AMMAN — The military escalation in the Middle East is igniting a dangerous chain reaction across the region, with potentially devastating consequences for civilians, said International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Mirjana Spoljaric.
Upholding the rules of war is an obligation and not a choice. In international armed conflicts, international humanitarian law, in particular all four Geneva Conventions, apply, according to an ICRC statement.
Civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, homes and schools must be spared from attack. Medical personnel and first responders must be allowed to carry out their work safely, the ICRC president stressed.
“The ICRC has teams on the ground in Iran, Israel and across the region and stands ready to respond to needs within our mandate and where we can operate, together with our Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement partners,” said Spoljaric.
But humanitarian aid cannot match the pace or scale of suffering caused by continuous conflict; political will is needed to achieve peace and prevent further death and destruction, she added.
The ICRC is a neutral, impartial and independent organisation with an exclusively humanitarian mandate that stems from the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
The committee helps people around the world affected by armed conflict and other violence, doing everything it can to protect their lives and dignity and to relieve their suffering, often alongside its Red Cross and Red Crescent partners.