Amid backlash over handling of Gaza hostages, Red Cross refuses to take sides in Israel-Palestine conflict

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - A crowd welcomes Palestinians formerly jailed by Israel as they arrive in a Red Cross convoy to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on January 30, 2025. — AFP pic

GENEVA, Feb 1 — The Red Cross, accused of not doing enough to help hostages in Gaza or Palestinian detainees in Israel, has defended itself in a rare statement outlining the limits of its role.

Insisting on its neutrality, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the escalation of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories has triggered “a proliferation of dehumanising language and of false and misleading information about the ICRC and our work in the current conflict”.

Hostages

In recent days, ICRC vehicles have facilitated the transfer of Palestinians out of Israeli detention, and hostages held in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s attack in Israel on October 7, 2023.

But the transfer of hostages to the ICRC has been sharply criticised following chaotic scenes on Thursday as masked fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, carrying automatic weapons, struggled to hold back a surging crowd.

ICRC officials “did nothing to interfere with this intimidating display of indignity and public humiliation”, Gerald Steinberg, president of the right-wing Israeli organisation NGO Monitor, wrote in the Australian-based online magazine Quillette.

The ICRC said: “Ensuring the safety and security of the handover operations is the responsibility of the parties to the agreement.”

Furthermore, “Interfering with armed security personnel could compromise the safety of ICRC staff, and more importantly that of the hostages.”

The Geneva-based organisation also said it had not given permission for “people carrying Hamas flags to get on top of our buses in Ramallah” during the release of Palestinian detainees, “nor did we have the capacity to prevent people from doing so”.

An Israeli police officer stands next to a Red Cross vehicle outside the Israeli military prison Ofer ahead of the expected release of Palestinian prisoners. — Reuters pic

‘No right to exist’

In late 2023, Israel’s then foreign minister Eli Cohen said the Red Cross had “no right to exist” if it did not visit the hostages in Gaza.

However, the organisation is reliant on the goodwill of the belligerents.

“From day one, we have called for the immediate release of all the hostages, and for access to them,” it says.

In World War II, the ICRC visited prisoners of war but its mandate did not explicitly extend to civilians unless governments allowed it.

The ICRC acknowledges that during World War II, it “failed to speak out and more importantly act on behalf of the millions of people who suffered and perished in the death camps, especially the Jewish people targeted, persecuted, and murdered under the Nazi regime”.

In its statement, the ICRC reaffirmed that it was the “greatest failure” in the organisation’s history, and said it unequivocally rejects anti-Semitism in all its forms.

Detainees and aid

The ICRC has been accused, particularly on social media, of not putting pressure on Israel to secure visits to Palestinian detainees since October 7, 2023, and also of not doing enough to help the wounded in the Gaza Strip.

The humanitarian organisation says it has been actively engaging with the Israeli authorities “to allow for the resumption of ICRC visits and family contacts for these detainees”.

As for the wounded in Gaza, the ICRC said it had received requests to evacuate hospitals in the north, but could not regularly safely access the area due the “extremely difficult security situation — together with roads blocked and unreliable communications”.

Following the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect on January 19, the ICRC, which already had 130 staff in Gaza, is deploying more personnel, including doctors.

People surround the vehicles of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on the day of the release of hostages held in Gaza. — Reuters pic

Neutrality

In 1968, Leopold Boissier, a former ICRC president, noted that the criticism most frequently levelled at the organisation “is the silence with which it surrounds some of its activities”.

Nearly 60 years later, the ICRC is facing similar accusations, notably since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Founded in Geneva in 1863, the organisation, which has more than 18,000 staff in over 90 countries, denies being “complicit” and says it establishes trust through “confidential dialogue with all parties to the conflict”.

“Our neutrality and impartiality are critical to our ability to operate in any context.” — AFP