Hamas & the International Red Cross

The ICRC must be held accountability for collaboration with terror

I was relieved that three female hostages were finally released by Hamas after 471 days of captivity.

But my happiness was brief and it turned to grief as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stood by and permitted Hamas gunmen and frenzied Gaza City residents to surround and shake the women’s vehicles as they were about to be released to freedom.

The three young women who faced another tumultuous experience were Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28 and Doron Steinbrecher, 31.

The so-called relief agency’s complicity with Hamas was on display again today. Watch it with your own eyes the indignity of their release as terrorists surround the vehicles.

The Gaza City riot was the final human-rights indignity supervised by the International Red Cross, which has steadfastly ignored its obligation and mandate to protect unarmed hostages.

Unlike their activity in other conflicts, not once did the ICRC ever meet with a single hostage during their captivity since being seized on October 7. The relief agency never provided them with comfort, deliver needed medicines, or assure their safety. Not once in these 471 days.

Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy and a former White House National Security Council staffer shared his disgust with this final, terrifying act permitted by the ICRC.

“Today, we see at a delivery point, a transfer point, that these girls are surrounded by thousands of people putting the hostages lives at risk, who have been subjected to unbelievable torture for the final moments of captivity. It is unforgivable,” he told me today in an interview.

“And the ICRC was complicit as we all saw in the images photographed and posted today,” he said.

In the international agency’s own words, the long-stated purported mission and mandate of the ICRC illustrates its dereliction of duty during these 15 months. Its mandate is to provide an “exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and other violence and to provide them with assistance.”

The rancid antisemitism and double standards behind the ICRC’s decisions during this hostage episode is revolting.

Goldberg made it clear how negligent the ICRC became when it came to turning a blind eye towards the hostages. “It was the moral and legal obligation of Red Cross leaders to spend every waking day trying to put maximum pressure on Hamas, to get proof of life and access to the hostages. And they failed in both their moral and legal duties fundamentally,” he said.

The FDD advisor flatly said the ICRC has blood on their hands. “Many members of the International Committee of the Red Cross who visited Gaza, held press conferences, and left without bringing holy hell down on Hamas, kicking and screaming and demanding that they see the hostages have blood on their hands.”

This was a natural outcome of the International Red Cross’ highly unethical and pro-Hamas leadership. As it turns out, Pierre Krähenbühl, the ICRC’s current director general - yes, its current leader - was forced to resign from the main UN Palestinian relief agency amid charges he “engaged in misconduct, nepotism, retaliation … and other abuses of authority,” according to a United Nations official investigation.

Last year Krähenbühl was forced to resign as the five-year head of the Palestinian’s United Nations Relief and Works Agency because of immoral and unethical behavior, including creating a “toxic environment” within the organization, according to the official investigation.

The special UN investigation of Krähenbühl reported they discovered that under his leadership at UNRWA he produced “a work culture characterized by low morale, fear of retaliation … distrust, secrecy, bullying, intimidation, and marginalisation … and management that is highly dysfunctional, with a significant breakdown of the regular accountability structure”.

The devastating ten-page UN report said he and his top associates, “engaged in abuses of authority for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives.”

This is one of the top leaders of the International Committee of the Red Cross which has completely ignored the suffering of Israeli hostages and who has abrogated the organization’s own stated moral responsibilities. He is their moral, political and administrative leader. He must be held accountable, along with the Geneva-based organization.

In March 2024, fifteen Senators sent the ICRC a scathing letter about Krähenbühl, saying, “We cannot stand idly by as another international organization falls victim to anti-Semitism and violence, not to mention blatant mismanagement and moral corruption.”

Goldberg calls for an independent investigation into the ICRC’s collaboration with Hamas. Such an investigation - both by private organizations and by Congress — must come soon.

It’s not well known, but in Fiscal 2022, the State Department contributed more than $622 million to the ICRC, the largest single donor to the relief agency.

I asked Goldberg if the State Department under President Biden, or Secretary of State Antony Blinken ever rebuked the ICRC for their indifference toward the Israeli hostages. “Not to my knowledge,” he told me. “All public statements of the United States Government were one of appreciation and gratitude for the ICRC work.”

The new Congress most likely will hold hearings to investigate the ICRC and consider withholding funds from them. “They should withhold a certain percentage of their funding, gain access to documents,” Goldberg said. He said the Congress and the new administration should “meet people for interviews for accountability and of their clear complicity with this horror show.”

As for American Red Cross, in its last reported year, they donated $10 million to the ICRC. Goldberg says they also bear responsibility for the ICRC’s immoral behavior in Gaza.

“In the end, there was no insistent, public pressure on the ICRC by the American Red Cross, something they could absolutely have been doing. That was the failure of leadership,” he told me.

He said after the hostages are all released, there will be a spotlight shown on the American Red Cross and its silence during the ICRC’s inaction.

“I think they’re going to have to explain to their constituencies, to prospective donors, to the American people what their views are, why they have been silent, why they gave money to the ICRC during this crisis, why they didn’t use their bully pulpit to put pressure on ICRC leaders. There’s going to have to be accountability for their silence,” he told me.

I hope the American Red Cross will be held accountable in this coming year and its international partner will pay a price for its callous indifference.