The top court of the United Nations has been told that Israel is committing “unprecedented violations” in Gaza, as it was asked to consider pressing Binyamin Netanyahu’s government to allow the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries.
Week-long hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague were opened by the UN on Monday, prompted by an Israeli ban on the agency in charge of much of Gaza’s aid and healthcare services.
Last October Israel stopped the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from operating in Israel, Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank, accusing the body of colluding with Hamas.
The UN general assembly then asked the court to rule on Israel’s legal obligations.
“Israel’s violations since October have been unprecedented,” the Palestinian representative Lynn Nijari told the court. “But almost inconceivably, the situation has deteriorated further” since previous court sessions, Nijari said, with livelihoods and essential services such as water and electricity “all but destroyed”.
“Israel is required to facilitate and expand — not ban, disrupt and attack — UNRWA operations in the Palestinian territories,” another Palestinian legal representative said.
The UN’s legal counsel, Elinor Hammarskjöld, said that Israel had an obligation to “allow and facilitate” humanitarian aid for Gazans. “These obligations entail allowing all relevant UN entities to carry out activities for the benefit of the local population,” she added.
The hearings have taken on fresh urgency after Israel imposed a total blockade on all humanitarian aid to the enclave in March in an attempt to pressure Hamas to release the 59 remaining hostages — 24 of who are thought to be alive — who have been held since the group attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. A previous six-week ceasefire broke down.
Added military pressure on the ground, the takeover of large parts of the coastal territory and heavy bombardment have not led to a breakthrough in negotiations for a new truce in the war.
The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said the hearings were “shameful”, describing the UN as a “rotten anti-Israel and antisemitic body”.
“Israel decided not to take part in this circus,” he said in a briefing. “The case is part of a systematic persecution and de-legitimisation of Israel.”
He added that the UN was using the court to spread a “blood libel” by trying to “force Israel to co-operate with an organisation that is infested with Hamas terrorists”.
The court was told that at the end of March the last of the UN staff left the Gaza Strip, and with the passing of two Israeli laws in December none would be able to return.
After the collapse of the ceasefire, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said that if Hamas did not release the hostages “soon, the gates of Gaza will be locked and the gates of hell will open”. The Israel Defence Forces accused Hamas of stealing aid intended for civilians.
No humanitarian aid, food or medical supplies have reached Gaza, home to two million people, for 57 days. All crossings are closed and UN agencies say that they have depleted all food stocks.
“Nine of every ten Palestinians have no access to safe drinking water. Storage facilities of the UN and other international agencies are empty,” the Palestinian representative Ammar Hijazi told the court on Monday. “These are the facts. Starvation is here. Humanitarian aid is being used as a weapon of war.”
Israel, a signatory to the UN charter, has long held that the UN is biased against it but has intensified its rhetoric against the UNRWA since the start of the war. Israel claimed in a 38-page written statement to the court that 12 per cent of its employees were members of Palestinian terror groups, and that some had actively participated in the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s accusations against the UNRWA led to an international pause in funding for the body. The agency admitted that nine workers may have been involved in the attacks and sacked them. However, it said the organisation should not be tainted with a “blanket description” and that the agency had not been infiltrated.
The court was told that hundreds of UN staff members had been killed during the war, including one who was killed at point-blank range in an attack on medics in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Israel was accused of prohibiting external investigations. It denies targeting civilians and aid staff.
Previous international court hearings have led to a call for a ceasefire, and the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes, including using starvation as a weapon.
A case brought to the court by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide has been postponed until January 2026.
Forty states and four international organisations will address the ICJ, including the United States, a staunch ally of Israel. President Trump has called on Israel to “be good to Gaza” and resume the delivery of aid. The UK, which has urged Israel to abide by international law and allow aid to enter the strip, will make its address on Thursday.
The ICJ’s advisory opinions are not legally binding, but the court is seen as a global moral and legal authority. Israel has previously ignored international calls for a ceasefire and resolutions, including one last year that the occupation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank was “unlawful”.
Any court opinion that could advise on the resumption of aid deliveries to Gaza will probably take months to be reached.
