Thousands of aid trucks continue to sit outside of Gaza, waiting to be let in as part of the U.S.-brokered so-called ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. The United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel, as an occupying power, is obligated to allow aid into Gaza.
In an advisory opinion issued on Oct. 22, ICJ president and presiding Judge Iwasawa Yuji explained that international law prohibits Israel’s starving of Gaza’s civilian population as a method of warfare and said, “the local population in the Gaza Strip has been inadequately supplied.”
“Israel has (an) obligation under international human rights law to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights of the population of the occupied Palestinian territory,” he said. Part of the obligation is to ensure “that the population of the occupied Palestinian territory have the essential supplies of daily life, including food, water, clothing, bedding, shelter, fuel, medical supplies and services.”
Hamas welcomed the advisory opinion.
“The International Court of Justice’s decision prohibiting the use of starvation as a weapon of war confirms that the occupation, which deliberately starves Palestinians, is committing a form of genocide,” Hamas said in a statement posted via Telegram, translated into English.
Both Israel and the U.S. Department of State rejected the opinion, alleging that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), an agency that provides humanitarian aid to Palestinians, has been infiltrated by Hamas, a point the ICJ refuted.
UNRWA’s Gaza media advisor, Adnan Abu Hasna, reported that signs of starvation are still widespread in the Gaza Strip, with 95% of Palestinians suffering from famine.
If Israel adhered to its initial agreement on 600 trucks per day entering Gaza, 6,600 trucks would have entered between Oct. 10, when the so-called ceasefire went into effect, and Oct. 21. Instead, only 986 trucks had entered between those dates, according to Gaza’s government media office.
“Only 14 cooking gas trucks and 28 diesel fuel trucks entered Gaza since the ceasefire, despite the severe shortage of vital supplies due to the ongoing blockade and aggression,” the office said. “The limited amounts of aid do not meet Gaza’s minimum needs, and we demand a daily flow of no less than 600 trucks to provide food, medicine, and operating fuel.”
Israel has also continued its delay in opening the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which would allow the flow of aid, and has continued its attacks in the Gaza Strip.
Since the so-called ceasefire, between Oct. 11 and Oct. 23, Israel killed 89 people and injured 317, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The death toll since Oct. 7, 2023, had risen to 68,280, with 170,375 injured.
Several U.S. representatives traveled to Israel to meet with top Israeli officials the week of Oct. 20, including Vice President J.D. Vance; Steve Witkoff, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East; Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the U.S. Central Command’s newly established “Civil-Military Coordination Center” in Israel, which is reportedly “a main coordination hub for Gaza assistance,” also traveled to Israel.
During an Oct. 21 press conference, they discussed the role of the 200 U.S. troops in Israel, deceased Israeli captives and the disarming of Hamas. None of the U.S. officials mentioned Palestinian demands or their right to self-determination nor the threat Israel continues to pose to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
An advance, unedited report, released on Oct. 20 by Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, details the U.S.’s complicity in Israel’s two-year genocidal war on Gaza, along with other Western countries. The U.S. “used its veto power in the UN Security Council seven times, controlling ceasefire negotiations and providing diplomatic cover for the Israeli genocide;” “imposed sanctions to paralyze” the International Criminal Court; financially and militarily supported Israel; and assisted Israel in weaponizing aid distribution, the report noted.
Ms. Albanese criticized President Trump’s so-called peace plan for being silent on ending the occupation, for failing to ensure accountability and for imposing “a temporary mechanism of imperial foreign governance for Gaza that further undermines, rather than realizes, Palestinian self-determination.”
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor published preliminary statistics on Oct. 22, exposing “the devastating scope of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
According to the report:
· 12% of Gaza’s population is either killed, injured, missing or detained.
· 90% of people killed were civilians, including healthcare professionals, journalists, teachers, civil defense workers, academics and university professors and women and children.
· Since Oct. 13, 2023, 99% of the population was forcibly displaced at least once.
· 40,000 people will live with permanent or long-term disabilities, including 21,000 children;
· 482 people died of malnutrition, including 160 children.
· There was a 300% increase in miscarriage rates.
· 100% of the population has suffered psychological trauma.
In addition, women in Gaza are going without basic personal hygiene supplies, and people are taking shelter in destroyed buildings and ragtag tents by the side of the road, Andrew Saberton, the United Nations Population Fund’s deputy executive director for Management, said at an Oct. 22 press conference after visiting Gaza.
Starvation in Gaza includes 11,500 pregnant women, he said, adding that 1 in 3 pregnancies are high risk.
“We definitely need to see a permanent ceasefire, now, because only once the bombings and the firings stop can we start on the very long road to recovery,” he said.