Latest news with #AmmarHijazi
Shafaq News
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Blockade dooms Gaza: Last food lifeline about to vanish
Shafaq News/ Community kitchens feeding Gaza's displaced are just days from closure amid a deepening aid blockade, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday. According to the UN agency, since Israeli forces cut off supplies in March, food prices in Gaza have soared by 1,400%. The number of operational kitchens has fallen from 170 to about 70, leaving tens of thousands at risk. Meanwhile, the Gaza Government Media Office accused Israel of exacerbating the suffering of Palestinian children through its ongoing blockade and military campaign, warning that the continued closure of Gaza's border crossings had caused a catastrophic collapse in health conditions, particularly among children and infants, and called for the immediate and unconditional reopening of crossings to allow vital humanitarian aid and medical supplies. The worsening humanitarian crisis has intensified international pressure, with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday opening hearings into Israel's legal obligations to facilitate humanitarian access. However, Israel rejected the proceedings, and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar described the case as "politicized." In turn, Palestinian Envoy Ammar Hijazi accused Israel of using starvation as a "weapon of war." Amid the escalating emergency, ceasefire talks mediated by Egypt and Qatar in Cairo are reportedly nearing a "significant breakthrough." Hamas has offered a long-term truce in exchange for a permanent end to hostilities, but Israel is demanding the unconditional release of hostages and the disarmament of Hamas. Gaza's Health Ministry said more than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began in October 2023, with thousands more believed to be buried under the rubble.
Egypt Independent
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Egypt Independent
Israel boycotts hearing at UN's top court on banning of aid agency for Palestinians
Jerusalem CNN — Israel on Monday boycotted a hearing at the United Nations' top court on its decision to ban a UN aid agency that has served millions of Palestinians since it was established in 1949. The hearings will look at Israel's obligations, both as a member of the United Nations and as an occupying power, toward the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The aid agency provides education, healthcare and social services to nearly six million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. The hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which began in The Hague on Monday following a request by the UN General Assembly, are scheduled to last all week, with 40 countries, including the United States, set to speak as part of the proceedings. The ICJ will issue an advisory opinion about Israel's obligations at a later stage, after the hearings conclude. The court's advisory opinions have no binding force, but they carry tremendous significance. They are 'often an instrument of preventive diplomacy and help to keep the peace,' according to the court. They also help interpret and shape international law. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar called it 'another shameful proceeding' designed to delegitimize his country. Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem in lieu of the hearing on Monday, Sa'ar accused UNRWA of being 'an organization that is infested with Hamas terrorists.' He said Israel had submitted its written position but would not take part in 'this circus.' UNRWA has repeatedly denied these accusations in the past, saying there is 'absolutely no ground for a blanket description of 'the institution as a whole' being 'totally infiltrated.'' At the opening of the hearings on Monday, the UN's legal counsel said Israel had a clear obligation as an occupying force to allow and facilitate humanitarian aid for Gazans. 'In the specific context of the current situation in the occupied Palestinian Territories, these obligations entail allowing all relevant UN entities to carry out activities for the benefit of the local population,' Elinor Hammarskjöld said. Ammar Hijazi, the Palestinian representative at the hearing, said 'there can be no doubt about the court's jurisdiction in these proceedings,' pointing to two previous ICJ cases involving Israel. Ammar Hijazi (R), ambassador and permanent representative of the Palestinian Authority to international organizations in the Netherlands, looks on as he attends the ICJ hearing. Robin Utrecht/ANP/AFP/Getty Images In January 2024, the ICJ ruled that Israel must take 'all measures' to prevent a genocide in Gaza. Then in June, it said in an advisory opinion that Israel's occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza is illegal. 'Israel is starving, killing and displacing Palestinians, while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organizations trying to save their lives,' Hijazi said. Amir Weissbord, an official with Israel's foreign ministry, claimed on Monday that '1,462 UNRWA workers in Gaza are confirmed terrorists,' which he said was based on intelligence. Israel has not provided evidence to support the accusation of such a high number. Weissbord said the number would be even higher once Israel began looking into UNRWA's female employees. After the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, Israel alleged that 12 of UNRWA's 14,000 staffers in Gaza were involved in the assault. A subsequent UN investigation found that nine employees 'may have' been involved in the attack. UNRWA said at the time that their contracts had been terminated. 'Campaign to discredit UNRWA' In October, Israel's parliament passed a law banning UNRWA from activity within Israel and revoking the 1967 treaty that allowed the agency to carry out its mission. The ban was expected to severely restrict UNRWA's ability to operate in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said at the time that the move violated international law and was 'the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role toward providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine refugees.' In early April, Israel raided six UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem, ordering them to close within 30 days. Lazzarini promised that the agency would not be cowed by Israel's actions. 'UNRWA is committed to stay & deliver education and other basic services to Palestine Refugees in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in accordance with the General Assembly resolution mandated to the Agency,' he said on social media. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been pushing to dismantle UNRWA well before the October 7 attacks, arguing that the agency perpetuates the Palestinian 'refugee problem.' UNRWA's definition of Palestinian refugees includes the descendants of those Palestinians who were forced out of their homes during Israel's creation in 1948. Israeli officials have rejected that definition, arguing that descendants don't qualify as refugees and thus don't have the right to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel.
