Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is to issue an advisory opinion on Israel’s legal obligations to UN agencies and other international organizations operating in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The UN High Court received a request from the General Assembly late last year after Israel’s parliament passed laws banning any activity by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (Unrwa) on Israeli territory and contact with Israeli officials.
Israel accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas. The agency denied the allegation, insisting it was impartial.
The ICJ was asked to include in its opinion Israel’s obligation to allow the unimpeded delivery of essential supplies to the Palestinians.
Israel tightened its blockade of Gaza after the start of its war with Hamas two years ago and has since restricted – and sometimes completely stopped – the entry of food and other aid to the population of 2.1 million.
Ahead of this month’s ceasefire agreement, UN-backed global experts estimated that more than 640,000 people faced catastrophic levels of food insecurity and that there was an “entirely man-made” famine in Gaza City. Israel rejected the findings, insisting it allows enough food. He also accuses Hamas of stealing aid.
The ICJ’s panel of international judges was asked to clarify two issues in the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in December.
First, whether Israel’s ban on Unrwa violates UN conventions guaranteeing the independence of UN agencies.
And second, whether Israel’s restrictions on the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza violate international humanitarian law, including its obligations as an occupying power to protect civilians.
Although the opinion will be a non-binding legal clarification, it carries considerable moral and diplomatic weight.
At the start of the hearings in The Hague in April, UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Eleanor Hammarskjöld told the court that as the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel’s obligations included “allowing and facilitating all relevant UN organizations to carry out their activities for the benefit of the local population”.
These activities include relief schemes such as providing food items as well as child care and education and maintaining medical services, she said.
She also argued that, as a UN member state, Israel has legal obligations under UN conventions to maintain the privileges and immunities of the UN and its premises, property, assets and personnel in order for it to function properly and fulfill its mandates.
“When key elements of this legal framework are not respected, the very nature of the organization’s work on behalf of its member states is at risk,” she warned.
Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, legal adviser to the Palestinian government, said that “Israel’s violations of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, its attacks on the United Nations and UN staff, properties and premises, its deliberate obstruction of the work of the organization and its attempt to destroy an entire UN subsidiary body, are unprecedented.”
Israel considers this EC procedure a “political circus” and “abuse of international law and institutions”.
He filed a written statement saying the court’s involvement undermined his rights to self-defense and counter-terrorism under international law.
“No state is expected to accept or facilitate serious risk to its citizens and territory. On the contrary, international law prescribes the right and duty of a state to act to protect its existence, its territory and its people,” the statement said.
It also argued that there are no obligations for a UN member state to cooperate with a UN agency or respect its immunities “when the legitimate security concerns of a member state are seriously undermined by the agency in question.”
Unrwa – the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza, with 12,000 Palestinian staff – has disputed Israel’s claim that it knowingly has Hamas members in its ranks or that it has cooperated with the militant group.
The UN said last year it had dismissed nine of Unrwa’s staff members in Gaza after investigators found evidence that they may have been involved in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken back to Gaza as hostages.
Another 10 Unrwa staff were dismissed for lack of sufficient evidence.
Israel also claimed that hundreds of UNRWA staff were members of banned terrorist groups, but an independent review commissioned by the UN found that it had not provided evidence to support its claim.
Since the Israeli laws took effect in January, Unrwa says its Palestinian staff have continued to provide aid and education, health care and other services to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. However, the agency says Israel has banned it from delivering aid to Gaza and has stopped issuing visas to UNrwa’s international staff.
Unrwa says at least 309 of its staff and 72 people supporting the agency’s activities have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza. The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory says Israeli attacks during the conflict have killed a total of at least 68,229 people.
This is the first formal legal inquiry into whether a UN member state can legally exclude a UN agency from its territory.
This hearing is therefore about much more than Unrwa: it is about whether the international system can still enforce its own rules when a major UN member state challenges the legitimacy of the UN institutions operating under its leadership.
