The ICRC has not ‘traditionally done much advertising,’ spox says in email
Just days after the Washington Free Beacon detailed mounting congressional concerns over the International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC) participation in a series of shocking Hamas hostage release ceremonies, an official from the aid agency approached the publication about advertising with the Free Beacon and sponsoring our daily newsletter, the Morning Beacon.
“Looking to see if I can get more info on newsletter sponsorship or online ads,” the ICRC’s head of communications and public affairs, Steve Dorsey, wrote the Free Beacon on Monday. Five days earlier, the Free Beacon reported on Senate Republicans’ outrage over the participation of ICRC officials in Hamas propaganda rituals and their desire to reassess U.S. funding to the organization.
The ICRC’s advertisement inquiry suggests it may be spooked by those talks and looking to shore up support on Capitol Hill. Dorsey told the Free Beacon that the ICRC has not “traditionally done much advertising” and hoped to run spots that would link to its website and boost “generic ICRC visibility.”
A Free Beacon review of Meta’s ad spending database found that the ICRC ran just five Facebook ads between 2019 and 2023. It did ramp up ad spending at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, running a series of Facebook and Instagram spots on the “rules of war” that call for the protection of “detainees,” “families,” and “civilians.” The committee failed to do that job when it did not follow through on its obligation to visit hostages in Hamas captivity or to lodge complaints if and when they were denied that right. None of those ads remain active, and all of them ran in Europe, according to the database.
The United States is the ICRC’s top patron, meaning the committee is tapping into a budget that includes U.S. taxpayer funds to advertise at a time when those funds are under threat. Dorsey did not answer questions on the committee’s broader ad campaign and the motivations behind it. Instead, he encouraged “Free Beacon readers to review” a Monday ICRC op-ed published in the Washington Examiner, which called the Hamas hostage transfers “disturbing and dehumanizing” but did not address the group’s failure to visit Israeli hostages in captivity.
The ICRC sparked outrage when, roughly two weeks ago, officials Nour Khadam and Stephanie Eller joined uniformed Hamas terrorists on stage to participate in a propaganda ceremony surrounding the release of Israeli hostages. The pair signed documents and shook hands with masked Hamas terrorists. Last week, the ICRC again dispatched a staffer to sign documents alongside a Hamas terrorist on a stage that included an anti-Semitic sign depicting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a bloodthirsty vampire. The sign also accused Netanyahu of killing the Bibas children, Ariel and Kfir, in an airstrike. An Israeli forensic review found that Hamas terrorists murdered four-year-old Ariel and nine-month-old Kfir “with their bare hands.”
While the Red Cross agreed to participate in those hostage release ceremonies, it did not visit the hostages during their time in captivity to assess their health, as the group routinely does during traditional conflicts. “We continue to request information on the hostages and for access to them. We also continue to insist that they be able to share a message with their families,” the organization says on its website. “Years of experience speaking with parties to conflicts and non-state armed groups have proven that our bilateral approach and confidential dialogue to raise issues of concern is important to achieve results, rather than public denunciations.”
The ICRC’s website, which the committee intended to promote in its ads with the Free Beacon, nonetheless touts its status as a “neutral, impartial, and independent” organization that takes “action, not sides.” It also includes an “Israel-Gaza Emergency Appeal” that includes a photo of Gazan rubble and no photos of the Israeli hostages.
“The ICRC continues to do everything within our power to support people affected by the conflict, including trying all possible means to get aid, including critical health care, into Gaza, and persistently advocating on behalf of hostages being held in Gaza,” the appeal states.
The ICRC has released public statements on the hostage ceremonies that refer to “Israel and the occupied territories” and do not mention Hamas by name. In one February 19 statement, the organization urged “dignity and privacy ahead of next release operation.” The next day, Hamas terrorists carried caskets holding the bodies of the Bibas children through the streets of Gaza as Palestinian onlookers cheered and enjoyed upbeat music.
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
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