For the families of the remaining hostages in Gaza, the heart-stopping lottery continues. Sketchy details suggest another release this weekend. But as Hamas continue the drip-drip game of their psychotic playbook it`s impossible to know how long it will take to bring all the captives home.
Meanwhile – unbearable as it is to read – we already have confirmation from those who were previously released their noxious October 7 jailers were brutalising monsters who subjected them to unimaginable horror.
All of which begs the question – where was the Red Cross ?
Sure they were present at the critical handover last Sunday as three young women – including British hostage Emily Damari, her two fingers shot off by terrorist captors- were released. Surrounded by swarming masked men, the organisation ushered the captives to safety.
But this was the sum total of Red Cross involvement: a heart stopping photo opportunity in which their globally recognised insignia broke through a baying mob of green and black as the guns of masked men spiked the skyline.
Otherwise, not once has the Red Cross visited the hostages – including Kfir Bibas, who was just nine months old when kidnapped on October 7. Last Sunday`s release of Emily Damari, 28, Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and Romi Gonen, 24, was the first time members of the organisation had looked into the eyes of any of those ruthlessly snatched by Hamas terrorists. Despite the fact their very mandate is to visit innocent kidnapped individuals and ensure their well-being.
This is why, given past failings, now is the time for the Red Cross to launch a voluble, deafening protest at the continued refusal to allow them access to the remaining hostages. They need to roar that they have as much right to provide succour to the captured Israelis as the lorries of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. Given the ceasefire deal is multifaceted with a promise to release only 33 hostages of the 94 in the next 42 days there is ample scope to apply pressure – and then do their job.
It is hard not to listen to the papery whisper of history`s ghosts in this saga.
During the Holocaust the Nazis refused to allow any intervention on the part of the Red Cross in visiting concentration camps – save for Theresienstadt a `show` camp cleaned up to hoodwinked visitors when in fact inmates were awaiting deportation to death camps.
No protests were made by the Red Cross to the Germans. Even though released archive material reveals they knew about the brutal treatment and mass murder of Jewish inmates. Instead, self-interest prevailed over helping those in dire need. The Red Cross did not want to compromise neutrality by pushing for access to concentration camps.
If the shame of their history doesn`t impel the Red Cross to act then the ticking clock should. Every day the hostages spend in captivity is a day too long.
Bad enough they could do nothing for the many hostages who have already been killed, if the Red Cross doesn`t act for the living then what use are they at all?