South Africa asks ICJ to demand Israel allow food aid to Gazans
Mar 08, 2024
Amsterdam [Netherlands], March 8: South Africa has filed an urgent application with the UN's International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the devastated Gaza Strip, citing the threat of famine.
South Africa said it went back to the ICJ to request the emergency measure in light of the "widespread starvation" in the Palestinian territory, according to statement from the court in The Hague.
In the statement, South Africa accuses Israel of "continuing egregious breaches of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide." South Africa lamented that at least 15 children died of starvation last week.
At the end of December, South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice, accusing it of violating the Genocide Convention during ongoing Gaza war. In an interim ruling, the UN court ordered Israel to take protective measures to prevent genocide.
In response to increasingly harsh criticism from other countries due to the catastrophic supply situation in the Gaza Strip, Israel asserted on Wednesday that more aid was arriving in the coastal strip than before the war began.
Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that "more food trucks are entering Gaza every day than before Hamas started this war." An infographic in his post said that in the past two weeks, an average of 102 food shipments arrived in the Gaza Strip every day. That compared to 70 trucks per day before October 7, according to the post. Levy's figures could not be immediately verified.
"There are no limits on the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter the Gaza Strip," Levy said in a video posted on X. "I repeat: none," he said.
Nevertheless, the situation of the people in the Gaza Strip is becoming increasingly desperate and, according to the UN, there is a threat of famine if the aid deliveries by lorry are not increased.
Around 2.2 million people live in the Gaza Strip.
Source: Qatar Tribune
