Two human rights groups accused Israel of further restricting humanitarian aid to Gaza despite orders from the UN Supreme Court.
Just a month ago, the International Court of Justice in The Hague said that Israel must do everything possible to stop acts of genocide in the besieged area. Tel Aviv must also take “immediate and effective steps” to provide aid, the ICJ added.
However, Amnesty International claimed that Israeli authorities “have not taken even the bare minimum steps to comply” with the ICJ's ruling, handed down on January 26.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday that the number of aid trucks entering Gaza has actually fallen by about a third since the ruling in a lawsuit brought by South Africa accusing Israel of violating the UN Genocide Convention. It was announced that.
Omar Shakir, HRW's Israel and Palestine director, said: “The Israeli government is starving 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, putting them in even more danger than before the World Court's binding order. ” he said. “The Israeli government is simply ignoring the court's ruling and has even stepped up its crackdown in some ways, including further blocking life-saving aid.”
Although ICJ judgments are legally binding, courts have no enforcement mechanism.
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, announced that humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza in February was “50 percent lower” than in January.
The NGO's comments come as Israel prepares for a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres saying on Monday that this would be the “final nail in the coffin” of aid operations. ” said that it would become a thing.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas fighters carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7. Israel's retaliatory military attacks in Gaza have killed almost 30,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
Israel dismissed the lawsuit brought by South Africa as a “grossly distorted story” and said that if an act of genocide had taken place, it would have been carried out against Israel during the October 7 Hamas attack.
In a separate, non-legally binding case, the UN has asked the ICJ to issue an “advisory opinion” on “the legal consequences of Israeli policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem.”
