Hamas seized 251 hostages on October 7, 2023. According to the report, 40 people abducted alive were killed in captivity, most by their captors and some mistakenly by IDF fire. Mirjana Spoljaric, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said earlier pressure for their release could have saved more lives.
“I personally think that the pressure should have come earlier in the negotiations. We could have saved more lives,” Spoljaric told The New York Times in an interview published Saturday. The objective, she said, had always been to bring the hostages back as quickly as possible. “The longer it takes, the more complicated it becomes.”
Hostage releases and deaths
The hostages came home in several deals. The earliest releases came weeks after the Hamas-led massacre, and the last in October 2025. Spoljaric said their deaths in captivity could likely have been prevented. Her remarks placed the timing of pressure for releases at the center of the account of negotiations and the captives’ deaths.
“Visiting hostages is much more complicated than bringing them back,” Spoljaric said. “And in my opinion, they should have come back unconditionally as of Day 1. But that's not the reality in which we operate, and so we have to work with the tools we have.” She said the ICRC pressed Israel and Hamas to prioritise the hostages’ release, though the organisation couldn't visit them in captivity.
During the war, Spoljaric met then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, holding “tough discussions” with both. The ICRC, a neutral international body dedicated to aiding victims of war, faced heavy criticism in Israel over its failure to secure meaningful aid for the hostages. It couldn't monitor their conditions or provide basic humanitarian assistance, including medicine.
Access and legal obligations
Israel blocked the ICRC from visiting Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in retaliation. The issue began to be resolved after the High Court of Justice ruled the ban invalid. Spoljaric told The New York Times that Israel had “a legal obligation” and, “in my opinion also a moral obligation,” to allow Red Cross visits under the Geneva Conventions, regardless of its reasons for preventing access.
Gaza and the ceasefire
Spoljaric also discussed the Gaza Strip, where a U.S.-brokered ceasefire had halted major fighting while the IDF continued near-daily strikes against people it deemed a threat. Her assessment of Gaza, she said, hadn't changed since her comments to the BBC in 2025 describing it as “hell on earth.”
“What I said about Gaza is still valid today,” she told The New York Times. “What happened to Gaza and in Gaza to Palestinians and Israelis supersedes every legal, moral and humane standard.” She added: “The worst now is the fact that people are deprived of human dignity.” Her comments addressed Palestinian and Israeli suffering as the ceasefire held and IDF strikes continued.