Live: ICJ hearings on legality of Israel barring UNRWA operations - Day 1

Key Concepts

• Oral proceedings
• Written statements
• Obligations of Israel as an occupying power
• International humanitarian law
• Fourth Geneva Convention
• Relief schemes
• United Nations Charter
• Privileges and immunities of the United Nations
• Inviability of United Nations premises
• Obligation of cooperation with the United Nations
• Right to self-determination of the Palestinian people
• Starvation as a method of warfare
• International Criminal Court (ICC)
• UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency)

Oral Proceedings and Participants

• The court is holding oral proceedings related to a request for an advisory opinion.
• Participants, including states and international organizations, were informed of the list of participants and provided access to written statements via a web portal.
• The schedule of hearings was communicated to participants and member states of the United Nations and posted on the court's website.
• Speaking time allocations: Palestine (3 hours), Egypt (45 minutes), other participants (30 minutes).

Accessibility of Written Statements

• Written statements submitted to the court are made accessible to the public.
• Statements from states not participating in oral proceedings are available from the first day.
• Statements from participating states and organizations are available at the end of their presentation day.

Procedure for Questions from the Court

• Questions from members of the court will be asked at the close of the hearings on the afternoon of Friday 2nd May 2025.
• Written questions will be transmitted to participants by the registrar.
• Written replies are due by Wednesday 7 May 2025 at 6 p.m.
• No written comments on the replies are envisaged.

United Nations Presentation

• Elenor Hammershaw, legal counsel of the United Nations, presented on behalf of the Secretary-General.
• The Secretary-General is focused on alleviating human suffering in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.
• The UN condemns the acts of terror by Hamas and calls for the release of hostages.
• No humanitarian aid or commercial goods have been allowed into Gaza since March 2nd, leading to devastating consequences.
• 295 United Nations personnel have died in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.
• The presentation focuses on the obligations of the state of Israel, while reiterating that all parties must comply with international law.

Obligations of Israel as an Occupying Power

• Administer the territory for the benefit of the local population.
• Agree to and facilitate relief schemes.
• Facilitate the proper working of institutions devoted to the care and education of children.
• Maintain medical and hospital establishments and services, including those set up by United Nations entities.
• Respect the decisions of the representative of the Palestinian people to receive basic goods and services from the United Nations entities in order to fully enjoy their right to self-determination.
• Render assistance to the activities of the United Nations.

Scope of Relief Schemes (Article 59, Fourth Geneva Convention)

• Article 59 requires the occupying power to agree to and facilitate relief schemes if the population is inadequately supplied.
• Relief schemes are not limited to items urgently needed for survival.
• Examples include food, medical supplies, and clothing, but the list is not exhaustive.
• The content of relief schemes depends on the needs of the population and can evolve over time.
• Relief schemes can include items essential for the construction and repair of infrastructure, including medical and sanitation facilities.

Limitations on the Authority of the Occupying Power

• The occupying power's authority must be exercised consistently with international humanitarian law.
• Security measures must not deny impartial humanitarian organizations the ability to carry out relief schemes.
• Concerns about the impartiality of a humanitarian organization must be addressed in consultation with the organization.

Protection of Humanitarian, Medical, and United Nations Personnel

• These personnel must be respected and protected.
• Attacks may not be directed against them as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians.
• All feasible precautions must be taken to avoid incidental casualties.
• They must be treated humanely and not subjected to harassment or intimidation.
• United Nations personnel have particular status under the Charter and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.
• They may not be attacked, arrested, detained, or subjected to legal process in connection with their official functions.

Israel's Obligations as a Member of the United Nations

• States are prohibited from acquiring territory by force.
• The court has determined that Israel is not entitled to sovereignty over any part of the occupied Palestinian territory.
• The enactment of the law to cease UNRWA operations appears to constitute an extension of sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory.
• The status of Israel as a member of the United Nations entails legal obligations concerning the presence and activities of the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territory.
• These obligations are essential for the organization to properly function and perform its mandates.

