The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) released a National Security brief on the failure of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to maintain impartiality in Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The group said the ICRC had yet to visit or treat any of the hostages taken captive by Hamas in its cross-border attacks on Oct. 7—a violation of the Geneva Conventions. It has also failed to issue serious criticism against Hamas, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terror Organization, in the past two months, despite the terror organization’s continued use of human shields.
Instead, the agency has directed harsh words against Israel, even though the Israel Defense Forces has alerted Palestinians ahead of military actions, encouraged them to move along a corridor to the south to get them to safer ground and supplied humanitarian aid.
This has prompted JINSA to call on the United States to exert greater oversight of the emergency group, given yearly contributions that can surpass $100 million.
“Under international humanitarian law, the ICRC has a special responsibility not only to visit hostages and provide them with medical care but to remain impartial while doing so,” wrote policy analyst Yoni Tobin. “The ICRC’s chapter in Gaza, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), has also damagingly accused Israel of bombing its ambulances during the war, without providing the context that Hamas uses PRCS hospitals and ambulances to transport its operatives and weaponry.”
