The aid organization, which traditionally works to provide aid to hostages during armed conflicts, has not visited the Israelis held captive by Hamas
The Red Cross is under fire from GOP lawmakers and officials for failing to advocate on behalf of the remaining Israeli hostages after shocking videos showed two captives, 21-year-old Rom Braslavski and 24-year-old Evyatar David, emaciated and nearly naked.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an emergency phone call Sunday with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) head Julien Lerisson after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad released the videos, which he characterized as “shocking images reminiscent of Nazi crimes.” He pleaded with the Red Cross to come to the aid of the 49 remaining hostages, who have languished in captivity as the international aid group does little to help them secure medical care and food.
Officials in the United States share the outrage. They point to hostage release ceremonies from earlier this year, during which Hamas paraded starving Israeli captives before jeering Gazan mobs. The Red Cross, which boasts of its neutrality, appeared on stage with Hamas terrorists to shake hands and sign paperwork. In most cases, this was the first time Red Cross staff interacted with the captives after years of confinement—despite its core mission to support hostages and prisoners of war.
A senior Trump administration official told the Washington Free Beacon they were horrified by the recent images and blame the Red Cross for allowing the hostages to suffer in subhuman conditions. While the global aid group bills itself as the foremost provider of emergency services across the globe, including in active war zones like Gaza, it notably failed its mandate to visit those in Hamas captivity to assess their health.
“The ICRC is abandoning the very people it was established to protect,” the official said. “Almost two years since Oct. 7, it still hasn’t delivered humanitarian aid and medical care to the hostages in Gaza. It’s shameful that the Red Cross is still standing on the war’s sidelines while civilians are starved and tortured in captivity.”
“That the Red Cross keeps shunning aid for the hostages but participates in Hamas’s propaganda ceremonies tells you everything you need to know about whose side they’re on.”
Sen. Ted Budd (R., N.C.), who has advocated for reassessing American aid to the Red Cross in light of its work with Hamas, said the humanitarian organization continues to fail its mission.
“While Israel is somehow blamed, the United Nations and the International Red Cross have utterly failed to distribute food to Gazans and ensure food and medicine reach hostages,” Budd told the Free Beacon. “The video released by Hamas over the weekend is horrific and illuminates an alarming lack of moral clarity by those nations condemning Israel while offering recognition of Palestine.”
Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said it would only consider allowing the Red Cross to access the hostages “if humanitarian corridors were opened into Gaza on a regular and permanent basis, and air strikes halted during the time of receiving aid,” according to the BBC.
While the Red Cross promised a fresh push to visit the hostages after the most recent videos emerged, many inside Israel have lost faith in the aid group’s abilities.
“Once again, when it comes to Jews being kidnapped, raped, starved, and murdered, the Red Cross is simply MIA. What a disgrace,” a former senior Israeli defense official told the Free Beacon. “For 666 days they’ve sat on the sidelines while Israeli civilians have been held in Holocaust-like conditions. Either they don’t learn, or don’t care.”
Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum, which recently led a campaign to hold the ICRC accountable for its inaction since Oct. 7, said the aid group’s failures stem from a deep-seated bias.
“The Red Cross has shamed itself beyond repair,” he said. “Since Oct. 7, they have utterly abandoned the hostages, failing to see even a single one in captivity as they are starved, tortured, and now forced to even dig their own graves. This is not neutrality. It is complicity.”
As the Red Cross’s “single largest donor,” Ostrovsky said, “the United States should reassess any further funding and enable legislation to allow victims of Hamas’s terror to sue the ICRC over their complicity.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli advocacy group, said in a Sunday statement that their captive “loved ones have been denied medical care, food, and all communication with us for over 660 days.”
“The shocking reality is that the Red Cross has never had access to these hostages during this entire horrific period,” the organization noted. “The international community must demand the immediate release of all 50 hostages and ensure that until their return home, they receive the medical care they desperately need.”