Saba Yemen
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Palestine's Representative to International Court of Justice: Israel Uses Starvation as Weapon of War
Hague - Saba: Ammar Hijazi, the State of Palestine's representative to the International Court of Justice, stated that the Palestinian people are being starved, bombed, and displaced by Israel, asserting that Israel's highest court has authorized the denial of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The International Court of Justice opened a week of hearings to review Israel's humanitarian obligations towards the Palestinian people, more than fifty days after imposing a comprehensive blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid into the war-torn Gaza Strip. Facebook Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (International)
Daily Tribune
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Tribune
‘Weapon of war'
A top Palestinian official told the International Court of Justice yesterday that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza as a 'weapon of war', at the start of a week of hearings at the UN's top court. Israel is not participating at the ICJ but hit back immediately, dismissing the hearings as 'part of the systematic persecution and delegitimisation' of the country. The ICJ is hearing dozens of nations and organisations to draw up a so-called advisory opinion on Israel's humanitarian obligations to Palestinians, more than 50 days into its total blockage on aid entering war-ravaged Gaza. Top Palestinian official Ammar Hijazi told judges that '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. Storage facilities of the UN and other international agencies are empty,' added Hijazi. 'These are the facts. Starvation is here. Humanitarian aid is being used as a weapon of war,' concluded the Palestinian representative. In December, the UN's General Assembly asked the ICJ for an advisory opinion 'on a priority basis and with the utmost urgency'. The UN asked judges to clarify Israel's legal duties towards the UN and its agencies, international organisations or third-party states to 'ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population'. Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war.
Al Jazeera
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Live: Israel starving Gaza as obligations heard at ICJ
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has begun its second day of hearings into Israel's humanitarian obligations to Palestinians, more than 50 days into Israel's total blockage on aid entering the Gaza Palestinian official Ammar Hijazi has told judges that people are starving in Gaza where all UN-supported bakeries are shut as Israel uses humanitarian aid as 'a weapon of war', and nine of every 10 Palestinians have no access to safe drinking International, a global rights group, has accused Israel of committing a 'livestreamed genocide' against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian attacks have killed at least 48 Palestinians on Monday across Gaza, with a tent camp for displaced people south of al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis, being one of the main war on Gaza has killed at least 52,314 Palestinians and wounded 117,792 others, according to the enclave's Health Ministry. The Gaza Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive. Update: Date: 4m ago (06:45 GMT) Title: Amnesty accuses Israel of 'livestreamed genocide' against Gaza Palestinians Content: Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing a 'livestreamed genocide' against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe. Israeli forces in Gaza have violated the United Nations Genocide Convention with acts that include 'causing serious bodily or mental harm to civilians' and 'deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction', the human rights organisation said in its annual report. Israel has repeatedly 'denied, obstructed and failed to allow and facilitate' humanitarian access to Gaza, and invaded the southern city of Rafah, despite warnings by the international community and the International Court of Justice about the 'devastating effect it would have on the civilian population', it added. For the full report, read here. Update: Date: 9m ago (06:40 GMT) Title: Welcome to our live coverage Content: Hello, and thank you for joining our live coverage of Israel's war on Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Follow this page for round-the-clock updates on the latest developments. You can find all our updates from Monday, April 28, here.
