Israel-Hamas Agreement Provides Medicine for Hostages, Gazans as Senators Meet with Hostage Families

JERUSALEM, Israel – U.S. senators and Israelis highlighted the plight of the more than 100 hostages held by Hamas now for more than 100 days. After months of waiting, life-saving medicine is on its way to the hostages.

On October 7th, Hamas kidnapped Sharon Cunio, her husband David, and their twin 3-year-old girls.

Hamas released Cunio and her children on November 27th, but her husband remains. She vividly recalls the last thing he said to her.

“He told me, 'Fight for me, don't give up. Please yell what I can't yell, please help me to get out.' He told me 'I'm scared as hell.' This was the last sentence, 'I'm scared as hell'," she said.

Qatar, which has been acting as a broker between Israel and Hamas, dispatched two planes Wednesday carrying more than 60 tons of medicine and other aid to Gaza for the hostages and for Palestinians.

It's the first agreement between Israel and Hamas since November.

A senior Hamas official said that for every box of medicine for the hostages, 1,000 boxes of medicine would be sent in for the Palestinians. However, there was no word on how the medicine would be distributed to the hostages, many of whom are dependent on the medications.

IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated, "We will strive and do all the efforts in coordination with Qatar, who are the ones who developed, initiated and are leading this move, to make sure that – as is required everywhere in the world and from international organizations including the Red Cross – to make sure that the medicines that our abductees need, and they need medicines, (reaches) them."

On Capitol Hill, U.S. Senators met with families of the hostages, some of whom are U.S. citizens.   

Orna Neutra, mother of an American hostage in Gaza, declared, "Our sons have so much yet to give to the world. We must do everything possible to bring them back. Any deal put forward must include them all. These boys could be your boys. They must be brought home. They cannot be treated as a last priority. They cannot be overlooked."

"So we are going to do everything we can," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. "We are going to do everything we can because our hearts are broken and we must, we must bring them home. All of them."

Many of those hostages are likely held in the labyrinth of tunnels under the Gaza Strip. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) says the tunnel system is far bigger than estimated, with as many as 450 miles of tunnels spreading throughout underground Gaza. 

In the meantime, the fate of Sharon Alony Cunio's husband David and the rest of the hostages is uncertain.

"I cry all day," she explained. I just sit around and cry all day watching videos, all kind of groups looking for information about him, watching his pictures on the phone and hearing his voice messages."

Until then, she and the rest of Israel watch and wait. 

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