ICJ orders “Israel” to ensure unhindered flow of aid to Gaza

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Thursday that “Israel” must guarantee that its occupation forces (IOF) do not violate Palestinians’ rights in the Gaza Strip.

According to the ICJ press release, this should be done with “immediate effect,” citing that no violation of any of the rights of Palestinians should occur as they are a “protected group under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, including by preventing, through any action, the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance.”

Aid groups estimate only about a fifth of the supplies needed are entering Gaza as “Israel” continues its air and ground onslaught, which has so far killed over 32,000 Palestinians and injured over 74,694. 

The ICJ cited that in light of the “worsening conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza,” the Israelis are to ensure that without delay and in full cooperation there is “unhindered provision” of ” urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance, including food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements,” in addition to medical supplies and care in Gaza “including by increasing the capacity and number of land crossing points and maintaining them open for as long as necessary.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces continue to assassinate members of the clan committees that provide assistance and aid to the people of Gaza for their refusal to cooperate with the Israeli regime.

The Supreme Council for Palestinian Clan Affairs said that the IOF assassinated several clan committee members at the Kuwaiti Roundabout while they were waiting to receive humanitarian aid to organize its distribution to hunger-stricken civilians in the northern Gaza Strip.

The assassinations “express the extent of the fascist occupation’s anger toward Palestine and also express the extent of its helplessness and failure to undermine the unity of the Palestinian internal front.”

Read more: Israeli plot puts anti-Hamas Palestinians in charge of Gaza, aid: Leak

Hamas, UN demand aid via land crossings after 12 Palestinians drowned

Twelve Palestinians drowned while attempting to collect aid dropped by plane off a Gaza beach, Palestinian health officials reported on Tuesday, amid rising worries of starvation almost six months into the Israeli war on Gaza.

Reuters received footage of the airdrop, which showed crowds rushing toward the beach in Beit Lahia, north Gaza, while boxes with parachutes floated down, followed by people knee-deep in water and bodies being hauled onto the sand. 

Following the tragedy, Hamas, in a statement, called for “an immediate end to airdrop operations” and “the immediate and rapid opening of land crossings to allow humanitarian aid to reach our Palestinian people.”

UNICEF said vastly more aid must be rushed into Gaza by road, rather than air or sea, to avert “this imminent famine.”

Food aid is usually only airdropped in crises where “people are cut off for hundreds of kilometers,” said UNICEF spokesman James Elder, speaking via video link from Gaza.

But “the lifesaving aid they need is a matter of kilometers away”, he said, as trucks loaded with aid have been waiting across Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.

This is the most recent in a series of instances, apart from deliberate Israeli shooting, involving deaths while Gazans attempt to reach aid in the tiny, cramped area where some residents forage for plants and bake barely edible bread from animal feed to survive.

Footage showed the corpse of a bearded young man being dragged onto the beach, his eyes open but still, and another man attempting to resuscitate him with chest compressions while someone muttered, “It’s over.”