter-in-law of 79-year-old Gadi Mozes, who was kidnapped from his home in Nir Oz, said on Wednesday: "We are very skeptical, even in the past they said it would happen. I need proof that he got the medicine, I don't waste energy on it. I am so faithless."
Einav said "Gadi is a healthy person relatively to his age. He entered the captivity of a healthy person - but I don't know how he will get out of there." However, she noted that he also needs medication: "There are, for example, the medications that come with age: blood thinners and blood pressure medications."
The Prime Minister's Office commented on Qatar's announcement on Tuesday, saying that "Under the instruction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and following the agreements of Mossad Director David Barnea with Qatar regarding the supply of medicine to the Israeli hostages, two Qatari Air Force planes are expected to take off to Egypt on Wednesday, carrying medicine determined by Israel and purchased in France, according to the medical needs of the abductees. Israel demands that all the medicine reach their destination."
CNN reported on Sunday that according to the agreement, more than 40 abductees are to receive medication. The Gaza Health Ministry is supposed to find a solution to transfer the drugs to the hostages, through Hamas. It was reported on CNN that the Red Cross will not be part of the transfer of the drugs in any case.
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Humanitarian aid from France in Sinai on its way to Gaza
(Photo: Thomas SAMSON / AFP)
The list of medicines was compiled by the personal doctors of the abductees. All the delivered medicines are defined as "life-saving", and are mainly intended for chronic patients, including asthma inhalers, heart medicine, blood pressure medicine and more. Hamas opposed this kind of humanitarian aid for a long time and conditioned it with a significant list of demands.
The headquarters of the families of the abductees, "demand visual proof that the abductees do receive the drugs as a condition for transferring the money to Gaza. The shocking images of the abductees in captivity require increasing pressure on the countries involved in the negotiations to lead to an immediate release, and not stop at the transfer of drugs."