The United Nations International Court of Justice issued a legal opinion on Wednesday (22) that states that Israel, as the occupying power, is obliged to work with UN agencies to facilitate humanitarian aid in Gaza, a rebuke to the blockade imposed on the Palestinian enclave earlier this year.
The court also said in the opinion that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the main UN body serving Palestinian refugees, did not violate the rules of impartiality and that Israel must support the agency’s assistance work.
The opinion was requested by the UN General Assembly in December after Israel significantly reduced its ability to deliver aid to Gaza.
“The occupying power can never invoke security reasons to justify the general suspension of all humanitarian activities in occupied territory,” said Judge Iwasawa Yuji in delivering the opinion, which also said Israel is obliged to ensure that the basic needs of civilians in Gaza are met. “After examining the evidence, the court finds that the local population in the Gaza Strip has been inadequately supplied.”
The advisory opinion – intended to address Israel’s obligations to the UN, aid organizations and third states in and around the occupied West Bank – is non-binding but carries political weight and is expected to increase pressure on Israel to cooperate with the UN and other aid agencies.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN criticized the court’s opinion as “shameful”.
Israel accused , and of teaching hatred against Israel in its schools.
UNRWA has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying there is no reason for “a blanket description” of the entire institution as being infiltrated by Hamas.
A UN investigation found that nine personnel out of 13,000 UNRWA personnel in Gaza “may have” been involved in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7.
But the court said Wednesday that Israel had not substantiated allegations “that a significant portion of UNRWA employees are members of Hamas or other terrorist factions.”
“The court concludes that, in the current circumstances, the United Nations, acting through UNRWA, has been an indispensable provider of humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip,” the judge said, also criticizing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which Israel said was a substitute for some of UNRWA’s work.
“The court recalls Israel’s obligation not to use starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare as an occupying power,” he added.
Israeli officials accuse the UN court of being politicized and weaponized against Israel.
“They are blaming Israel for not cooperating with UN bodies… They should be blaming themselves. These bodies have become breeding grounds for terrorists,” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said Wednesday in response to the opinion, which he described as a “political document.”
An agreement between Israel and Hamas has been in place for more than a week, and Israel is allowing increased aid to Gaza in line with the truce agreement’s goal of 600 trucks a day, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.
More international court cases pending
The opinion issued this Wednesday (22) is one of several cases related to Israel that the UN court has considered since the war began in 2023.
In July 2024, the ICJ said Israel’s presence in East Jerusalem is illegal, in an unprecedented move that called on Israel to end its decades-long occupation of territories that Palestinians want for a future state.
The widespread opinion ran through a list of Israeli practices that the court said violate international law, including confiscating land, building Israeli settlements in the territories and depriving Palestinians of natural resources and the right to self-determination.
In a case that predated the war between Israel and Hamas, the court said Israel abused its position as an occupying power and asked it to cease further settlement activities, remove settlers and make reparations for the damage caused.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other politicians firmly rejected this ICJ opinion at the time.
The ICJ also issued a series of Gaza-related emergency measures in 2024, including ordering Israel to immediately halt its controversial military operation in the enclave’s southern city of Rafah, calling the humanitarian situation “disastrous.”
These measures are part of a broader case brought by South Africa against Israel, which accuses Israel of violating its obligations under the genocide convention – a claim that Israel has vehemently and repeatedly denied.
The International Court of Justice case on genocide is ongoing and is expected to last several years.
The process comes at the same time as a September independent UN inquiry that found targeting Palestinians in Gaza, which echoed the conclusions of other genocide experts and human rights groups, and which Israel rejected.
The Israeli government has maintained that it conducted the war in Gaza in accordance with international law. The government has also repeatedly accused the UN of anti-Israel bias.
The UN tribunal’s proceedings are separate from the investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza carried out by – another international legal body based in The Hague, Netherlands.
Late last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and a now-deceased senior Hamas official, Mohammed Deif, who Israel said was one of the masterminds of the October 7 attacks, among others.
Israel does not recognize the ICC, but is bound by the International Court of Justice’s status as a UN member state.
