The UN’s top court said on Wednesday that Israel must allow UN bodies, including the agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza, and ensure locals have access to the “essential supplies of daily life”.
The advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice was requested last year by the UN General Assembly after Israel passed laws that in effect banned UNRWA — which was for years the leading provider of aid in Gaza — from operating in the devastated Palestinian enclave.
“As an occupying power, Israel is obliged to ensure the basic needs of the local population, including the supplies essential for their survival,” the court said, adding that the UN, through UNRWA, had been an “indispensable provider of humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip”.