President Isaac Herzog met this evening with the president of the International Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric. He later posted about the meeting on X:
“I met this evening, with the ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric and told her about the painful meeting I had just held with the families of the hostages. I reiterated our firm demand for the immediate return of all the hostages held captive in Gaza for 70 days by cruel Hamas terrorists - without being allowed visitation by the Red Cross or the provision of life-saving drugs.”
“In our conversation, the President of the Red Cross pledged that the swift return of the hostages is a top priority. She reviewed a series of actions and humanitarian steps they are taking to try and ease the suffering of the hostages and to see them returned to their families. We also discussed the humanitarian efforts that the organization is undertaking regarding the whole of the Gaza Strip.”
“I conveyed my thanks to the organization's workers who have brought us the hostages who have been released, and pray that they will go on to return them all swiftly home.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met with Spoljaric at the Kirya in Tel Aviv.
At the start of the meeting, the Prime Minister described to the ICRC President the atrocities carried out by Hamas-ISIS, including the murder of children and infants, and the abuse and brutal rapes of women.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also described the inhuman conditions in which Hamas is holding the hostages and the prevention of humanitarian assistance for them.
The Prime Minister presented the ICRC President with a full package of vital medicines and demanded that the ICRC fulfill its role and deliver it to the hostages in Gaza.
"They’re doing something that is quite incredible. They’ve taken children, babies, women, old people, Holocaust survivors, festival participants. And after they shot hundreds, murdered over 1,200 people, they take these people and they take them as hostages. Where’s that heard of?”
“The only difference from our point of view is not the intent, but the capability. If they had the capability, they would have killed every last one of us. They didn’t, because we fought back, sometimes with incredible odds. People, mothers, fought with fingernails.”
“There’s a difference between the deliberate and systematic murder, maiming and menacing of civilians, which is what terrorism is, and the unintended consequences, unintended casualties that accompany any warfare. This is the entire difference. “
“I want to express my gratitude for your help in securing the release of the hostages, but at the same time, some of the statements that have come out from your organization seem to not make the distinction that I’ve just made.”
“My goal, as you know in our conversations, is to see how we can help the remaining hostages. You have every avenue, every right and every expectation to place public pressure on Hamas."
Participating in the meeting were Head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate Moshik Aviv, the Prime Minister's Military Secretary Maj.-Gen. Avi Gil, Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch, the Prime Minister's Foreign Policy Adviser Ophir Falk and Israeli Ambassador to the UN and International Organizations in Geneva Meirav Eilon Shahar.