Health Min. to ICRC president: Hostages’ medical conditions deteriorating

Health Ministry officials who met on Thursday evening with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, warned that the health condition of the 134 captives in Gaza is deteriorating every day and that some of them are in real danger.

Health Minister Uriel Bosso and director-general Moshe Bar SimanTov told her that Hamas has already proven to the whole world that it commits crimes against humanity, including against the elderly, women, and children. They demanded that the ICRC head and the organization must do everything to end the suffering of the hostages and their families immediately.” 

At the meeting, the Health Ministry officials presented serious information and evidence about the mental and health condition of the abductees who returned to Israel from Hamas captivity.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and his aides also attended the meeting.

The Israeli officials called for an immediate visit to the hostages by the Red Cross in to make sure that the abductees receive life-saving medical treatment. They also called on all health organizations to act immediately for the provision of medical help, which includes the supply of appropriate drugs and the provision of life-saving medical treatment, and of course – to act for their immediate release of all those abducted by the murderous organization Hamas. 

“We were told about the hostages' indescribable suffering,” said Bar Siman Tov. “The many testimonies we do not publish and keep behind closed doors – but one thing is clear, every moment that passes without international bodies reaching them will cost their lives.” 

​President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday arrived in Israel to discuss "humanitarian needs and access to people affected by the ongoing conflict.”

Spoljaric will also meet the families of hostages to listen to their concerns and inform them of the “ongoing efforts being made by the ICRC to gain access to the captives.” So far, the ICRC has served merely as a “taxi company” to transport returnees on the short trip from Gaza to Israel. 

Fifty-one-year-old Spoljaric Egger is a Swiss-Croatian diplomat who has headed the ICRC since October of last year. She studied philosophy, economics, and international law at the University of Basel and the University of Geneva and earned a master’s degree. She doesn’t have a medical background. 

She joined the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs nearly a quarter of a century ago. She initially worked at the Swiss Embassy in Cairo and was a desk officer for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Nuclear Safety in Central and Eastern Europe. From 2010 to 2012, Spoljaric Egger was sent to Jordan as a senior adviser at the office of the UN Commissioner General for the United Nations Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees and Refugees (UNRWA). 

In a post on X before arriving in Israel, Spoljaric said: “After visiting Gaza I am in Israel for ongoing discussions with authorities. I’m meeting families of hostages: ICRC must be granted permission, with practical details agreed between the parties, for visits to take place. I reiterate: the hostages must be released immediately.”