2023-11-20 19:00:00
President Mirjana Spoljaric met with Ismail Haniya, political leader of Hamas. She also met, separately, with authorities from the State of Qatar.
The ICRC continues to call for urgent protection of all victims of the armed conflict and relief of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. ICRC staff in Gaza have been providing life-saving assistance, and a team of ICRC surgeons continues to perform operations. The ICRC reiterates its call for safe and continued humanitarian access to expand its work.
Likewise, the ICRC reiterates its call for the immediate release of all hostages. He insists that his teams be authorized to visit the hostages to verify their condition and give them medicine, and to facilitate communication with their families. Agreements must be made for the ICRC to carry out its work safely. We cannot access the place where the hostages are held by force; We also do not know its location.
The ICRC is not involved in negotiations for the release of hostages. As a neutral humanitarian intermediary, we are prepared to facilitate future releases agreed by the parties to the armed conflict, as ICRC staff have already done on two occasions.
President Spoljaric’s visit is part of the ICRC’s direct talks with all parties to improve respect for international humanitarian law. Additionally, over the past few weeks, President Spoljaric has met on multiple occasions with relatives of hostages held in Gaza, as well as senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
About the ICRC
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a neutral, impartial and independent organization with an exclusively humanitarian mission established in the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It helps people affected by armed conflicts and other situations of violence around the world, doing everything possible to protect their lives and dignity, and to alleviate their suffering, often together with their Red Cross and Red Crescent partners.
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