High Court to hear rights groups’ petition demanding Israel increase aid flow to Gaza

The High Court of Justice agrees to hear a petition filed by five human rights organizations earlier this week asking the court to order the government to allow unfettered entry of all necessary “humanitarian aid, equipment and staff to Gaza, especially to the north of the territory.”

The petition, filed by Gisha together with HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Adalah, also asks the court to order the government to “significantly increase the volume of aid to Gaza, including by opening land crossings between Gaza and Israel, and to provide for all the needs of the civilian population in keeping with Israel’s obligations as the occupying power.”

The organizations assert in their petition that Israel is failing to increase the flow of aid to the war-torn enclave, which they say constitutes “a flagrant violation of its obligations under international law both as an occupying power and as a party to the hostilities,” and is also “a breach of the provisional measure set by the International Court of Justice on facilitation of aid.”

Supreme Court Justice Yechiel Kasher says a hearing for the petition will be set as soon as possible, and that the panel of justices to be assigned to the case will give the prime minister, defense minister and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories agency — who are all named as respondents — a deadline for filing their responses.