Affirming that “famine is setting in” in the Palestinian territory, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday ordered Israel to provide “urgent humanitarian aid” to Gaza. “Israel must, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”, “ensure without delay” that “without restriction and on a large scale, the provision by all parties urgently required basic services and humanitarian assistance” in Gaza, the Hague-based ICJ said in an order published on its website.
Aid to the Palestinians in Gaza must be done “by increasing the capacity and number of land crossing points and keeping them open as long as necessary”, she recommends.
Pretoria welcomes the decision
On February 13, South Africa filed a new request before the ICJ. Pretoria said it was "gravely concerned" by the further "massacres, injuries and large-scale destruction" that Israel's ground military offensive in Rafah would cause.
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South Africa had already referred the matter to the highest court of the UN, accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza. The judges, who had not commented at this stage on the question of whether Israel was actually committing genocide or not, nevertheless ordered it to prevent such acts.
Pretoria welcomed the decision on Thursday as “important”. “The fact that Palestinian deaths are not only caused by bombings and ground attacks, but also by disease and starvation, indicates a need to protect this group's right to exist,” the statement said. South Africa in a press release.
The orders of the ICJ, which settles disputes between states, are binding but it has no means of enforcing them. For example, she ordered Russia to stop its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
2.4 million Gazans threatened with starvation
In addition to the very heavy human toll and enormous destruction, the war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7, has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the cramped Palestinian territory, where the majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants are threatened with famine according to the UN. “100%” of the population faces serious “food insecurity”, added American Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
While humanitarian aid by land, strictly controlled by Israel, arrives in trickles, several countries parachute supplies daily, sometimes at the cost of human lives.