ICJ says Israel’s Gaza occupation “violates international law”
The UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Gaza — as well as other Palestinian territories — “illegal” on July 19th, urging it to end as soon as possible, The New Arab and agencies reported.
While the opinions of the Hague-based 15-judge panel is not binding, it comes amidst rising international pressure on Israel to lessen its violence throughout the Gaza Strip.
The statement also condemned new settlement plans: “Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” read President Nawaf Salam. The judges called for “the evacuation of all settlers from existing settlements.”
READ: NGOs accuse Israel of “siege tactics” to block Gaza aid
The panel’s statement follows UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s urging Israel to “change course” on its plans for the West Bank, saying that doing so would drive “a stake through the heart of any prospect for a two-state solution.”
July 19th’s statement was met with outrage from Israeli officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu followed up with a statement that read, “The Jewish nation cannot be an occupier in its own land.”
Israeli forces have recently targeted a series of schools-turned-shelters throughout Gaza. On July 14th, a strike killed 40 Palestinians in the UN-run Abu Oraiban school, located in central Gaza’s Nuseirat Refugee Camp. Israel claimed that the institution functioned as a “Hamas compound.”
The New Arab and agencies
