ICRC helps transfer released Israeli hostages from Gaza

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The International Committee of the Red Cross has helped the transfer of the Israeli hostages that were released by Hamas recently, a spokesperson told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.

The Islamist group released two elderly Israeli women on Monday night, who were later transferred to a medical center in Israel by ICRC workers, according to footage Kurdistan 24 has reviewed.

“Our involvement was in terms of facilitating the transfer from Gaza into Israel,” Imene Trabelsi, the ICRC Middle East spokesperson, told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.

Hamas previously released Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, two Israeli-American nationals, on Friday night. Their transfer was similarly facilitated by the humanitarian group.

The ICRC has expressed willingness to facilitate transfers in the future.

“We hope … there will be an imminent release of all hostages,” as the act is against international humanitarian law, she added.

At least 222 hostages, including foreign nationals, have been taken hostage by Hamas since Oct. 7 following the group’s unprecedented and bloody attack on the Jewish state, as a result of which at least 1,400 Israelis, including women and children, have been killed.

The US, UK, and other nations have reportedly been involved in diplomatic efforts through Egypt and Qatar to release the hostages ahead of an expected Israeli offensive into the Palestinian enclave amid heavy aerial bombardments in retaliation for the attack.

Nearly 5,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli airstrikes and bombings, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The majority of the casualties are women and children.

Showing solidarity with Israel, western nations have called on Israel to respond to Hamas’s attacks within international humanitarian law.

Gaza is a besieged coastal enclave on the easter Mediterranean Sea that has been ruled by Hamas since 2007 after the group ousted the Fatah party following an electoral defeat of the secular party that now controls the West Bank.

Report conducted by Davar Abdulla