The International Court of Justice rebukes Israel for blocking aid to Gaza and dismisses charges against UNRWA.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) warned Wednesday that Israel has “failed to substantiate” its alleged ties to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Hamas, and urged it to fulfill its “obligation” to “accept and facilitate aid plans” for Gaza provided by the UN, because it must not “use starvation” as a “method of warfare.”
The court found that Israel's "substantial" impediment to humanitarian aid access to Gaza "for a significant period of time" has had "catastrophic consequences" for the civilian population in the Strip.
"The local population of the Gaza Strip has been inadequately supplied (…) In such a situation, Israel, as the occupying power, has an obligation to accept and facilitate aid plans," warned the president of the ICJ, Japanese judge Yuji Iwasawa, during the reading of the court's decision.
Israel has an obligation to "guarantee the basic needs" of the population, says the ICJ. Photo: EFE
Israel has an obligation, he added, to "guarantee the basic needs" of the local population, including essential supplies for their survival.
'He has not substantiated his allegations' The ICJ, the United Nations' highest court, issued its legal opinion on Wednesday on Israel's obligations, as a member of the UN and the "occupying power" of the Palestinian territories, toward humanitarian agencies, particularly UNRWA, which the Israeli government has banned on charges of ties to Hamas, which was responsible for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In this regard, the ICJ found that Israel “has not substantiated its allegations that a significant portion” of UNRWA employees “are members of Hamas… or other terrorist organizations.”
He also stressed that the dismissal of nine members of the agency following a 2024 UN investigation into their "possible involvement" in the 2023 attack on Israel is "insufficient to support the conclusion that UNRWA, as a whole, is not a neutral organization."
The Hague-based court also ruled on Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons and urged Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which has an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, to "allow access" to these individuals by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The International Court of Justice is the UN's highest court. Photo: Getty Images
Furthermore, the court reminded Israel that the deportation or forcible transfer of the civilian population from an occupied territory such as Gaza, whether in whole or in part, is also "prohibited" by international law.
"Relocation can be considered 'forced' not only when it is carried out through the use of physical force, but also when the affected individuals have no choice but to leave. This can include the imposition of intolerable living conditions," Iwasawa specified.
This is the third time the ICJ has ruled on the Israeli presence in Palestine. Last year, the court ruled that Israeli settlement policies "violate international law" and Israel's "continued presence" in Palestine is "illegal." It therefore ordered the "evacuation of all settlers" and the return of land to its original residents, displaced since 1967. In 2004, it upheld the illegality of the separation barrier.
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