{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://goldman.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-dan-goldman-and-congresswoman-becca-balint-request-information", "Congressman Dan Goldman and Congresswoman Becca Balint Request Information from International Committee of the Red Cross, Urging Action on Behalf of Hostages", "2023-12-18", "2023", "2023-12", "Democrat", "House", "NY", "Daniel S. Goldman", "G000599", "goldman.house.gov", "goldman", "https://goldman.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "What can the United States Congress do to assist the ICRC\u2019s efforts toimmediately gain access to the hostages?\n\nRead the letterhere or below:\n\nMirjana Spoljaric Egger\n\nPresident\n\nInternational Committee of the Red Cross 19 Avenue de la Paix\n\n1202 Geneva, Switzerland\n\nDear President Egger:\n\nWe write to express our profound concern at your lack of response to the recent war crimes perpetrated by terrorist organizations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (\u201cPIJ\u201d), including the illegal abduction of civilian hostages following the brutal events of October 7 and their continued captivity in horrific conditions. We appreciate your visit to Gaza last week and your call bothfor the hostages to bereleased \u2013 or at leastfor the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to safely visit them \u2013 as well as more humanitarian aid to support displaced Palestinian civilians. But we do not accept Hamas\u2019s refusal to allow the ICRC to visit the hostages and urge you to do all that you can to provide care and protection of the hostages. We therefore write to request answers as to why your organization has been unable to execute its duties to ensure the care and protection of the Hostages; and we stand ready to offer our assistance in your efforts to achieve these objectives.\n\nRecentlyreleased hostages have revealed that they wereforced to live in deplorable conditions lacking sufficient food, water, medication or sunlight. Worse yet, certain of them reported instances of sexual violence and rape, drugging, beating and branding. At least 20 died in captivity. Approximately 129 remain, 19 of which are female and 2 of which are children, and many are reportedly suffering from injury, illness, malnourishment and other ailments resulting from the living conditions and the lack of access to proper nourishment, sleep, medical attention and/or medication. Your intervention to attend to the hostages is requiredimmediately.\n\nAs you know, the abduction of civilian hostages is explicitly prohibited under any circumstances by international law, which refers to any such abduction as a \u201cgrave breach.\u201d As such, there are no clear rules of internal humanitarian law (\u201cIHL\u201d) that even govern civilian hostages. But even if we were to apply treaties governing prisoners of war to the Israeli hostages, Hamas\u2019s and PIJ\u2019s treatment of them would easily be considered a clear violation of international law under Article 8(2) of the Rome Statute, the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages (1979), as well as the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1979.\n\nAs a critical threshold issue, international law requires those holding captives to provide proof of life, which Hamas and PIJ have refused to do. More importantly, international law requires those holding captives to permit wellness visits from the ICRC to ensure the health and well-being of the hostages. It is our understanding that, to date, Hamas and PIJ have refused to allow ICRC to visit the Hostages. This has been the case despite the fact that at least 20 have died in captivity; many others still remaining are sick and/or injured and in need of urgent medical attention; thosereleased have revealed that the conditions of captivity are inhumane and illegal as discussed in greater detail below.\n\nYour organization exists to act in circumstances just like these. Indeed, the central mission of the ICRC is to \u201cprotect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and violence and to provide them with assistance.\u201d Given the widely-known depravity of the conditions of captivity, and the lack of public statements from the ICRC regarding such conditions or demanding access to the Hostages, we request answers to the questions enumerated below regarding why your organization has failed to properly execute its duty to ensure their care and protection, including the role, if any, that Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries in the region have played in assisting or obstructing your efforts.\n\nRemaining Female Hostages in Gaza\n\nHamas is reportedly still holding 129 Israeli hostages, of which 19 are women. According to the Biden administration, the Palestinian terrorist organizations continue to lie about the existence of these female hostages \u2013 purportedlyfor the most nefarious reasons. As State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said on December 4, \u201cit seems that one of the reasons they don\u2019t want to turn women over that they\u2019ve been holding hostage \u2014 and the reason this pause fell apart \u2014 is that they don\u2019t want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody.\u201d The obvious implication is that these women have suffered terrible abuse, including sexual violence. The Biden Administration has further stated that Hamas\u2019s refusal torelease the 19 women hostages under the temporary ceasefire agreement caused the termination of that agreement.\n\nMore recently, multiple senior White House officials confirmed that the White House believes Hamas is not releasing the remaining women hostages because they have been sexually abusing them. Disturbingly, there is already evidence that one of the hostages, still in captivity, had been sexually assaulted when being abducted.\n\nRape is categorically prohibited under IHL, including Article 44 of the Lieber Code and Article 75 of Additional Protocol I and Article 4 of Additional Protocol II.9 The accounts of at least 10 of thereleased hostages included details of sexual assault, and those accounts have been corroborated by medical doctors in Israel. These acts of sexual violence \u2014against both men and women \u2014 are clear and medically verified instances of IHL violations.\n\nHamas & PIJ\u2019s Additional Gross Violations of International Humanitarian Law\n\nInformation provided by the recentlyreleased hostages has revealed a litany of other violations of IHL. Areleased Thai hostage testified that he personally witnessed the beatings of Israeli hostages by their Hamas captors with electric cables. Article 87 of the Third Geneva Convention expresslyforbids \u201ccorporal punishment\u201d and \u201canyform of torture or cruelty.\u201d\n\nThe lack of adequate medical care, nutrition, and daily medication is also a gross violation of international law. In many cases, Hamas and PIJ deprived hostages of these necessities to such an extent that it led to the deaths of several hostages during captivity, according to medical experts. Under Article 26 of the Geneva Convention, daily food rations \u201cshall be sufficient in quantity, quality and variety to keep prisoners of war in good health and to prevent loss of weight or the development of nutritional deficiencies.