The head of the Red Cross defended her organization’s response to the kidnapping of hundreds of people into Gaza, saying it was up to Israel, which has pilloried the aid group for refusing to pressure Hamas for access to the hostages, to work out the issue with the terror group.
Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, did express frustration over Hamas’s refusal to allow the organization access to hostages held in the Gaza Strip, their personnel can visit the hostages, ensure their conditions and deliver critical medication.
Spoljaric told Channel 12 News that while the Red Cross had “continue[d] insisting” on access, Hamas had conditioned allowing the group to reach the hostages on Israeli concessions, with the international organization left to wait until those demands were dealt with.
“Now Israel has to negotiate with Hamas with an intermediary which in this case is Qatar. They have to find this agreement so that we are let know where the hostages are because we currently don’t know where they are. We don’t know when and where to go to access them. That’s the simple fact. We cannot enforce this,” she said.
She noted the Red Cross’s role in implementing the release of 109 civilians, most of them as part of a temporary truce agreement between Israel and Hamas. It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 22 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
“Now we continue to work with the two sides so that we can implement the release of the remaining hostages and also ascertain the fate of those that we don’t know what happened to them,” Spoljaric said.
Pressed on the fact that only one side was withholding access to the people it had kidnapped, Spoljaric insisted that Israel was also responsible for the fact that the Red Cross could not do its job in reaching the captives, the majority of whom are civilians, including children, the women and elderly.
“Israel and Hamas need to agree on the modalities by which we can access and release the hostages,” she said.
Spoljaric said that she pushed for access to hostages when she met Hamas leaders in Qatar but refused to reveal their responses to the demands. She added that she was not involved in ongoing talks for another deal to release more hostages.
Israel has accused the agency of failing to do anything to ensure the safety of hostages held by Hamas since October 7, including refusing to even attempt to deliver medicines handed over by family members, while it agreed to work with Hamas to transport freed hostages during the exchange deal, leading one family member of a hostage to deride the ICRC as a glorified Uber service.
On Thursday, the Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Center filed a civil complaint in Jerusalem court on behalf of the families of 24 hostages seeking nearly $3 million in damages and a court order demanding the group access the hostages.
The Swiss-based organization, founded 160 years ago to serve as a neutral intermediary between belligerents in conflict and to visit and assist prisoners of war, has been accused by both sides of not condemning the other and of insufficient help to those detained or being held hostage.
Spoljaric defended her recent visit to the European Hospital in Gaza, which some in Israel thought she should have refrained from given the state of the hostage situation.
In a video following the visit, Spoljaric denounced the disastrous state of hospitals in the enclave and dedicated a short portion at the end stressing the need to protect the hostages. She rejected accusations that the statement had lacked balance in the interview aired Saturday.
“I mentioned the hospitals and I mentioned hostages a lot in other interviews. I address both sides equally when there are civilians who suffered. This is my job. We know how to do our work,” she stated.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, aimed at destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages, has caused widespread destruction across Gaza, including some 20,000 deaths, according to unverified figures from Hamas health authorities which do not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed some 8,500 Hamas terrorists and allied combatants during the war, which was triggered when thousands of Gazan terrorists poured into Israel from the land, air and sea, slaughtering some 1,200 people and seizing around 240 hostages on October 7. Most victims were civilians, and there has been evidence of sexual violence perpetrated by the terrorists, among other atrocities.
Spoljaric said she had “no tolerance whatsoever” for the rape and sexual violence that occurred amid the massacres, adding she was also concerned hostages were suffering such acts at the hands of their captors.
“I’m personally committed to invest what I can so that these things don’t happen and they’re never tolerated,” she stated. “This is the worst. Sexual violence is not a weapon. It should never be tolerated because it’s a clear violation of international charters.”