Today is the day that Israel is required to report back to the International Court of Justice what they have done over the last 30 days to obey the ICJ’s six provisional orders of Jan. 26. Prior to any submission of Israel’s report, Human Rights Watch released a lengthy statement today that focused upon Israel’s utter failure on one of the six orders, that they had to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid.”
“One month later, however, Israel continues to obstruct the provision of basic services and the entry and distribution within Gaza of fuel and lifesaving aid, acts of collective punishment that amount to war crimes and include the use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war. Fewer trucks have entered Gaza and fewer aid missions have been permitted to reach northern Gaza in the several weeks since the ruling than in the weeks preceding it, according to United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).”
HRW’s director for Israel and Palestin, Omar Shakir, stated: “The Israeli government is starving Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, putting them in even more peril than before the World Court’s binding order. The Israeli government has simply ignored the court’s ruling, and in some ways even intensified its repression, including further blocking lifesaving aid.”
Earlier, HRW had reported in December 2023 that “Israeli authorities are using starvation as a weapon of war. Pursuant a policy set out by Israeli officials and carried out by Israeli forces, the Israeli authorities are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to its survival.”