Inviability of United Nations Premises

• Article 2, section 3 of the General Convention provides that the premises of the United Nations will be inviable.
• Property and assets of the United Nations are immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation, and any other form of interference.
• State agents may not enter or physically interfere with United Nations premises without prior consent.
• The state has a duty to prevent United Nations premises from being entered, damaged, or interfered with by other actors.
• There are no stated qualifications or limitations on inviability in the General Convention.

General Principles of Cooperation with the United Nations

• Member states have committed to combining their efforts to accomplish the aims of the organization.
• All members shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the Charter.
• All members shall give the United Nations every assistance in every action it takes in accordance with the Charter.
• Member states are required to provide every assistance to United Nations entities to ensure the effective implementation of their mandates.

Impartiality of United Nations Entities

• The United Nations considers seriously any credible allegations against the organization.
• Concerns must be brought to the attention of the organization for consideration.
• The organization has established a framework to address and investigate specific allegations.
• The ability of the United Nations to inquire into allegations depends on the full cooperation of member states.
• The Secretary-General appointed Kathine Koluna to lead an independent review to assess UNRWA's neutrality.

Palestine Presentation

• Ambassador Amal Hijazi presented on behalf of Palestine.
• The Palestinian people are being starved, bombed, and forcibly displaced by Israel.
• Israel has not allowed food, water, medicine, and medical supplies or fuel into Gaza for the past two months.
• 59 Palestinian children have died of starvation.
• The presentation will present evidence on the consequences of Israel's unlawful policy on Palestine and its people.
• Israel's prohibited conduct extends to the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
• The target of these actions is the permanent annexation of the Palestinian territory and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

Context of Deliberations

• Israel has been systematically dispossessing, uprooting, slaughtering, and imprisoning Palestinians for eight years.
• The intent is to destroy the Palestinian people and thwart the realization of self-determination.
• Israel has waged a campaign of erasure against Palestinian people.
• The court issued provisional measures ordering Israel to ensure the unimpeded flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, but Israel did not comply.
• The court ruled that Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and must come to an end, but Israel defied this ruling.
• The ICC issued arrest warrants for the prime minister of Israel and his former minister of war.
• Israel is an unlawful occupying power standing trial for genocide.

Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza

• UNICEF says Israel's onslaught has killed and injured 100 Palestinian children in Gaza every day since 18 March 2025.
• Israel's genocidal campaign has turned Gaza into the home of the largest cohort of child amputees per capita in the world.
• Israel's genocidal campaign has also targeted UN and other humanitarian workers and organizations in Gaza.
• Israel is starving, killing, and displacing Palestinians while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organizations trying to save their lives.
• These crimes aim to hasten the forcible transfer and destruction of Palestinian people.
• Life expectancy in Gaza has been slashed in half since the onset of the genocide.

Targeting of Life in Gaza

• Israel began engineering food deprivation in Gaza 19 years ago.
• Since October 2023, the blockade has progressively turned into a total siege.
• The office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights said this siege is creating conditions that were incompatible with sustaining life.
• Starvation is here, and humanitarian aid is being used as a weapon of war.
• All UN-supported bakeries in Gaza have been forced to shut their doors.
• Nine of every 10 Palestinians have no access to safe drinking water.
• More than 12,500 wounded Palestinians now require medical evacuation.
• Israel continues to repeatedly forcibly displace and starve the Palestinian population in Gaza.
• Israel has waged a war on hospitals in Gaza, bombing them, laying siege to them, burning them, or leveling them to the ground.
• Israeli occupation forces have killed over 1,400 doctors, nurses, and other health workers.

Situation in the West Bank

• Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians, including children, was record-breaking for three years in a row before 2023.
• Since the beginning of the year, Israel launched a military assault in the West Bank unprecedented since 1967.
• Israeli occupation forces have demolished, raised, and burned the refugee camps in Janine and Tulkarim.
• The ward foot program reports a near 100% increase in Palestinians in need of food aid in the West Bank.

