ICJ rules Israel must allow UNRWA to deliver aid to Gaza
Lauren Comiteau
Judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague said Israel must allow UNRWA, the UN aid agency in Gaza, to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
From international humanitarian law to the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Rights of the Child to customary law, judges at the UN’s highest court found that Israel—by inhibiting the work of UN personnel in Gaza and blocking aid to desperate civilians, including children—is not fulfilling its obligations under international law.
As both an occupying power and a UN member, judges said Israel must not only allow, but also actively facilitate the unfettered flow of aid into Gaza and the occupied West Bank, ensuring the supplies essential to survival are getting through.
The UN General Assembly asked the World Court to weigh in on the issue last year after Israel effectively banned UNRWA, the main organization helping displaced Palestinians since its formation in 1947.
Israel says UNRWA was infiltrated by Hamas. But Judge Yuji Iwasawa said Israel hasn’t substantiated that claim, adding that Israel has an obligation not to use the starvation of civilians as a weapon of war.
“In the view of court, Israel is not entitled to withhold its cooperation with the United Nations by unilaterally deciding on the presence and activities of United Nations entities,” he said.
Judges said since October 2023, 531 aid workers, including 360 UNRWA workers, had been killed in Gaza.
Israel’s ambassador has called the ICJ decision “shameful.”
Not irrelevent
This court has ordered Israel to let aid into Gaza before. And while Israel has a history of not abiding by the court’s rulings, legal historian Iva Vukušić at Utrecht University says even though these opinions are not binding, they are significant because other countries listen to them.
“It’s one of the tools to establish law, exert pressure, to insist on principals and access of aid, so even if it doesn’t work to change things on the ground next day, I wouldn’t say it’s irrelevant,” she says. “It matters in ways that aren’t always directly observable.”
The IPC – the world’s leading authority on food crises – declared a famine in Gaza City earlier this year. Aid has been spotty since the fragile cease-fire came into effect on October 10, with the director-general of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, saying this week that of the 600 aid trucks needed in Gaza every day, only about 200-300 are getting through.
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