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ICYMI: HAMAS REFUSED TO GIVE HOSTAGES CRITICAL MEDICATIONS, VIOLATING HOSTAGE DEAL
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Hamas refused to give hostages critical medications, which violates “a Qatar- and French-mediated deal meant to deliver treatment to sick captives held by Hamas in exchange for more aid for Palestinians,” according to ABC News. The deal was intended to provide a three-month supply of medications for 45 hostages, but there has never been confirmation that the medications were given to the hostages. One of the hostages rescued from Hamas captivity in Rafah early Monday morning, 70-year-old Louis Har, was sent medication that arrived in Gaza, “but never received them.”
Freed hostage Louis Har is elderly and suffers from diabetes and hypertension, some of the conditions for which she was sent medication. Hamas “did not keep to their promise” and now “many of the hostages are in urgent need of medication,” according to the Hostage Families Forum Medical Team Leader Hagai Levine. In addition to being denied medication, the hostages held in captivity by Hamas face inhumane conditions, including starvation and constant fear for their lives.
KEY EXCERPTS
- A relative of one of the hostages Israel rescued in a daring mission this week in the Gaza Strip says he never received medicines that were part of a Qatar- and French-mediated deal meant to deliver treatment to sick captives held by Hamas in exchange for more aid for Palestinians.
- Maayan Sigal-Koren told Israeli Army Radio on Tuesday that Louis Har, her mother’s partner who was freed, was sent a hearing aid, glasses and medication which he said he never received.
- Sigal-Koren said the fact that Har didn’t have the meds compounded the challenges of being held captive. “It added to other difficulties there, the psychological difficulties, the difficulty that his freedom was taken away,” she said.
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