The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday ordered Israel to provide “urgent humanitarian aid” to the besieged Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army’s offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas continues in the areas of several hospitals.
In addition to the very heavy human toll and enormous destruction, the war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7, has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the cramped Palestinian territory, where the majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants are threatened with famine according to the UN.
Israel must “promptly ensure” the “unrestricted and large-scale provision by all interested parties of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance” in Gaza, the ICJ said in The Hague.
Seized by South Africa, the court ordered Israel in January to do everything possible to prevent a “genocide” in the Palestinian territory, Israel deeming such accusations “scandalous”.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed Thursday his determination to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, at the southern tip of the Palestinian territory, which he considers to be the last great bastion of Hamas and where 1.5 million people are crowded. Palestinians, the vast majority displaced by the hostilities.
“Enter Rafah”
“We hold the north of the Gaza Strip as well as Khan Younes (south). We have cut the Gaza Strip in two and we are preparing to enter Rafah,” he told families of soldiers held hostage in the Palestinian territory.
The United States, Israel’s main ally which fears the human toll of such an operation, recently requested the sending of an Israeli delegation to Washington to discuss this project.
PHOTO BASSAM MASOUD, REUTERS
Rafah, March 27, 2024
But Israel, furious after the United States’ abstention which allowed the recent adoption of a UN resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, canceled the visit.
On Wednesday, however, a senior US official said Israel had indicated it would like to find “a new date to hold the meeting” on Rafah.
On the ground, fighting and bombings saw no respite.
Early Thursday, the Hamas health ministry reported at least 66 deaths in the Gaza Strip overnight, including in Israeli airstrikes.
This toll brings to 32,552 the number of people killed in the Gaza Strip, mainly women and children, since the start of Israeli retaliation against Hamas, according to the ministry.
The Israeli army, which accuses Hamas fighters of hiding in hospitals, continues its operations in the al-Chifa hospital complex in the northern Gaza City, saying it has “eliminated around 200 terrorists” in the area since on March 18.
Israeli troops “evacuated civilians, patients and medical teams to alternative medical facilities,” assures the army.
PHOTO SYLVIE HUSSON, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Map of the Gaza Strip with hospitals affected by continued Israeli military operations on March 27, 2024
” Eyes blinded ”
“Israeli forces forced men to strip down to their underwear […] I saw others blindfolded who had to follow a tank amid explosions,” said Karam Ayman Hathat, a 57-year-old Palestinian who lives in a building about a hundred meters from the hospital.
In Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, soldiers are carrying out operations in the area of Nasser and al-Amal hospitals, approximately one kilometer apart.
The Israeli army said Thursday it had killed dozens of fighters in the al-Amal area.
Ghazi Agha, 60, was in a tent in the Nasser hospital complex when the army asked the people there to evacuate him.
“They called us over a loudspeaker: ‘get out or we’ll bomb the buildings.’ I’ve dated dozens of people […] We heard explosions and gunfire all the time,” he said.
The Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. According to Israel, around 250 people have been kidnapped and 130 of them are still hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom have died.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas – which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union – and launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip where the Palestinian movement took power. in 2007.
Qatar – a mediator with Egypt and the United States – is hosting indirect negotiations this week between Israel and Hamas aimed at securing a multi-week truce in fighting coupled with an exchange of hostages and detained Palestinian prisoners by Israel.
Lack of water
While humanitarian aid by land, strictly controlled by Israel, arrives in trickles, several countries parachute supplies daily, especially in the north of the Gaza Strip where the situation is particularly desperate.
According to the UN agency for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha), only 3% of the aid entering the Palestinian territory between March 18 and 24 reached the north.
Despite the “enormous needs, hostilities and obstacles to access (to aid) continue to undermine efforts to deliver vital aid to civilians” in the Gaza Strip, OCHA deplored Thursday.
On a street in Rafah, Palestinians, including many children, lined up to fill their containers with drinking water.
“There is no (fresh) water in the school,” which has been transformed into a shelter, “that’s why we come here to stock up on water,” explains Ali al-Samouni, a displaced person from about fifty years.
“We walk for an hour (to fetch water). Sometimes we come back empty-handed,” laments Maram Abou Amra, a displaced person from Khan Younès.