Today, Zuher Sahadad Dibbeh is the head of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs for the northern West Bank district of Nablus. He has a relationship with the ICRC that dates back 30 years.

First arrested in 1970, he served a total of seven years in Israeli detention centres and first encountered an ICRC delegate while being held for interrogation.

"When all you see are other detainees and interrogators, the arrival of an ICRC delegate is a blessing," he says.

At first, he adds, it was common for detainees to think of the ICRC as an ally of the authorities but this perception changed over time as their conditions began to improve due to delegates' visits.

The ICRC has been permanently present in Israel and the Occupied and Autonomous Territories since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

In the current climate of violence, it monitors the situation of the Palestinian civilian population, carries out visits to detainees and makes representations to the relevant authorities, both Israeli and Palestinian.

It provides direct assistance to Palestinians whose houses have been demolished and people worst affected by curfews, closures and other restrictions in West Bank and Gaza towns and villages.

It also supports the activities of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the Magen David Adom (MDA).

The full article on Zuher Sahadad Dibbeh written by an ICRC delegate in Jerusalem

"When my parents fled their home in 1948, they had to cross from Lod to Ramallah on foot. My mother, who was pregnant with me at the time, used to tell me that the Red Cross had been there and that it had saved our lives by providing drinking water. As you can see, I had met the ICRC long before my first arrest" says Zuher Sahadad Dibbeh with a laugh.

Today, as the head of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs for the northern West Bank district of Nablus, Mr. Dibbeh is a frequent interlocutor of the ICRC. Locally known as Abu Islam, he is an ordained imam who has been preaching in his district's mosques for the past two decades.

Mr. Dibbeh was first arrested in 1970 and served a total of seven years in various Israeli detention places. Like so many Palestinians, it is within the confines of a cell, while under interrogation, that he first met an ICRC delegate. "When all you see are other detainees and interrogators, the arrival of an ICRC delegate is a blessing" he says. "Even if you don't quite understand what he is doing, he immediately becomes a small window of hope".

Mr. Dibbeh says that it was common for new detainees to perceive the ICRC as collaborating with Israel. "But by visiting us regularly, by listening to our problems, by enabling us to communicate with our families and fighting for concrete results, ICRC delegates gained the trust of our group" he says.

Within a few years, Mr. Dibbeh became a shawish, a detainee representative. "From then on, I had a privileged relationship with ICRC delegates. I spoke with them openly about all our problems each time they visited. And sometimes, small things did improve".

As he learned about life in prison, Mr. Dibbeh also came to understand the limitations of what the ICRC can achieve in a detention place. "ICRC delegates carried pens and paper but guards carried sticks and guns. We knew this so we accepted that they could not respond to all our demands", he says. "Of course the ICRC could not release me or end the occupation of my land but today, as a Muslim, I see the water the ICRC gave my mother or the assistance it brought me in prison as holy gestures".

As a preacher, Mr. Dibbeh sees the action of the ICRC as embodying the most fundamental principles of the world's great religions. "I think three words define the ICRC best: humane, conscientious, and moral. These three concepts are central to any religion. They certainly are to ours: to respect human dignity is a central tenet of Islam. By experience, I know that this is what the ICRC stands for".