Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke by phone this evening (Monday) with the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, who is based in Geneva. The President conveyed the urgent danger facing the Israeli hostages and the need for immediate action to assist them.
President Herzog stated: “The hostages’ health condition is dire, and the evidence suggests a real and immediate threat to their lives. The shocking footage of Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, in which their bones are visibly protruding from their skin from starvation. It underscores the urgent need to provide them with food and immediate medical care and reveals the extent of their suffering and the abuse and neglect" they experience.
Herzog stressed that the hostages' lives are "in imminent danger."
During the conversation, the President reiterated the urgent need for the Red Cross to intervene and provide medical assistance to the hostages, who are in critical condition and being deliberately starved as part of Hamas’s brutal manipulation — a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Julien Lerisso, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in the region, requesting his involvement in delivering urgent food and medical treatment to the hostages.
Netanyahu told Larison: “Hamas’s lie of starvation echoes around the world, while the real, systematic starvation is being inflicted on our hostages, who are suffering brutal physical and psychological abuse. The world cannot stand idly by in the face of these shocking images, reminiscent of Nazi crimes.”
He urged the international community to denounce the terrorist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad and to cease all direct and indirect support for them, stressing that their actions violate international law and the Geneva Convention.