THE HAGUE: The world’s highest court declared that “famine has set in” and commanded Israel to “ensure urgent humanitarian assistance” in Gaza without delay on Thursday.
The new ruling from the International Court of Justice coincides with fierce street fighting that is still going on in besieged Gaza. A significant medical organization stated that it “hasn’t seen any change” since this week’s UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
In Gaza, the International Court of Justice declared that “Israel shall… take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay… the unhindered provision… of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.” “Famine is setting in for Palestinians in Gaza; they are no longer just at risk of starvation,” the Hague-based court declared.
“Starvation death”
South Africa has accused Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a claim that Israel has vehemently refuted.
The court rules that illness and malnutrition also contribute to Palestinian fatalities in addition to ground assaults.
Israel was hauled before the court by Pretoria, which claimed that Israel had violated the 1948 UN Genocide Convention and urged the judge to impose a cease-fire.
The ICJ ordered Israel to take all reasonable precautions to prevent genocide during its Gaza offensive in a mid-January verdict that garnered international attention. In order to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, the court also decided that Israel had to permit aid to enter the region.
A few weeks later, South Africa requested more sanctions, citing an announced incursion into the city of Rafah, but the court denied the motion.
Pretoria persisted and attempted once more, asking the court to issue emergency orders in order to “save the Palestinian people in Gaza who are already dying of starvation.” “Do not fully address the consequences arising from the changes in the situation…thus justifying the modification of these measures,” the judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stated in their findings from mid-January. The most recent ICJ ruling was praised by Pretoria as “significant.”
It claimed in a statement that “the fact that Palestinian deaths are caused by disease and starvation, in addition to bombardment and ground attacks, indicates a need to protect the group’s right to exist.” According to the medical nonprofit MSF, nothing has changed since the Security Council resolution.
According to MSF’s worldwide president Christos Christou, “unhindered humanitarian aid in Gaza,” an immediate and permanent truce, and an end to all attacks on medical facilities and workers were required.
While much of the region has been reduced to a devastation of destroyed buildings and tank tracks due to the war, Israel has also besieged its 2.4 million population, a situation that has only been occasionally relieved by relief delivery.
