Latest ICJ ruling tightens legal noose around Israeli regime over Gaza genocide

By Iqbal Jassat

In another fatal blow to its pariah status as a rogue regime, the settler-colonial entity in Tel Aviv has once again been found to be in grave violation of international law.

Though belated, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a strongly worded ruling on Wednesday, declaring that the Israeli regime must allow the entry of urgently needed humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and ensure the basic survival needs of people there are met.

“The court considers that Israel is under an obligation to agree to and facilitate relief schemes provided by the United Nations and its entities, including UNRWA,” said ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa.

The court emphasized that as an occupying power, Israel must guarantee essentials for civilians in the besieged territory, including food, water, and other critical supplies.

“As an occupying power, Israel is obliged to ensure the basic needs of the local population, including the supplies essential for their survival,” Iwasawa added.

While the world looks on as a fragile ceasefire takes effect following two years of relentless bombings and devastating cruelty inflicted on the besieged population of Gaza, the Netanyahu regime has yet again been cornered and exposed as genocidaires.

None of the myriad of excuses used by the Zionist regime to justify its evil policies of weaponizing starvation and the inhumane denial of critical supplies has been entertained by the Hague-based World Court.

As expected, the genocidal regime led by war criminals has dismissed the ruling as politically motivated. Such kneejerk responses, including rejection of the ICJ is entirely predictable and in line with what the international community has heard from Israel over the last 24 months of genocide.

However, rejection does not absolve the regime from the legal, moral and political implications that flow out of the ICJ ruling.

Equally damning is the finding that no evidence exists that members of UNRWA were affiliated with the Hamas resistance movement. This myth, as we know and have extensively written about, was deliberately fabricated and widely promoted by the regime and its army of Hasbara agents, to justify the destruction of UNRWA facilities and the massacre of its members.

In its statement, Hamas rebuked Israel, saying the ICJ ruling confirms that the regime commits acts of genocide by deliberately starving Palestinians and cannot legally enforce settlement policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

"The ICJ decision banning the use of starvation as a method of warfare confirms that the occupation, which deliberately starves Palestinians, is committing a form of genocide," Hamas said.

It added that the ruling is a clear call for the international community to "act immediately to guarantee the entry of humanitarian aid and prevent its politicization or use as a tool of coercion by the occupation."

According to a Guardian report, a crucial interpretation of the ruling means that Israel has violated the UN’s immunities as set out in the UN charter, as well as ignored its humanitarian obligations as an occupying power under the Geneva conventions.

It is thus bound to lead to further calls for Israel’s suspension from the United Nations. An additional consequence of the ruling makes it possible for member states of the world body to seek damages from the Tel Aviv regime for breaching the immunities of UN staff premises.

Seeking accountability and compensation for bombing UN facilities and ending cooperation with UNRWA is a right that needs to be invoked by UN member states.

The ICJ judges also found that the mass transfers or deportations of a population in an occupied territory is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. It said that Israel had no right to block aid, or force hundreds of thousands of people into crowded areas or to restrict the presence of the UN “to a degree that creates conditions of life that would force the population to leave”.

“The occupying power may never invoke reasons of security to justify the general suspension of all humanitarian activities in occupied territory,” Judge Iwasawa Yuji said while delivering the opinion, which also said Israel is obliged to ensure the basic needs of civilians in Gaza are met.

“After examining the evidence, the court finds that the local population in the Gaza Strip has been inadequately supplied.”

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, welcomed the “unambiguous” legal opinion in a post on X and stated that the UN has the resources to “immediately scale up” the humanitarian response in the territory.

The ICJ process is separate from the investigation into Israel's war crimes in Gaza being carried out by the International Criminal Court (ICC) - another international legal body based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Late last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs, Yoav Gallant, which no country has so far implemented, including ICC member states.

In its summary of the ICJ ruling, Sky News said it was a verdict that came slowly, and with some of its barbs hidden in sub-clauses and legalese.

"But if you put the elements together, it was a highly critical attack on Israel's conduct in the occupied territories. Not just in Gaza, but also in the West Bank and East Jerusalem."

While Netanyahu has dismissed the ruling, neither he nor his gang of war criminals can deny that it is another nail in Zionism's coffin and that the heat against the regime will intensify.

Iqbal Jassat is an executive member of the Media Review Network, Johannesburg, South Africa.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)

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