Hamas says it’s open to Red Cross request ‘to bring food and medicine’ to hostages if Israel opens aid corridors

The military wing of Hamas says it is “ready to positively engage and respond to any request by the Red Cross to bring food and medicine” to the hostages it is holding, which the terror group refers to as “enemy prisoners,” if Israel opens up humanitarian aid corridors.

The Red Cross has not been allowed any access to the hostages during 22 months of war, and has faced heavy criticism from Israel over its failure to do so.

Earlier, the Red Cross, following a demand issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the hostages “must urgently receive the medical care and attention they require.”

The spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, says the terror group is conditioning the Red Cross’s access to the hostages “on the opening of humanitarian corridors in a normal and permanent manner for the passage of food and medicine to all our people in all areas of the Gaza Strip, and the cessation of all forms of enemy aerial activity during the times of parcel deliveries to the prisoners.”

“The Al-Qassam Brigades do not deliberately starve the prisoners, but they eat what our mujahideen (fighters) and the general public eat, and they will not receive any special privilege amid the crime of starvation and siege,” claims spokesman Hudhaifa Kahlout, known by the nom de guerre Abu Obeida.

Last week, Israel announced 10-hour humanitarian pauses in populated areas of the Strip and greatly boosted aid entering Gaza. It is not immediately clear if the terms set out by Hamas are feasible for Israel.