\u201d Hamas and PIJ have clearly not abided by this standard. Doctors treating hostages upon theirrelease reported that elderly hostages had lost between 8-15 kg (15-33 pounds) \u2014 a staggering 10-20 percent of their body weight \u2014 while relatives of children reported that the child hostages had likewise lost \u201csignificant amounts of weight.\u201d Indeed, according to certain of the accounts, food was so restricted that hostages would receive only \u201ca quarter of a pita in the morning,\u201d and in one case, a Filipino hostage reported being so hungry that he ate toilet paper (\u201cthat\u2019s how my stomach wasn\u2019t empty.)\u201d\n\nHostages have also reported horrendous quarters and sleeping conditions. One hostage described the room she was held in as \u201csuffocating,\u201d and revealed that she wasforced to sleep on plastic chairsfor nearly two months. Other hostages have explained that they were held captive in damp areas without access to sunlight or space to move around. Here again, as you know, Article 25 of the Geneva Convention requires not only bedding and blankets, but also that prisoners \u201cbe entirely protected from dampness and adequately heated and lighted, in particular between dusk and lights out.\u201d Reports of the conditions experienced by thereleased hostages clearly fail to meet this standard.\n\nThere are also reports, confirmed by doctors, that several of the hostages were drugged by Hamas before beingreleased into your care to \u201cmake them look happy\u201dfor cameras. Drugging prisoners, with no underlying medical necessity and without their consent, is another serious violation of IHL, specifically as it relates to the Geneva Convention\u2019s Additional Protocol II, Article 5(2)(e) with respect to persons deprived of their libertyfor reasons related to the armed conflict.\n\nICRC\u2019s Efforts & Obligations\n\nGiven the numerous egregious violations of IHL outlined above, it is imperative that the ICRCimmediately attend to the remaining hostages held in Gaza to ensure proof of life and compliance with international law. We understand that the ICRC has made efforts to check on the hostages in Gaza but has been rebuffed by Hamas. We also appreciate that you recently calledfor therelease of the hostages and demanded that the ICRC \u201cbe allowed to safely visit them.\u201d\n\nHowever, despite the horrific treatment of the hostages remaining in Gaza, shockingly few international organizations and other countries around the world have aggressively and publicly supported the need to tend to the hostages. The ICRC has been unable to see a single hostage in captivity and has not obtained any proof of life, observed the conditions they are in, or if they are in need of medical assistance. While we appreciate the ICRC\u2019s role in the transportation ofreleased hostages, the status quo is simply insufficient and unacceptable as hostages are raped and die in captivity.\n\nAccording to its own statutes, the ICRC is obligated \u201cto endeavour at all times... to ensure the protection of and assistance to military and civilian victims of such events and of their direct results.\u201d Further, its purpose is \u201cto protect life and health and to ensure respectfor the human being.\u201d By any measurement, the ICRC has been unable to carry out its traditional role as an independent monitor during conflict.\n\nSuch hostile conditions during armed conflict are not unprecedentedfor the ICRC. Even during the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the ICRC \u201coften had access to\u201d and \u201cwas able to register\u201d captured soldiers and civilians that \u201cfell into the power of adverse parties.\u201d Despite the backdrop of mass murder and well-documented instances of ethnic cleansing and rape, the ICRC was able to gain access \u2014even if hampered and limited \u2014 to the Bosnian Serb prisons during the conflict.26\n\nAs recently as Saturday evening, the Israel DefenseForces (IDF) announced Inbar Haiman, a 27-year-old Israeli hostage, had been killed during her captivity by Hamas.27 Additionally, the tragic news of the three hostages killed by friendly fire over the weekend only heightens the urgency and needfor their safe return andfor your organization\u2019s protection.28 Their continued captivity not only places them in mortal danger, but prolongs the warfor all parties.\n\nFor the past two months, and despite increasing requests, your organization has had no access whatsoever to the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. We understand that the ICRC \u201ccannotforce [its] way in\u201d and that it remains neutral \u201cso that we can be trusted,\u201d but its mandate of neutrality cannot be an obstacle to its duty to protect innocent hostages suffering under horrific treatment.\n\nAnswers Required from ICRC\n\nAs Members of Congress, we require additional information about the steps that have been taken to protect the well-being of the remaining hostages, eight of which are American. Accordingly, we request answers to the following questions:\n\n1. What efforts has the ICRC made to gain access to hostages in Gaza?\n\na. Please describe any communications the ICRC has had with Hamas or PIJ about access to the hostages, and include in detail what response you have received from Hamas or PIJ, whether directly or through a third party, explaining why they are refusing access.\n\nb. Please describe in detail what efforts the ICRC has made to communicate with other countries about gaining access to the hostages, and what response you have received. Please include any and all communications with the governments of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, among others, as part of your efforts.\n\nc. Please describe in detail any discussions you have had with other international organizations to gain access to the hostages, including but not limited to the United Nations and Doctors Without Borders, and what efforts those organizations have made to support the ICRC in getting access to the hostages.\n\n2. What assistance does the ICRC require in order to gain access to the hostages in Gaza? Specifically, what other nations could be helpful in pressuring Hamas to allow the ICRC to safely check on the hostages?\n\n3. What can the United States Congress do to assist the ICRC\u2019s efforts toimmediately gain access to the hostages?\n\n4. What efforts have you made to be responsive to the requests of the families of the hostagesforinformation about their family members?\n\nEvery day the hostages remain in captivity without proper care is one more day too many. Due to the urgency of the dire circumstances currently facing the hostages, we ask that you respond to this letter as soon as possible and in any event no later than December 29, 2023.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://goldman.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-dan-goldman-and-congresswoman-becca-balint-request-information"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.813992926850915, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}