On World Humanitarian Day, Prof. Hagai Levine, head of the Hostages Families Forum health team, issued a searing appeal to the UN, WHO, and Red Cross, calling for urgent release of the 50 hostages in Gaza, describing their plight as “literally in hell.”
A Cry From the Families
Marking World Humanitarian Day, Prof. Hagai Levine, Head of the Health Team at the Hostages Families Forum, sent a powerful message to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the UN Human Rights Office.
“For 683 days, 50 hostages have been trapped in Gaza, stripped of their basic rights,” he declared. “They endure mental, physical, and sexual torture, deliberate starvation, filth, isolation, and complete denial of medical care or Red Cross access. They are kept underground in suffocating darkness. They are literally in hell.”
Levine insisted that their immediate release is not just a political demand but the core of humanitarian duty.
Humanitarian Principles Put to the Test
“Anyone who truly values humanitarian principles must speak up,” Levine urged. “Bringing the hostages home is the only way to end this bloody, deadly war. We honor humanitarian workers who risk their lives daily — and we ask them to uphold their own creed: leave no one behind.”
Global Health Leaders Acknowledge
Levine revealed that in recent meetings with the ICRC President and WHO Director-General, both agreed: “All the hostages are humanitarian cases and should be brought back home now — the living for rehabilitation, the deceased for proper burial.”
“This nightmare must end,” Levine concluded, underscoring that World Humanitarian Day must not ignore the hostages’ suffering.
