Miami Herald

Rights group accuses Israel of blocking aid to Palestinia­ns, violating court order

- BY WAFAA SHURAFA, TIA GOLDENBERG AND KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press

RAFAH, GAZA STRIP

Israel has failed to comply with an order by the United Nations’ top court to provide urgently needed aid to desperate people in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch said Monday, a month after a landmark ruling in The Hague ordered Israel to moderate its war.

In a preliminar­y response to a South African petition accusing Israel of genocide, the U.N.’s top court ordered Israel to do all it could to prevent death, destructio­n and any acts of genocide in the tiny Palestinia­n enclave.

It stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive that has triggered a humanitari­an catastroph­e.

Israel denies the charges against it, saying it is fighting in self-defense.

Nearly five months into the war, preparatio­ns are underway for Israel to expand its ground operation into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmo­st town, which lies on the border with Egypt. Some 1.4 million Palestinia­ns have sought safety in Rafah.

Early Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the army had presented to the war cabinet its operationa­l plan for Rafah as well as plans to evacuate civilians from the battle zones. It gave no further details.

The situation in Rafah has sparked global concern.

Allies of Israel have warned that it must protect civilians in its battle against the Hamas militant group.

Also Monday, Palestinia­n Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh submitted his government’s resignatio­n, and President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to appoint technocrat­s in line with U.S. demands for internal reform. The U.S. has called for a revitalize­d Palestinia­n Authority to govern postwar Gaza ahead of eventual statehood — a scenario Israel rejects.

In its Jan. 26 ruling, the Internatio­nal Court of Justice ordered Israel to adopt six provisiona­l measures, including taking “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitari­an assistance” to Gaza.

Israel also was ordered to submit within a month a report on what it was doing to adhere to the measures. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said late Monday that it has filed such a report. It declined to share it or discuss its contents.

Israel said 245 trucks of aid entered Gaza on Sunday. That’s less than half the amount of aid that entered daily before the war.

Human Rights Watch, citing U.N. figures, noted a 30% drop in the daily average number of aid trucks entering Gaza in the weeks following the court’s ruling. It said that between Jan. 27 and Feb. 21, the daily average of trucks entering was 93 vs. 147 trucks a day in the three weeks before the ruling.

The daily average dropped to 57 between Feb. 9 and 21, the figures showed.

The rights group said Israel was not adequately facilitati­ng fuel deliveries to hard-hit northern Gaza and accused Israel of blocking aid from reaching the north, where the World Food Program said last week it was forced to suspend aid deliveries.

“The Israeli government has simply ignored the court’s ruling and in some ways even intensifie­d its repression,” said

Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch.

The Associatio­n of Internatio­nal Developmen­t Agencies, a coalition of over 70 humanitari­an organizati­ons working in Gaza and the West Bank, said almost no aid had reached areas in Gaza north of Rafah since the court’s ruling.

Israel denies it is restrictin­g the entry of aid and has instead blamed humanitari­an organizati­ons operating in Gaza, saying large aid shipments sit idle on the Palestinia­n side of the main crossing. The U.N. says it can’t always reach the crossing because it is at times too dangerous.

In some cases, crowds of desperate Palestinia­ns have surrounded delivery trucks and stripped them of supplies.

The U.N. has called on Israel to open more crossings, including in the north, and to improve the process.

Netanyahu’s office said the war cabinet had approved a plan to deliver humanitari­an aid safely into Gaza in a way that would “prevent the cases of looting.” It did not disclose details.

The war, launched after Hamas-led militants rampaged across southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 people hostage, has caused vast devastatio­n in Gaza.

Nearly 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguis­h in its count between fighters and noncombata­nts. Israel says it has killed 10,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Fighting has flattened large stretches of Gaza’s urban landscape, displacing about 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people, who have crammed into increasing­ly smaller spaces looking for elusive safety.

The crisis has pushed a quarter of the population toward starvation and raised fears of imminent famine, especially in the northern part of Gaza, the first focus of Israel’s ground invasion. Starving residents have been forced to eat animal fodder and search for food in demolished buildings.

“I wish death for the children because I cannot get them bread. I cannot feed them. I cannot feed my own children!” Naim Abouseido shouted as he waited for aid in Gaza City. “What did we do to deserve this?”

Bushra Khalidi with the U.K. aid organizati­on Oxfam told The Associated Press that Oxfam had verified reports that children have died of starvation in the north in recent weeks, which she said indicated that aid was not being scaled up despite the court ruling.

Aid groups say deliveries also continue to be hobbled by security problems.

The French aid groups Médecins du Monde and Doctors Without Borders each said their facilities were struck by Israeli forces in the weeks following the U.N. court order.

 ?? GIL COHEN Xinhua/Sipa USA/USA TODAY NETWORK ?? Israeli troops are seen in southern Israel near the border with Gaza Strip on Sunday.
GIL COHEN Xinhua/Sipa USA/USA TODAY NETWORK Israeli troops are seen in southern Israel near the border with Gaza Strip on Sunday.

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