‘Obscene Ceremonies’: Why The Behavior Of The Red Cross In Gaza Is Unconscionable

As soon as the first three young female Israeli hostages were finally released from Hamas captivity as part of the latest deal, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was already lauding themselves for their role in the transfer.

The reality, however, is that the Red Cross utterly and unconscionably abandoned the hostages to the dungeons of Gaza — and now to the preying mobs surrounding them during their release.

In almost 500 days of captivity, under the most horrific of conditions, including torture, starvation and sexual violence, not once has the Red Cross visited a single hostage or provided any proof of life for their families. The relatives of one of the released captives from November 2023, Elma Avraham, 84, who spent four months in the hospital upon her return, heartbreakingly described how the Red Cross refused to even accept the medicine they tried to give them to deliver to their elderly mother in Gaza.

Simply put, the Red Cross’s role has been relegated to no more than that of a glorified Uber driver, ferrying the hostages from Gaza into the hands of the IDF. But they cannot do even that while providing the hostages with even a shred of dignity. Instead, they have aided Hamas in turning the whole release of the hostages — including terrified young girls — into a propaganda circus, with sickening images of Hamas terrorists standing on top of Red Cross vehicles with guns and cameras, while Red Cross officials now routinely join Hamas on stage in these obscene ceremonies and parades.

One of the released hostages, Gadi Mozes (80), described how at one point during his time in captivity, he was held in a truck right under the offices of the Red Cross in Gaza. Mozes was also in “mortal fear” during the release that he and fellow hostage Arbel Yehoud would be lynched by the frenzied mob around them.

Just this week we witnessed with absolute horror the release of three starved, emaciated male hostages, in scenes, as President Trump himself noted, that were unmistakably reminiscent of the Holocaust, only underscoring the chilling effects of the Red Cross’s abandonment. Inexcusably, instead of condemning Hamas, one member of the Red Cross was seen happily shaking hands with the masked Hamas terrorist on stage, as the three hostages were about to be gruesomely paraded.

Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

It is also telling that whilst the Red Cross has managed to express “outrage” at the way Palestinian prisoners were released from Israel — even though it was fully in accordance with international law, and bearing in mind that unlike the innocent Israeli hostages coming home these were terrorist murderers with blood on their hands being let out of prison — they have refused to condemn Hamas over the obscene spectacles of the hostage releases in Gaza, instead jumping on stage with them for photo-ops. So much for that famous ‘neutrality’ they like to extol so much.

So much for that famous ‘neutrality’ the Red Cross likes to extol. And although the Red Cross likes to note that they have repeatedly (if passively) called for the hostages’ release, or that the macabre displays during the hostage release are outside of their control, that is woefully and pathetically inadequate, as is the excuse that they cannot do anything in the absence of an agreement between Hamas and Israel.

The fact that Hamas does not abide by any norms of international law or human dignity, or that they repeatedly rejected prior hostage release and ceasefire deals, does not absolve the Red Cross of their mandate under the Geneva Conventions to provide “humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict,” as well as ensuring that the hostages release transfers “take place in a way that is both safe and dignified.” Nor is it enough to merely politely ‘call’ for the hostages’ release and then just give up when Hamas says no.

The Red Cross prides itself on being unwaveringly neutral, but when it comes to Israeli and Jewish lives, they are just unwaveringly absent. 

In addition to the hostages kidnapped on October 7, Hamas is also still holding the body of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, who was killed and taken captive during the 2014 war with Israel, and two civilians, Avner Mengistu, a 37-year-old Israeli with mental health issues, who has been held hostage by Hamas also since 2014, and Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Israeli, who is seriously ill and has been held hostage since 2015.

Not once has the Red Cross seen any of these men in captivity.

And the entire time former IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was held captive in Gaza for almost 6 years, until finally his release in 2011, the Red Cross never once visited or provided him humanitarian assistance.

The reality is, when it comes to Israeli lives, the Red Cross is just nowhere to be seen. Nor is this the first time that the ICRC has failed Jews: the organization has already acknowledged and apologized for its abject failure to help protect the millions of Jews who were exterminated in the Nazi death camps. They used the same excuse back then that they are using now – they asked the Germans for permission, and were told no, so they just backed off.

Unforgivable.

As it relates to Gaza, not only have they failed to see even a single hostage, they have also ignored the irrefutable evidence right under their noses that Hamas is systematically using hospitals and UN sites as terrorist staging grounds.

With a new U.S. Administration in the White House, the Red Cross must be held accountable for their wholesale abrogation of duty.

Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

On his first day in office, President Trump signed an Executive Order stating that “no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”

The United States is currently the single largest state donor to the Red Cross, contributing about $550 million in 2023. Given the Red Cross’s abandonment of the hostages, including American nationals still being held in hellistic terror dungeons, and their effective whitewashing of Hamas’ crimes, not only does ongoing funding of the Red Cross not align with the foreign policy of the President of the United States, it runs entirely and dangerously counter to it.

Accordingly, if President Trump and the U.S. seek to eliminate wasteful spending, including under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, they should cut funding to the Red Cross entirely — at least until they are restructured — and use some of that money instead to help the families of those whom the Red Cross has abandoned.

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Arsen Ostrovsky is a human rights attorney who serves as CEO of The International Legal Forum and is a Senior Fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security. You can follow him on ‘X’ at: @Ostrov_A.

Mark Goldfeder is a law professor and CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center. Follow @markgoldfeder on X.

They both serve as counsel to families of Hamas hostages and victims of October 7.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.