World court opens week of hearings on Israel’s aid duties to Palestinians
UN official tells ICJ judges Israel is obliged to allow aid groups to carry out work; Palestinian envoy says Jerusalem using aid as ‘weapon of war’; final ruling to take months
The International Court of Justice on Monday opened a week of hearings on Israel’s humanitarian obligations toward the Palestinians, more than 50 days into its blockade on aid entering war-ravaged Gaza, as Israel cast UNRWA, the United Nations’ aid agency for Palestinians, as “infiltrated by terrorism” and abusing the courts.
The United Nations was the first to address the court on Monday, followed by Palestinian representatives. In total, 40 states and four international organizations are scheduled to participate. Though Israel is not attending the hearings at the ICJ, its closest ally, the United States, is scheduled to speak on Wednesday.
The court will likely take months to rule. Experts say the decision, though not legally binding, could profoundly impact international jurisprudence, international aid to Israel, and public opinion.
At the opening of the hearings at the UN’s top court, the UN’s legal counsel said Israel had a clear obligation as an occupying force to allow and facilitate humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza.
“In the specific context of the current situation in the occupied Palestinian Territories, these obligations entail allowing all relevant UN entities to carry out activities for the benefit of the local population,” Elinor Hammarskjold said.
The UN has asked judges at The Hague to clarify in this week’s proceedings Israel’s legal obligations toward the UN and its agencies, international organizations, and third-party states to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.”
Palestinian envoy to the Netherlands Ammar Hijazi told the court that Israel is killing and displacing civilians and targeting aid workers in Gaza.
He accused Israel of breaching international law in Gaza and the West Bank, and told judges that “all UN-supported bakeries in Gaza have been forced to shut their doors.”
“Nine of every 10 Palestinians have no access to safe drinking water. Storage facilities of the UN and other international agencies are empty,” added Hijazi.
“Israel is starving, killing, and displacing Palestinians while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organizations trying to save their lives,” he charged.
“This case is about Israel destroying the fundamentals of life in Palestine, while it blocks the UN and other providers of humanitarian aid from providing life-saving aid to the population,” he said.
“These are the facts. Starvation is here. Humanitarian aid is being used as a weapon of war,” concluded the Palestinian representative.
Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid for the 2 million-plus Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2 after the collapse of a ceasefire and hostage release deal, and said it won’t resume assistance until Hamas releases the captives.
Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff as part of its ongoing war against Hamas, sparked by the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and seized 251 as hostages.
It also stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Sa’ar: Israel shouldn’t be on trial, UNRWA infiltrated by terrorism
Earlier, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar laid out accusations against UNRWA at a press conference.
“At this very moment, the ICJ is beginning the deliberations in another shameful proceeding against Israel,” he said, adding that Israel chose not to attend the oral proceedings so as “not to take part in this circus.”
“It is not Israel that should be on trial,” Sa’ar said, but rather the UN and UNRWA, the latter of which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza.
He called UNRWA “an organization infiltrated beyond repair by terrorism.”
The foreign minister criticized past rulings of the ICJ, noting that “this is the fourth proceeding relating to Israel in the court since the October 7 massacre.”
“Now, they are abusing the courts, once again, to try and force Israel to cooperate with an organization that is infested with Hamas terrorists, and it won’t happen,” he said.
“UNRWA employed over 1,400 known terrorists, many of whom took an active part in the October 7 atrocities,” Sa’ar continued, citing UNRWA employee Mohammed Abu Itiwi, a Hamas Nukhba Force commander, as one example.
“[Abu Itiwi] was caught on video participating in the murder and kidnapping of Israelis near Kibbutz Re’im [on October 7, 2023], including Hersh Goldberg-Polin,” who was taken hostage and then murdered in captivity, he said.
“I accuse,” Sa’ar said, “I accuse UNRWA. I accuse the UN. I accuse the secretary general, I accuse all those who weaponize international law and its institutions in order to deprive the most attacked country in the world, Israel, of its most basic right to defend itself.”
Behind him, a large screen displayed the faces of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, alongside the bold headline “J’Accuse” (“I Accuse” in French), referencing an 1898 open letter written by French author Émile Zola during the Dreyfus Affair.
An Israeli ban on UNRWA was passed by the Knesset in November with a large majority that included the support of opposition parties, amid a series of revelations about employees of the agency who were actively involved in terror groups in the Gaza Strip, the participation of some of its staff in the October 7 Hamas invasion and slaughter, and repeated use of UNRWA infrastructure in Gaza for terror activities.
Israel has also provided evidence that the agency’s schools incited hatred of Israel and glorification of attacks against Israelis.
The ban went into effect earlier this year, but The Times of Israel reported earlier this month that the agency is operating at near-normal capacity in East Jerusalem despite it.
The UN General Assembly approved a resolution in December asking the ICJ for an advisory opinion on the matter of aid in Gaza “on a priority basis and with the utmost urgency.”
The resolution, spearheaded by Norway, was adopted by a large majority.
US President Donald Trump said Friday that he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we’ve got to be good to Gaza” as he pushed the premier to get more food and medicine into the Strip.
The revelation of the discussion between Netanyahu and Trump came shortly after the World Food Program said it had run out of food stocks in Gaza due to the sustained closure of crossings into the enclave.
The Times of Israel Community.