People In Gaza Do Not Have The Luxury Of Waiting For The ICJ Process

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has begun advisory proceedings on the obligations of Israel as an occupying power to facilitate the entry of aid to Palestinians in Gaza, this decision however will take time. People in Gaza do not have that luxury.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has recently raised the alarm that the Gaza Strip is becoming a mass grave for Palestinians and those trying to provide aid to them.

Waiting for any kind of legal recourse to end Israel's intentional choking of aid, food and medicine into Gaza will condemn yet more Palestinians to avoidable death, while the world watches on impassively, doing nothing to avoid this indiscriminate and abhorrent cruelty.

The situation in the Gaza Strip is dire on every level. The Israeli authorities’ full ban on all humanitarian aid and supplies since 2 March is having deadly consequences for civilians in Gaza and is severely limiting our capacity as humanitarians and medical workers to respond in any meaningful or effective way.

Israeli authorities are not only using aid as a bargaining chip but as a weapon of war and a means of collective punishment for over 2 million people living in the Strip. MSF teams are witnessing shortages of medical supplies and food. States need to do more to pressure Israeli authorities into lifting the siege and letting aid enter the war-torn enclave at scale to prevent more suffering and death.”

Claire Nicolet, MSF Head of Emergencies

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