The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is to deliver an advisory opinion on Israel’s legal obligations towards UN agencies and other international organisations operating in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The UN’s top court received a request from the General Assembly late last year, after Israel’s parliament passed laws banning any activity by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) on Israeli territory and contact with Israeli officials.
Israel accused Unrwa of being infiltrated by Hamas. The agency denied the claim, insisting it was impartial.
The ICJ was asked to also cover in its opinion Israel’s duty to allow the unhindered delivery of essential supplies to Palestinians.
Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza after the start of its war with Hamas two years ago and has since restricted – and at times completely stopped – the entry of food and other aid for the 2.1 million population.
Before this month’s ceasefire deal, UN-backed global experts had estimated that more than 640,000 people were facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity and that there was an “entirely man-made” famine in Gaza City. Israel rejected the findings, insisting it was allowing in sufficient food. It also blames Hamas for stealing aid.
The ICJ’s panel of international judges was asked to clarify two questions in the resolution passed by the UN General Assembly in December.
Firstly, whether Israel’s ban on Unrwa breaches UN conventions guaranteeing the independence of UN agencies.
And secondly, whether Israel’s restrictions on aid crossings into Gaza violate international humanitarian law, including its duties as an occupying power to protect civilians.
While the opinion will be a non-binding legal clarification, it carries significant moral and diplomatic weight.
At the start of the hearings at The Hague in April, the UN’s Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs Elinor Hammarskjöld told the court that, as the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel’s obligations entailed “allowing and facilitating all relevant United Nations entities to carry out their activities for the benefit of the local population”.
These activities included relief schemes, such as the provision of foodstuffs, as well as caring for and educating children, and maintaining medical services, she said.
She also argued that as a UN member state, Israel had legal obligations under UN conventions to uphold the privileges and immunities of the UN and its premises, property, assets and personnel so it could function properly and fulfil its mandates.
“When the basic elements of this legal framework are not observed, the very nature of the work of the organisation on behalf of its member states is in jeopardy,” she warned.
Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, legal counsel for the Palestinian government, said Israel’s “violations of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, its attacks on the United Nations and on United Nations officials, property and premises, its deliberate obstruction of the organisation’s work, and its attempt to destroy an entire United Nations subsidiary organ, are unprecedented”.
Israel considers this ICJ procedure a “political circus” and “abuse of international law and institutions”.
It filed a written statement saying the court’s involvement undermined its self-defence and counterterrorism rights under international law.
“No state is expected to accept or to facilitate grave risk to its citizens and territory. On the contrary, international law prescribes the right and obligation of a state in acting to defend its existence, its territory, and its people,” the statement said.
It also argued that there were no obligations for a UN member state to co-operate with a UN agency or respect its immunities “where the legitimate security concerns of a member state are severely undermined by the agency in question”.
Unrwa – the largest humanitarian organisation in Gaza, with 12,000 Palestinian staff – has challenged Israel’s allegation that it knowingly has Hamas members in its ranks, or that it co-operated with the armed group.
The UN said last year that it had fired nine of Unrwa’s staff members in Gaza after investigators found evidence that they might have been involved in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages.
Another 10 Unrwa staff were cleared because of insufficient evidence.
Israel also alleged that hundreds of Unrwa staff were members of proscribed terrorist groups, but an independent review commissioned by the UN found it had not provided evidence to support its claim.
Since the Israeli laws took effect in January, Unrwa says its Palestinian staff have continued providing assistance and education, health and other services to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. However, the agency says Israel has banned it from bringing aid into Gaza and stopped issuing visas to Unrwa’s international staff.
Unrwa says at least 309 of its staff and 72 people supporting the agency’s activities have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza. The territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says Israeli attacks during the conflict have killed at least 68,229 people in total.
This is the first formal legal inquiry into whether a UN member state can lawfully exclude a UN agency from its territory.
This hearing is therefore about far more than Unrwa: it is about whether the international system can still enforce its own rules when a major UN member state challenges the legitimacy of UN institutions operating under its authority.