Middle East crisis live: Israel has turned Gaza into a ‘mass grave’, top UN court hears
Israel has turned Gaza into a ‘mass grave’ and is destroying the ‘fundamentals of life in Palestine’ – top UN court hears
Ammar Hijazi, who is Palestine’s ambassador to the Netherlands, has addressed the court in oral arguments. Here are some of his main points. Hijazi, who says he stands before the ICJ on behalf of the persecuted people (Palestinians) fighting to survive in Gaza, said:
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Israel is unravelling “fundamental principles of international law” including its obligations under the UN charter.
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Israel is turning Palestine – particularly Gaza – into a “mass grave” for Palestinians and rescue workers.
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The World Food Programme reports a near 100% increase of Palestinians’ in need of food aid in the occupied West Bank. “Impeding the presence and activities of the UN and the international organisations must be viewed in the context of erasure and forced displacement,” Hijazi said.
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Israeli occupation has demolished refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarm, forcibly displacing more than 40,000 Palestinians. “Israel has announced the displaced will not be allowed to return,” Hijazi siad.
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Israel is destroying the “fundamentals of life in Palestine” while it blocks UN and other humanitarian organisations from providing “life saving aid” to the population.
Key events
Iran accuses Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to dictate US policy in nuclear talks
Tehran has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to dictate US policy in negotiations after the Israeli prime minister repeated calls for Iran’s entire nuclear infrastructure to be dismantled.
The US and Iran have so far held three rounds of indirect talks, mediated by Oman, aimed at sealing a deal that would block Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but also lift crippling economic sanctions imposed by Washington.
After talks in Rome earlier this month, Oman said that the US and Iran were pursuing an accord that would see Tehran “completely free” of nuclear weapons and sanctions but “maintaining its ability to develop peaceful nuclear energy”.
Netanyahu said the only “good deal” would be one that removed “all of the infrastructure” akin to the 2003 agreement that Libya made with the west that saw it give up its nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programmes.
In a post on X on Monday, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi wrote:
Israel’s fantasy that it can dictate what Iran may or may not do is so detached from reality that it hardly merits a response.
What is striking, however, is how brazenly Netanyahu is now dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran…
Let me be clear: Iran is strong and confident enough in its capabilities to thwart any attempt by malicious external actors to sabotage its foreign policy or dictate its course. We can only hope our US counterparts are equally steadfast.
Many Iranians no longer believe the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the existing nuclear deal) is sufficient. They seek tangible dividends.
Nothing Netanyahu’s Allies in the Failed Biden Team say or do will change this reality. There is no military option, and certainly no military solution. Any strike will be immediately reciprocated.
Death toll from Iran port blast rises to 46 – reports
Some news away from the ICJ hearings. The death toll from a huge blast in Iran’s southern port of Shahid Rajaeeh that occurred on Saturday morning has been increased from 40 to 46, state media is reporting.
“The death toll in the Shahid Rajaee Port fire has reached 46,” the official IRNA news agency reported, quoting Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, the crisis management director at the Hormozgan governorate. He said that the vast majority of the 1,000 people who were injured have been discharged from hospitals (only 138 remain in hospital).
The port is Iran’s most strategically important and chief artery for its world trade. Early indications were that the explosion appears to have been an accident rather than a deliberate attack.
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar called the hearings part of a “systematic persecution and delegitimization” of his country. Speaking in Jerusalem as the hearings began in The Hague, Saar said the court was “becoming completely politicised”, calling the proceeding “shameful”.
Israel has turned Gaza into a ‘mass grave’ and is destroying the ‘fundamentals of life in Palestine’ – top UN court hears
Ammar Hijazi, who is Palestine’s ambassador to the Netherlands, has addressed the court in oral arguments. Here are some of his main points. Hijazi, who says he stands before the ICJ on behalf of the persecuted people (Palestinians) fighting to survive in Gaza, said:
-
Israel is unravelling “fundamental principles of international law” including its obligations under the UN charter.
-
Israel is turning Palestine – particularly Gaza – into a “mass grave” for Palestinians and rescue workers.
-
The World Food Programme reports a near 100% increase of Palestinians’ in need of food aid in the occupied West Bank. “Impeding the presence and activities of the UN and the international organisations must be viewed in the context of erasure and forced displacement,” Hijazi said.
-
Israeli occupation has demolished refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarm, forcibly displacing more than 40,000 Palestinians. “Israel has announced the displaced will not be allowed to return,” Hijazi siad.
