According to a statement released on Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is attempting to negotiate the release of hostages kidnapped into Gaza with Hamas and Israel.
Since Hamas’s unexpected attack on Israel on Saturday, at least 150 Israelis and foreigners, including troops, citizens, kids, and women, have been held captive in the Gaza Strip.
“As a neutral intermediary we stand ready to conduct humanitarian visits; facilitate communication between hostages and family members; and to facilitate any eventual release,” Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement.
International humanitarian law forbids taking hostages, and anyone detained must be released right away, Carboni continued.
“Both sides to lessen the suffering of civilians,” the ICRC pleaded.
Israel has aggressively bombed Gaza in punishment for the attack on Saturday, enforcing a total siege on the impoverished region of more than 2 million people, cutting off water, electricity, and fuel supplies.
Hamas has threatened to kill more people if civilian targets are struck without prior notice and claimed that four of the prisoners died in Israeli strikes.
An official source told AFP late on Wednesday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had also begun talks with Hamas on the release of the hostages.
The war has already claimed several thousand lives on both sides since Saturday.
“The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent,” Carboni said.
As Gaza is deprived of electricity, “hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken”, he added.
“Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.”
Drinking water, already difficult to access, has also become more scarce.
“No parent wants to be forced to give a thirsty child dirty water,” he said.
According to the UN, more than 338,000 people in Gaza have been forced to leave their homes, and the European Union has called for a “humanitarian corridor” to let civilians evacuate the region’s fifth conflict in 15 years.
