Netanyahu asks Red Cross to help care for Israeli captives in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to captives held in Gaza, Anadolu agency reported.

On Friday, al-Qassam Brigades released a video showing Israeli captive Evyatar David appearing visibly emaciated, with pronounced bone structure and signs of extreme weight loss due to the Israeli siege.

The video showed the captive sitting on a bed in a cramped room, his bones clearly protruding due to malnutrition. It also included earlier scenes of him inside a vehicle with another captive, watching the release of Israeli captives as part of a previous prisoner swap during a pause in January.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, has previously released a video it said was the last of prisoner Rom Barslavski before losing contact with his captors.

Barslavski also appeared severely emaciated.

Israel has continued to impose a systematic starvation policy on approximately 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza by sealing off all crossings to aid shipments, which have been stranded at the border since 2 March. The blockade has pushed the enclave into famine.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since October 2023, killing more than 60,800 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.