-
Israel is destroying the “fundamentals of life in Palestine” while it blocks UN and other humanitarian organisations from providing “life saving aid” to the population.
Live stream of ICJ hearings in The Hague
ICJ hears case on Israel’s obligation to ensure aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza amid aid blockade
As we mentioned in the opening post, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is hearing about Israel’s obligation to facilitate humanitarian aid to Palestinian people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. We will have a live stream of the proceedings up soon.
The UN has asked judges to clarify Israel’s legal obligations 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”. The case was prompted by Israeli bills outlawing the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) in October 2024. Unrwa was the major distributor of aid in Gaza and has provided education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region.
Over the ICJ hearings, lawyers from more than 40 states will claim Israel’s ban on all cooperation with Unrwa is a breach of the UN charter. The UN says Israel is obliged under international law to ensure enough supplies for the Palestinians living in Gaza. Israel says it is adhering to international law.
Since the beginning of March, Israel has shut off all sources of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies for the Gaza Strip’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians. It’s the longest blockade yet of its 17-month war on Gaza, with no sign of it ending.
Israel claims the blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release hostages it still holds. Rights groups have called the blockade a “starvation tactic” and a potential war crime.
Aid workers have stretched supplies, but warn of a catastrophic surge in severe hunger and malnutrition. The UN World Food Programme said last week it had depleted all its food stocks in Gaza, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people in the devastated territory.
Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, which was targeted by deadly Israeli airstrikes on Sunday evening:
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza kill at least 17 Palestinian people – officials
Israeli airstrikes on the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 17 Palestinians early on Monday, according to local health officials.
An airstrike hit a home in Beit Lahiya, killing 10 people, including a Palestinian prisoner, Abdel-Fattah Abu Mahadi, who had been released as part of the ceasefire. His wife, two of their children and a grandchild were also killed, according to the Indonesian hospital, which received the bodies.
Another airstrike hit a home in Gaza City, killing seven people, including two women, according to the Gaza health ministry’s emergency service. Two other people were injured.
Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure on both the domestic and international front, has been accused of manipulating Israel’s war on Gaza to achieve his own political ends.
The Israeli leader is on trial for corruption charges and his opponents say he is deliberately finding reasons to prolong the assault so he can cling on to power as prime minister.
This includes shattering the January ceasefire deal with Hamas by launching a deadly wave of airstrikes on the territory last month, which families fear makes the return of Israeli hostages (alive) less likely.
At least 68 people killed after US bombs Yemen detention centre, Houthi rebels say
Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday alleged a US airstrike hit a prison holding African migrants, killing at least 68 people. The US military had no immediate comment, the Associated Press reported.
Graphic footage aired by the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel showed what appeared to be dead bodies and others injured at the site in Yemen’s Saada governate, a stronghold for the Houthis.
The Houthi-run Interior ministry said about 115 migrants had been detained at the site. African migrants from Ethiopia and other nations risk crossing war-torn Yemen for a chance to work in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. The Houthis said 68 people had been killed. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the death toll.
The airstrike is likely to renew questions from activists about the American campaign against the Houthis, known as “Operation Rough Rider,” which has been targeting the rebels as the Trump administration negotiates with their main benefactor, Iran, over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
The US military’s Central Command, in a statement early Monday before news of the alleged strike broke, sought to defend its policy of offering no specific details of its extensive airstrike campaign. The strikes have drawn controversy in America over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the unclassified Signal messaging app to post sensitive details about the attacks.
“To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations,” Central Command said. “We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do.”
We will be bringing you more details as they come in. In other developments:
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Israel will come under sustained legal pressure this week at the UN’s top court when lawyers from more than 40 states will claim the country’s ban on all cooperation with the UN’s Palestinian rights agency Unrwa is a breach of the UN charter. The five days of hearings at the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague have been given a fresh urgency by Israel’s decision on 2 March to block all aid into Gaza, but the hearing will focus on whether Israel – as a signatory to the UN charter – acted unlawfully in overriding the immunities afforded to a UN body.
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A “new inferno” has been unleashed on Gaza after the restart of war in the Palestinian territory, the director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Monday. “Gaza is experiencing and enduring… death, injury, multiple displacements, amputations, separation, disappearance, starvation and denial of aid and dignity on a massive scale, and just when the all important ceasefire led people to believe they had survived the worst, a new inferno was unleashed,” Pierre Krahenbuhl told a Doha conference on security.
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Rescuers in Khan Younis retrieved the bodies of four Palestinian people who were killed in an Israeli attack on a house in the southern Gaza city yesterday evening, according to reports.
