DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – Israel is praying that an emergency shipment brought to the Gaza border through Egypt, in a deal arranged by Qatar and France, will reach hostages held by Hamas in the besieged Palestinian enclave, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday.
“We are praying that all the medication …. will reach them, but that’s only the beginning,” Herzog told the World Economic Forum in Davos, sitting next to a picture of the youngest of the 132 hostages, one-year-old Kfir Bibas.
Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, repeated his government’s stand that the Gaza war must result in the removal of the ruling Palestinian Islamist faction Hamas, which carried out a shock cross-border rampage in southern Israel on Oct 7.
While saying he was not shying away from the “human tragedy” inflicted on Gaza civilians, Herzog cast the Israeli offensive as a step towards more peaceful relations with the Palestinians in the future, and as bolstering global security.
Herzog called on world powers to help in post-war Gaza and noted that, before the Hamas attack, Israel had been on a path to establishing relations with Saudi Arabia after doing so in 2020 with Gulf neighbours United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
“We all understand that there has to be a vision, and I think part of it should be also going back to the normalisation process of Israel and its neighbours in the region. I think it’s part of a package,” he said.
“But that requires to support Israel’s efforts to undermine the capabilities of Hamas, and it’s still there.”
(Reporting Jeffrey Dastin; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Kate Holton)
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