Ahmed Asmar
22 February 2024•Update: 22 February 2024
ANKARA
Jordan on Thursday termed the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands as “unlawful” and “inhumane” during a hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
"I stand before you today while the bloody and inhumane evils of the Israeli occupation appear," Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said in an oral argument before the Hague-based court.
"In Gaza, Palestinians are dying due to the Israeli aggression, and they are dying of hunger due to the loss of food and medicine, which Israel continues to prevent from Gaza, in violation of international humanitarian law, and in defiance of the measures ordered by your court," he added.
“There are no words to describe the barbarity of Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip," Safadi said. “Half a million Palestinians in Gaza are dying of hunger."
The top Jordanian diplomat accused Israel of disregarding international law.
"No country should be above the law. But Israel does not care, and has been allowed to not care about international law. This situation cannot continue," he said.
“The Israeli occupation is unlawful. It is inhumane. It must end,” Safadi stressed.
Public hearings started Monday in The Hague following the UN General Assembly's request for an advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.
South Africa brought a genocide case against Israel to the ICJ in late December and asked it for emergency measures to end Palestinian bloodshed in Gaza, where nearly 29,410 people have been killed since Oct. 7.
The World Court in January ordered Israel to take "all measures within its power" to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza but fell short of ordering a cease-fire.
It also ordered Israel to take "immediate and effective" measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip.
A cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 killed an estimated 1,200 people, but the ensuing Israeli offensive into Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Despite international outcry, Israel now plans a ground invasion of Rafah, which houses around 1.4 million refugees.
