Tel Aviv, Israel:
Israeli families with members held captive by Hamas for a week in Gaza demanded that the International Committee of the Red Cross facilitate an arrangement Saturday enabling the transfer of medicines to their loved ones.
“We expect that tonight, by midnight (2100 GMT), there will be an agreement to transfer medicine to the missing people and hostages,” said Ronen Tzur, who heads the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
“We expect answers from the International Committee of the Red Cross tonight,” Ronen Tzur said.
Palestine’s Hamas group launched a multi-pronged assault early on October 7, breaching the Gaza border barrier and targeting southern Israeli communities and army bases.
More than 1,300 civilians and soldiers have been killed since the attack began, according to Israeli officials, and at least 120 have been seized and are believed to be held captive in Gaza.
Speaking alongside Ronen Tzur at a briefing in Tel Aviv, Hagai Levine, chairman of the Israel Association of Public Health Physicians who was working with the families, said there were 150 captives with various medical conditions who needed “life-saving medicines immediately”.
Ronen Tzur said that if the hostages did not receive the care they needed, Israel should withhold medical care from Hamas prisoners it held.
“There are Hamas prisoners being held in Israeli prisons receiving the best medical care available,” he said.
“If there’s no choice, we need to change the rules of the game with this enemy.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Hindkesharistaff and is published from a syndicated feed.)