On 19 January 2025, following the conclusion of Israel’s ceasefire agreement with Hamas, three Israeli women were released after 471 days of captivity in Gaza. The hostages were transferred to Red Cross vehicles, where they were harassed and taunted by armed “militants” and a menacing crowd that pressed itself against the windows and chanted “Allahu Akbar!” Officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) did nothing to interfere with this intimidating display of indignity and public humiliation. Instead, uniformed ICRC officials complied when Hamas fighters handed them “certificates of completion to sign.” The three young women were then forced to hold these documents while their pictures were taken, as if they had come to Gaza for university courses.

This grotesque spectacle highlighted the degree to which the ICRC has been willing to serve as a prop for Hamas, before and after the Palestinian jihadists perpetrated the atrocities of 7 October 2023. More than 250 captives were seized from Israel on that terrible day. Most of them were alive, some were already dead, and a still-unknown number have since died in captivity or been murdered by their abductors. Not one of the Israeli abductees received a visit from the organisation ostensibly responsible for implementing the requirements of the Geneva Convention. The Red Cross did not provide a shred of information to the tormented families regarding the condition of the captives because, as its own official statements blandly insist, without the agreement of the Hamas, “the ICRC cannot act.”