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PM Netanyahu Meets with ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric

Israel - Prime Minister's Office

The 37th Government
14.12.2023

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today, at the Kirya in Tel Aviv, met with International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric.

At the start of the meeting, the Prime Minister described to the ICRC President the atrocities carried out by Hamas-ISIS, including the murder of children and infants, and the abuse and brutal rapes of women.

Prime Minister Netanyahu also described the inhuman conditions in which Hamas is holding the hostages and the prevention of humanitarian assistance for them.

The Prime Minister presented the ICRC President with a full package of vital medicines and demanded that the ICRC fulfill its role and deliver it to the hostages in Gaza.

Prime Minister Netanyahu to ICRC President Spoljaric:

"They're doing something that is quite incredible. They've taken children, babies, women, old people, Holocaust survivors, festival participants. And after they shot hundreds, murdered over 1,200 people, they take these people and they take them as hostages. Where's that heard of?

The only difference from our point of view is not the intent, but the capability. If they had the capability, they would have killed every last one of us. They didn't, because we fought back, sometimes with incredible odds. People, mothers, fought with fingernails.

There's a difference between the deliberate and systematic murder, maiming and menacing of civilians, which is what terrorism is, and the unintended consequences, unintended casualties that accompany any warfare. This is the entire difference.

I want to express my gratitude for your help in securing the release of the hostages, but at the same time, some of the statements that have come out from your organization seem to not make the distinction that I've just made.

My goal, as you know in our conversations, is to see how we can help the remaining hostages. You have every avenue, every right and every expectation to place public pressure on Hamas."

Participating in the meeting were Head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate Moshik Aviv, the Prime Minister's Military Secretary Maj.-Gen. Avi Gil, Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch, the Prime Minister's Foreign Policy Adviser Ophir Falk and Israeli Ambassador to the UN and International Organizations in Geneva Meirav Eilon Shahar.