Image via Palestinian People's Party
Various Sources
In another urgent appeal to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) South Africa filed a request on Wednesday, March 6 demanding that the court order Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, due to the looming danger of mass famine.
In a statement, South Africa urged the court to take action without an additional hearing emphasizing that this may be the last opportunity for the court to save lives and to protect the more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.
South Africa feels that the court’s intervention is crucial to prevent a genocidal catastrophe. Israel’s actions over the past weeks have been in defiance of the court’s previous order on January 26 which said that Israel had to allow aid and food to be distributed.
“The threat of all-out famine has now materialised. The court needs to act now to stop the imminent tragedy by immediately and effectively ensuring that the rights it has found are threatened under the Genocide Convention are protected."
This is South Africa's third request related to the Israeli war on Gaza to the court, the UN's highest judicial body, since the devastating attacks began more than five months ago.
At least 20 people, many of the children, have already died of starvation and malnutrition related causes in Gaza, including, horrifically, ten-year old Yazan al-Kafarneh, who had cerebral palsy and literally wasted away in front of his parents on a bed at Rafah's Abu Yusuf al-Najjar Hospital.
