Two human rights groups have accused Israel of further limiting humanitarian aid to Gaza despite an order from the United Nations' top court.
Exactly one month ago, the International Court of Justice in The Hague said that Israel must do everything possible to prevent genocidal acts in the besieged territory. Tel Aviv must also take “immediate and effective measures” to provide aid, the ICJ added.
But Israeli authorities “have not taken even minimal measures to comply” with the ICJ ruling issued on January 26, Amnesty International said.
Both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday that the number of aid trucks entering Gaza had actually decreased by about a third since the ruling, which came in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of violating the Convention. of Genocide of the UN.
“The Israeli government is starving” Gaza's 2.4 million Palestinians, “putting them in greater danger than before the World Court's binding order,” said Omar Shakir, HRW's Israel and Palestine director. “The Israeli government has simply ignored the court ruling and, in some ways, even escalated its repression, including further blocking life-saving aid.”
ICJ rulings are legally binding, but the court has no enforcement mechanism.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said there was a “50 percent reduction” in humanitarian aid entering Gaza during February compared to January.
The NGO comments came as Israel prepares for a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday would “put the final nail in the coffin” of the operations. of help.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas fighters carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7. Israel's retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed nearly 30,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled territory's Health Ministry.
Israel dismissed the case presented by South Africa as an “extremely distorted story” and said that if any genocidal act had been carried out, it had been carried out against Israel during the October 7 Hamas attack.
In a separate, non-binding case, the UN asked the ICJ to issue an “advisory opinion” on the “legal consequences arising from Israel's policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.”
