Israel, Hamas agree on medicine delivery

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — A shipment of medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians was en route to Gaza on Wednesday under a deal France and Qatar mediated between Israel and Hamas, giving a glimpse of relief amid growing concerns of widening conflicts.

The medicines will be shipped through Egypt and delivered to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which will then be handed over to the militant group.

Qatar said the deal also includes the delivery of additional medicine and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave.

Militants took about 240 hostages during the Oct 7 attacks, killing some 1,200 people. Israel has also vowed to return the more than 100 hostages still held inside Gaza after Hamas released hostages in November in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

The fate of those remaining in captivity has gripped Israeli society, while a broader humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory marked by the threat of famine and disease has fueled international calls for a cease-fire.

In a statement to the official Qatar News Agency, Doha on Tuesday announced a deal "between Israel and (Hamas), where medicine along with other humanitarian aid is to be delivered to civilians in Gaza … in exchange for delivering medication needed for Israeli captives in Gaza".

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid al-Ansari told the Qatar News Agency the medicine and aid would leave Doha on Wednesday for the Egyptian city of El-Arish before being transported to the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed the deal.

Forty-five hostages are expected to receive medication under the agreement, according to the French presidency.

The Israeli public has kept up intense pressure on Netanyahu's government to secure the return of the hostages, with officials repeatedly insisting military pressure is necessary to bring about any kind of deal.

The deaths of two hostages were confirmed on Tuesday after Hamas said they were killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Meanwhile, fears of an all-out conflict across the Middle East have continued to mount, which has sparked tensions, with a dizzying array of strikes and counter-strikes in recent days from northern Iraq to the Red Sea and from Lebanon to Pakistan.

The US military said it carried out fresh strikes in Yemen on Tuesday after the country's Houthi fighters claimed another missile attack on a cargo ship in the Red Sea.

It came just days after the United States and Britain bombed scores of targets inside Houthi-controlled Yemen in response to attacks by the militia, who say they were targeting Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza.

US media reported that Washington would on Wednesday redesignate the Houthis a terrorist group, after previously dropping the classification in 2021.

Two-state solution

Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at Davos said: "We should focus on the main conflict in Gaza. And as soon as it's defused, I believe everything else will be defused," he said, adding that a two-state solution was required to end the conflict and warned that Hamas' Oct 7 attack and the Israeli response showed the region could not go back to the way it was before.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said the kingdom could recognize Israel if a comprehensive agreement were reached that included statehood for the Palestinians.

"We agree that regional peace includes peace for Israel, but that could only happen through peace for the Palestinians through a Palestinian state," Prince Faisal bin Farhan said.

Iran has struck what it described as an Israeli spy headquarters in northern Iraq and militant bases in Pakistan and Syria, while Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have escalated the intensity of their fighting across the border.

Both Pakistan and Iraq have recalled their ambassadors from Teheran.

In Gaza, Palestinian militants are still putting up resistance across the narrow coastal strip in the face of one of the deadliest military campaigns in recent history. Some 85 percent of the territory's population of 2.3 million people have fled their homes and the UN says a quarter of the population is starving.

Gaza's Health Ministry said on Wednesday at least 24,448 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the conflict.

Tensions are also soaring in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have conducted near-daily raids that often trigger shootouts with Palestinian militants, The Associated Press reported.

Senior UN officials have warned that Gaza is facing widespread famine and disease if more aid is not allowed in.

UN officials say aid delivery is hobbled by the opening of too few border crossings, a slow vetting process, and continuing fighting throughout the territory.

Agencies via Xinhua