Image Credit: OHAD ZWIGENBERG / Contributor / Getty 
On Wednesday the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel is obligated to allow the UN to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The ruling comes as Israel is blocking aid shipments in order to use starvation as a method of warfare. While forced hunger unfolds among the survivors in Gaza’s rubble, former Israeli officials, Jewish artists and intellectuals say the “unconscionable” actions in Gaza amount to genocide.
“As an occupying power, Israel is obliged to ensure the basic needs of the local population, including the supplies essential for their survival,” presiding judge Yuji Iwasawa said, adding that basic needs include food, water, shelter, fuel and medical services.
On Wednesday PBS News detailed the international legal attack against Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu for his Gaza genocide:
Wednesday opinion is separate from the ongoing proceedings initiated by South Africa, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel rejects South Africa’s claim and accuses it of providing political cover for Hamas.
Last year, another Hague-based tribunal, the International Criminal Court, issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, alleging that the pair have used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and have intentionally targeted civilians — charges that Israeli officials strongly deny.
Al Jazeera detailed how Israel is now using “starvation as a method of warfare” on Wednesday:
Court President Iwasawa says Israel cannot use starvation as a method of warfare.
“The court recalls Israel’s obligation not to use starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare,” said Iwasawa.
The UN General Assembly asked the court last year to give an advisory opinion on Israel’s legal obligations after the country effectively banned the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Wednesday’s ICJ ruling went over the prohibition of “starvation as a method of warfare” on page 47:
In August Tucker Carlson interviewed retired Green Beret Lt. Col. Tony Aguilar who discussed his experience working private security for food aid workers in Gaza. Aguilar said that the method Israel uses to feed the Palestinians (which he filmed and played on Tucker Carlson’s show) is by releasing thousands of Palestinians all at once into the feeding area while IDF soldiers and his former security company fire off live ammunition at the crowd to help ‘guide’ them to the food.
“It’s one of the most chaotic, deprived, dehumanizing things I have ever seen in my life,” Aguilar said of the feedings, going on to say that the feedings conclude with stun grenades and pepper spray.
The situation in Gaza has gotten so bad that an open letter by 450 Jewish signatories was published in Jews Demand Action calling on the secretary-general of the United Nations, national presidents, prime ministers, heads of states and permanent representatives to the United Nations to sanction Israel for their genocide of Gaza.
Some of the Jewish signatories include former speaker of the Israeli Knesset Avraham Burg, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, British author Michael Rosen, Canadian author Naomi Klein, Oscar-winning film-maker Jonathan Glazer, US actor Wallace Shawn, Emmy winners Ilana Glazer and Hannah Einbinder, and Pulitzer prize winner Benjamin Moser.
“We have not forgotten that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust. Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel. Accountability for the Israeli leadership’s grievous violations of international law is necessary,” the open letter reads.
