IMAGE: HE Mr Ammar Hijazi, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine to International Organisations in the Netherlands (left) and legal counsel for the State of Palestine, Paul. Reichler (right) (Source for montage: ICJ)
Monday, April 28, 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is conducting public hearings regarding the request for an advisory opinion concerning Israel’s obligations in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations, other international organisations, and third states in the context of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Israel has accused the International Court of Justice of ‘anti-Semitism’ and has abstained from hearings on its duty to provide urgent humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories.
VIDEO: ICJ hearings in Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories case (Source: Reuters)
On 20 December 2024, the Secretary-General of the United Nations submitted a request for an advisory opinion to the Court via a letter. Subsequently, on 23 December 2024, the President of the Court issued an Order indicating that the United Nations, its Member States, and the observer State of Palestine were likely to provide relevant information regarding the inquiry presented to the Court for an advisory opinion. Following this, the Court permitted the participation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, and the African Union in the proceedings, as per their request. A total of forty-five written statements were submitted to the Registry by various States and international organisations.
Since March 2, the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have not received any food or medical supplies due to Israel’s longest blockade of the region, which was subsequently followed by the breakdown of a two-month ceasefire two weeks later. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has begun hearings in The Hague (NL) to assess Israel’s accountability for the humanitarian crisis affecting Gaza amid its conflict with Hamas…
IMAGE: Israeli airstrike kills aid workers in Gaza (Source: Reuters)
Beyza Binnur Donmez reports for Anadolu Agency…
Israel’s ‘genocidal campaign’ targeted UN, aid workers, organisations in Gaza: Palestinian envoy at ICJ hearing
Ammar Hijazi tells the ICJ that Israeli killings are ‘deliberate, not accidental’ and blockade in Gaza has turned into ‘total siege’, adding, Israel is starving, killing, and displacing Palestinians, while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organisations trying to save their lives”
GENEVA: The Palestinian envoy to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accused Israel on Monday of deliberately targeting humanitarian organisations and carrying out a “genocidal campaign” against Palestinians in Gaza.
Ammar Hijazi, the ambassador and permanent representative of the State of Palestine to international organisations in the Netherlands, said Israeli forces had killed over 408 UN workers, including almost 300 UNRWA staff, as well as dozens of paramedics and first responders.
Hijazi’s remarks came during public hearings on Israel’s obligations in the occupied Palestinian territory. “These killings are deliberate, not accidental,” he asserted, citing attacks in which Israeli forces ambushed and killed humanitarian workers before burying them in mass graves.
He told the court that “the blockade (in Gaza) has progressively turned into a total siege” since October 2023, warning that Gaza’s civilian population is being starved and deprived of basic necessities.
“Israel is starving, killing, and displacing Palestinians, while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organisations trying to save their lives,” he added.
He emphasised that the siege has created conditions “incompatible with sustaining life or the continued existence of Palestinians in Gaza,” highlighting catastrophic shortages of food, water, medical supplies, and safe shelter.
Calling the situation part of a broader effort to erase Palestinian existence, Hijazi said:
“Israel is an unlawful occupying power standing trial for genocide. Its Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) is wanted by the ICC (International Criminal Court)”
Meanwhile, UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Elinor Hammarskjold told the ICJ on behalf of the UN that Israel must comply with its obligations under international law in the occupied Palestinian territory to allow the United Nations to perform its humanitarian mandates.
Hammarskjold warned that “no humanitarian aid or commercial goods have been allowed into Gaza since the second of March, which has devastating humanitarian consequences in the Gaza Strip,” noting that 295 UN personnel have died in Gaza since October 2023.
Civilians in ‘endless death loop’
Paul Reichler, representing Palestine at the ICJ, described Gaza as “a killing field, and civilians are in an endless death loop.”
Reichler warned that “the current path is a dead end, totally intolerable in the eyes of international law and history,” and cautioned against the risk of “the occupied West Bank transforming into another Gaza.”
“In these circumstances, there can be no doubt that Israel is violating its obligations under international humanitarian law, including obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and customary international law,” Reichler said, adding “People in Gaza are being starved to death, and we are all witnessing it, if not complicit in it. But this human tragedy is a deliberate choice. It is the consequence of a political decision. It is both avoidable and reversible.”
Calling for international action, he emphasised that Israeli authorities must ensure complete and unfettered access for humanitarian goods throughout Gaza, adding: “Human dignity simply cannot be held hostage to conflict.”
“The inhumanity of this Israeli policy is compounded by its unlawful objective to forever extinguish the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including a sovereign and independent state in their own territory as part of the two-state solution that the international community demands,” Reichler concluded
The ICJ is holding hearings this week to assess Israel’s legal obligations regarding the provision of humanitarian aid and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, following a request from the UN General Assembly.
Representatives from 40 countries and four international organisations are expected to present oral submissions during the proceedings. Among the participating countries are Türkiye, Malaysia, South Africa, China, Russia, Spain, Ireland, Brazil, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Key organisations, including the UN, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Arab League, will also contribute.
Israel, which is among the countries that submitted written statements, will not make an oral submission during the hearings.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the ICJ for its war on the Gaza Strip, which, since October 2023, has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians and reduced much of Gaza to rubble.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
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