Advertisement
For help, call:
During the brief truce between Israel and Hamas earlier this month, other people in white vests driving all-terrain vehicles escorted the freed hostages to safety.
In unmistakable red and white liveries, the men and women of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) coordinated the transfer of hostages by masked Hamas gunmen to Israel, as well as the return of Palestinian prisoners from Israel.
“Sometimes it feels as if they are simply moving other people from one position to another,” said Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East.
“But it’s about agreeing when, how, what and all of that needs to be coordinated with other movements outside Gaza as well,” Carboni told CNN.
“As you know, there are also Palestinian detainees who have been released and returned to their families. So it’s complex.
The truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed after seven days last week and fighting resumed, with Israeli bombardments targeting southern Gaza, from where thousands of refugees have already fled.
Palestinian hospitals are filling once more with dead and wounded and the fate of the remaining 138 hostages Israel believes to be still in captivity is far from clear.
As a neutral intermediary between the two sides, the Red Cross is on standby to facilitate more exchanges.
But last week the organization also had to hedge off complaints that it would not do enough in Gaza with the remaining hostages.
An Israeli mother, whose son is believed to be being held hostage in Gaza, said the Red Cross had done “a glorious job of offering Uber service to freed hostages” but had done nothing for those still detained.
Speaking to the BBC World Service’s Newshour, ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said complaints about the Red Cross’ role in facilitating the release of hostages were “profoundly unfair, unfair and wrong. “
“We are working 24 hours a day with the Israeli government to make it imaginable [to release the hostages] as long as there is an agreement to release the hostages,” he said.
Robert Mardini, Director General of the ICRC, told CNN that there were “limits to what humanitarians can do.”
“Our staff and volunteers are all in the line of fire,” he said. “We are witnessing the terrible and very difficult situations of providing independent humanitarian assistance in this context. »
Being in the line of fire is something Red Cross volunteers have faced for the last 160 years.
Founded in Geneva in 1863, the ICRC is the oldest and one of the most revered humanitarian organizations in the world.
A three-time winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in both world wars and on the occasion of the centenary of its creation, the ICRC operates in more than 100 countries, supporting others affected by war, natural disasters and other global threats. crisis through a humanitarian network. About 80 million more people.
“The ICRC intervenes temporarily and appropriately to help other people affected by armed clashes. We also respond to mistakes in areas of confrontation, as the effects of a crisis are compounded if a country is already at war,” the organization said in a message posted on its official website.
“Emergencies are unpredictable, so our ability to deploy immediately is incredibly important. »
In Muslim-majority countries, the ICRC makes its humanitarian paintings under a crescent moon: the Turkish Red Crescent, founded under the Ottoman Empire in 1868, was the first to adopt this symbol.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society was officially founded in 1968, first to help Palestinian refugees in Jordan, and now represents Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the diaspora at large. In 2006, it was admitted as a full member of the ICRC.
“We are intermediaries and we see suffering everywhere. . . never in politics or in political processes,” said Balthasar Staehelin, who heads the East Asian delegation in Beijing.
“If they have desires or are suffering, we are there to help them, it’s undeniable and we don’t ask them questions about their race, religion or political beliefs. “
The history of the organization begins with the Swiss businessman Jean-Henri Dunant, who in 1859 found many dead on the Italian battlefield of Solferino.
Horrified by what he saw, Dunant took it upon himself to help the wounded and organized groups of civilians to provide them with medical care.
After returning to Geneva, he went on to write a book, A Memory of Solferino, that detailed his harrowing experiences.
“So much agony, so much suffering: the wounds, bothered by the heat, the lack of water and help, caused more intense pain,” Dunant writes. “Could we not discover voluntary aid societies whose function would be to supply or render aid to the wounded in times of war?
His plea would inadvertently give rise to the creation of the ICRC and the first of the Geneva Conventions.
Over the next century and a half, Red Cross and Red Crescent groups have been present at virtually every conflict – the group’s World War One archives alone contain details on more than 2 million prisoners of war (POWs).
In 2003, Nelson Mandela recalled that he received visits from the ICRC during his long years in criminal apartheid South Africa.
“For me personally, as well as for those of us who share the experience of political prisoners, the Red Cross is a beacon of humanity in the dark and inhumane world of political imprisonment,” he said.
Responding to herbal mistakes is a key detail of the ICRC’s work.
At the height of Italy’s first coronavirus outbreak, Red Cross staff were among those going door-to-door in the city of Bergamo.
When an earthquake struck northern Afghanistan earlier this year, the ICRC, one of the few foreign humanitarian organizations still serving the country since the Taliban takeover.
But hostage and prisoner exchanges however are often the most politically fraught moments for the Red Cross, which maintains that neutrality in all and any conflict is crucial for the role it plays.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has brought large-scale mechanized warfare back to Europe and the ICRC has once again visited prisoners of war on the sides.
Earlier this year, it facilitated the exchange of large numbers of prisoners in the fighting in Yemen and did the same in 2016 with 21 women in Nigeria who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram militants.
“Our Movement’s fundamental principles of impartiality and neutrality are crucial in this work,” the ICRC said in a recent statement it issued about its work with hostages in Israel and Gaza.
“The ICRC is not a negotiator. We don’t take sides.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel is “pushing” to allow the Red Cross to stop at hostages in Gaza.
“I spoke with the president of the Red Cross again today and I told her to turn to Qatar, since it has been proven that they have leverage over Hamas, and demand Red Cross visits with our hostages and, of course, the providing of medicines for them,” he said in a video statement.
For more CNN and letters, create an account on CNN. com
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement