PM Netanyahu reiterates calls on Red Cross to provide food & medical care to Israeli hostages

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed Israel’s calls to the International Red Cross to make an effort to provide the Israeli hostages in Gaza with food and medical care, as efforts to restart the hostage deal negotiations continue to be rejected by Hamas.

A senior political source told Israeli media outlets that Israel is "in dialogue with the Americans. There is a growing understanding that Hamas is not interested in a deal."

"Therefore, the Prime Minister is pushing for the release of the hostages through military pressure, combined with the entry of humanitarian aid into areas outside the combat zones, and as much as possible into areas that are outside Hamas’s control."

According to his office, Netanyahu spoke with Julien Lerisson, the head of a delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday, after Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad released shocking footage of emaciated Israeli hostages over the weekend.

The prime minister told Lerisson that “Hamas's starvation libel is reverberating around the world, while the systematic starvation is carried out against our hostages, who are being subjected to inhumane physical and mental abuse.”

“The world cannot remain indifferent to the shocking images which are reminiscent of Nazi atrocities.”

Netanyahu further stressed that the Gazan terror groups’ actions “violate international law and the Geneva Convention,” his office stated.

Israel has been highly critical of the ICRC throughout the war.

In December 2023, Netanyahu told the Knesset that the Red Cross refused to give vital medicine to the hostages being held in captivity in Gaza.

Earlier this year, ICRC staff took part in Hamas' cynical theatrics accompanying the release of Israeli hostages.

While Israel and some international representatives have expressed shock at the horrifying footage of the hostages released this weekend, efforts to restart the talks with Hamas have been failing for over a week now.

Netanyahu has not convened his security cabinet, which is the decision-making body for the hostage issue, for several days.

According to Ynet News, the reason for this is that Israel is still coordinating possible next steps in case Hamas rejects a final offer.

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff left Israel on Sunday without any concrete results or new developments in the talks.

Washington and Jerusalem will continue coordination efforts before making a final offer, which is expected to be a comprehensive agreement, without any partial deals or several stages, that is aimed at finally ending the almost two-year long war.

However, Hamas has repeatedly rejected calls for its disarmament, which would be an Israeli precondition to end the war.

Speaking with Al Jazeera, Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official based abroad, claimed Hamas is advocating a comprehensive agreement while accusing Israel of stalling and using the talks as a cover to continue the fighting.

Other Hamas officials said in recent days that the terror group refuses to return to the negotiating table as long as there is “famine and starvation” in Gaza.

On Sunday, Belgium joined the list of countries that are dropping aid into the enclave, in addition to Israel, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, France, and Germany.

According to the IDF, on Sunday 136 aid packages “containing food for the residents of both the southern and northern Gaza Strip, were airdropped by six different countries.”

“The IDF will continue to work in order to improve the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip, along with the international community, while refuting the false claims of deliberate starvation in Gaza.”