GENEVA: The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday (Dec 19) deplored the conflict in Gaza as a “moral failure” of the international community and urged Israel and Hamas to reach a new deal to halt the fighting.
“I have been speaking of moral failure because every day this continues is a day more where the international community hasn’t proven capable of ending such high levels of suffering and this will have an impact on generations not only in Gaza,” ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric told journalists in Geneva following trips to the Gaza Strip and Israel.
“There’s nothing without an agreement by the two sides, so we urge them to keep negotiating…” she said, referring to the release of Israeli hostages taken to Gaza by Hamas gunmen during their deadly rampage in southern Israel on Oct 7.
“The releases in themselves are highly complex, highly sensitive missions.”
A truce mediated by Qatar and Egypt held for a week at the end of November and brought about the release of 110 hostages in Gaza in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and teenagers from Israeli jails.
Heavy fighting resumed on Dec 1 and some of the remaining hostages have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities.
Source: CNA
