The recent agreement with Hamas reportedly includes a guarantee that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)—an organization that for many decades refused to admit Magen David Adom—will be allowed to visit the remaining 186 hostages, something it has thus far not managed to do. Its leaders did, however, express much concern about Israeli forces taking action to drive terrorists out of al-Shifa hospital. But even worse than such hypocrisy, notes Seth Mandel, is the Red Cross’s apparent indifference to the fact, now made clear from security-camera footage, that the hospital was being used to confine hostages:
Fighters dragging the hostages can be seen interacting freely with medical personnel at the hospital, in case anyone still tries to argue that hospital officials have plausible deniability. And as some have pointed out, there was no way for the hostages to get to Shifa without being taken past several other hospitals on the way, so they were not brought in for medical care.
The Red Cross was no stranger to Shifa. On November 6 and 7, for example, it boasted of ICRC caravans transporting supplies to Shifa and patients from Shifa. What did ICRC personnel see as they cleared out patients for transfer? More important, what did they pretend not to see? They had communication with and access to the hospital compound and its staff; to what purpose did they use this access? They were aware of the material needs of the hospital and therefore what was being used daily. ICRC doctors and surgeons around Gaza were in contact with colleagues at Shifa.
Meanwhile, the ICRC had no qualms about portraying Israeli troops as a constant threat to medical personnel or would-be butchers, or going on Al Jazeera to remind the IDF of its obligations to the hospitals that Hamas was already misusing. Indeed, the ICRC’s partnership with Shifa is a point of pride for the organization.
And it’s not just the Red Cross. Similar information has come to light about Doctors without Borders and, as Richard Goldberg points out, the World Health Organization.
Read more on Commentary: https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/the-red-crosss-gaza-scandal/