The ICJ highlights the catastrophic consequences that Israel's restrictions on emergency aid - with a total blockade between March 2 and May 18 - have had for the civilian population in Gaza.
The court assesses that Israel has an obligation to agree to and facilitate emergency aid delivered by the UN and its agencies, including Unrwa, said Chief Judge Yuji Iwasawa.
The UN aid organization for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, has long played a crucial role in meeting the basic needs of the people of Gaza, the court notes.
After blocking the work of the UN agency in Gaza, Israel has not fulfilled its obligation to ensure that the civilian population is provided with sufficient emergency aid, ICJ adds.
"Not pick and choose"
The court assesses that Israel has not been able to prove its allegations that a large number of Unrwa employees had Hamas connections.
Israel rejects the court's conclusions.
"This is another politicized attempt to push through political actions against Israel under the guise of 'international law'," writes Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein on X.
Today's "advisory" opinion on Israel's obligations as an occupying power is not binding, but ICJ is generally attributed great legal weight and authority.
We cannot allow states to pick and choose where the UN should do its job. The advisory opinion is a very important opportunity to strengthen that, said Mike Becker, an expert on international humanitarian law at Trinity College in Dublin, to the news agency AP when the negotiations began in April.
Accused of terrorist connections
The ICJ's ruling comes at the request of the UN General Assembly, which in December last year asked the court for an so-called "advisory opinion" on Israel's obligations to provide Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank with emergency aid.
Israel has consistently denied all violations of international law and sought to justify its Gaza blockade by claiming that Hamas has plundered emergency aid and sold the goods at inflated prices.
Israel has long accused Unrwa of having ties to the terrorist-listed Hamas. In the UN's own investigation, it emerged that nine Unrwa employees may have been involved in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The nine were dismissed.
The United States has expressed strong support for Israel's position.
In the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, a legal process has been ongoing since December 2023 in which South Africa accuses Israel of genocide. It is completely separate from today's opinion from ICJ.
In late May last year, ICJ ordered Israel in an interim opinion to immediately stop military actions against Rafah in southern Gaza and to keep border crossings open for aid shipments.
Israel did not follow the court's ruling and has rejected South Africa's allegations. A final judgment in the UN court may take several years.
According to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide from 1948, countries are obliged to act already when there is a risk of genocide, to prevent such from occurring. The Convention, which Sweden has signed, does not require a court to have established that genocide has occurred for the outside world to act.
In parallel, the International Criminal Court (ICC), also in The Hague, has issued international arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and now deceased leaders within Hamas. The allegations concern war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Sources: ICJ, ICC, UN
