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Media Omit Criticism, Glorify the Red Cross’ Role Amid Israel-Hamas War
Hostages who were abducted by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel are handed over by Hamas terrorists to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as part of a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel amid a temporary truce, in an unknown location in the Gaza Strip, in this screengrab taken from video released Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: Hamas Military Wing/Handout via REUTERS
Two stories on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war deserved coverage last week: Comments on the situation in Gaza by the organization’s head, and the filing of a lawsuit against the Red Cross over its failure to help Israeli hostages.
Unfortunately, major news agencies echoed the former but were completely silent on the latter.
This selective omission focused all attention on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, at the expense of the suffering of Israelis held hostage by Hamas.
This view was further promoted by two factors: The media’s blindness to the Red Cross’ responsibility for the Israeli hostages, and the glorification of the organization’s humanitarian role.
Reuters and AP Reveal and Conceal
On December 19, Reuters gave a platform to Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric, who had spoken to journalists after her visit to Israel and Gaza.
The headline, “Gaza war is world’s ‘moral failure’, Red Cross chief says” could be seen as judgmental — was Israel supposed to refrain from going to war after the brutal Hamas massacre of its citizens on October 7? Isn’t it a moral failure for the world to not consider such a war morally justified?
Regardless, the piece gives a balanced account, presenting Israel’s criticism of the Red Cross followed by the president’s response.
Although the ICRC facilitated the release of hostages during the truce, the group has been criticised by some Israelis for not doing more to free others and provide them with medical care. Some social media users have equated it to a taxi service to drive hostages out of Gaza.
“You don’t just go there and take the hostages and bring them out,” Spoljaric said, saying that any analogy with an Uber or taxi service was “unacceptable and outrageous.”
The AP took the same approach. Its report, included on a live-updates page, led with Spoljaric’s counter-claims against Israel’s criticism:
Clearly, countering the criticism against the Red Cross was high on the agenda of both the organization’s president and the journalists covering her comments.
The problem was that two days later, both Reuters and AP ignored the manifestation of the very criticism they had mentioned by choosing not to cover the filing of an Israeli lawsuit against the Red Cross.
The lawsuit was filed in a Jerusalem court by an Israeli NGO on behalf of the families of 24 of the 240 Israelis abducted by Hamas during the deadly October 7 massacre. It accuses the aid organization of failing in its mission, and seeks about $2.8 million in damages.
By any journalistic standard, with or without previous coverage of the Red Cross president’s position, the lawsuit should have been covered — as it was by The New York Times, Newsweek, and AFP.
But when the world’s two leading news agencies ignore it, especially after giving center stage to the narrative of the Red Cross, it’s problematic.
Could it be that as a stand-alone, the story couldn’t be “framed” the “right” way? Was it too “pro-Israel”?
A look at a recent mention of the Red Cross in an unrelated AP story reveals the hidden bias:
Hamas called on the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organizations to pressure Israeli authorities to reveal the whereabouts and conditions of people detained.
With no mention of the Red Cross’ role regarding Israeli hostages, the one-sided assumption here is that the organization should answer only to the Palestinian side — which in this case is represented by Hamas, a terrorist organization.
Hypocrisy #1: @AP reports that Hamas has called on the Red Cross to pressure Israeli authorities to reveal the whereabouts & conditions of detained Gazans.
Hypocrisy #2: AP won’t mention the Red Cross’s failure to access Israeli hostages held by Hamas.https://t.co/pYhHM7QFRf
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 24, 2023
CNN’s Blindness and Glorification
A look at how CNN recently interviewed a Red Cross employee in Gaza provides further evidence of the erasure of Israeli suffering from the agenda by the Red Cross and media alike.
The interviewer starts by asking for the employee’s reaction to a new Israeli offer to pause the fighting and allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza as part of a new hostages for prisoners release deal.
What follows is the Red Cross employee talking solely about the dire situation in Gaza, with no clear mention of the Israeli hostages. The interviewer does not push back and does not inquire about the Red Cross’ failure to reach them.
CNN also recently published a puff piece on the Red Cross. Titled “‘In the line of fire:’ The crucial, neutral role the Red Cross plays in conflicts,” the report glorified the organization’s role in the release of Israeli hostages from Hamas captivity.
While it did mention the criticism of hostage families who had said the Red Cross was nothing more than “an Uber for released hostages,” the piece needlessly included lengthy historical background on the important role of the “honored” humanitarian organization:
Founded in Geneva in 1863, the ICRC is the oldest and one of the most honored humanitarian organizations in the world.
A three-time Nobel Peace Prize winner, winning the award during the two World Wars and on the centenary of its creation, the ICRC operates in more than 100 countries, supporting those affected by war, natural disasters and other global crises through a humanitarian network of some 80 million people.
But the article conveniently skipped the organization’s darkest historical chapter, when it had failed Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust.
In light of the omissions and glorifications, it should come as no surprise that there was also no coverage of Israel’s claim that the Red Cross had refused to transfer life-saving medicine to Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
The media also have not mentioned that the newly appointed director-general of the Red Cross is a controversial former head of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
When media outlets selectively conceal and reveal information in order to maintain the narrative of a holier-than-thou aid organization that helps desperate Gazans and has come under unjust criticism by Israel, they violate their most basic journalistic mission: to objectively report the facts.
The result is two-fold: news consumers are prevented from knowing the entire story, and they are also robbed of their ability to independently pass judgment on events.
Subtly, many media outlets have already told them what to think.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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