The International Committee of the Red Cross is allowing members of Hamas — members connected with the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit — to use its east Jerusalem office as a headquarters. The three members have been ordered to leave the city by Israeli authorities but have thus far refused, setting up operations in the ICRC office.

Ahmad Attoun, Khaled Abu- Arafa and Muhammad Totah – all representatives of Hamas’s Change and Reform list in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) – timed their press conference on Thursday to mark International Human Rights Day, which takes place on Friday.

They used it to appeal to Israel to revoke the order that they leave, but refused to speak directly to Israeli journalists.

The three were elected to the PLC in 2006 and have spent the past four years in and out of Israeli prisons in connection with the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. They have lived in the Red Cross building in Sheikh Jarrah for the past 162 days, since the June 30 arrest of fellow Hamas politician Muhammad Abu Tir.

The men have refused to renounce their connection to and support of terrorism group Hamas.

On July 1, fearing that their arrest and expulsion from Jerusalem was imminent, Abu-Arafa, Totah and Attoun showed up at the ICRC office, informing the Red Cross that they wished to hold a sit-in protest on the premises to draw attention to their situation.

The ICRC denied that it had offered the politicians a safe haven.

“We don’t have anything to say about them,” Cecilia Goin, spokeswoman of ICRC for Israel and the Occupied Territories, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

The ICRC was not involved in the press conference.

“Our work is only related to humanitarian issues,” she added.

And yet the ICRC has provided the men with space to set up shop, including a bathroom and a place to sleep and work. The ICRC also allows friends and family members of the Hamas trio to come and go with supplies. And the three men clearly believe the ICRC is protecting them, insisting they won’t be arrested so long as they stay on ICRC property.

Furthermore, the ICRC has not asked the men to leave. And the organization refused to discuss the possibility of other Hamas members setting up shop. Similarly, the ICRC refused to say whether or not it would help a Jewish family in a similar manner.

Oh, and the ICRC is referring to Israel as an “occupier” and insisting the government leave the people in its protection alone. Also, the ICRC refuses to label Hamas as a terror organization.

So…fun.