International Committee of the Red Cross camps, organizing relief assistance for civilian populations, and administering the exchange of messages regarding prisoners and missing persons. By the end of the war, 179 delegates had conducted 12,750 visits to POW camps in 41 countries. The Central Information Agency on Prisoners-of-War ("Zentralauskunftsstelle für Kriegsgefangene") had a staff of 3,000, the card index tracking prisoners contained 45 million cards, and 120 million messages were exchanged by the Agency. One major obstacle was that the Nazi-controlled German Red Cross refused to cooperate with the Geneva statutes including blatant violations such as the deportation of Jews from Germany and the mass murders
International Committee of the Red Cross from the Palestinian political movement Hamas, which many governments have designated as a terrorist organization, have been living at the International Red Cross office in Jerusalem. Israel believes that these three officials had a role in the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and has issued deportation orders for them. Red Cross spokesperson Cecilia Goin, in speaking with CBN News, said that hosting the Hamas officials is in line with the organization's humanitarian mission. Israel arrested two of the Hamas members for conducting "Hamas activities inside Jerusalem," said the police. International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee