Red Cross President: ‘What we have seen in Gaza exceeds all legal, ethical, moral and humanitarian norms’
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, has warned that the destruction in Gaza represents a collapse of all international standards. “What we have seen in Gaza exceeds all legal, ethical, moral and humanitarian norms,” she stated in an interview with Dutch newspaper NRC, this week.
Spoljaric Egger said that Gaza illustrates the rapid deterioration of international humanitarian law. “Gaza may have provided the most tangible evidence of the erosion of international law,” she explained. “I visited Gaza twice within twelve months. The hostilities never stopped. There was not a minute when you didn’t hear gunfire. When your body did not feel the shelling.”
Spoljaric Egger recalled that on her return visit, she no longer recognised the area: “I could no longer orient myself. The first time, individual buildings were attacked. Every neighbourhood was hit, but not completely destroyed. When I returned, nothing was left.”
During the interview, Spoljaric Egger described the killing of 15 ICRC colleagues in Gaza, whose ambulance was struck by Israeli fire. “It was difficult to look at the photos of that event. More than difficult, I couldn’t look at them; I’m devastated. Perhaps also because I saw my colleagues there working during the hostilities. This is something that should never have happened.”
On the legality of the military campaign, Spoljaric Egger said: “We cannot accept warfare that leads to this situation.”
When asked about Israel’s claim of acting in self-defence, she responded: “That is no excuse for breaking the law. You have the same situation in your national legal system. When someone murders a member of your family, that does not give you the right to kill their family members. That is simply not how it works. It is exactly the same principle.”
The ICRC president pointed to a breakdown in the principle of safe passage for civilians. “Take the right to safe passage. When people come under fire, we mediate to provide them with a safe withdrawal. But in the current conflict it is no longer possible to rely on safe passage. Even when Red Cross aid workers receive the green light, they still run the risk of coming under fire.”
Spoljaric Egger linked these developments to broader failures of political accountability and rising impunity: “There are twice as many conflicts as fifteen years ago, and they are more often cross-border, between countries with very powerful armies. New technologies, especially AI, are increasing the destructive power of weapons, particularly for civilians. There are vastly more unreasonable, more aggressive attacks on populations. Deliberate attacks on entire healthcare systems in order to drive out the population. And total destruction of entire areas, such as Gaza.”
In September 2024, the ICRC launched an initiative alongside Brazil, China, France, Jordan, Kazakhstan and South Africa to rebuild international commitment to humanitarian law. A global conference on “humanity in war” will be hosted by Jordan at the end of 2026. “We are trying to generate political momentum around the idea that if we do not stop the erosion of international humanitarian law, we make our own populations unsafe,” Spoljaric Egger said.
Addressing the targeting of aid workers, she said: “I sense a growing trend to dehumanise the enemy. In my opinion, this is one of the most dangerous developments in recent warfare. What we hear today, even in debates in the United Nations General Assembly, I never heard when I began my diplomatic career twenty years ago.”
Spoljaric Egger added: “When an official representative of one country openly dehumanises the population of another country, the international community must respond. If you allow people to speak freely in that way, it is only a matter of time before my colleagues see that dehumanisation put into practice on the battlefields.”