South African officials said Tuesday that Israel “acts with impunity” in now-flattened Gaza, as the United Nations’ top court kicked off hearings in the case accusing Israel of violating international law by continuing to block Palestinians from receiving life-saving humanitarian aid.
The International Court of Justice is expected to hear arguments this week from at least 40 countries about whether Israel has failed to carry out its obligations as both an occupying power and a U.N. member state by refusing to allow and facilitate humanitarian assistance in war-torn Gaza. The U.N. General Assembly asked the ICJ last year to deliver an advisory opinion on the matter, which grew more urgent after Israel blocked all aid from entering the territory in March.
“Israel continues to act with impunity, as it does enjoy some form of exceptionalism from accountability to international law and norms,” South Africa’s representative Zane Dangor said Tuesday before the court. “Conversely, any person or entity which seeks to hold Israel to account for its inhumane and unlawful actions is subjected to countermeasures and censure, from which the United Nations and this court has not been spared.”
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“Under the world’s watchful eye, Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories are being subjected to atrocity crimes, persecution, apartheid and genocide,” Dangor said. “While we watch, the gaze of Palestinians is directed squarely at the international community and this court, whose advice is urgently being sought for the protection of the most fundamental rights, including the right to life.”
Israel has been carrying out its current military offensive in Gaza since October 2023, destroying life-sustaining infrastructure like hospitals, power grids, farms, sanitation systems, water treatment, shelter and heat. The deadly attacks have left Palestinian families heavily reliant on aid deliveries, which Israel barely let into the territory before completely cutting them off on March 2.
Still, Israel denies intentionally targeting Palestinian civilians, aid workers and first responders, and maintains that Hamas is responsible for the aid block. The Israeli government has also criticized the U.N. — including its courts — and blocked its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) from operating in Gaza. Israel is not appearing at this week’s ICJ hearings, and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that the case is part of a “systematic persecution and delegitimization” of the country.
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The hearings began just days after the World Food Program announced that it has officially run out of food in Gaza, leaving millions of already starving Palestinians with no means to feed themselves due to the ongoing blockade. UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the agency has just over 5,000 aid trucks waiting outside Gaza, while the blockade has fueled a black market “where prices have increased from 10 to 20, sometimes 40 times.” Some families have resorted to burning plastic due to the lack of cooking gas, she said.
“The siege on Gaza is the silent killer of children, of older people,” Touma said Tuesday in Geneva. “Families — whole families, seven or eight people — are resorting to sharing one can of beans or peas. Imagine not having anything to feed your children. Children in Gaza are going to bed starving.”
The ICJ could take months to form an advisory opinion, which is not binding but carries legal weight and influence, particularly in international negotiations and in public opinion.
“This is not only about humanitarian needs, but it’s about dignity. There is an assault on people’s dignity in Gaza today,” Jonathan Whittall, local chief of the U.N.’s aid coordination agency (OCHA), told reporters Saturday in Gaza.
“Lives depend on the blockade ending, aid flowing and a ceasefire being reinstated,” he continued. “I hope that we see real accountability — real accountability — before we see history judge those who watched what is happening in Gaza and did nothing.”
