The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), founded in 1863 in Geneva, Switzerland, is supposed to be a neutral player in international conflict. It's supposed to treat the wounded and care for prisoners from all sides in any war.
If that's true, why were Red Cross officials on stage in Gaza when Hamas handed over six Israeli prisoners and four dead bodies during a "signing ceremony" in gross violation of international law and the ICRC's mandate?
In this case, Hamas forced the Red Cross to participate or the deal for the prisoners was off. The Red Cross complied.
Prior to the handover, the Red Cross issued a statement: "We must be clear: any degrading treatment during release operations is unacceptable," it said.
It may have been "unacceptable," but the organization participated anyway.
During that same prisoner handover, Hamas forced Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal to watch as six other prisoners were released from captivity on Saturday.
Red Cross officials were in a car 10 feet away.
The government of Israel is complaining bitterly about the role of the Red Cross in these hostage handover extravaganzas staged by Hamas. The ICRC failed to visit any Israelis held by the terrorists. A prisoner released during the brief cease-fire last October was let go in critical condition because the medicine she desperately needed was never given despite the family begging the Red Cross to deliver it.
The Red Cross has a checkered history. For all the good it does in disasters, its performance in war-torn countries has been abysmal. In World War II, after a visit to the extermination camp at Auschwitz, the ICRC representative claimed there were no “installations for exterminating civilian prisoners.”
Hamas frequently uses the Red Cross symbol on trucks to move ammunition and fighters in Gaza. The ICRC raises feeble objections to these outrages.
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Beyond the ICRC's non-neutrality in Gaza, the lack of fairness by the Red Cross resonates elsewhere in the world.
What happens in Israel does not stay in Israel. Turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the plight of Israeli hostages emboldens other belligerents to repeat the exploitation of hostages in other contexts. In September 2023, Azerbaijani forces seized portions of Nagorno-Karabakh, driving out the indigenous Armenian population, destroying cultural heritage, and taking civilians, soldiers and politicians hostage. Azerbaijan acknowledges holding 23 Armenian prisoners captured in 2023, though Armenian authorities possess evidence that Azerbaijan holds an additional 32 individuals. Human rights lawyers believe there are an additional 80 Armenian detainees, several of whom were farmers and other civilians seized from border areas and passengers dragged out of cars. Azerbaijani forces treat them as hostages, and abuse and torture them in prison.
Azerbaijan allows the Red Cross to visit only the 23 prisoners it declares. The ICRC’s refusal to pressure Hamas convinced Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that he would face no consequences for his failure to declare the dozens of other Armenians he holds in captivity.
Another example is Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has imprisoned the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, in isolation since abducting him from Kenya more than a quarter-century ago. Leaders of other opposition parties are also languishing in Turkish prison with nary a visit or a voice raised by the ICRC.
"If Hamas can filibuster the ICRC and still receive hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, why should Turkey provide the Red Cross with access to high-value political prisoners?" asks Elizabeth Samson of the MEF.
The ICRC is sowing the seeds of its own destruction. Its participation in Hamas's grotesque displays that flip off international law and common human decency inspires dictators like Erdogan to make the Red Cross irrelevant in world affairs.
