When Hamas gunmen paraded emaciated Israeli hostages across a stage in Gaza earlier this month, they were flanked by two representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), an aid group that boasts of its neutrality. The agency’s participation in the choreographed propaganda display—as well as its failure to visit the hostages as they struggled in captivity—is now drawing scrutiny on Capitol Hill, with GOP lawmakers questioning the Red Cross’s objectivity and care for those still held in captivity.
The most shocking scene to date unfolded two weekends ago, when Hamas militants forced three severely malnourished Israeli captives—Ohad Ben Ami, 56; Eli Sharabi, 52; and Or Levy, 34—to make a speech to a crowd of Gazans before their release. Standing beside the masked gunmen were two Red Cross officials identified by the Washington Free Beacon as Nour Khadam and Stephanie Eller, both of whom have been featured in the ICRC's online materials.
Footage from the hostage release shows Khadam shaking hands with a Hamas militant as Eller stands behind him, and a masked Hamas soldier snaps photographs. Like other Red Cross officials present at these stage-managed events—reportedly produced by an Al Jazeera journalist—Eller and Khadam signed documents and stood on hand while the terror group forced the hostages to thank their captors. Photos taken on the day show the Israelis holding certificates provided by Hamas as they are interviewed next to gun-touting militants.
The Red Cross's involvement in the Hamas propaganda ritual came more than a year after the terror group kidnapped 251 people, including Americans, in its Oct. 7 attack. During the hostages' time in captivity, the Red Cross did not fulfill its mandate to visit them and assess their health, as the group routinely does in traditional conflicts.
The scenes have drawn outrage in both Israel and the United States, with President Donald Trump likening the hostages to "Holocaust survivors" and casting doubt on the ceasefire’s durability. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, lawmakers have taken note of the Red Cross’s participation in these ceremonies and said the aid agency is jeopardizing its image as an unbiased actor. While the United States has long been the committee's top funder, senior Senate sources say there is talk of reassessing American funding to the ICRC while GOP officials examine its ties to Hamas.
"Where was the Red Cross’s increasing concern for the safety and well-being of the hostages these last 493 days?" Sen. Ted Budd (R., N.C.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Free Beacon. "Participating in Hamas’s propaganda ceremonies definitely calls into question their supposed neutrality. Seems like the ICRC is more concerned about their public image than actually fulfilling their mission to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict."
The pictures of starving hostages that have emerged over the past month, a senior Senate adviser said, raise serious questions about whether the Red Cross is living up to its lofty mandate. In its mission statement, the ICRC calls itself "neutral, impartial, and independent," a description that seemingly runs counter to images of Red Cross officials standing alongside Hamas militants.
"It’s shameful that the Red Cross is enabling propaganda of terrorists after they took no action over the last year to even visit the hostages," the source said. "Congress needs to reassess the U.S. relationship and stop any funding for any groups that have aided and abetted Hamas atrocities."
An ICRC spokesman defended the committee's hostage release conduct—and placed Israel and Hamas on a level playing field when doing so.
"The ICRC has unequivocally stated that release operations be conducted safely, privately, and with the dignity of the individual at the forefront," the spokesman said. "We remain concerned about the conditions and manner that [sic] all steps of all the release operations are being conducted."
"We have repeatedly reminded the parties that core principles of international humanitarian law always apply, including and especially during release operations," he continued. "Additionally, we do not endorse the actions of any groups or individuals we engage with."
The Red Cross is not the only aid agency to come under the congressional microscope, though it is one of the most prominent and well-funded. Lawmakers have expressed broader concerns about an international network of nonprofits operating in the Gaza Strip, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has employed scores of Hamas militants and produced educational materials calling for "jihad" and reference the Israeli "occupation."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced legislation in the last Congress that would allow American terrorism victims to sue international organizations that support Hamas and other regional terror outfits. While the bill, dubbed the LIABLE Act, was primarily aimed at UNRWA and the World Health Organization, it is broadly written and could allow for other nonprofits like the Red Cross to be held accountable in court.
"The left-wing NGO ecosystem is deeply complicit in Hamas’s terrorism and torture of hostages," Cruz told the Free Beacon. "Bizarrely, these organizations enjoy more immunity from lawsuits than even sovereign countries."
The senator said he intends to reintroduce his bill in the current Congress, where it is likely to garner broad support from Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration, which has already slashed U.S. funding to UNRWA while eyeing further cuts.
In Israel, there is also a growing consensus that the Red Cross—like UNRWA—must be held accountable for its participation in Hamas’s propaganda displays.
Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights lawyer and CEO of International Legal Forum, and Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, explained that the Red Cross is largely protected from legal action due to its status as an aid group. But President Donald Trump could issue an executive order stripping the agency of this privilege. Congress could also do so legislatively.
"Aiding and abetting Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, while abandoning the hostages, including American nationals, is not only not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the president of the United States, but runs entirely counter to it," Ostrovsky told the Free Beacon. "The United States should defund the ICRC and instead use that money to help the hostage families of those whom the ICRC has abandoned, including American nationals."
Republicans have similarly targeted the ICRC in the past. In 2005, the Senate Republican Policy Committee issued a report calling on then-president George W. Bush to pull funding for the committee, arguing that the Geneva-based group has worked to "reinterpret and expand international law" in a way that benefited terror organizations like the Taliban.