Two non-governmental organizations today accused Israel of continuing to cut humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip despite a request by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to make every effort to prevent genocide in the besieged territory.
Amnesty International said the Israeli authorities had failed to take the minimum steps required to comply with the International Court of Justice ruling issued in January.
Reduction of humanitarian aid
According to Amnesty and Human Rights Watch (HRW), the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza has dropped by around a third since the court’s ruling, issued as part of an appeal brought by South Africa, which accuses Israel of violating the United Nations Genocide Convention.
“The Israeli government is letting the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza starve to death, putting them at even greater risk than before the court’s binding ruling,” HRW’s Israel director Omar Shakir said today. and the Palestinian Territories.
“The Israeli government simply defied the Court’s ruling and in some ways further intensified its repression, mainly by further blocking vital aid,” Shakir added, according to the statement.
Israel is not complying w @CIJ_ICJ binding order in genocide case—starving Gaza’s 2.3 million ppl more harshly than before—@hrw finds. Its disregard for the World Court is a challenge to rules-based int’l order. Time for sanctions to press Israel to comply pic.twitter.com/z16lzFaOu6
— Omar Shakir (@OmarSShakir) February 26, 2024
The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) also said there was a 50% drop in humanitarian aid entering Gaza in February compared to January. “Aid needed to be increased, not decreased, to meet the enormous needs of the two million Palestinians living in desperate conditions,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on social media platform X.
February registered a 50% reduction of humanitarian aid entering #Gaza compared to January.
Aid was supposed to increase not decrease to address the huge needs of 2 million Palestinians in desperate living conditions. Among the obstacles: lack of political will, regular closing…
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) February 26, 2024
The dead exceed 30,000
The accusations by the NGOs and UNRWA come as Israel prepares for an expected ground invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which would be a shot in the arm for humanitarian aid programs in the Palestinian territory, according to the general UN Secretary Antonio Guterres.
The war erupted after a massive Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that left nearly 1,160 dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The military attack launched by Israel in retaliation has already killed nearly 30,000 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza, according to Hamas’ health ministry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed South Africa’s accusations of genocide in Gaza as scandalous, denouncing a despicable attempt to deny Israel its fundamental right to legitimate self-defense.
Source: RES-MPE
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