GENEVA: The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday deplored the conflict in Gaza as a “moral failure” of the international community and urged Israel and Hamas to reach a new deal to halt the fighting.
“I have been speaking of moral failure because every day this continues is a day more where the international community hasn’t proven capable of ending such high levels of suffering and this will have an impact on generations not only in Gaza,” ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric told journalists in Geneva following trips to the Gaza Strip and Israel.
“There’s nothing without an agreement by the two sides, so we urge them to keep negotiating...” she said, referring to the release of Israeli hostages taken to Gaza by Hamas gunmen during their deadly rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
A truce mediated by Qatar and Egypt held for a week at the end of November and brought about the release of 110 hostages in Gaza in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and teenagers from Israeli jails.
Heavy fighting resumed on Dec. 1 and some of the remaining hostages have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities.
Although the ICRC facilitated the release of hostages during the truce, the group has been criticized by some Israelis for not doing more to free others and provide them with medical care. Some social media users have equated it to a taxi service to drive hostages out of Gaza.
“You don’t just go there and take the hostages and bring them out,” Spoljaric said, saying that any analogy with an Uber or taxi service was “unacceptable and outrageous.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to confirm last week that new negotiations were under way to recover hostages still held by Hamas, after a source said Israel’s intelligence chief met the prime minister of Qatar.
“We continue to talk to all sides to then be ready to operationalize the agreement that they reach,” Spoljaric said.
“What is clear is that at the current level of hostilities, a meaningful humanitarian response remains extremely difficult, if not impossible,” she said.
Her remarks come as the 160-year-old Swiss-based ICRC releases a new four-year strategy after narrowly avoiding a liquidity crisis this year amid surging humanitarian needs.
The organization is cutting around 4,000 posts this year and next to reduce costs, Spoljaric said, but remained committed to its core role as an impartial go-between for warring parties.
Under the new strategy, spending will rise in 2024 in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Haiti due to growing violence there, but fall in Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and South Sudan, a spokesperson said.
Gaza war is world’s ‘moral failure’, Red Cross chief says
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Gaza war is world’s ‘moral failure’, Red Cross chief says
- “There’s nothing without an agreement by the two sides, so we urge them to keep negotiating...” ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric told journalists
- “You don’t just go there and take the hostages and bring them out“
UN chief condemns Israeli law blocking electricity, water for UNRWA facilities
- The agency provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned on Wednesday a move by Israel to ban electricity or water to facilities owned by the UN Palestinian refugee agency, a UN spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the move would “further impede” the agency’s ability to operate and carry out activities.
“The Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations remains applicable to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), its property and assets, and to its officials and other personnel. Property used by UNRWA is inviolable,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general, said while adding that UNRWA is an “integral” part of the world body.
UNRWA Commissioner General Phillipe Lazzarini also condemned the move, saying that it was part of an ongoing “ systematic campaign to discredit UNRWA and thereby obstruct” the role it plays in providing assistance to Palestinian refugees.
In 2024, the Israeli parliament passed a law banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with the agency.
As a result, UNRWA operates in East Jerusalem, which the UN considers territory occupied by Israel. Israel considers all Jerusalem to be part of the country.
The agency provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It has long had tense relations with Israel but ties have deteriorated sharply since the start of the war in Gaza and Israel has called repeatedly for UNRWA to be disbanded, with its responsibilities transferred to other UN agencies.
The prohibition of basic utilities to the UN agency came as Israel also suspended of dozens of international non-governmental organizations working in Gaza due to a failure to meet new rules to vet those groups.
In a joint statement, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom said on Tuesday such a move would have a severe impact on the access of essential services, including health care. They said one in three health care facilities in Gaza would close if international NGO operations stopped.
