Top UN Court Orders Israel to Allow Aid into Gaza
The UN top court has ordered Israel to enable the unhindered flow of aid into Gaza in order to avert a famine.
In a unanimous decision, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel had to act without delay to allow the provision… Of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.
This follows warnings that famine could hit Gaza within weeks.
The latest ruling by the court in The Hague comes after South Africa asked it to bolster an order issued to Israel in January to take all measures to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza.
Giving its response to the court order, the Israeli foreign ministry said that Hamas was to blame for the situation in Gaza and for starting the war.
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The court also noted comments by Volker Türk, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, who said last week that the situation of hunger, starvation and famine was a result of Israel’s extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, displacement of most of the population, as well as the destruction of crucial civilian infrastructure.
Mr Türk recently told the BBC that there was a plausible case that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza and that, if intent was proven, this would amount to a war crime.
The ICJ said Israel had to take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full co-operation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale… of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.
The aid most needed included food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter and clothing as well as hygiene products and medical supplies, it said.
In recent months long queues of aid trucks have repeatedly formed as they wait to enter Gaza from Egypt, and accusations have been levelled at Israel that it is subjecting the deliveries to complex and arbitrary checks.
