Forty hostages seized by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and held alive died in captivity, most killed by their captors. That number anchors a new interview with Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who told The New York Times that more hostages might have returned alive if pressure for their release had come sooner.
Spoljaric’s remarks, published Saturday, touch a raw nerve in Israel. The ICRC never visited a single hostage in Hamas captivity, and it faced heavy criticism in Israel for failing to monitor their conditions or deliver basic humanitarian help, including medicine.
The Captivity Record
Hamas seized 251 hostages on October 7, 2023. They returned in several deals over two years of war, with the earliest released weeks after the Hamas-led massacre and the last in October 2025. Of those abducted alive, 40 died in captivity. Most died at the hands of their captors. IDF fire mistakenly killed some.
Spoljaric said the deaths could likely have been prevented. “I personally think that the pressure should have come earlier in the negotiations,” she said. “We could have saved more lives.”
She also made clear what she believed the hostages were owed. “In my opinion, they should have come back unconditionally as of Day 1,” she said. “But that’s not the reality in which we operate, and so we have to work with the tools we have.” As negotiations dragged on, she added, “the more complicated it becomes.”
Spoljaric described visits as “much more complicated than bringing them back.” That’s an admission of how little leverage a neutral humanitarian body has over an armed group that seized civilians, hid them and answered to no one.
During the war, Spoljaric said, she met with then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, holding “tough discussions” with both. The article doesn’t say what Haniyeh offered in return.
The Prisoner Access Dispute
Israel responded to the ICRC’s failure by barring the organization from visiting Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The High Court of Justice later ruled the ban invalid, and officials have begun resolving the issue. Spoljaric told the Times that whatever Israel’s reasons, it had “a legal obligation” and, “in my opinion also a moral obligation,” to allow Red Cross visits under the Geneva Conventions.
The dispute reflects a gap many Israelis see. Their own courts forced the government to reopen access for detainees held lawfully under judicial oversight. Hamas’s hostages had no judge, no charges and no visitors.
Gaza After the Ceasefire
Spoljaric also discussed conditions in Gaza, where a U.S.-brokered ceasefire halted major fighting a year ago. The IDF continues near-daily strikes against people it considers a threat. Asked about her 2025 BBC description of Gaza as “hell on earth,” she said her view hasn’t changed. “What happened to Gaza and in Gaza to Palestinians and Israelis supersedes every legal, moral and humane standard,” she said. “The worst now is the fact that people are deprived of human dignity.”
Her words cover Palestinians and Israelis alike. The hostages’ suffering and their families’ pain belong in that account alongside Gaza’s civilians.
Why This Matters: The head of the world’s best-known humanitarian body now says publicly that earlier pressure could have saved lives and that 40 hostages died in captivity. From an Israeli security standpoint, the episode shows how little protection international institutions offered civilians held by an armed group that answers to no legal framework. It also shows why Israelis remain wary of outside monitors and guarantees. Any future arrangement in Gaza will need enforcement mechanisms that don’t rely on the goodwill of a movement that held 251 people and never allowed a single Red Cross visit.