The Fate of the Red Cross: Getting Out of the War Zone with Hamas and the Families of Abigail and Rachel Goldberg
We all share the frustration. The Red Cross understands the pain, says spokesman Straziuso. “We’re not bulletproof, and it’s not possible for us to walk into a conflict zone in hostile territory without permission — to walk up to a group of people, most certainly holding guns that they will use, and demand that they let us inside. It’s not possible.”
The Red Cross has about 130 employees in Gaza, he said, giving it some ability to deliver humanitarian aid and to visit the scenes of destruction from the war. But even with that access, meeting with the hostages requires an agreement with Hamas.
A senior Israeli official said on Channel 12 that they are close to a deal that would allow at least 50 hostages to be released. The television report said the hostages to be released would include children, their mothers and other women.
In October, Hamas released five hostages, while Israeli forces rescued one. But there have been no further breakthroughs.
There isn’t a set formula for reporting when a hostage is dead or alive during war, leaving the family of the person with little to hold on to.
Liz Hirsh Naftali, the great-aunt of Abigail Idan, recounted on NBC News how the 3-year-old Abigail watched on Oct. 7 as Hamas fighters shot and killed her mother and ran with her father and two siblings.
She said that they learned that her father had died of a heart attack and she had crawled out of his body.
The family of Rachel Goldberg, who is married to Mr. Polin, said they have no clue when or if they will discover anything conclusive about their loved ones. Ms. Goldberg explained the grief of a mother who has no idea if her son is alive or dead.
The Israeli Red Cross and Hamas in Israel are close to achieving a truce agreement after the Iraq-Israel attack on Oct. 7
There are posters in Israel that say “KIDNAPPED”, and activists have mounted a campaign to demand faster action from the Red Cross.
On Oct. 7, armed Hamas terrorists invaded her home, which was still being cleaned up after her breast reconstruction surgery had gone terribly awry. She was weak and easily fatigued, and a buildup of painful scar tissue on her chest caused tightness, limiting her mobility.
The militant group snatched the family from the safe room inside their home, including Ms. Engelbert, her husband, Ronen and their daughters, Mika and Yuval.
Diego said that his sister spoke quietly at 9:30 on the black sabbath, and said they were inside the house.
Mr. Engelbert doesn’t know if she’s getting any medical treatment, or if anyone is taking care of her.
They range in age from infants to octogenarians, and include a Thai foreign worker who was nine months pregnant on Oct. 7 and may have given birth in captivity. There are many kibbutz members in their mid-80s who were taking medications for chronic conditions like high blood pressure, and younger adults who have both psychiatric conditions and medical conditions that can be fatal if left untreated.
And then there were those who sustained potentially life-threatening injuries in the raid itself, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
The leader of Hamas’ political wing said Tuesday that the militant group had “delivered its response” to mediators in Qatar and that it was “close to reaching a truce agreement” with Israel more than six weeks after its Gaza-based fighters launched a massive cross-border attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis and seized around 240 hostages.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement late Monday that its president, Mirjana Spoljaric, had met with Haniyeh in Qatar, calling for “the immediate release of hostages.”
The aid group said it would not participate in negotiations leading to the release of the hostages if they were allowed to check on their welfare and deliver medication.
At least 12 people were killed when a hospital in northern Gaza was hit by a shell on Monday. NPR could not independently verify casualties at the Indonesian Hospital. Israel’s military says its forces were fired on from within the hospital and that it returned fire, but that “no shells were fired toward the hospital.”
Israel, which insists that hospitals in Gaza are being used by Hamas as covert command posts, has received international criticism for attacks that have hit the medical facilities.
In a status report on Tuesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Monday’s attack on the Indonesian Hospital marked the fifth time the facility had been hit since the start of hostilities.
The health facility is under an electrical power black out due to lack of fuel, and is facing severe shortages of water, essential medicines and supplies.
Gaza’s largest hospital is not a covert base for terrorist attacks, Israel’s Al-Shifa warning and the UN’s hunger crisis
Hamas used Gaza’s largest hospital as a covert base and the video released this week proves it, Israel said. Al-Shifa was badly damaged and its electricity cut off during Israeli operations to capture the facility. 28 premature newborn babies were transported to hospitals in Egypt for treatment on Monday.
“Existing food systems are collapsing, and to reach those in need, WFP and our partners need increased access and resource like fuel, gas, and connectivity. To make a real impact, we need hostilities to halt.”
The UN warned last week that the conflict in Gaza was threatening to cause widespread hunger. “[N]early the entire population is in desperate need of food assistance,” it said in a statement.