Core Argument

• It is not about the number of aid trucks Israel is allowing into Gaza.
• It is about Israel destroying the fundamentals of life in Palestine while it blocks UN and other humanitarians from providing life-saving aid.
• It is about Israel unraveling fundamental principles of international law.
• It is about Israel turning Palestine in particularly Gaza into a mass grave for Palestinians and those coming to their aid.

Paul Reichler Presentation

• Mr. Paul Reichler addressed Israel's legal obligations under international humanitarian law and the rules of international law set out in the court's advisory opinion of 19th July 2024.
• He also discussed Israel's legal obligations under overlapping rules of international humanitarian law and international criminal law.

Situation on the Ground

• On March 1, 2025, Israel announced that it would unilaterally end the six-week ceasefire and resume aerial bombardment and other armed attacks against Gaza.
• On March 2, the office of the prime minister announced that the entry of all goods and supplies to the Gaza Strip would be halted.
• Israel's Minister of Defense made clear that the cruel enemy was not just Hamas but the entire civilian population of Gaza.
• All humanitarian assistance intended for the civilian population of Gaza has been blocked by Israel since March 2.
• On March 9, Israel's energy minister signed an order to cut off electricity to Gaza.

Violations of International Humanitarian Law

• Israel has flagrantly violated its obligations under the fourth Geneva Convention and additional protocol one.
• These obligations include:
  • The obligation under article 55 of the fourth Geneva Convention to ensure the provision of food and medical supplies to the population.
  • The obligation under article 56 of the convention to ensure and maintain medical and hospital establishments and services, public health, and hygiene in the occupied territory.
• Israel has been violating these obligations for many years, most egregiously since October 2023.
• On October 9, 2023, Israel announced a complete siege of the Gaza Strip, cutting off essential resources and the movement of goods.
• The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry found that Israel has weaponized the withholding of life-sustaining necessities.
• Israel ignored Security Council resolutions and its orders on provisional measures in the case brought by South Africa.

Israel's Argument and the ICRC Commentary

• Israel argues that its defense and security concerns justify its refusal to allow humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilian population.
• Under article 59 of the fourth Geneva Convention, the occupying power shall agree to relief schemes and facilitate them by all the means at its disposal.
• The ICRC commentary on article 59 explains that the obligation on the occupying power to accept such relief is unconditional.
• All contracting parties shall permit the free passage of these consignments and shall guarantee their protection.
• The ICRC commentary explains that these obligations apply to any state that is enforcing a blockade and specifies that the consignments cannot be declared war contraband.

Israel's Legal Obligations Under General International Law

• Israel has no sovereignty and may not exercise sovereign powers in the occupied Palestinian territory.
• Its presence there is unlawful and must be terminated as rapidly as possible.
• Israel has an obligation to facilitate and not to impede the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
• Third states and the United Nations are legally obligated not to accept the Israeli presence in the OPT as lawful or to contribute to its maintenance and must work to bring it to an end.
• They have an urga omnous obligation to support the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

Consequences for the Present Proceedings

• Israel has no legal authority to impede humanitarian goods and services from entering or circulating within the Gaza Strip.
• Israel's prevention of humanitarian assistance from entering Gaza also violates its obligation not to impede the Palestinian people from exercising its right of self-determination.
• Israel's prevention of humanitarian assistance from other states and the United Nations violates its duty not to prevent them from fulfilling their urga omnis obligations to support and facilitate the exercise of self-determination by the Palestinian people.

Starvation as a Method of Warfare

• This practice, which Israel deliberately employs against the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, is unlawful under both article 541 of additional protocol 1 and the Rome statute.
• The International Criminal Court has charged Prime Minister Netanyahu and former defense minister Galant with the war crime of starvation.

Dr. Ardmis Presentation

• Dr. Ardmis addressed the legal obligations specifically in relation to UNRWA.
• He also discussed the legal consequences of Israel's violations of its obligations with respect to the provision of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian civilian population and the exercise of the right to self-determination.

Israel's Actions and Objectives

• Israel destroys homes and hospitals, vital infrastructure, and humanitarian projects.
• Israel blocks assistance to the Palestinian people, including items indispensable to the survival of the population.
• Israel attacks humanitarians, killing those trying to save lives.
• The answer is deeply linked to this court's 2024 advisory opinion.
• Israel seeks to entrench its unlawful presence, deny the Palestinian people their right to self-determination, dispossess and destroy them, and colonize and annex their land.
• Israeli officials have been clear that they consider nobody in Gaza to be innocent.
• They are seeking to end the Palestinian presence in the land.
• Netanyahu has said unambiguously that he will not allow the exercise by the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination.
• The Israeli courts shielded those committing all these crimes.

Consequences of Israel's Actions

• Most of the humanitarian and development projects destroyed by Israel in the West Bank were the ones intended for communities in East Jerusalem and in the so-called area C.
• Israel destroyed in Gaza all the requirements for the Palestinian people's lives and for their very survival, including hospitals and schools, shelters, bakeries, farmlands, and water and sanitation facilities.
• Israel bombs and kills the humanitarians who are trying to assist an entire civilian population to survive.
• Israel deprives the population of any assistance, so they have no means to survive the devastation, death, and destruction imposed on them by Israel's relentless bombardment.
• After having killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, Netanyahu calls for the voluntary migration of the survivors.

The UN Charter and the Palestinian People

• At the heart of the UN charter, there is a pledge to save successive generations from the scourge of war.
• Successive Palestinian generations were left to endure wars and occupation.
• This Palestinian generation is being killed.
• This genocide is live-streamed and it continues with no end.

The Denial of Humanitarian Aid

• People fleeing bombardment and displaced time and time again, coping with terrible loss, are denied aid that is almost within grasp.
• They are starving while food rots.
• They are dying of wounds that could be healed.
• They are succumbing to disease that could be prevented.

The Need for Justice

• Why did humanity enact rules if those who are entitled to their protection are left in harm's way and those who should be held responsible for their beings among the rules?
• The rules considered the most sacred in the international order are the prohibition of aggression, the prohibition of genocide, the prohibition of crimes against humanity, the prohibition of racial discrimination, the prohibition of torture, and respect for the basic rules of international humanitarian law.
• There can be no justification for such indiscriminate, widespread, and systematic breach of these fundamental rules.
• Denying humanitarian and development assistance to the Palestinian people is an integral part of the breach by Israel of the rights of the Palestinian people guaranteed by these fundamental norms.
• It is paramount that the court remind all states and the international community as a whole of their obligation to bring those breaches to an end.

The Path Forward

• What is the path towards upholding the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, to development, and even to life?
• That would allow all other assistance to reach them or, better still, ensure that they will no longer be in need of such assistance.
• The Palestinian people do not lack the resources, and they certainly do not lack the human capital.
• As long as the Palestinian people stop being killed and Israel annexes their land, it kills, dispossesses, and displaces to destroy them.
• It steals their resources and revenues.
• It fragments their threat.
• It severely restricts their movement and access.

UNRWA

• UNRWA is the shining example of the success of multilateralism at the UN.
• It is a remarkable organization catering to the needs of six million Palestinian Palestine refugees.
• It is an organization that should be protected from a UN member state openly destroying an entire people.

Alternative Vision

• There is an alternative vision where the law is upheld, where no civilian is harmed, where there are no prisoners and no hostages, no occupation and no wars, where families are reunited in life rather than death, where the Palestinian people are finally free, and where two states live side by side in peace and security.
• That alternative vision is why humanity enacted rules and established courts to bend the ark of the moral universe towards justice.

Conclusion

The oral proceedings before the court highlight the dire humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in Gaza, and the legal obligations of Israel as an occupying power and as a member of the United Nations. The presentations emphasized Israel's violations of international humanitarian law, including the deliberate obstruction of humanitarian aid, the targeting of civilians and humanitarian workers, and the denial of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination. The speakers called on the court to issue an advisory opinion that upholds international law and ensures accountability for these violations, ultimately paving the way for a just and lasting peace in the region.